Flysky i10 PPM

A while back I reviewed the Flysky i10 radio.  It is a great radio for the price, but I needed PPM output from the receiver in order to feed my Pixhawk.  PPM is a single wire interface for all channels, in place of the one-cable-per-channel PWM interface, which is about 40 years old.

The manual tells you nothing about how to do this, but the online forums were filled with people saying it could be done.  I tried everything, and could not find a way to do it.

Finally, I found a bunch of postings about a very helpful fellow at Diamond Hobby, Jim Ogorek, who might be able to help (email: jim@diamondhobby.com).  In spite of the fact that I bought the radio through another retailer, Amazon, he helped me by sending me the update software for the radio.  Note that there are two versions, US and China.  I needed China because my radio showed up as a "CN" device on windows.

After running the software on my PC and connecting up the radio, I was able to update the transmitter, and it then updated the receiver, and bingo, I had PPM!  You go to the receiver menu on the transmitter and there is a simple check box for PPM and it enables PPM output on ch1 of the receiver.  Works like a charm.

Lots of Little Things to Complete the Quadcopter

I am making progress but am now at the stage where there are lots of little things to do to make the quad work.

1. Install the flight controller with special vibration reducing foam (see photo 1 below).
2. Install the power monitor and battery velcro mounts (see photo 2)
3. Calibrate the ESC's.  This is always a pain as you have this "one man band" performance where you are plugging the main battery in and out, watching lights on the controller, listening for musical tones and beeps, changing throttle settings, listening for more musical tones.  I usually end up doing it 5 or 6 times before it works.
4. Calibrate the flight controller - Mission Planner complained a lot until I saw in the fine print that I had to recalibrate the compass due to a special new firmware load.  Lots of waving the quad around when you do this calibration.
5. Installed camera mount and new camera - looks really good except the new camera wants a special power connector that I do not have.  More waiting for parts from Amazon.com.
6. Items that remain include installing the final Spektrum receiver and PPM converter, wiring the camera, putting some mechanical pieces on the dead cat frame, installing the new professional looking cover, and then some flight testing in the basement.

Photo 1 Battery Mount and power monitor

Photo 2 Note Green Kyosho vibration absorbing foam

Photo 3 New camera that includes a 5.8 GHz video transmitter

Photo 4 Overall view of Quadcopter

Design Choices

Spent the last few days working through some design choices and doing some preparation work while waiting for parts.

1. I balanced all the props using the technique in this great video:

2. I soldered the battery connections on the bottom of the Deadcat PCB.  I did this by removing the paint or mask over the power and ground planes and soldering to the exposed copper.

3. Setting up the radio exposed some problems.  The Spektrum DX6i transmitter (left) that I planned to use is not ideal for quadcopters as it has only two position switches for the extra channels, while my old DX4e transmitter (right) has a handy 3 position switch which can be used to set flight modes (Stabilize, loiter, auto).  Easy to fix, use the DX4e right?  Not so fast, I got some help from a Spektrum radio developer on the RCUniverse website and I found out that the DX4e has half the power output of the DX6i!  So I may use the DX6i and fiddle with the mixing function to get more flight modes.

4. Need to reduce vibrations for the flight control system so I bought some Kyosho gel tape from Amazon.com.

I am still waiting for some critical parts - the PPM mixer for the AR610 receiver (on the boat from China), the new video camera (same source, different boat), FPV monitor (ditto).  Stay tuned for further updates.

Progress

The quadcopter is coming together now that I have the proper parts for the Dead Cat configuration.  The arms are all attached although it was hard to get the screws to align, the new GPS is mounted on a foldable mast, and the ESC wiring is done (not shown).  I forgot to mention previously that I added carbon fiber motor mounts (about $8) as the fiberglass original parts are not very sturdy and break in a crash.

I am now waiting for a PPM adapter to arrive.  The Pixhawk only supports PPM input from the receiver (single wire interface for all channels) and the Spektrum receiver does not have this feature, so a conversion board is needed (about $8).  I am also waiting for a new camera and gimbal.

Dead Cat Config

Note the GPS in the center left of the photo

Carbon Fiber motor mount