MultiWii 328p - proper way to attach remote control

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Izhido
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat May 23, 2015 7:37 pm

MultiWii 328p - proper way to attach remote control

Post by Izhido »

Hello everyone!

Recently I got interested in RC vehicles, specifically quadcopters. I wanted to build one by myself, and in the meantime attempt to understand how the various components work and interact with each other. I have never done anything like this before, so this is an all-new experience to me.

I went to this page: http://yameb.blogspot.com/2013/05/my-first-quadrotor-parts-selection-and.html (which I know now it's incomplete and a bit outdated), and then to Amazon to buy most of those components - or ones that match closely the ones mentioned: the frame, 4 motors + ESCs w/linear BECs, a MultiWii 328p, a 2200mAh 3S battery, a so-called "balanced" battery charger, the power distribution board, a battery low voltage alarm, you know, the whole package (or so I thought).

I then went and started reading about how all those components work, while waiting for the components to arrive. I learned about brushless motors and the PWM mechanism used by ESCs. It was a real surprise for me to find out that the flight controller is actually powered by the ESCs, if correctly wired. A few hours ago, I learned about how to calibrate the whole system using MultiWiiConf.

Then it hit me.

I can build and wire the quadcopter, I can configure the flight controller, and I can calibrate the whole thing. However, I completely forgot to provide a way to send commands remotely to the vehicle!

I've trying to find out for a while about this, to no avail. Either my google-fu skills are meh, or I'm not asking the correct questions. I'm at a loss about what to do to integrate somehow a remote control to the board, wirelessly or otherwise.

So, my question: with my current setup, what is the recommended way to send commands remotely to my new, MultiWii 328p-controlled future quadcopter, in order to be able to fly it at all? I know a bit of electronics, I'm not afraid to solder, but my main expertise field is software development - so I'm also not afraid to navigate through (and possibly modify) MultiWii source code. What do you guys recommend?

PS: I recently found out about these HC-05 and 06 Bluetooth modules; it seems that they can be easily connected to the board, but that was all the info I could find about them. Is this a good approach? If so, where can I get information about sending data through these modules to the main flight board?

Arakon
Posts: 196
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2014 2:22 pm

Re: MultiWii 328p - proper way to attach remote control

Post by Arakon »

Get a proper transmitter. Bluetooth cuts out after 10-20 meters and your Copter goes out of control and crashes.
Turnigy 9x or something if it needs to be cheap.

Cereal_Killer
Posts: 221
Joined: Fri Mar 06, 2015 5:44 am

Re: MultiWii 328p - proper way to attach remote control

Post by Cereal_Killer »

I'll suggest what I use-

Get a Devo 7E, put deviation FW on it (www.deviationTX.Com) and use DSMX receivers. You're looking about $75-85 for the 7E and a Rx. Just whatever you do- DONT buy a 7, it must be a 7E (or any of the other Devo line, just not a regular 7, those don't accept deviation FW).

FengShuiDrone
Posts: 234
Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2014 1:20 am
Location: ......

Re: MultiWii 328p - proper way to attach remote control

Post by FengShuiDrone »

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Last edited by FengShuiDrone on Fri Aug 07, 2015 4:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

pihlerm
Posts: 23
Joined: Tue Dec 09, 2014 6:40 pm

Re: MultiWii 328p - proper way to attach remote control

Post by pihlerm »

One more advice.

Buy a cheap 4-axis (not 3-axis!) mini-copter (around 20$) (WLtoys V911 or similar).
Fly it until you get good control (landing, height control, hover, turning, flying AWAY and TOWARDS you, ..). Especially important is to learn directions under all circumstances.
This will prevent many crashes and/or injuries.
Especially since your multi-copter will not be tuned at first, and to tune it, you have to fly it..

Unless you have a buddy that can fly RC copters, trust me on this.

Izhido
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat May 23, 2015 7:37 pm

Re: MultiWii 328p - proper way to attach remote control

Post by Izhido »

Thank you very much, guys, for your advice!

I'll try to get a 9x as soon as I can. Does it come with instructions on how to wire it to the main board? Also, I think that I'll get this V911 to start practicing, sounds like a good idea :) .

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