A nooobs experience with the APM MINI 3.1

[Slayer23]

I awaited delivery of this little box of tricks with much apprehension could it really do all these things I was reading??

Well a few days later it arrived along with some motors i was sent to go with some 30A esc';s

so i unpacked 2 little anti-static bags thinking this is not going to be that hard :S

Remember my only experience of flight controllers prior to this is a SPRacing F3 which is pretty much plug and play compared to this bad boy.

So as with all the clone stuff out on the net the instructions if your lucky enough to get them are usually poorly translated into klingon or something slightly resembling English I was super lucky I had none so it was time for the first foray onto the net.
So after looking through many many clones and removing the plastic case from mine i found which model it was so for the next bit get some instructions ( I see you rolling about with laughter) yup they don';t actually exist as such there is a diagram actually there are several diagrams most are either in Chinese or totally unreadable but i managed to find one that kind of helped.
so the first thing i do is connect it to the PC just to make sure it is working several usb cables later i find one that actually fits (every item I have had from far east that uses USB tends to be very choosy so always keep several cables around )

OOOOOOOOO pretty lights this thing looks like a mini disco when it powers up but what do they mean well after looking all over the place I finally find out what they are so here goes.

LED:   Behavior:
   
Power                                           On when powered
   
**A (red)**   Solid = armed, motors will spin when throttle raisedSingle Blink = disarmed, motors will not spinDouble Blink = disarmed, motors will not spin, cannot arm because of failure in pre-arm checks
   
**B (yellow)**   Only flashes along with A and B during calibration or as part of the in-flight auto trim feature
   
**C (blue)**   Solid = GPS working, 3D lockBlinking = GPS working, no LockOFF = GPS not attached or not working
   
PPM/Serial   Flashing when data detected






So now they make some kind of sense and I know the board is doing what it is meant to do.
(One small quick observation there was a lack of solder holding the USB port in place if you do decide to solder this to reinforce it a tip would be to do it with the USB cable inserted but removed from the pc as a lot of these cheap sockets seem to move and make it nigh on impossible to reinsert the usb afterwards.)

So the first bit of wiring I want to get in place is the power supply once again there is a lack of information out there but your options are as follows use a APM power module. Use a uBEC into motor connections or join the 2 red wires to 5v and the 2 black wires to ground on a dedicated bec and do not connect the other 2 these are for current sensing. I went with the BEC method as it seemed the easiest and well I had a bec sitting around so thought I would use it. Connected it to the battery and the disco started again so was happy with the first obstacle overcome.

The second bit of wiring I attacked was the compass and GPS now some of these boards come with a compass but everyone recommends not using it the board I have does not have a onboard compass so I had to connect the external one. The unit supplied has 2 connectors and the GPS/Compass port on the mini has 1 add to this the compass comes supplied with 1*5 pin connector and 1*2 pin connector and the one on the mini is a 6 pin connector with different pitch size you can see the square peg with round hole scenario emerging. So after removing the compass from its nice housing and doing a quick bit of research we have the pin outs using the 6 pin pigtail supplied with the mini I quickly remake all the connections and after a liberal amount of solder and heat shrink I get these both working

Third was the connection of the radio I was lucky I have a PPM recieiver so all I had to do for this was remove the wires from a servo connector and replace them with the already crimped wires from the APM connector and then join pins 2 and 3 together on the APM. (Worked first time unlike the amount of fafffing about I had with the F3)

My final connections at the moment were the ones to the esc's now this was where the fun began I decided to solder my motors to the esc's I then cut down the servo wires to wire them to the APM signal and ground not using the bec built in got it all soldered and heat shrinked apply power and guess what 1 esc worked and the other 3 did not want to know. Removed heat shrink reconnect servo connectors plug in to naze32 as APM does not have bl-heli passthrough connect them to the naze and Nothing just 1 reads as good 2 read as erased and 1 just does nothing. So I went to bed and thought I would look at it with fresh eyes in the morning.

The following morning I decide to try to use a asp programmer to fix the problem after following numerous guides on the net I gave up. Then the post arrived and as if by magic in amongst the bills and pizza pamphlets there were 2 shiny new Arduino nanos. So after a little research I find that I can use these to reprogram the afro esc's. 10 minutes later I have working esc's yayyyyyy resolder them to the mini and then fire up motors damn they are all spinning in the same direction. I know I should have checked whilst I had them connected to the naze board but I did not think so I swapped a couple of wires on 2 of them and jobs a good un.

So this was my experiences so far with this little board things I have learnt.

Look for the info before you start just search on the web and in forums even on you-tube remember though the people writing this stuff may have years of experience so don't expect it to be as easy as it looks.

Find diagrams don't be afraid to open the case and look at what you have to make sure it is the same.

Open the case to check pin outs not all wiring diagrams have the same colours ( had to change the ground and earth colours on one of the supplied connectors as it was reversed)

Be ready to make mistakes it is how we learn.

Before asking how see if you can find the answer it is more satisfying when you solve it yourself.

Be prepared to read and work things out.

Be prepared to burn yourself (lots)

Be prepared to remake every connection you have already made because it will look better like this or that

Will finish off this once I have actually got outside to fly it and let you know how it goes

Neil

[guest325]

Well done, definitely deserves a pat on the back and a sugar lump ::)
They are excellent flight controllers especially for AP use, and bear it in mind that they do way points so autonomous flight is possible.
If you want some really good parameters to flash in have a look on Droneshop.biz website and follow the link to Google drive and you will find the same parameters as mine is set up to; it';s rock solid!!!
Link to files at bottom of page
http://www.droneshop.biz/parts/flight-controllers/apm-2-6-flight-controller-with-case-and-cables.html

[Slayer23]

want to play with a pixhawk next lol

[Fletch]

just wait a month ... pixhawk 2 is out!

[Slayer23]

Will be well out of my price range lol

[Fletch]

Kooltoyz has the pixhawk at £190 and the PH2 @ £230

Not a huge difference!

[Slayer23]

Yup as I said out of my pricerange lol

[guest325]

You can get a Tarot zxy -m for about £80

[Slayer23]

What';s one of them?

[hoverfly]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A331zTi2skE     spec is similar to the DJI p2 the p3 has multi gps.

this is one of them !!!
http://www.flyingtech.co.uk/electronics/tarot-zyx-m-multirotor-gps-flight-controller-zyx25
Nice f/c have one on my Taror ironman. 650. nice and stable..

[guest325]

Bit cheaper at HK UK:  https://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=105190
Gone up since I last looked.

[hoverfly]

Phew, they have gone up  I got mine at £90.00

[Slayer23]

Will have to wait till I win lottery lol