Much hype has been made over the last couple of years about UVCAN components to work with Ardupilot. I know Hitec launched a range of servos with much fan-fare but I can not find a supplier that stocks them anywhere.
Has anyone got any up to date recommendations for small canbus based servos and ESCs?
Just announced at the Ardupilot dev. meeting : 3 suppliers of CAN servos
Thanks, that’s positive.
Would be interested to know if there are any UK or EU based stockists for any of those. Hitec may be the best value option.
Lets see what @HCS_Eric has to say about availability of those Hitec CAN servos Tridge talked about?
Edit: that was unnecessary! I think Hitec updated their site recently. Check them out here:
Not sure about shipping to the UK though.
Yep, great products, lot of features for larger systems.
For optimal results it requires a well designed power distribution and redundant data links
My interest was more for actuator CAN nodes. It looks like the new L431 from Matek could be just what I wanted.
Thanks for the comments, will have a look at the hitec offerings and see if I can order some samples to experiment with.
@ppoirier Would welcome any further advice you have on making the system more resilient. Had planned on sorting a proper power bus but not sure what options there are for redundant data links as most of the servos only have one bus.
@davidbitton Those do look really interesting, have you tried them yet? Any idea if its possible to use a node for more than one purpose concurrently? Looks like it could get much simplify a lot of the wiring on larger aircraft.
Yeah, most servos are build as end effector, missing the In-Out Bus connection as with Nodes.
@tegwin The item just showed up, so I’ll try it this week. You can change what works on the board with a custom AP_Periph build. It’s not difficult.
Yep, Lots of features at a very low price 
… just ordered 2 @ aliexpress
As a quick head’s up for @tegwin, look for the HAL_PERIPH_ENABLE_... defines. This controls what features are baked in.
Thanks, really helpful. I now have three of these nodes on my desk. Have managed to get one servo working and can edit the node parameters within DRONECAN GUI
Some pretty basic questions but I can’t find any documentation.
Thanks.
The is no MAVLINK out on an AP_Periph uart. The UARTs on this board are for connecting to peripherals. It’s data in.
Does anyone have servos working on the L431 in the meantime ?
Mine have arrived, but as described in this thread (Matek l431 - pwm out) the servos do not want to be moved.
Yes I managed to get servo outputs to work.
Had to change the output values in the can node using the gui and then enable the relevent servo output bitmask via mission planner.
Took me a little while to figure out how it works.
Can you verify that the node is working by plugging a gps or similar into it?
I have done the same, CAN_D1_UC_SRV_BM to 31 (Bitmask Servo 1-5)
and set the servo_functions in MP and DroneCAN Gui to identical aileron/rudder/elevator functions.
Yes, an airspeed sensor works properly.
Have you had any luck?
If it helps - Here is a known working setup.
Cube Orange - Plane 4.2.0
Working params
Working servo1 can params.param (17.1 KB)
Servo PWM connected to L431 PWM1 with an external 5V power supply with common ground.
L431 confirmed that OUT1_FUNCTION is set to integer 51
In FBWA mode the servo responds when the flight controller is moved.
Thanks for the help. I have set everything as you have done. Unfortunately, the servo still does not work on the L431 (HW 438, SW 1.3.8C8682C0).
Matek H743(V1) - Plane 4.2.0
I will probably try the whole thing on a Pixhawk and with a second L431.
If you send your parameter files both from the CAN node and the flight controller perhaps we can help better?
