Flysky FS-i6

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benbojangles
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Flysky FS-i6

Post by benbojangles »

Hello eveyone, my first post and first time on opentx. I have the flysky fs-i6 & turnigy tgy-i6 (same device), and i'm looking into ways to see if modifying the firmware using opentx or er9x is possible? the fs-i6 software appears to be almost identical to the flysky t6, but with a few exceptions: telemetry capability, 3-position switch, ppm signal. I think there are some hardware differences between i6 & t6:
i6 uses:
- arm cortex m0+ 32-bit chip
- eeprom is 128kb

I already wrote about my investigations here: http://dalybulge.blogspot.co.uk/
I hope you will read.

I became stuck in my direction. I thought it was possible to obtain & reverse engineer the existing firmware updater application.

Can anyone help direct me in my attempts to build opentx for this hardware?

-How will I flash opentx to this arm chip? Can I just use companion9x/eepe to flash this chip? or something like xloader?
-Do I need to obtain a arm m0+ discovery board? Or, as in my blog, will my self-made ftdi connector work (It works with the flysky firmware updater software app so why not?)

Reasons for enabling opentx on this device are that it includes telemetry, and i'm hoping that Ardupilot telemetry is possible. What are your thoughts about this idea? Impossible/possible?

Many thanks for your help in advance

Benbojangles :shock:

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MikeB
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by MikeB »

If the datasheet is correct, the processor only has 64K bytes of flash (EEPROM is 16K bytes, 128K bits).
I think you will struggle to get either er9x or openTx into it. er9x only just fits in an Atmel AVR MEGA64, and the code packs better into that than it does on the ARM processor.

ersky9x (for the 9XR-PRO and Taranis) is around 190K bytes, I believe openTx is at least as large.

Mike.
erskyTx/er9x developer
The difficult we do immediately,
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benbojangles
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by benbojangles »

Ok, thanks for that news.

Is there anyway to know/understand the original firmware?
-what compiler was used
-what bootloader it uses

I know that the flysky firmware software was written using Visual Studio 8.0 (C++) is there anyway of decompiling?
Is there anyway to obtain the firmware file? I can only get the .hex code during data transfer using port monitor.

Is there anyway to thin-out er9x or open-tx? Is there any bloat that can be removed?
benbojangles
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by benbojangles »

Just wondering how the er9x has been uploaded to a flysky t6?
Here is the link: http://www.artaylor.co.uk/ar-t6.html
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Kilrah
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by Kilrah »

It's not er9x per se, but a new firmware dedicated to that radio. It is obviously heavily inspired by the er9x family and with some code reused, but a separate project that's been ongoing for a bit more than 6 months and just reached "useable" status.

viewtopic.php?f=124&t=5885

benbojangles
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by benbojangles »

Interessssting, so did he somehow obtain the t6 original firmware and modify it, or use his own version of er9x-type firmware?
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Kilrah
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by Kilrah »

See his blog - he reverse-engineered the hardware, started writing firmware from scratch for the basics (drivers) then added parts of er9x code for functionality.

Same path used back then for the 9x. Obtaining the stock firmware source is usually impossible, and trying to decompile/reverse-engineer the binary would be much more complicated/less reliable than just starting from scratch.
benbojangles
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by benbojangles »

It seems that in his blog: http://www.artaylor.co.uk/ar-t6.html he did obtain the original firmware, he has links to download both the original firmware and the original eeprom backups.
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Kilrah
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by Kilrah »

Those are binary files that were read out from the radio's memory before he flashed his own firmware, as backup so he could always write them back.
Again not of much use for development without source code.
benbojangles
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by benbojangles »

Today I managed to modify the Firmware updater software:
Image

I also got the firmware file and i'm able to modify menu text, but it's going to be a while before I am able to modify menu layouts & telemetry.
MrSatoV
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by MrSatoV »

wait wait wait!!! I want this!!! Please tell me you did't give up, or find it impossible! O.O
Gigawipf
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by Gigawipf »

Are there any news about firmwares for the i6?
If there is a chance to get it working i will definetly buy one.
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LTMNO
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by LTMNO »

Very interesting... nice little 6Ch Radio...
But the price is not that far off the T9x.
Found a few threads on this in RCGroups as well.
Seems the Telemetry is limited at the moment OOTB but I assume that more could come of it if the Firmware updates can change.
Heck you can take a $10 Mainboard from the T9x and use the hardware if they are better than the t9x ones...
not sure what the quality is like inside... anyone share any images yet?
Custom 9x with M64/Telemetry Mod
andreigheorghe
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by andreigheorghe »

Hi Guys, I found someone that decompiled the original firmware and modified it for 8 channels, it's not perfect, but it works. The guy says that he has limited ARM programming skills, but still, he made it possible.

https://basejunction.wordpress.com/2015 ... m-updater/

Cheers.
benbojangles
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by benbojangles »

hi everyone, just to let you all know that you don't actually need to use the basejunction updater code, you can just use the i6_updater.exe, the rclogger_updater.exe, and in time a custom exe with gui. hope this helps.

more information here:

http://dalybulge.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10 ... -menu.html
rcfish
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by rcfish »

Hello, I know this post is old but I just got an flysky i6x and I was thinking about er9x / ersky9x for this transmitter. It has a stm32F07 processor,so I think It maybe fit in there. What do you think about this idea?
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MikeB
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by MikeB »

How much flash and RAM does the chip have? Ersky9x already uses around 256K of flash.
I doubt I would have time to do a port.

Mike.
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jhsa
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by jhsa »

That radio seems to have an inbuilt RF module, meaning that we probably can't use other protocols, even with open source firmware. I don't know if it would be worth the effort.. :)

João
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rcfish
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by rcfish »

Hello,
MikeB wrote: Sun Apr 30, 2017 10:45 am How much flash and RAM does the chip have?
The processor has 64 to 128 Kbytes of Flash memory and 16 Kbytes of SRAM with HW parity. (http://www.st.com/content/ccc/resource/ ... 090510.pdf[I think this is the right datasheet.])
http://imgur.com/a/fhc6o
So maybe er9x and not ersky9x(or is it just not enough flash/ram at all)?

jhsa wrote: Sun Apr 30, 2017 12:15 pm That radio seems to have an inbuilt RF module, meaning that we probably can't use other protocols, even with open source firmware.

Maybe we could use seriel of the multiprotocol.
http://imgur.com/a/R0Ht8
http://imgur.com/a/y7GYj
Here is RX4/TX4 for example.We may even could remove the internal rf modul and install a sd-card slot instead of that or make it like a devo with internal more modules.(I don't know what's technically possible.)

jhsa wrote: Sun Apr 30, 2017 12:15 pm I don't know if it would be worth the effort.. :)
MikeB wrote: Sun Apr 30, 2017 10:45 am I doubt I would have time to do a port.
I was also thinking about this, but I think it would be still nice.


A good thing about this TX is that I think that every pin of the processor has its pinout...
http://imgur.com/a/6MYYW
...and they all are labeled.
One more picture of everything:
http://imgur.com/a/GduM4

What do you mean?
rcfish
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jhsa
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by jhsa »

It looks like it doesn't have voice capability, no SD Card, too few switches and pots. the RF module seems to be on the main board. maybe you could just dump the mainboard all together and install an ArUni board in there which already supports Ersky9x, and has all hardware I've mentioned above..

http://ar9x.net/index.php?route=product ... duct_id=57

João
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MikeB
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by MikeB »

This would really need someone with coding ability to take it on, reverse engineer the circuit diagram, then work out what parts of er9x/ersky9x could be ported.

Mike.
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jhsa
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by jhsa »

I just remembered, wasn't there someone that did some replacement firmware for this radio? I remember reading about this.. Not sure if it was based on er9x..

João
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michel49
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by michel49 »

what about the iBus ?, can I connect Sbus servos like FrSky Sbus ?
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Kilrah
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by Kilrah »

No, it's propriatary and there are pretty much no accessories supporting it apart from a couple of flight controllers.
michel49
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Re: Flysky FS-i6

Post by michel49 »

I saw an other Flysky Rx give the choice between S-bus & i-bus; maybe an other FW fix that issue ?

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