Triflight 0,7a and GPS

[Pietro]

Hello
I’m tring to setup GPS on my f3fc tricopter plate.
No success.
it seems that Betaflight has dropped GPS support, is it like that also for triflight (betaflight based)?

https://github.com/betaflight/betaflight/issues/2442

[LitterBug]

Curious to know what GPS functionality you are trying to use and the issues with it. Does it just flat not work at all even for display purposes? I have a F3FC racing FC that I was pondering using GPS with.

Cheers!
LitterBug

[lauka]

RCEXPLORERF3 has GPS enabled, BETAFLIGHTF3 doesn’t. They have the same flash space, but BFF3 needs big part of that for the OSD and Sd card code.

I haven’t tested the gps though.

[LitterBug]

Hooked up an external Baro, Compass, and GPS to an RCE F3FC Racing FC. Looks good from a ground standpoint:

# status
System Uptime: 430 seconds
Voltage: 123 * 0.1V (3S battery - OK)
CPU Clock=72MHz, GYRO=MPU6000, ACC=MPU6000, BARO=MS5611, MAG=HMC5883
Stack size: 2048, Stack address: 0x10002000
I2C Errors: 1, config size: 1672
CPU:24%, cycle time: 132, GYRO rate: 7575, RX rate: 49, System rate: 9

Everything detected correctly and gps coorinates appear in the BetaFlight Configurator. See attached screenshot. (coordinates edited, but display correctly) GPS is selected in the “Sensor Input” column of the Ports page, and must also be enabled on the Configuration page.

Cheers!
LitterBug

Attachments:

1. 

   BetaFlightGPS.jpg
   

2. 

   BetaFlightGPS-1.jpg
   

3. 

   BetaFlightFPScfg.jpg
   

[cefromthebe]

Hello,

I’ve been looking to upgrade my V4 with GPS but I’m stuck at what kind of GPS is working with the f3fc.
May I ask what GPS you are using and how you connected it with the F3FC board? Does any GPS work or do I have to look for any special connector?

Anyways thank you very much, hope you can help me out here since I’m very new to the topic!

[LitterBug]

This is the GPS/Compass that I used:
http://www.getfpv.com/holybro-micro-m8n-gps-module.html
I hardwired the GPS to UART3 and the Compass to I2C.

The F3FC racing does not have a Barometer so I used this one connected to I2C
http://www.readytoflyquads.com/ms5611-barometer

Almost any serial GPS will work. The holybro listed above was able to pick up 12+ satellites even indoors…. I would highly recommend it.

Cheers!
LitterBug

[cefromthebe]

Thank you very much for the fast answer!

Two more things I’ve got to ask wich are not yet clear to me:

How did you do the wireing?I’ve gone for a Ublox neo m8n wich is basically the same as you suggestet.
The one I ordered has got 6 Wires on 2 connectors (like shown on the picture): (black, yellow, white, red) and (blue, green)
I figuered black and red are the voltage connectors so black goes onto grd – and red on the 3.3 connector on the f3fc board. Regarding the other wires I’m just guessing that the 2 others on the 4 pin connector go on tx and rx (don’t in what order though) and the ones on the 2 pin are connected to the I2C although I don’t have a clue on where they are supposed to be connected…

The other question would be weather or not I am going to need an FTDI Adapter to configure the GPS or if this can be done via cleanflight

Thanks for your effort!!

cefromthebe

Attachments:

1. 

   sku_112598_4.jpg
   

[LitterBug]

Here’s a couple pictures of my proof of concept F3FC Racing with Baro and GPS/Compass.
GPS should be automagically configured by *flight after you set it up in the configurator.
For the wiring, Colors could be different depending on the included connector/wires. You need to look at the pinouts of the GPS and determine what signal is what color. Mine really messed with me because being paritally colorblind, the Red/Orange/Brownish wires all look the same to me. Note that the colors used are different between your picture and mine…. Also GPS is probably expecting 5V not 3.3V

Cheers!
LitterBug

Click pictures to zoom in.

Attachments:

1. 

   F3FCgpsPOC2.jpg
   

2. 

   F3FCgpsPOC.jpg
   

[cefromthebe]

Thanks, will have a look as soon as it arrives

[cefromthebe]

The new GPS arrived and I already took a shot at connecting it to the F3FC wich so far went well.
After I configured Cleanflight the GPS icon didn’t light up so, yet the magnetometer in the GPS Module is recongised. I already tried different UART Ports but no success. Does anyone know what I might have done wrong. Till then I will try to access the GPS VIA an Ardino.

P.S.: I’m using a UBLOX NEO-M8N for Pixhawk

[cefromthebe]

I did finally manage to get it working: The Tx and the Rx channel had to be connected to the opposite (Tx from GPS on Rx on the board). Also the Baud rate had to be set to 38400, I got that by connecting it to an ardoino and just reviewing the serial port. Just leaving this info for everyone who might have ran into the same issue.

[ME-tan]

Just be warned that some of the GPS w/ compass modules out there, the compass orientation doesn’t line up with the arrow printed on the module, and you need to rotate it in the configurator. Trial and error testing sorted this out for me.

[cefromthebe]

Been trying to configure my GPS since now, didn’t have a lot of success doing so.. In cleanflight, does the GPS mode only hold the X and Y position or also the height (Z)?

At the moment I keep thinking about switching or at least trying out INAV, couldn’t find many ways to configure GPS in cleanflight.

Does anyone know what the mistake is when the tricopter just stays in the normal hover even though GPS HOLD is activated and the copter has got a 3D fix? Just couldn’t notice any response by the tricopter. could that have something to do with the magnetometer orientation?

[russells]

I apologise if this is hijacking this thread, but it is very topical for what I want to do.

I bought a similar GPS module (https://hobbyking.com/en_us/ublox-micro-m8n-gps-compass-module-1pc.html) as @litterbug but the attached cable is 6 wires only one of which is red the others are all black, which is going to make it fun to connect things up!

Do you know if it is possible to get a coloured cable and if so what are they called? I do not know the name of the plugs.

I want to wire this up to my Tricopter V4, where would the connections be for the GPS on the board, has anyone done it?

This link, https://hobbyking.com/media/file/i/m/img_2186.png, shows the different pinouts and how they can be used, e.g. just I2C ior GPS & I2C. I am assuming that it is the latter I need.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

[LitterBug]

@russells, Think you are looking for something like this: http://www.readytoflyquads.com/6pin-s-h-to-6pin-s-h-minireadytoflyer-to-35×35-gps or this: http://www.readytoflyquads.com/6pin-s-h-to-dupont. Can probably be sourced from other vendors as well.

Cheers!
LitterBug

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