I’m completely new to autonomous vehicles (but I have a garage full of R/C helicopters, one of which will soon fly with my brand new Pixhawk Cube in it, so I know at least a little).
So, with my n00b state in mind:
I purchased a “Pixhawk Compatible” GPS to go with my Pixhawk Cube: (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IUSVXOA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1), with has “legacy” Pixhawk connectors on it (Hirose DF13). The connectors are the same gender as the cable that is provided with the Pixhawk cube, so how to plug it in is a mystery to me. Is there an adapter? Cut and solder? Did I get the wrong GPS?
Thanks in advance - the quality of the unit seems top notch, and I was already able to get it to boot + load firmware and fiddle with the software horizon. I’m really looking forward to playing with this thing - thanks!
My kit has not arrived as yet so I don’t know what wiring you get. So if you can photo the wires and if there is a manual could you post this.
Yes you are going to have to cut and solder. I have the same GPS on my desk to I will be able to talk you through the wiring once I know what you get with the kit.
Any experts care to chime in? I’d like to avoid cut/solder if i can, i’m not that good at soldering. I’d just buy cables and make them, but finding the female DF13 is not that easy
Update: Those cables (http://www.ebay.com/itm/4pcs-PXFmini-cable-Dronecode-cables-and-JST-GH-DF13-connectorssilica-gel-200mm-/152340479222?hash=item2378333cf6:g:YdkAAOSwZVlXoxvs) are NOT what’s needed. For my partiular GPS, the connectors are actually “Molex PicoBlade”,which do not appear to be compatible with DF13 (despite some stuff I found on internet that implied the connectors could be filed). I haven’t “engineered” a solution due to lack of time, but it looks like JST-GH -> Molex PicoBlade would do the trick. It’s slightly complicated by the fact that the pinouts don’t always match between the GPS and the PixHawk (this is a reflection of my ignorance of how to wire these things). In any event, I noticed this thread had a few views and wanted to prevent anyone else from buying those cables.
Another update: After staring at “CrazePony” cheap GPS (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IUSVXOA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) I decided that I’d just give the “make cables” thing a try. I was pretty easy (yes, I’ve soldered many times before, but I’m lazy). I opted ffor GPS1 on the Pixhawk because the manual made it look like that was a better choice due to the arming switching. To do the cut/solder I just lined the cables up (see attached), and cut/spliced one/time starting with red, adding heat shrink to each wire as a spliced it. It seems to be working well - I should have just been more brave to begin with…
One thing to note - the 4 wire JST coming off the 8 wire cable FROM the Pixhawk had 3 wires in it, and the 4 connector Molex cable from the GPS unit only had 2 wires, which was confusing until I looked at the diagram for the Pixhawk cable - the 3rd wire was ground, so I simply did not attach it, as ground was already there from the other connector
@humanautopilot: Hi, thanks for the nice explanation! I don’t quite understand what you did to the small connector with two cables though - could you give me some info on that?
Sorry… it was awhile ago, and it’s all buttoned up, and I can’t exactly remember I’ve attached a picture of the final product tho. I can tell u what one of the wires between the arm switch and the main harness was connected, so I ended up with one wire on the harness side (NOT the GPS side) being conneted to nothing. The way I ended up figuring it out was take the GPS out of it’s plastic housing, and match the wires up with the diagrams here: http://www.proficnc.com/cables/81-ph21-cable-set-please-contact-salehexaero-for-purchasement.html (I used GPS1 for my implementation)
Hey…your problems are simple…GPS need 5V,GND,RX from gps puck go to TX of GPS1 port,TX from gps puck go to RX of GPS1 port…compass(inside gps puck) need 5V,GND,SCL,SDA which you have on I2c port of Pix…
But if from GPS puck you have 4 wires from gps and only 2 or 3 from compass maybe compass is powered from gps too…
Best thing is to open your GPS and see how pins are marked…for Pixhawk 2.1 pinout use this
I would like to point out that at best that table is misleading and confusing. at worst, flat out wrong…
under GPS1 each of the pins should match what is listed in GPS2, however with two additional pins inserted before the ground…
To say it another way, the two ports are near replicas of each other. and GPS2 on that table is correct…
the specific things are, pin2 is an OUTPUT on the pixhawk, and pin 3 is an INPUT.
The labels for those two pins, should also read MCU_TX for pin 2, and MCU_RX for pin 3.
The description column, is CORRECT for both tables…
I’m not sure exactly who’s bell I could ring to get that fixed, and the last time I attempted to submit anything myself, I made a huge pot of spaghetti for myself…
I’ve attached a picture of the final product tho. I can tell u what one of the wires between the arm switch and the main harness was connected, so I ended up with one wire on the harness side (NOT the GPS side) being conneted to nothing. The way I ended up figuring it out was take the GPS out of it’s plastic housing, and match the wires up with the diagrams here: 
