$200ish but they’re good radios.
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The alternative is to buy something from Holybro or CUAV for example.
Their flight controllers (in most cases) are in a case with connectors and come with a bunch of cables.
You can opt to purchase the GPS unit in the same bundle.
They will be way more expensive than the bare Matek boards, but probably less expensive than a Cube Orange.
- CUAV Nora
- CUAV V5 Nano small but not quite the latest generation
- Holybro Durandal
- Holybro Pixahwk 6C quite new
- Holybro Pixhawk 4
All of these have more than 1 IMU, so there’s some level of redundancy, and some have soft mounted IMUs to minimize vibrations
EDIT:
As Allister said, the QioTek looks good regarding case and connectors style of installation too, but most of the ones I just listed have much more frequent flier miles.
You’ll need soldering skills whichever route you take.
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Is this worth considering?
Would I have to buy anything else to get up and running?
That is good, top end stuff with long range telemetry. It’s getting into the high end price range too.
If you had the option a TXMOD version would be good - that is the TX MOD unit goes in the RC Transmitter JR bay and provides wifi to your groundstation (and you can run yaapu telemetry on the transmitter) and it provides RC Control over the telemetry link too. The RFD900X in the boat is the same either way you go.
This is getting expensive, but you dont need a separate RC receiver - that’s not a big deal normally, but with a boat you probably want only good antennas and minimum number of waterproof holes.
Those RFD units have good antennas, and they do diversity and the radios are not easily killed.
The Here3 is CAN bus, so you can easily extend the wires if required.
You might want a bit of a mast arrangement to lift the antennas and GPS unit up away from the waterline as much as possible.
I see they are out of the TXMOD set, but they dont appear to sell it bundled with the Cube anyway.
First, I can’t stress enough at how much I appreciate everyones time and expertise. This would have taken me YEARS to figure out!
But yeah, it seems like $400 would be on the low end for this kind of stuff. As always, I’m usually 3x over budget!
I’m still a little unclear on what the TXMOD version of the radio does…
I already have a Spectrum tx and rx, so wouldn’t that be how I actually steer/drive (When needed)?
Why would I want wifi to the groundstation? Isn’t that WAY less range?
The CAN bus is interesting to me…Being new to this, but kind of familiar with CAN bus (Victron products), I feel like it’s going to come in handy down the road!
Also, you must have read my mind about extending the wires. Are there any “best practices” regarding how long the wires (For GPS and other components) can run? Is the GPS sensitive to voltage loss? It seems like the wires for all this stuff are SUPER small gauge.
We’re hoping to run everything off of 12v deep cycle batteries that we already have. I’m assuming that we’ll need some type of voltage regulator or adapter?
Thanks again,
Mark
I use my Pinecil anytime I am away from my bench. I (and Yuri) have a Pace ADS200 bench soldering station which I love, but honestly, the Pinecil, with a sufficient power supply or battery, can do everything super well. The tips are very standard. I have a full set of tips that were cheap from the Pine Store.
The wattage you get from the iron is related to the voltage you feed it. The Pinecil can be powered via USB-C or a barrel jack. When I use my Pinecil, I use this big USB-C battery pack. It provides the necessary power for the Pinecil to operate at full power. I can also use the battery pack to charge my my laptop or other USB-C device also, so I really like it. I should add that Yuri got an identical battery pack that must be defective because it drains itself even with nothing connnected. I have had zero problems. So, your mileage may vary!
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The TXMOD won’t work with a Spektrum radio (maybe with some hacking similar to the CRSF install on the DX9 it will work, but it won’t be plug and play as they advertise). At some point you’re going to want to move away from Spektrum (speaking from experience) but again, you have it so might as well use it.
The WiFi link is actually between your RC Radio and the laptop. So WiFi range isn’t an issue. The nice part about the TXMOD system is you have one physical radio in the boat, but it does RC link and full telemetry.
With the Combo kit you linked you would still use your Spetrum RC, and the RFD900x for telemetry. OR You could set up a joystick through your laptop and control the boat over the telemetry link and then that kit would have most of what you’d need. Any USB joystick or game pad could be setup. This will complicate the initial setup a little bit, but not enough for that to be a deal breaker. One issue would be is using the joystick through the laptop/telemetry is that you would always need to have your laptop with you every time you take the boat out. That’s up to you if it’s an issue, depends on your goals.
https://ardupilot.org/rover/docs/common-joystick.html#joystick-gamepad
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I found the practice board in this video about a year ago, and have my students use it for a couple weeks before they touch their flight controllers. It has worked really well so far, and probably saved us from some possibly expensive mistakes.
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Controlling the boat via game controller would be awesome!
That is already possible, just configure and use mission planner 's joystick input and connect mission planner to the flight controller via a telemetry modem.
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Yeah, I said that because Allister mentioned it above. Super cool!
So I’m leaning towards just picking up this combo:
It’s over budget, but feel like it gives me a fighting chance at getting up and running relatively quick, without ruining it with my sloppy soldering.
What are the other main components that I would need to order?
I would make sure you have a 5v BEC to power the radio on the boat. Those RFD radios can be power hungry when they’re running at full power. Not enough to impact battery life, but they do stress the telemetry ports. You’ll also need a different BEC for the servo rail because those aren’t powered by the flight controller.
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You’ll want an RC radio and receiver. I’m quickly becoming partial to Radiomaster hardware equipped with ExpressLRS.
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I have an old spektrum tx and rx from when I used to crash RC helicopters.
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So 2 of something like this:
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).
You should only need one BEC.
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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?
- 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?
- A “power module” to sense and control the voltage?
- 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
- 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).
- See 1
- Right, Brushless or brushed depending on what motor you use. Many ESC’s for RC boats available.