Fumble fingers problem on FC
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My poor eyesight and impatience have led to the separation of the J1 DF13 connector from the FC motherboard. The pads were liberated from the board itself with no chance of re-solder. Since the FC is fine other than that, I'd like to know if I can switch the Voxl Comms link to 1: J5? Is there a level-shift available here like on J1, or could the level-shift from 5-3.3v be done externally first? Software changes to make it work? 2: Could I use one of the 2 USB ports on the modem board to accomplish the same thing directly to the FC USB port? Software tweaks for that? 3: any other possible UART on the FC I can use? Any input that will help me save $ by not buying another FC would be helpful..
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@Bulldog357
I just had the same thing. I don't think your to blame. My receiver just fell off and took the pads with it. No way to put down new pads although I tried. I have been working trying to get this voxl-cam transmitting for a week to find the connector flopping against the fiber board. I would believe the connection and connector were the wrong choice and placement also. My thoughts was to connect a telemetry modem for the mavlink data and try to configure the 4gmodem for the voxl. Will be looking to see if you get a solution, I just purchased the v2 flight core because I am not expert enough and need to work on learning and not fixing -
Hey Billy, Since the Voxl communicates with the FC via Mavlink (This goes for all Flight Controllers, not just the Modal AI ones..), I was able to get it working by connecting the 5v level UART on the Voxl to a small 5v-3.3v level-shift board then on to the F5 telemetry port on the v1 FC. I used the 5v vcc feed available from the Voxl port to power the 5v side of the level shift board, and I "borrowed" a 3.3v feed for the other side of that level shifter from the debug port on the FC. I made a custom split cable to do it. It was necessary to change the Mavlink and serial port parameters on the FC using Qgroundcontrol to reflect the Mavlink instance and the 921k baud rate now needed on F5 of the FC. It works fine this way.
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@Bulldog357
That's great, I keep reading about your 5v-3.3v level shift solution. I decided to go the route of updating to ver2 control board thinking it would be better because it's newer and because I have a desire to complicate things when I can. I have a question on your level-shift and the 5v supply. The tech info says the ver2 is 5v tollerant but there could be lost data. Is your solution easy as far as building and implementing, maybe alivating this data loss issue. My ver1 board is working fine with a MRO Sik reciecver so still useable but I wouldn't use a damaged board for a flying machine and I am also documenting my voxl drone build so it needs to be as straight forward as possible. This Voxl-Cam has been a serous learing brain drain. I wanted to understand the inside metrics of the drone build and have gotten more than I could have hoped for. At least now I have converted several of my Win computers to Linux -
@billybob Note, Voxl J12 is a 5V bus. FCv1 J1 is also a 5V bus. However, FCv2 J1 port is a 3.3V bus to be in-line with Dronecode, but it is 5V Tolerant due to buffers on J1. All other FCv2 ports are NOT 5V compliant since they are direct to the MCU which has an ABS max of 4.0V on all signal pins. There are a few noted exceptions as shown in the diagram above. Most of the Recieve UART pins are 5V tolerant, but the receive buffers on the other side loose a lot of noise margin. It gets complicated really fast parsing through the MCU datasheet and running PX4 on-top. Always reach out if you need more info.
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Hi @billybob
I just stumbled upon this thread.
Thanks for contributing to this forum!!If you need us to respond to anything or have any questions, the best bet is always a new thread. We get alerted (the entire company) on new threads, but not so for thread responses or "tack-on" thread posts. Just an FYI
I've been updating that cables section recently (still have more to do!!!) and we are finding and posting workaround solutions for various Mavlink ports when someone's port breaks or they wish to change for mechanical reasons. I'm happy to see you found some of my notes. We are working to improve that too, especially since the older 5V on Voxl J12 is problematic on some new stuff, so I want to be sure everyone has all the info they need!!