Starter FPV Tri for not-a-lot (but, more than I was hoping…)

[jimbo_wa]

Thanks Terje – I’d seen that already and he’s pretty good!

I’ve also now got the Mini-Tri in my sweaty hands (has the original SN20A ESC’s) and last night eBay UK had a flash 20% off sale so I have bought a Taranis X9D Plus, metal carry case and X4R-SB Rx for £160 delivered. It seemed that the Turnigy i10 was just going to complicate matters when setting up (or at least that’s what I’ve justified the purchase as…)

I’m still waiting for the USB ESC programmer and SBUS inverter from China so don’t think I can actually build the Tri until they have arrived as I won’t be able to check the BLHeli version on the ESC or the motor direction?

So far I have had a lot of satisfaction buying and looking at the parts! 🙂

[jimbo_wa]

Well, I couldn’t help myself and ended up building the lot (apart from the FPV/Rx bits I’m still waiting for!)

Put the servo tail tune cable on and am well chuffed with how great this kit was to put together – everything fit where it should with watching David’s video step-by-step for the Mini-Tri and checking with the Tricopter v3.5 project pictures it all made perfect sense.

[jimbo_wa]

Mounted a Runcam Swift as the FPV camera using part of a Runcam 2 mount, the silicone wedge and screws – hopefully will be well protected and has some movement in the event of a crash. Used the remainder of the mount for top mounting the Runcam 2, as when it’s on the diagonal it’s pointed far too down for a decent picture?

More as it arrives!

P.S. does no-one do build threads here or should it be somewhere else?

[mjpilot]

WOW. that looks sick. great job.

[LeoTheHuman]

You can put the diagonal plate into the other two slots and have it looking upwards. That’s the way to mount an HD cam.

[jimbo_wa]

@mjpilot – much appreciated!

@LeoTheHuman – yep, I did try that, but it then fouled the RunCam Swift so will shuffle bits around…

However, I’m almost losing the will to get this flying at the moment 🙁 as attempting to get everything running correctly is an uphill battle (two steps forward, one step back, etc.).

I can connect to everything in Cleanflight and have telemetry working on the Taranis, but cannot get the ESC’s to flash either with my USB linker or via Cleanflight as they never seem to arm/be seen on the PC?

The servo setup is also being rather weird with the servo constantly moving/whining when the frame is motionless and not saving the centre position when the battery is re-connected. I did notice that it’s a continuous rotation servo too (i.e. there’s no limiter pin on the gears)

I realise these are noob errors, but the forum and YouTube have got me this far! 😉

[jimbo_wa]

Here are some screenshots of the ESC flashing error as there seems to be no answer on ‘tinterweb…

Getting beeps on the ESC’s but thinking it’s not got the BLHeli bootloader (they were part of the Mini-Tri electronics kit so assumed they would ship with BLHeli rather than SimonK)?

Got an Arduino Nano coming for the weekend so hopefully that’ll solve the issue!

[Terje]

Stumbled upon these while browsing banggood (FPV for not a lot):

Eachine 5.8gHz Raceband VRx
Eachine 5.8gHz Raceband VTx (200mW) (depending where you live you might go for the cheaper 25mW option)
SMA Female to RP-SMA Male Right Angle Adapter
Crappy 5v camera
SkyZone antennas

[LeoTheHuman]

jimbo_wa, I believe the bootloader on these is SK one. Latest betaflight with the experimental BLHeliSuite can flash these, I’ve heard. But you can also flash these with arduino.

Terje, I’ve bought ET200R and it came damaged. It looks like they actually open up ET200s and reflash them. Metal cover on mine was shorting the cap on the bottom, so it was transmitting, but the video signal was not in there. It works well after I opened it up and closed properly. I currently use it on my mini. BTW, I got a refund from BG when I sent them the video of it transmitting white noise.
I also covered it in a plastic coating before closing it back, so it should be as waterproof as the rest of the electronics on my mini. (:

[jimbo_wa]

Thanks LeoTheHuman, I’ve attempted to flash via the pads on the ESC with the Arduino Nano with no luck the ESC’s will not take an image at all!

More error screens:

The above errors have all been given via the Cleanflight connection, DYS USB connector and Arduino Nano so I can only conclude the ESC’s are dead…

On a side note I’ve got the MINIMOSD working with SBUS/RSSI/telemetry on the FrSky X4R-SB and have rebuilt the RunCam Swift mount with a couple of black Lego Technic 5×1 beams 🙂

The total spend on the FPV setup has ended up @ £94.85 (not including wires/heatshrink/3S batteries that I already had):

RunCam Swift £21.81 (including a $10 off voucher)
MICRO MinimOSD Minim OSD Mini OSD W/ KV Team MOD For Racing F3 Naze32 Flight Controller £5.82
Eachine 700TVL ET25 5.8G 32CH 25mW 7-24V Super Light Transmitter £11.24
5.8G 32CH 2s~6s RX5832 Receiver For Multicopter FPV DC Image Transmission £12.68
Aomway 5.8GHz FPV 4 Leaf Clover AV Transmission RHCP Antenna 1 Pair Blue (Mode: RP-SMA male) £10.80
eBay 2nd hand Feelworld FPV-769A 7″ HD FPV Monitor W/Sunshield £32.50

Hacked the screen to become an integrated system that’s a bit ghetto – it does work though!

[Terje]

This is how I handled the ESCs. You need to erase the chip first to write the new bootloader. (source)

Using BLHeli Suite 14.3 or later, create an Arduino ISP programmer on an Arduino Nano. (Make interfaces tab – Make Arduino Interface Boards: Nano w/ATmega328 – ArduinoISP Programmer (X))

When created use these settings to connect to the board:
Select ATMEL / SILABS Interface: (X) ATMEL ISP Interface (AVRDude)
ISP Prog: ArduinoISP (Arduino as ISP Interface) at 19200 baud

Connect the pins to Arduino Nano accordingly:

RST : 10
MOSI: 11
MISO: 12
SCK : 13
GND : GND
5V : 5V

To flash new bootloader, first go to Expert tools tab and press Erase Chip.
Then go to Atmel ESC Setup tab and press Read setup. BLHeli Suite will now offer til flash the ESC. Choose DYS SN20A MULTI and press OK. Now choose BLHeli Bootloader instead of SimonK and press YES. Let BLHeli Suite do its magic 🙂

[jimbo_wa]

Thanks Terje – TBH I’m getting a bit fed up with the major hoop-age that needs jumping through to get this working! I’m not afraid to tinker and make things, but the ESC’s shouldn’t be unflashable to start with IMO (if that was my fault, I’m happy to take the blame!)…

Realise that I’m new to FPV and Tri’s – it’s just a bit annoying that since I’ve ordered my Tricopter (16th March) the motors, ESC’s and now arms have all been replaced with better quality items and I’m yet to get airborne!!

[Terje]

@jimbo-wa I’m on my 7th or 8th tricopter build and have just ordered a second set of RS2205 motors. Let’s face it, we’re all Tricopter Addicts 🙂 The 20A ESCs and 2208 motors are still great and will give you good flight time. Yes the new motors will give you more thrust, but it will cost you on flight time. I do look forward to some nice proximity flying with the RS2205 though 🙂

The USB linker should be able to flash the ESCs regardless of bootloader though?

[jimbo_wa]

Yep – not attempting to sow dissent at all, just pointing out that the number of dongles required to program everything was not clear at the start 🙂

I’m sticking with the motors (wanting flight time rather than power) and arms, (I was able to use the ‘uglyminiarms’ code anyway) and was just pointing out the fast revisioning of the Mini-Tri – if it wasn’t for the refusal of these ESC’s to take an image I’d be much happier!

The USB linker was the worst of the lot and barely registered the ESC’s presence…

[jimbo_wa]

Finally – thanks to @Terje and @David I’ve now got 3x BL20A ESC’s flashed (only took three hours!)

The breakthrough came from not using the Nano’s ISP header but the pin outs instead as above and here:

All three motors spin up and are seen in CleanFlight and the BLHeliSuite – Joy! 🙂

Tuning next!

[Author]

Posts