APM 2.6 0n Tarot 680

[chrismog]

I have put an APM 2.6 onto a Tarot 680 Hex.
Apart from the APM I have a 5v 5amp Ubec for the supply, a Neo 7 GPS and ext compass and a Fr-Sky S-BUS to CPPM receiver adapter (to use sbus on X8R ). Finishing off with Taranis TX. I have added external 10mm LEDs to A6 & A7 (they work great).
(I get GPS lock in a couple of seconds)
Now my problem:-
When arming the motors the red LED goes from slow flashing to faster flashing (instead of solid red). Everything seems to work ok but........
I thought maybe "not enough power" so I put a receiver battery on. No change.

See
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z9ZnZVWULw&feature=youtu.be

Now the weird thing. When it is connected to MP I get a solid red when arming. Back to fast flashing when I disconnect the USB.
Any thoughts? Pleeeeeaaaaassssseeeee.
Chris

 

[dazzab]

Now the weird thing. When it is connected to MP I get a solid red when arming. Back to fast flashing when I disconnect the USB.
Any thoughts? Pleeeeeaaaaassssseeeee.
Chris

The first thing I would try is to disconnect the LEDs on A6 and A7. Those pins don't provide much power at all and are meant more to drive a controller to handle the LEDs. I may be wrong but it won't hurt to disconnect them and see if anything changes.

 

[chrismog]

The first thing I would try is to disconnect the LEDs on A6 and A7. Those pins don't provide much power at all and are meant more to drive a controller to handle the LEDs. I may be wrong but it won't hurt to disconnect them and see if anything changes.

With external LED´s disconnected the original (tiny) LED´s on the 2.6 work correctly. But, as you see in the video, I have the "hood" on the Tarot 680 therefore I need external confirmation of GPS and Motor arming.
Quoting "ArduCopter > External LEDs"

If you choose to control the pins directly from the APM, you must choose LEDs which have a current draw lower than the maximum permissible current of the AVR chip on the APM: 40mA. The pinout of the APM is as follows:

• A4 : AUX led
• A5 : Beeper – can drive a piezo buzzer directly (see below)
• A6 : GPS – will flash with no GPS lock, solid with GPS lock
• A7 ~ A11 : Motor LEDs

 

[brewski]

With external LED´s disconnected the original (tiny) LED´s on the 2.6 work correctly. But, as you see in the video, I have the "hood" on the Tarot 680 therefore I need external confirmation of GPS and Motor arming.
Quoting "ArduCopter > External LEDs"

If you choose to control the pins directly from the APM, you must choose LEDs which have a current draw lower than the maximum permissible current of the AVR chip on the APM: 40mA. The pinout of the APM is as follows:

• A4 : AUX led
• A5 : Beeper – can drive a piezo buzzer directly (see below)
• A6 : GPS – will flash with no GPS lock, solid with GPS lock
• A7 ~ A11 : Motor LEDs

I'm no expert but you must use limiting resistors to leds. I suggest 220ohm. If like me you want to use high power leds so you can see them from a distance in daylight then you need a driver or buffer board. I built my own using ULN2003 buffer IC which is fed by same 3A UBec that supplies FC & RX. My blue GPS status led can be seen for 100m in daylight

 

[chrismog]

Thanks for your suggestions. Will try to do some shopping over the next few days.

 

[dazzab]

With external LED´s disconnected the original (tiny) LED´s on the 2.6 work correctly. But, as you see in the video, I have the "hood" on the Tarot 680 therefore I need external confirmation of GPS and Motor arming.

Yes and no. When the APM successfully arms the props start turning as an indication that arming was successful. You can turn off that behavior but I don't recommend it. It wasn't always like this and I was one of the people really pushing for it for exactly the reasons you bring up.

Also, the APM has a bit of a ground station mentality to it. Most people who use the APM have a computer receiving telemetry so they have the heads up display and real time flight data. You need that to do waypoints as well. If you have a ground station the heads up display will give you all the info about arming and a lot more.