A Newbie's Guide to CHDK Camera Cable for Pixhawk

Hello Everybody,
I’ve been trying to create a CHDK camera cable to activate a Canon SX260 on an X-8+ with a Pixhawk autopilot from 3DR…I know this is an old topic but for a newbie there’s still several questions. So with the Pixhawk output of 3.3v needing to be bumped up to 5v, I’ve tried using a SparFun step-up board but no luck. I’m now going to buy a cable from Tuffwing but can anyone explain what this statement means: “You’ll need to have an ESC with an BEC or UBEC plugged into any of the open AUX or MAIN OUTs on the Pixhawk.” My X-8+ Pixhawk has only the AUX ports RC12 - RC14 available. 1) Where does the Electronic Speed Controller plug into? 2) Where does the Battery Eliminator Circuit plug into and how do all of these connect? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Cheers! :slight_smile:

  • CraigNT55

[quote=“CraigNT55”]Hello Everybody,
I’ve tried using a SparFun step-up board but no luck.
[/quote]
I think these will work better : sparkfun.com/products/12009

It means that the Tuffwing cable will take the 3.3V output from the pixhawk and use it to switch a 5V level the goes to the camera’s USB port +5V pin. So you need to provide that +5V and the suggestion is to do it from a UBEC of ESC/BEC.

This is discussed at lenght here : diydrones.com/forum/topics/using … s-for-chdk