Page 6 of 6

Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2018 11:52 pm
by Prowler901
Ah yes, I mis-spoke about the nano. It is a pro mini, and it is not an original. It is from someone called Arducam. And, if I flip the FTDI over, then the GRN and the BLK contacts will be opposite. So, then I will need to cross over to connect RX1 and TX0.

I've never programmed an arduino. It is something that I've wanted to get into, and this is my first attempt.

Todd

Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2018 12:35 am
by jhsa
Ok, you just need to solder some pins to the arduino and connect the FTDI as shown. no need to cross anything. Please see attached picture. You can also see where you should connect the jack plug.

To program the arduino you will need to download and install the arduino IDE.
I recommend you do some google search on how to do it,and how to program a sketch to the arduino pro mini. There is a lot of info and videos online.

Let us know if you get stuck.

João

Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2018 2:02 am
by Prowler901
Thanks, Joao! I will get busy reading. :)

Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2018 3:42 pm
by MikeB
If you have a 9XR-PRO, then COM2 is available on the Futaba trainer socket. This works directly with a standard RS232 serial port sending SBUS at 57600 baud, as eepskye does. If using a FTDI, then the Tx data just needs inverting to work.

The trainer input on the jack socket also supports SBUS as an input, but this must be inverted at 100K baud (currently).
Edit: Correction, the jack socket SBUS may be either polarity.

Mike.

Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 3:56 am
by Prowler901
Well, I'm not having any luck programming the mini. And, I haven't had much help from the Arduino board. I plug everything in and get a red LED on the Mini along with a flashing green LED. I press the reset button and press upload in the Arduino IDE program (desktop version) it compiles the code and then attempts to upload to the board. After a minute I get this error:

avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 1 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x89
.
.
.
through 10 attempts.

The TX light on the FTDI flashes a few times while this goes on. The boot loader is supposed to be loaded on this thing. I'm not sure what to try next. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Todd

Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 12:42 pm
by MikeB
Is the DTR signal connected? This is used to reset the Arduino just before uploading.
You could also try pressing the reset button on the Arduino, just before the actual upload starts.

Mike.

Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 2:10 pm
by jhsa
Just solder some pins on the arduino and connect the FTDI directly to the arduino as in the picture I posted above.
This is THE ONLY WAY it will work.
Do not try to connect only some pins, THAT WILL NOT WORK.. please do as we say.

João

Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 4:22 pm
by Prowler901
Yes, everything is connected/soldered with pins just as you showed in you picture. And, those are the results I get. So, I'm missing something else.

Thanks,
Todd

Edit: I've added some photos for clarity. I don't think I have any cold solder joints. They all look pretty good to me. And, the green LED flashes slowly while connected.

Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 6:19 pm
by jhsa
make sure you selected the correct board in the "Tools" menu. You need to select the Arduino "Pro Mini 5V / 16Mhz"

By the way, did you buy this version? 5V / 16Mhz??

João

Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 7:37 pm
by Prowler901
Hi Joao,

I think you just nailed it. I didn't look far enough down the list. I had the "arduino mini" selected. I looked further and saw the "arduino pro or pro mini" and selected that. So, I went through the process again and it appears that it has uploaded the sketch. At least it said "Upload complete". Now, to try it on the TX and see what happens.

Thanks,
Todd

Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 10:05 pm
by jhsa
Nice, well done :)

You will love playing with arduino as well :) There are so many cool projects for it, it is unbelievable..

João

Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2018 3:36 am
by Prowler901
Thanks again, Joao! It works perfectly! :)

Many thanks to you and Mike for the work you do on this forum. :)

Todd

Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2018 9:52 am
by jhsa
You are welcome, enjoy. It is a wonderful feature. :)

João

Sent from my BLN-L21 using Tapatalk


Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 10:14 pm
by Arvycka
Joao,

Thanks for the interesting project. Do you know if I should be able to take TX from FTDI and feed it directly to the SBUS input on a flight controller (Omnibus F3) in my case? I'm using silabs "USB to UART bridge" (I always thought that it's the same thing as an "FTDI") and LED flashes very rapidly when I enable SBUS output in eePskye but there is no reaction from the FC. the FC has a built-in sbus inverter I think since I normally connect FrSky receivers directly. Or is it not the "original" SBUS signal coming from the eePskye?

Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2018 12:13 am
by jhsa
I think that the PC cannot output the signal at the original SBUS Baudrate, so the baudrate is different, that makes it not compatible with the original one. Something like that, Mike can explain it better :) Also the original is inverted..

João

Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2018 12:55 pm
by Arvycka
Oh well, it would have been quite useful :) Thanks for the answer!

Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2018 2:16 pm
by jhsa
If you were expecting to fly your model from epskye, I believe it is stil not possible, at least in the traditional way, as it is not possible to operate both sticks in the eepskye simulator at the same time.. yet.
Perhaps if Mike implements Joystick support it would be possible.
Actually, thinking a bit better, we wouldn't need a radio at all, anymore :)
I would like to actually try that and find out how safe that would be :)

Mike? :)

João




Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2018 7:12 pm
by Arvycka
No, I wasn't expecting to fly the model this way :D I would have needed a reaaaly long cable for that too :)
It's a pain to setup an FPV plane on the radio - multiple modes on a single channel, various mixes and switches, add voice alerts to that and pushing buttons on my 9x gets old fast :) My idea was to connect FTDI output to the FC's Sbus input directly, where a receiver's output would normally be connected, setup the model on the PC in "Live" mode, save it to the radio, and reconnect receivers output to the FC.

Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2018 8:34 pm
by jhsa
Hmm, I see.. Perhaps there is a way.
Mike, remember the SBUS to PWM converted that you coded for arduino? Could you output an SBUS signal on one of the pins? Perhaps the Tx pin of the arduino? Then we would only have to invert it with a transistor and we would have an original inverted SBUS signal.

Thanks

João

Sent from my BLN-L21 using Tapatalk


Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2018 9:26 pm
by MikeB
Is this for a 9X running er9x, or have you got an upgrade board in the 9X and are running ersky9x?

On ersky9x, you may receive an SBUS signal on COM2 at 57600 baud (instead of the standard 100000 baud), and use that as 16 channels of trainer input.

Mike

Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2018 11:36 pm
by Arvycka
Yes, it's ar9x board running ersky9x. Using sbus over trainer input would require all mixes to have ppm channels as source, if I understand correctly. Useful for testing, but for actual model they would have to be reasigned one by one to ..err radio? sources, which wouldn't make setting the model up much easier. And, to be honest, I have no idea how to setup trainer or how it works :D
Anyway, that was just a thought, not a problem for me, ersky9x is great 👍.

Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2018 12:04 am
by jhsa
The following info is on the first post of this thread as well.

You must then create a model on the tx only for this feature, configure the trainer input for the first 4 channels and/or make some mixes with the PPMn inputs as source in the mixes, and set the weight to 80%. Set the limits on the limits menu to -125 to 125. Here are my settings.. at the moment I set it only for the first 4 channels so I'm using only the trainer input menu on the radio.. You can set it for the full 16 channels by using the PPMn (n = PPM input 1 to 16) as source in the mixer.

Go to the "Model Setup / Protocol" menu. Select Trainer and hit MENU. Now scroll down to "Trainer" and select a profile. Hit MENU Long to enter the the trainer menu for that profile. Now do as below. This uses the first 4 channels only.

RUD := 80% ch1 Switch RUD
ELE := 80% ch2 Switch RUD
THR := 80% ch3 Switch RUD
AIL := 80% ch4 Switch RUD
We will have to calibrate the trainer to the PPM signal from eepskye. just make sure throttle stick is at center in eepskye, the same procedure we use to calibrate another Trainer TX.

Or if you're using the PPMn sources directly in the mixer, you could use something like this:

CH1 80% PPM1 Switch RUD
CH2 80% PPM2 Switch RUD
CH3 -100% FULL
. . R 80% PPM3 Switch RUD
CH4 80% PPM4 Switch RUD
CH5 80% PPM5..... etc, etc,..

The RUD switch on the radio allows you to enable the trainer. when the RUD switch is OFF, the THR channel ) in this case Channel 3) will be pulled to -100%

If you set the radio like this, you will have exactly the same throws you set in eepskye.

IMPORTANT: WHEN SETTING UP AN ELECTRIC MODEL WITH IT LIVE, EITHER DISCONNECT THE MOTORS, OR REMOVE THE PROPS..

João

Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2019 2:16 am
by antlerhanger
Stupid question .but want to make sure . I have built 6 of Mikes SBUS decoders and I used a store bought inverters . They all work fantastic and are hooked up to x8r and s8r receivers . Is this the same decoder that I can use for eepsky to simulate models (I believe they are) just want to make sure

Thanks as always
Allen

Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2019 10:50 am
by jhsa
For that.you only need an USB to serial adapter. Search for FTDI adapter.

João

Sent from my BLN-L21 using Tapatalk


Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2019 12:20 pm
by antlerhanger
Thanks so much . I have FT232RL FTDI USB 3.3V 5.5V to TTL Serial Adapter Module that I use to program the pro mini .
As usual I'm sure I will have other questions..

Thanks again
Allen

Re: Serial in eepe/eepskye

Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2019 1:42 am
by jhsa
That one works :)

Sent from my BLN-L21 using Tapatalk