hobbyking 6ch homemade cable

[davidws]

Hello,

As mentioned on another post, I stupidly forgot to buy the USB cable for programming the HK 6ch transmitter.

This lead me to do some digging on rcgroups to see if there is a way to make one myself without having to wait another 5 weeks for the original one to be delivered.

From what I understood the Hk cable is nothing more than a 5v TTL usb to serial converter > MiniDIN 4-pin male connector.

This means that any such cable, correctly wired, should do the trick:
Pin 1 : PMM signal
Pin 2 : +5 Volt
Pin 3 : RX RS232 Serial data input ( TTL levels(0..5Volt) , ATTENTION !!! NOT RS232 levels(+15,-15 .. +3,-3 Volt)
Pin 4 : TX RS232 Serial data output ( TTL levels(0..5Volt) , ATTENTION !!! NOT RS232 levels(+15,-15 .. +3,-3 Volt)
Shield : Ground


My question is: in order to program the transmitter do I only need +5V, GND, RX, TX?
IS PPM signal required at all? My best guess would be no as PPM would only be used to send signal TO the PC for simulators/trainers.

Anyone smarter than me, able to help out?

[davidws]

In case anyone is interested, according to this: http://aeroquad.com/showthread.php?2587 ... lternative
no PPM is needed to program the TX

[Loosi]

Hey!

You dont need the PPM signal, just connect gnd, rx and tx to the ftdi adapter and it should work fine i forgot to order mine too, and it is working without any problems.

[davidws]

Thanks Loosi, I'm new to all this
by the way.. what program are you using to program it?

[copterrichie]

Thank you, this also opens the door to using BlueTooth with this radio.

[davidws]

YES!
I read about Bluetooth on this discussion (last post of the page)
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthre ... 7&page=194

Someone's already thought about that and much more...

[Loosi]

Iam using the full version of digitalradio http://www.sgr.info/usbradio/default.htm
its worth the 2$
yes there is already a android app to configure the radio via bluetooth

[davidws]

Sooooo.. I connected it with the FTDI cable and it powers up fine and shows up as COM1 on windows (via Virtualbox as I'm on a mac) however Radiocontrol is stuck on "connecting".. any hints?

[copterrichie]

Is there anyway you can test this on a PC? I have a MAC also and there is something weird about how the USB port communicate via Virtualbox. Not every device will work.

[davidws]

Spent 2 hours installing windows via Bootcamp and still same issue... I'll try opening up the radio and connecting the cables directly, I wont let a little chinese box defeat me

[Loosi]

How do you connect it?

Radio.............PC
[RxD]---------------[TxD]
[TxD]---------------[RxD]
[GND]--------------[GND]
?
Iam using Windows XP Pro on an very old IBM Thinkpad A30, its working fine.

[copterrichie]

What about the Baud Rate and parity settings? Should be 115200 from what I am told and 8,N,1

[Loosi]

normaly the software is doing this settings automatic

[davidws]

Finally got it!

No idea why but with the FTDI cable the TX just wouldn't connect,
just before I was about to give up I tried with the Breakout Board and that connected right away..

..go figure...