Sky9x wiki

Support & Help for the sky9x upgrade board
Post Reply
Crashanium
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 7:37 pm
Country: -

Sky9x wiki

Post by Crashanium »

I have a Sky9x board which I have never got around to installing. I have now retired so I have time to install this board, but the wiki seems to have disappeared. Can anyone point me to where the info is now please?

Many thanks

User avatar
MikeB
9x Developer
Posts: 17979
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 1:24 pm
Country: -
Location: Poole, Dorset, UK

Re: Sky9x wiki

Post by MikeB »

Which board do you have "B1" or "V3"?
I'll see what info there is around, unfortunately the Wiki was vulnerable and got "hacked" so had to be removed.
Some pictures of one install are here: https://openrcforums.com/forum/viewtopi ... =67&t=3565.
We will get you through the install!

Mike
erskyTx/er9x developer
The difficult we do immediately,
The impossible takes a little longer!
Crashanium
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 7:37 pm
Country: -

Re: Sky9x wiki

Post by Crashanium »

Hi Mike,

It's the rev B1 board. So far I have managed to install SAM-BA so I think eepe is talking to it. Should I just use eepe to upload the latest ERSKY9X firmware to it?
I haven't installed the board yet. It is still just via USB. Getting the driver installed took a while.

I plan on putting it in 9X with the HK backlight. TIA.
User avatar
MikeB
9x Developer
Posts: 17979
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 1:24 pm
Country: -
Location: Poole, Dorset, UK

Re: Sky9x wiki

Post by MikeB »

Yes, eepskye (not eepe) should upload the latest erskyTx (as it is now called). You need ersky9xs_rom.bin. You can download it from here: http://www.er9x.com/. Also there is a .zip file of the required SD card contents.

Is the 9X unmodified (no telemetry mod for example)?

What RF module(s) do you intend to use?

Mike
erskyTx/er9x developer
The difficult we do immediately,
The impossible takes a little longer!
Crashanium
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 7:37 pm
Country: -

Re: Sky9x wiki

Post by Crashanium »

Yes, you are correct. I meant eepskye Rev 422. I am assuming I need to configure it to use SAM-BA in the Burn menu. I just want to load the latest version before I pull the 9X apart.

The 9X is currently not modified for telemetry (I was wondering if I can simply use the single wire mod as for the AR9X - that's in my other 9X). I just have a home made spektrum module using the RF board from a DX4E in it.

I'm hoping to get it working either with a Arduino based 4in 1 (which I will transfer from my AR9X 9X) or a jumper 4 in 1 module.

I'd be grateful if you could tell me what I need to do to get telemetry working on the Sky9X.

Either way I figure it has to be better than my current 9X as I should get the voice callouts.

User avatar
MikeB
9x Developer
Posts: 17979
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 1:24 pm
Country: -
Location: Poole, Dorset, UK

Re: Sky9x wiki

Post by MikeB »

Here is a link to a post with an image showing connection to the board, that post also has a link to another image: https://openrcforums.com/forum/viewtopi ... 30#p133446.

Yes to ticking use SAM-BA in the burn menu. Once you have flashed erskyTx, you will then have the bootloader so should be able to use the "power on holding the horizontal trims inwards" method, once the board is installed. I cut a hole in the bottom of the case so I can plug in the USB.
I haven't used SAM-BA from eepskye for a long time, When I have used SAM-BA, I've used it from its own GUI.

The single wire mod should work OK, just connect the telemetry signal to the COM1 RxD pin.

The SKY board processor has 256K of flash memory, the AR9X has 512K, which is why you need the ersky9xs_rom file (s for small).

Mike
erskyTx/er9x developer
The difficult we do immediately,
The impossible takes a little longer!
Crashanium
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 7:37 pm
Country: -

Re: Sky9x wiki

Post by Crashanium »

Hello Mike,

I have sucessfully installed the board in my 9X and it seems to work. I found the right setting for the display (it defualted to the Optrex one) and the menus work. I have sucessfully written a new model to the EEPROM using eePskye, but the main firmware is still the very early (2012) version so I need to try to update that again. I also need to attend to the housekeeping (drilling a slot for the SD card and USB, putting a resistor in the LED line and installing a speaker so that will take a while as I need to keep taking the board in and out as well as finding suitable bits. I'm thinking of using the USB connections on the board and reusing the Smartie parts USB as it is in a good location without drilling out the case. It will take some searching to find a speaker small enough to fit in the case.

One question. It does not seem to have a boot mode to update itself from the SD card so I will have to use the USB. Do I need to have the board powered to write the firmware to it or should the USB provide enough power?

Thanks again Ian
Crashanium
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 7:37 pm
Country: -

Re: Sky9x wiki

Post by Crashanium »

Hello Mike,

It was all going too well.... I tried flashing the firmware to the board and got a memory overflow error, so I thought maybe a clean install would work. That was a bad idea as now, when I plug the board into the USB I get nothing. The USB is not recognised. If I short the erase jumper and plug it in the USB port is recognised again, but I still get memory overflow errors and even when I set it to boot from flash I get nothing at all when I plug it in again.

Do you have an older version of Ersky9X I could try that is clearly less than 256K, just to get it booting up again?
User avatar
jhsa
Posts: 19480
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 5:13 pm
Country: Germany

Re: Sky9x wiki

Post by jhsa »

MikeB wrote: Wed Jun 10, 2020 3:46 pm

The SKY board processor has 256K of flash memory, the AR9X has 512K, which is why you need the ersky9xs_rom file (s for small).

Mike
Please read what Mike said here :) You are probably flashing the wrong file.

João
My er9x/Ersky9x/eepskye Video Tutorials
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5uJhoD7sAKidZmkhMpYpp_qcuIqJXhb9

Donate to Er9x/Ersky9x:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=YHX43JR3J7XGW
Crashanium
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 7:37 pm
Country: -

Re: Sky9x wiki

Post by Crashanium »

I wish it was so simple. I am flashing the correct file ersky9xs_rom - size shows as 250KB
User avatar
MikeB
9x Developer
Posts: 17979
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 1:24 pm
Country: -
Location: Poole, Dorset, UK

Re: Sky9x wiki

Post by MikeB »

Probably a SAM-BA configuration problem. When you run SAM-BA alone (not via eepskye) it asks you to "Select your Board". For the SKY board, ideally you want "at91sam3s4-9x", but for just flashing the firmware "at91sam3s4-ek" will do.

Mike
erskyTx/er9x developer
The difficult we do immediately,
The impossible takes a little longer!
Crashanium
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 7:37 pm
Country: -

Re: Sky9x wiki

Post by Crashanium »

Hello Mike,

Tried again this morning using at91sam3s4-ek and ersky9x_rom_r217_mv3 and it seems to have flashed OK. Now I just have to rebuild the 9X again. Hopefully this wil have the "power on holding the horizontal trims inwards" to make loading a newer version easier.

Ian
User avatar
MikeB
9x Developer
Posts: 17979
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 1:24 pm
Country: -
Location: Poole, Dorset, UK

Re: Sky9x wiki

Post by MikeB »

Yes, the bootloader should be in that version.
Because of the flash size, I've made 4K more of flash available by reducing the space used by the bootloader. To upgrade the version you have installed to the "latest", update the bootloader first:
1. Put the the latest file in the "FIRMWARE" directory of the SD card.
2. Start the radio holding the horizontal trims APART.
3. Update the bootloader.
4. Restart in the bootloader (horizontal trims INWARDS).
5. Update the main firmware from the file on the SD card.

Mike
erskyTx/er9x developer
The difficult we do immediately,
The impossible takes a little longer!
Crashanium
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 7:37 pm
Country: -

Re: Sky9x wiki

Post by Crashanium »

Hi Mike,

I think I found the problem. The TCL files for the atm91x3s4-9x refers to a atm91x3s2 which presumably has a smaller memory. Using the atm91x3s4-ek solved the problem and I was able to load the latest ersky9xs_rom version. Now on the rebuild again. Thanks for the suggestions.

Ian
Crashanium
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 7:37 pm
Country: -

Re: Sky9x wiki

Post by Crashanium »

Well, I am making progress. The board is installed and almost working. Why almost working? Because everything works except the right joystick. Neither the right horizontal or the right vertical axes work. Thr trim switches work on both axes. I have been through the diagnostic for all the switches (all working) and the analog diagnostics. The results are as follows:
LH - OK
LV - OK
RH - Stuck at -100
RV - Stuck at -100
A5 - OK
A6 - stuck at -100
A7 - Stuck at -100
BT - OK

I suspect a bad connection or broken wire somewhere, but the lack of action on A6 and A7 which are on the back panel puzzles me. Any ideas?
User avatar
MikeB
9x Developer
Posts: 17979
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 1:24 pm
Country: -
Location: Poole, Dorset, UK

Re: Sky9x wiki

Post by MikeB »

The 4 analog items not working share a common supply. The main 3.3V supply passes through an inductor (L5) to provide an analog supply voltage, also filtered by C64. This voltage also appears on pin 1 of J5 and pin 12 of J7, the right gimbal pots connect to pins 2 and 3 of J5.
I suspect either L5 is faulty, or not soldered properly.
The working gimbal signals are connected to J4 pins 2 and 3, with pin 1 being the analog supply for them. This supply also comes from the main 3.3V, but is filtered by L3 and C52.

Mike
erskyTx/er9x developer
The difficult we do immediately,
The impossible takes a little longer!
Crashanium
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 7:37 pm
Country: -

Re: Sky9x wiki

Post by Crashanium »

Mike, you are genius. :D

As you suggested, when I checked the continuity from L5 to pin 1 there was none. It looked like L5 was only sitting on one pad and not soldered to the second. SMD is at the limit of my soldering skills, but with fine solder and lots of flux, I got the joint on the first try. I now have a working Sky9x board. Fantastic. I was worried it was going to be a broken wire which would have been a bin job. As it is, I need to check things over carefully and tidy up the Installation, but I will hopefully be flying with it in the next few days.

Re the bootloader upgrade is there a separate boot loader file I should load in the firmware directory?

Thanks again. Ian
User avatar
MikeB
9x Developer
Posts: 17979
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 1:24 pm
Country: -
Location: Poole, Dorset, UK

Re: Sky9x wiki

Post by MikeB »

Well done!
No separate file, the bootloader is built in to the ersky9xs_rom.bin file.

Mike
erskyTx/er9x developer
The difficult we do immediately,
The impossible takes a little longer!
Crashanium
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 7:37 pm
Country: -

Re: Sky9x wiki

Post by Crashanium »

Hello Mike,

I have sucessfully flown a plane using the V761 protocol so that's progress. I spent today sorting out the voice commands and am slowly getting there.
The remainign challenge is to get telemetry working. So far I have tried com1 RXD and com1 TXD both inverted and non inverted using a D8R-XP and a Jumper R8. Both give telemetry on my taranis, but nothing so far on the Sky9X with the Jumper 4in1 multiprotocol module.

I have connected the aerial pad (module pin 5) to com 1 RXD. Any ideas how I can check what the module is putting out or that telemetry is being received?

Ian
User avatar
MikeB
9x Developer
Posts: 17979
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 1:24 pm
Country: -
Location: Poole, Dorset, UK

Re: Sky9x wiki

Post by MikeB »

erskyTx on the SKY board only supports "MULTI_STATUS" from the multiprotocol module, not "MULTI_TELEMETRY". I may be able to support "MULTI_TELEMETRY", but I'll need to see how much flash memory is needed. The code is in the source files, just conditionally compiled out.
You may check for telemetry data being received by going UP LONG (to the STATISTICS menus, then RIGHT several times to get to the DEBUG menu. Look at the first number to the right of "TelRxCount", it should be counting up if telemetry data is being received.
On the same menu, there is an option to change the telemetry logging to "Raw data", as either binary data or in HEX. Press MENU LONG to step through the options, then turn logging on using the switch you assign to the logging function. Note that the raw logging setting is note saved if you power the radio off.

Mike
erskyTx/er9x developer
The difficult we do immediately,
The impossible takes a little longer!

Post Reply

Return to “sky9x upgrade board”