MultiWii Lite 1.0 no header pins

[snbarry19]

Hi all,

I'm new to multirotors and the forum and I've a couple of questions to help me on my way to complete my first Quadcopter build. I purchased a MultiWii Lite 1.0 FC board w/ FTDI from Hobby King but it came without the header pins soldered to the board nor any documentation (should have paid more close attention and explains why it was so cheap). It does have the FTDI pins on the board though. Details of the particular FC can be found at http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__27109__MultiWii_Lite_V1_0_Flight_Controller_w_FTDI.html

Anyway, here are my questions:

1. Do I have to solder all the pins to the board as per http://img.dxcdn.com/productimages/sku_177025_1.jpg? Or can I "get away" with less? Any tips or tricks to make it less painful?
2. Regarding wiring up the FC to RX (Turnigy XR7000), as I understand it, only one servo lead needs to provide power to RX. For the rest of the connections, I only have 3-pin male-to-male servo leads, should snip the + and - and just leave signal or it is possible to turn the leads "sideways" (think I read that somewhere). If anyone has a link to an image of the RX and FC wiring and connections for the Lite 1.0 board I'd greatly appreciate it.

If I've left any details out, please ask away and I'll clarify. Thanks in advance.

[Kbev5709]

1. Do I have to solder all the pins to the board as per http://img.dxcdn.com/productimages/sku_177025_1.jpg? Or can I "get away" with less? Any tips or tricks to make it less painful?
2. Regarding wiring up the FC to RX (Turnigy XR7000), as I understand it, only one servo lead needs to provide power to RX. For the rest of the connections, I only have 3-pin male-to-male servo leads, should snip the + and - and just leave signal or it is possible to turn the leads "sideways" (think I read that somewhere). If anyone has a link to an image of the RX and FC wiring and connections for the Lite 1.0 board I'd greatly appreciate it.

If I've left any details out, please ask away and I'll clarify. Thanks in advance.

1. No, you can only solder in the pins you actually plan on using if that is what you want to do. To make it less painful you can use one of those third hand devices. They come with two alligator clips and a magnifying glass on a base. They make holding everything in place way easier. If you live in the U.S. Harbor Freight Tools has those for probably around $5.00. Use one clip to hold the pins and the other to hold the board. Also, when you solder them in use another alligator clip on the pin being heated as a heat sink. If you use too much heat or have to hold it on the pin too long the plastic the pins are in will melt and the pins can move and shift around, so using a heat sink on the long side of the pin helps soak up some of the heat. Get the alligator clip as far towards the heat as possible. Keep your soldering iron clean and tinned. Use your pointiest tip and touch it to the soldering pad instead of the pin. Keep just a tiny bit of excess solder on the point and it will roll right in provided you have used some flux on both the pin wire and the pad. If you get carried away with the solder you will end up with solder bridges between terminals and other bad things you want to avoid like trying to solder suck excess blobs off from where they don't belong. If in doubt, find an old circuit board, pull off the components by heating the solder and pulling one wire out at a time with pliers, and practice re-attaching spare wire the size of your pins if possible. One more tip. If you really suck at soldering, find someone who doesn't suck at it and ask for their help.
2. You can just turn the connectors sideways using only the signal to the FC from the RX. Unfortunately, you end up with six extra wires in your setup doing nothing that way.

[snbarry19]

Thanks for the reply and tips Kbev5709, I appreciate it. I'm no expert in soldering so may take your advice and practice on an old circuit board I have the helping hand, flux and needle tip iron so that should help.

Yeah, it's a bit of a bummer that the board didn't come with the required leads (like the 3-pin servo plug to x3 single wire plugs). I'll likely just snip off the + and - wire of each of the ones I turn sideways, unless I can more appropriate servo leads.

[snbarry19]

Just said I'd update this as I scoured the internet last night trying to find this answer. I'm using the MultiWii Lite v1.0 with 6-axis MPU6050 (acc/gyro combo) board w/ FTDI adapter (believe it's a GeeeTech clone). I had awful trouble getting the FTDI/COM serial port to be recognised/installed on Windows 7 64-bit, so here are some steps to help those who may come after:

1. I downloaded Ardiuno 1.0.1 IDE - https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/OldSoftw ... s#previous
2. Installed the latest FTDI drivers version 2.12.00 which didn't work correctly -
3. Followed the guide to remove "official" FTDI drivers and install old ones - http://electropit.com/index.php/2015/09 ... -0-clones/. I didn't need to reset the PID as my board came empty and didn't burn a bootloader. I did need to install the Serial Port driver by pointing to the FTDI drivers folder in the Arduino 1.0.1 package
4. Selected the MultiWii Lite v1.0 board as "Arduino Duemilanove w/ ATmega 328"
5. Downloaded MultiWii software v2.1 - https://code.google.com/p/multiwii/
6. Defined "Crius Lite" in config.h only and flashed to the board

I haven't had a chance to test the board connected to the ESCs/motors yet nor tune the ACC/PIDs, but the above options seemed to be the most reliable. I also tried MultiWii versions 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4 but none seemed to work correctly.

[Kbev5709]

It kind of pains me to think that setup is so hard. I tend to blame the 328p processor but the truth is I have no idea to know what it is like to have to deal with what is basically an obsolete board/processor combo. I have always used only the Atmega 2650 based boards and they set up like a dream. I wish they (the board manufacturers) would quit making them (328p based boards.)
Then people would have an easier life.
It's a shame you can't run on the latest firmware. I believe if you leave the Crius Lite definition commented and instead un comment just your sensors and then manually set the sensor orientation, you could probably run 2.4. Use that option if things don't work as you have them.

[snbarry19]

So I've gotten the board all soldered up with the 2.54mm header pins and luckily no cold or bridges connections (Yay!). I agree, Kbev5709, there's a lot of disparate information out there and it's difficult to find the exact steps for each individual home build. But, with some perseverance it can be done.

I'll do a write up of the build in a separate thread perhaps. I had a bit of difficulty with arming and ESC throttle range but can now arm and motors switch on and idle and respond to throttle. The #define ESC_CALIB_CANNOT_FLY trick (flash ON and OFF), to correctly set ESB throttle is what solved much confusion and worked.

[Kbev5709]

Yeah, what works when I'm setting up a new quad is to calibrate the ESCs to the throttle range first, then run the #define ESC_CALIB_CANNOT_FLY with everything (including the battery) hooked up and the props off. The motors spin up for about 5 seconds then you're done!