I’m currently attempting to build a drone using the DALRC Rocket 4 in 1 ESC Engine and my APM. I’m new to this field and had some questions about wiring the ESC to the APM. The ESC comes with 4 1-pin motor wires, a 1-pin Curr wire, a 1-pin 5V wire, and a 2 pin GND and VCC cable. I was wondering where I plug them into the APM.
I dont think the old APM boards are capable of running Dshot, so you will have to run a basic PWM signal. The curr wire will not be connected. Only the Signal, 5v and GND wires. They should be wired to their respective motors output.
see here:
@ekliptiko Thank you so much, but, for clarification, I can plug the motor plugs from the ESC and the 5V and the GND/VCC wires into the APM like shown in the picture attached?
Not Quite.
From R to L at the ESC:
- GND - Blk wire - is connected to the right pin. Any of the pins on the outside edge of the APM is fine. They are all GND. You only need one.
- Vcc - Red Wire - Should not be connected. This would be connected to the battery voltage, but is not necessary. Leave it disconnected.
- M1, M2, M3, etc - White Wires - are motor signal wires. They appear to be hooked up correctly.
- 5v - Org Wire - Does not need to be connected. This would be 5v to power the flight controller, but you likely have a power module to power the APM board seperately. Leave it disconnected.
- Curr - Blue Wire - Should not be connected. This would be a telemetry pin for BLHeli_32. The firmware that runs on the APM does not support BLHeli_32, so just leave it disconnected.
Lastly, You need to connect battery voltage to the tabs on the ESC where you have the capacitor soldered. The capacitor is fine and can stay there along with the battery wires. In fact, soldering a capacitor like that across the battery lead can provide extra capacitance to smooth out power spikes.
@ekliptiko When you say connect the battery voltage, do you mean like connect the red wire or something else?
Sorry for the absurd questions, still trying to understand all of this wiring stuff.
Yes, Red wire from battery connector to (+) tab, black wire from battery connector to (-) tab. This is how you power the ESC - The APM is not a power distribution device.
So I should take the red and black wires off from the plug the goes from the ESC to the APM and plug one side into the APM and solder the other side into their respective tabs on the ESC.
First of all, no matter what, do NOT connect the RED wire to your APM.
Best would be to remove the red wire from the ESC connector plug.
The orange wire carries 5V it can be connected to one of the middle pins of the servo/ESC rail of the APM.
You must connect the black wire to the APM, to one of the outermost pins of the servo rail, just like in your picture. The signal cables are also connected to the right pins, but you will have to check the connection order later.
The battery connection @ekliptiko was talking about has nothing to do with the wires you already have plugged into your ESC.
You will have to solder a pair of wires (red and black) to the + and - tabs were the capacitor is soldered to. The wires should have a gauge equal to the ones on your battery. On the end of those wires you need to solder a battery connector that is the matching pair to the one on your battery. You can also solder the battery connector directly to the tabs without a cable in between.
@count74 I am using a power module to give power to the APM, so what you are saying is that I need to get a female XT60 plug (my battery takes XT60) and solder the wires to their respective pads on the ESC so the battery will be powering both the APM and the ESC individually.
Yes. The battery will plug into the apm power module, then the Esc will plug into the other end of the power module. The multi-wire cable from the power module will plug into and power the the Apm.
Like count74 said, it may be best to remove the red wire from the small connector all together. I should have been more clear.
Thank you, @count74, I could feel my language was not coming across clearly.
Thank you both for helping, I think I now have a basic understanding of what to do in the future.
One more thing, would the following work instead of buying a female XT60 connector?
Could I just strip the insulation off the male plug from the PM (my PM has the multi-wire cable for PM, male XT60 and Female XT60) and cutting the actual connector and then just soldering wire directly from the ends of what used to be the male XT60 plug of the PM to the ESC work.
Yes, that would work. I would just remove the shrink wrap from the cables and desolder the connector. If you cut the cables, you have to remove the insulation a few milimeters and presolder the ends.
With desoldering it is more or less one go. Make sure you presolder the pads on the ESC, too. Perhaps remove the capacitor again, because elektrolyte caps do not like excessive heat. Soldering thick battery cables requires a lot of heat and you might destroy the capacitor. Remove it and resolder it later, when the cables are in places. You do not need to put the capacitor legs through the holes. The holes are there, to give the solder joint more mechanical strength. For presoldering pads with holes, put the pad on a flat and heat resistant surface, so the solder does not flow to the underside of the pad. You will need a soldering iron with around 70 Watt or better a soldering station. The ESC (especially the ground side) and the thick wires will suck away a lot of heat and with a smaller iron, you will just wait forever and end up with a cold solder joint. Do not use to little solder. Make a little “bubble” on each pad, that covers the whole pad.
Then preheat one cable end and use it together with the iron to melt the solder bubble on the pad. Press the cable end all the way down onto the pad, do not let it “float” on the solder.
Remove the iron and let the solder cool down, while holding the cable in place (with pliers, did I mention heat?). You will see how the solder changes its reflectivity, this means it is solid again, hold for a few seconds more, to be sure.
Repeat for the other cable…
That was a lot…
As with everything in live, soldering needs practice.
Again, thank you so much for your help