9Xtreme Upgrade Board for 9x Radios

[kaznad]

Hi Mike,

I'm using the FrSky DJT module. Thanks for the info on the sdcard and copy via USB.

Where can I download eepskye? Thanks again.

[MikeB]

Eepskye is available here: http://www.er9x.com/, although I'm having difficulty right now connecting to it.

Download and install eepe, eepskye.exe is in the same install directory (for windows).

The DJT only, by default, has telemetry connections on the back of the module. You either need to connect by bringing the wires outside the radio, or do a mod to the module itself to bring the telemetry out on pin-5 of the module connector.

Mike.

[MikeB]

I've just been making use of the I2C expansion connector. I've connected a MCP23008 I/O expansion chip and I can configure the 8 pins as either inputs or outputs, read the inputs and set the outputs. The driver code is not very good at present, I need to write a full, interrupt driven, driver, but that will take some time. The main thing is adding some more I/O signals works on this board using this, and also already works on the SKY boards and 9XR-PRO.

Mike.

[jhsa]

Great news Mike. Thanks.
That would be handy to also turn Hardware ON and OFF, like the Bluetooth modules.. A little MOSFET transistor needed of course, but that is not a big problem I guess.. If someone can add an I2C IO expansion IC, can also solder some transistor, right??
I thought you were leaning towards an arduino to do that.. The advantage is that, it's cheaper, it has more pins, smaller than the IC + board to support it, and it has 7 analog inputs. You need 2 for the I2C, so 5 analog inputs remain available..

I think the arduino wins by far..

and also already works on the SKY boards and 9XR-PRO.

And these are also great news

ABBC3_OFFTOPIC

Maybe we could have a soft power for the modules on those radios. Then we could fully use the PPM2 for adding 2 modules to the radio and turn them ON and OFF.

[MikeB]

The MCP23008 has the advantage of not needing to be programmed, so no firmware needs to be written/maintained. It is also available in a dual-in-line package.

Mike.

[jhsa]

the MCP23008 needs extra components as far as I know? It has no analog inputs.. we could really use a couple more , you have to make a board for it. with the arduino you just solder the wires to it.. the IC is also thicker than the arduino.. arduino has more than 8 pins that can be configured as inputs or outputs, some of them output PWM, etc

Of course arduino needs programming, that for me is the only disadvantage, but it is a heavy one..
And that is your call of course.. But I remember you saying that you were more inclined to do it with an arduino, that's why I mentioned it.. And I do believe it would be the best option.. It is also much cheaper and easy to find.. No need to solder components..

João

[s_mack]

What external components does it need? I didn't think it did.

[MikeB]

The I2C connection needs a couple of pull up resistors, for both the MCP23008 and the Arduino. Other than that, you just need a de-coupling capacitor.

The 9Xtreme upgrade already has some spare analog inputs, the stick inputs on the original board. These are already sent from the original board to the 9Xtreme.

Mike.

[jhsa]

Aha, so the arduino would only be necessary for the skyboard based radios, right?
For the pro definitely. I doubt that the IC plus a board would fit inside the radio easily..
Still, more expensive and more difficult to find. need to make a board for it..
Could someone by looking at the ersky9x source code find what is necessary to program the arduino and make it work instead with the IC??


João

[Derriell]

Is it possible to save the telemetry data on the SDcard? So one could have a look later on the PC with Logview?

Great project!

[jhsa]

you can log your flights. The file is saved on your SD Card. you can open it later with an office program like libre office..

João

[MikeB]

In the telemetry menu you choose the rate at which data is logged (1 second or 2 seconds), and a switch to enable logging so yuo may turn it on and off. Optionally, you may set up a voice alarm to respond to the same switch to announe when logging is started and stopped.

Mike.

[tedbmoss]

I got mine on the 13th. DHL is fast. The first two units are working as far as I got. Need to do sound and TLM.
Thanks to Mike and Steve, I got all mine working.

[Derriell]

Thank you! I wanted to know if its possible to store eg. 10 values per second but it seems that the S.Port sensors and bandwidth only allow max. 2 values per second?

[MikeB]

Yes, many sensors only update slowly, so I chose to limit the logging update rate. I'll consider allowing 0.5 seconds as a logging rate option.

Mike.

[Derriell]

Great! Here is a video for logging with the Taranis and as one can see at 3:18 on the log screen (https://youtu.be/mjLut33pKGY?t=3m18s) the update interval is 510ms.

I will write a request to FRSKY to change the update interval more frequently after this post. It would be more useful if you want to test motors, propellers, log g`s etc. Most GPS loggers have an update interval of 10hz anyway.

Cheers

[IanF9X]

Left stick rudder trim has locked up to far right. Have replaced switch and all appears ok but still no movement. All other trims fine. Any suggestions?

Is possible for bug to cause this?

[MikeB]

Unlikely to be a bug. The two left trim switches are connected to the the 9Xtreme on pins 7 and 9 of connector J5.
From there, they connect directly to processor pins.

It's worth checking with a restance meter to see if either of these appears to have a short to ground. Pin 8 of the same connector is ground.

Mike.

[IanF9X]

Really strange left trim won't go left but will travel right. Have checked for shorts but can't find anything. Checked little switch for operation and fine. Are pins 7,8 and 9 on jumper 5 reading from left to right as you look at the 9xtreme board?

I think a wire has possibly gone open circuit on the connector, will check this too.

Just checked wire connections and red wire or pin 5 from left to right is open circuit ie checking from back of connector on 9xtreme to solder points on trim board. Mmmmmmm

Problem solved was red wire gone open circuit. Appeared to have broken just outside the original jumper 5 plug. Had to remove offending micro socket from plug and solder to it instead of crimp. Must have happened when switching over plug from old board to new 9xtreme.
Hope there are no other fragile ones.

[MikeB]

Sorry, I read the circuit wrong. Pins 7 and 9 are the vertical trim connections. Pins 5 and 6 are the horizontal trim connections. These connect via 220 ohm resistors to the processor.

Pin 9 is closest to the edge of the board.

Mike.

[IanF9X]

No probs Mike just glad I got it sorted. Unfortunately in the very first place I removed a perfectly good trim switch just assuming it had gone bad.

[jhsa]

This is the best I can get from the tracking number I was given
It's been like this since day one..

Departure from border point of origin country,Asendia Hong Kong,2015-10-13 17:47

João

[s_mack]

Postal tracking is mostly useless. It isn't really intended the same as courier tracking - to monitor - but rather as a means of audit after the fact.

Then again, courier tracking is pretty stupid too! UPS tracking told me Monday up until Thursday, when it wss changed to Friday. Then Friday came and went and now it has been changed to "unavailable".

[jhsa]

Yeah, that s***s

[vahegan]

Tracking may be useless for you guys who live in developed countries. I order quite a lot from Asia and it is not infrequent that it may take 3-4 months to deliver to my country. This is because most of the post does not come directly but goes by transit through Russia, and Russian post is probably the worst in the world... Therefore I have arranged a US postal address with a mail forwarding agent and I mostly prefer to make the orders to this address and then it takes another week for the forwarding agent to deliver to my door. Postal services in the US operate like a Swiss watch, when I order from the USA, mostly it takes just 2 days to deliver from anywhere across the country. Even from China, it takes about 2 weeks or less. And still I find these tracking numbers quite useful: first, I have to enter the number at my mail forwarder account so that it is easier for them to arrange things, and second, I track the progress: like left the country of origin, arrived in destination country, delivered to the mail forwarder address, etc. Not with detailed hourly accounting like the couriers do, but still very useful.

[s_mack]

João, I checked on the internal site and at the very least I can confirm that it left the warehouse on the 13th, a day later than most, by swisspost.

I semi-randomly assigned one of the services (Deutsche Post*, Swiss Post*, France Express Line, USA/CA Express Line, Russian Express Line, Royal Mail, China Registered Air*, Hong Kong Registered Air*) to each shipment as applicable per destination (the * ones are applicable to you) so that I could see which were most efficient. In hindsight... err... perhaps it would have made more sense to send ALL the German ones DP Sorry.

So far (probably no surprise to you João), it seems DP is the winner of the experiment. While some UK and SP have arrived, by far most of the reports I'm getting are DP shipments. I actually was sort of leaning toward using Swiss Post as I've read a lot of positive things about it since HobbyKing started offering it. But I think I'll default to DP unless the data swings the other way.

DP is also an arm of DHL, and all 4 of the DHL shipments I sent out arrived in 3-4 days as promised, while the UPS ones (more expensive) are still hanging around airports it seems. I personally have a hate-on for DHL because in 2008 they lost a $2000 shipment of mine and, despite it being fully insured, found a way to tell me to <i>verpiss dich</i>.

[jhsa]

I have ordered stuff with tracking number. Sometimes the tracking shows no information at all.. I'm waiting for some RTC boards from Banggood since about a month ago, and the tracking shows "not found". Something else I ordered from them a couple days before already arrived, and had tracking info..
João

[jhsa]

Thanks for checking Steven.. Yeah, that is what the tracking says.. Let's see what the postman brings next week. Hopefully my RTC's too

João

[s_mack]

Tracking may be useless for you guys who live in developed countries. [...] but still very useful.

Thanks for that. I'm finding the service to the US to be the absolute slowest at providing a tracking number. In fact a few have reported they've arrived... and I check and there still isn't even a tracking number assigned.

I suspect you probably would have been better off with Deutsch Post service to Armenia directly. Of course, we were working with imperfect information at best.

[vahegan]

I have ordered stuff with tracking number. Sometimes the tracking shows no information at all.. I'm waiting for some RTC boards from Banggood since about a month ago, and the tracking shows "not found". Something else I ordered from them a couple days before already arrived, and had tracking info.

Banggood is a bit different. A lot of stuff they offer for sale they don't have in stock. When you buy it, they order from the manufacturer or from an agent. If you ordered several items from different vendors, they will ship the package after all the vendors have supplied their respective products. Once I waited almost a month for a package containing a replacement Syma X5C quad - their website showed it was in stock when I ordered, then they told me it was out of stock and then the restocking term was moving quite a few times until they actually shipped the package. Then, they ship by Netherlands Post, and it took about a week before the item reached the Netherlands from China - and then, in another 20 days it arrived in my country. Steven does not have to wait for replenishing the supply, therefore we have to deal for the delivery time to European or whatever other shipping agents are involved, and then the actual shipping time from these agents to the destination.

I'm finding the service to the US to be the absolute slowest at providing a tracking number. In fact a few have reported they've arrived... and I check and there still isn't even a tracking number assigned.

That's strange. Which shipping agents were used for the USA? When I buy from China to the US address, when there is a choice, I usually choose the ePacket service, which is usually among the cheapest and it usually gets delivered in 7-10 days.

I suspect you probably would have been better off with Deutsch Post service to Armenia directly. Of course, we were working with imperfect information at best.

Yes, Deutsche Post usually delivers within 2 weeks from Germany to Armenia. I was assuming that, since the package was going to be shipped from China, it will be shipped either by China Post or HK post, or Singapore post - Chinese vendors most usually use these services and these take up to 4 months to deliver to my country, which is horrible. European agents (Netherlands Post, Swiss Post, Sweden Post) usually deliver within 20 days after the item arrives at their respective country but sometimes it takes quite longer. Still, I prefer the US forwarding address: it only adds about $3 to the shipping cost for small items less than 200g in weight, but the overall delivery time, although is not guaranteed quickest, but at least is predictable, delivered usually within 20 days after shipping.