Need Advice on Hardware Purchase

Hardware Other Hardware
37

The Spektrum hardware will work. If the RX doesn’t have DSM out, you might want to pick up a Spektrum satellite receiver to use instead. They are fairly inexpensive and are standalone in ArduPilot systems (rather than true satellite operation).

Spektrum receivers

You should only need one BEC.

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38

IMHO, this is the way I would go: Holybro Pixhawk 6C + PM07 Power Module + M8N GPS

39

One thing that is confusing is figuring out the power system…

Goal
I want to be able to use 12 volt lead acid batteries to power a trolling motor. The max amps it pulls is 50.
Steering will be with a 360 degree servo somehow.

So I need to buy 3 more things?

  1. 2 “step down” converters (called a BECs) to reduce the voltage from 12 down to 5 to send into the power module, and the other to power the servo rail for the 360 degree steering servo?
  2. A “power module” to sense and control the voltage?
  3. An “ESC” rated for at least 50 amps to control the speed and propulsion direction of the motor?

Am I going down the right track, or am I off the rails?

Also, if this is kind of correct, is there any hardware that “plays nice” with mission planner/cube orange+ bundle from above?

Your help is greatly appreciated…I owe you guys beers or something!

-Mark

40
  1. The Power module will accept 12V directly and provide power to the Flight Controller. Do you need a 360° servo? There are 12V servo’s which you could power directly from the battery. No need to power the servo rail.Otherwise yea, standard servo’s operate on 5-6V (some a bit higher).
  2. See 1
  3. Right, Brushless or brushed depending on what motor you use. Many ESC’s for RC boats available.
41

Thanks for the quick response!

I don’t necciscarily need a 360 servo for this, but I need one for a later project I have planned.

I didn’t even think about the 12v servo options…I was in rc tunnel vision. Thanks!

The trolling motor is brushed I think, so an ESC for “brushed” motors.

Thanks for steering me down the right path!

42

Not too common and continuous servo’s/servo motors won’t work directly. Those are RPM controlled by PWM not position.

43

Interesting…

Have I mentioned I have no clue what I’m doing?!?!

Do you recommend a certain type/brand of servo that would have a decent travel distance to move a trolling motor from left to right a decent amount?

44

This one was suggested for another trolling motor application.

Hitec big servo

Take a read thru this thread:
Boat w/ trolling motor

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45

Thanks Dave. This is super helpful!

46

Also, the 360 servo was going to be used to turn a steering wheel 2 rotations to the left and right.

WAY down the road from now.

47

Do I need to purchase a PPM sum receiver like the one pictured here:

I thought I just connected my spektrum reciever bind port to the SPKT port using a goofy cable adapter…

48

If your receiver has DSM/DSMX out, you can connect it to the SPKT port. Otherwise, I recommend getting a Spektrum satellite receiver. Don’t bother with the summation hardware.

https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-spektrum-rc.html

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49

Ok awesome…Thanks for the quick reply!

Also, I’m kind of struggling still on the power situation…

From the 12v battery, it goes in and out of the power module using XT60 connectors.

But I need to send the power to 2 places…

  1. The esc to power the trolling motor.
  2. A BEC to power the “Main Out” servo rail. (To power the 1 servo I plan on using)

How does that connection split?

I was looking at power distribution boards, but they seem to all want low amp quad motors for outputs.

I need 60 amps max.

Am I in the ballpark?

50

What servo uses 60A?!

51

Hahahahah the trolling motor, not the steering servo!

52

Why would you bother powering a motor like that through a distro board? Draw fused power straight from the battery.

And for a single servo, you don’t need to power the autopilot rail. Just connect its signal pin to the output of the autopilot and ensure a common ground.

53

Great question! It seemed odd to me too, but I just figured it was “post” power module, and it was the proper way to do things in ardupilot.

(I’m new and trying to learn)

I figured there was an ETA till empty that needed to calculate, or something along those lines.

Everywhere I looked it said you had to send power to the rail…some even said stuff about a zener diode, and all that jazz.

I guess it makes sense your way though.

I’m kind of frustrated at the documentation I’m finding…

It seems to assume a tad amount of knowledge that I don’t have, and SHOVES quadcopter examples down your throat.

I’ll figure it out eventually with the help of good people on this forum.

I really appreciate it, and apologize for all the newb questions.

-Mark

54

@Yuri_Rage Also, I stumbled across your yt channel yesterday and was loving the lawnmower stuff…

So awesome!

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55

Copter is by far the driving force around here. The good thing is that once you get the idea of how ArduPilot is setup, the workflow for Copter, Plane, and Rover all have a lot in common. So for many items there’s no need to re-write the wiki for each type. But yeah, you can always ask questions.

56

Yeah I figured copter was the biggest.

Believe it or not, that’s how I got into all of this stuff YEARS ago (Before I had kids!).