26-Jun-2024, 09:42 PM (This post was last modified: 01-Jul-2024, 02:28 PM by Pathfinder075.)
So on to something different. I needed to build something else, but what. So I have a Crazybee 3.1 with some pads still left on it (after some crap soldering problems some months back). Can I put the FlyFish 1303.5 motors on to this frame, get ELRS to work and have a working VTX with OSD. Challenge set.
Parts
JMT Eyas 100 2.5" Frame
Happymodel Crazybee V3.1 2-4S 12A AIO FC
FlyFishRC 1303.5 5500kv motors
Happymodel EP2 Receiver (ELRS)
Happymodel Diamond VTX
Caddx Ant Nano 4:3
RushFPV Cherry 2 RHCP u.fl
BetaFPV Micro Light Canopy
Azure 2540 or HQ 2.5x3.5x3 Props
3-4S Lipos
The Build
So this board has no T2/R2 pads left, so i have one UART available. It turned out the LED pad was toast as well, which is what i was going to use for smartaudio. So I researched. I have a T1, R1 and IR1. R1 is a bad place to solder, so IR1 it has to be. So first thing lets sort out the pads/ports/resources.
So initially my resource lists looks this.
This board uses 4.2.11 and yes I could put 4.3.1 on it since I am no longer limited by the SPI FrSky Rx that doesn't work with 4.3.1, but I don't want to add in more possible problems, so lets do it on 4.2.11. Don't fix what isn't broken.
So initially i was going to set LED_STRIP as a softserial. But then i soldered a wire on it and the pad came off. :/ Seems I screwed this board up big time last time. So what to do now. I decided on BEEPER, but that wouldn't work for some reason. Then I remembered Oscar had mentioned about splitting the UART's in his softserial article, so I looked up that and thought why not ELRS on IR1 and smartaudio on T1 (as a softserial). So lets remap.
First lets clear what we don't have or need.
Now lets make a softserial using SERIAL_TX 1.
So I then soldered everything up.
Next was ELRS. As usual this was problematic. Turned out I needed to update my platformio udev rules file. I maybe didn't have the entry that covered Happymodel EP2. Once I updated it everything started working. I soldered it to an old 5A FC with a bricked gyro and then configured it in betaflight so i could use passthrough. I then flashed it with ELRS 2.5 and setup bindphrase, wifi, inverted receiver, etc. This will never be updated again beyond this. I then desoldered it from the 5A FC and soldered it to the Crazybee FC. Then fired it up in Betaflight. No connection to the radio initially, but after power cycling the FC, it started working. My guess is your radio needs to be switched on before you power up. If I power up the radio after the FC it won't connect.
So now I have a working FC, VTx (and Smartaudio) and ELRS Rx. Next will be mounting it on the frame and soldering the motors to it.
So next day I started up again. I decided to undo the soldering of motors. Why am I struggling? This FC has connectors on it. So i snipped the plugs off a set of 1202.5 motors and soldered them to the 1303.5 motor wires. Then wrapped them in electrical tape.
I then proceeded to mount the FC and motors on the frame. No real problems while doing this. I've done many builds like this and have a way i like to do things on these builds.
After that it was a matter of adding the VTx, canopy, camera and antenna. The VTx is the Diamond, so fairly easy to do. Did a test without camera to make sure it was working before I put the canopy on, all was ok. Then took a spare Ant nano and screwed it to the canopy, then slid the Cherry down through one of the holes in the top. Canopy was then put on the bolts and another test to make sure nothing had broken while doing this. Next I put some nuts on the bolts and cable tied anything that needed to be tied. Finally added the props and some prop bolts. i think it looks quite nice and slightly different. Reality is I tried to make it easy to find if I drop it.
Now for a bit of weighing.
Dry
With CNHL 4S 450mAh
With CNHL 3S 650mAh
So i took it out for a couple of test flights. This was when I discovered a problem. Somehow the config on Betaflight had got borked. I was locked in Angle mode and couldn't disengage it. Apart from that it did fly. I think I must have loaded in a dump at some point, but don't remember doing it. So I had ELRS working, beeper worked and it obviously armed/disarmed, but flight modes weren't working. Also the OSD was wrong and the VTx was setup wrong.
So today i did some work on the config and decided to try upgrading to BF 4.3.2 so i could get some of the ELRS settings to work. It is now setup correctly and hovers ok. I will take it out in the next couple of days and get some freestyle rips on it.
Parts
JMT Eyas 100 2.5" Frame
Happymodel Crazybee V3.1 2-4S 12A AIO FC
FlyFishRC 1303.5 5500kv motors
Happymodel EP2 Receiver (ELRS)
Happymodel Diamond VTX
Caddx Ant Nano 4:3
RushFPV Cherry 2 RHCP u.fl
BetaFPV Micro Light Canopy
Azure 2540 or HQ 2.5x3.5x3 Props
3-4S Lipos
The Build
So this board has no T2/R2 pads left, so i have one UART available. It turned out the LED pad was toast as well, which is what i was going to use for smartaudio. So I researched. I have a T1, R1 and IR1. R1 is a bad place to solder, so IR1 it has to be. So first thing lets sort out the pads/ports/resources.
So initially my resource lists looks this.
Code:
resource BEEPER 1 C15
resource MOTOR 1 B08
resource MOTOR 2 B07
resource MOTOR 3 B06
resource MOTOR 4 B10
resource PPM 1 A03
resource PWM 1 A02
resource PWM 2 A09
resource PWM 3 A10
resource LED_STRIP 1 A00
resource SERIAL_TX 1 A09
resource SERIAL_TX 2 A02
resource SERIAL_RX 1 A10
resource SERIAL_RX 2 A03
resource LED 1 C13
resource SPI_SCK 1 A05
resource SPI_SCK 2 B13
resource SPI_SCK 3 B03
resource SPI_MISO 1 A06
resource SPI_MISO 2 B14
resource SPI_MISO 3 B04
resource SPI_MOSI 1 A07
resource SPI_MOSI 2 B15
resource SPI_MOSI 3 B05
resource ADC_BATT 1 B00
resource ADC_CURR 1 B01
resource OSD_CS 1 B12
resource RX_SPI_CS 1 A15
resource RX_SPI_EXTI 1 C14
resource RX_SPI_BIND 1 B02
resource RX_SPI_LED 1 B09
resource RX_SPI_CC2500_TX_EN 1 A08
resource RX_SPI_CC2500_LNA_EN 1 A13
resource RX_SPI_CC2500_ANT_SEL 1 A14
resource GYRO_EXTI 1 A01
resource GYRO_CS 1 A04
This board uses 4.2.11 and yes I could put 4.3.1 on it since I am no longer limited by the SPI FrSky Rx that doesn't work with 4.3.1, but I don't want to add in more possible problems, so lets do it on 4.2.11. Don't fix what isn't broken.
So initially i was going to set LED_STRIP as a softserial. But then i soldered a wire on it and the pad came off. :/ Seems I screwed this board up big time last time. So what to do now. I decided on BEEPER, but that wouldn't work for some reason. Then I remembered Oscar had mentioned about splitting the UART's in his softserial article, so I looked up that and thought why not ELRS on IR1 and smartaudio on T1 (as a softserial). So lets remap.
First lets clear what we don't have or need.
Code:
resource SERIAL_TX 2 NONE
resource SERIAL_RX 2 NONE
resource LED_STRIP 1 NONE
resource SERIAL_TX 1 NONE
Now lets make a softserial using SERIAL_TX 1.
Code:
resource SERIAL_TX 11 A09
So I then soldered everything up.
Next was ELRS. As usual this was problematic. Turned out I needed to update my platformio udev rules file. I maybe didn't have the entry that covered Happymodel EP2. Once I updated it everything started working. I soldered it to an old 5A FC with a bricked gyro and then configured it in betaflight so i could use passthrough. I then flashed it with ELRS 2.5 and setup bindphrase, wifi, inverted receiver, etc. This will never be updated again beyond this. I then desoldered it from the 5A FC and soldered it to the Crazybee FC. Then fired it up in Betaflight. No connection to the radio initially, but after power cycling the FC, it started working. My guess is your radio needs to be switched on before you power up. If I power up the radio after the FC it won't connect.
So now I have a working FC, VTx (and Smartaudio) and ELRS Rx. Next will be mounting it on the frame and soldering the motors to it.
So next day I started up again. I decided to undo the soldering of motors. Why am I struggling? This FC has connectors on it. So i snipped the plugs off a set of 1202.5 motors and soldered them to the 1303.5 motor wires. Then wrapped them in electrical tape.
I then proceeded to mount the FC and motors on the frame. No real problems while doing this. I've done many builds like this and have a way i like to do things on these builds.
After that it was a matter of adding the VTx, canopy, camera and antenna. The VTx is the Diamond, so fairly easy to do. Did a test without camera to make sure it was working before I put the canopy on, all was ok. Then took a spare Ant nano and screwed it to the canopy, then slid the Cherry down through one of the holes in the top. Canopy was then put on the bolts and another test to make sure nothing had broken while doing this. Next I put some nuts on the bolts and cable tied anything that needed to be tied. Finally added the props and some prop bolts. i think it looks quite nice and slightly different. Reality is I tried to make it easy to find if I drop it.
Now for a bit of weighing.
Dry
With CNHL 4S 450mAh
With CNHL 3S 650mAh
So i took it out for a couple of test flights. This was when I discovered a problem. Somehow the config on Betaflight had got borked. I was locked in Angle mode and couldn't disengage it. Apart from that it did fly. I think I must have loaded in a dump at some point, but don't remember doing it. So I had ELRS working, beeper worked and it obviously armed/disarmed, but flight modes weren't working. Also the OSD was wrong and the VTx was setup wrong.
So today i did some work on the config and decided to try upgrading to BF 4.3.2 so i could get some of the ELRS settings to work. It is now setup correctly and hovers ok. I will take it out in the next couple of days and get some freestyle rips on it.
Try Not, Do or Do Not
- Yoda
- Yoda