Can receiver outputs be shared/split?

[plingboot]

This might be a daft question…

Can the output from a receiver be split - using a Y servo lead?

I've just bought a couple of THESE IOBoards from JDrones (and they arrived in no time at all).

I plan to split the wkm flight mode channel from my receiver so both the wkm fc and this board are connected to the same receiver output.

My thinking being that when i switch to ATI or GPS the IOboard also detects the change and displays a different light sequence on the LEDs attached to it.

This board will work with RGB LED strips, so in theory strips along the arms of my Y6 can be set up show the same colours as the single WKM LED.

Daft idea or logical thinking?

 

[kloner]

yes the output can be split with a y. several of my planes have that on the ailerons and dual servo tails.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

Yes, no problem at all doing this, and it's probably a pretty good idea. I built LED code right into the Arducopter program because it has LED drivers built-in, so it can do all sorts of neat things, like indicate GPS lock, armed/disarmed status, and blink when it hits waypoints, etc. But doing different patterns for flight modes is something I didn't think of. The only problem I see is that what you'll be seeing is the *intent* of your radio commands. If you switch into position hold mode, the LED will display that, but if there is some reason the WKM won't go into position hold (no GPS lock?) then you may think it is in position hold, the lights will indicated it, but it's really not doing it. So since you're holding the transmitter in your hands, and know your switch position, what use will this really be? I guess it will be good as a visual reminder of what mode you are commanding, but it won't be good feedback that the WKM is actually doing what you want, so just keep that in mind.

This might be a daft question…

Can the output from a receiver be split - using a Y servo lead?

I've just bought a couple of THESE IOBoards from JDrones (and they arrived in no time at all).

I plan to split the wkm flight mode channel from my receiver so both the wkm fc and this board are connected to the same receiver output.

My thinking being that when i switch to ATI or GPS the IOboard also detects the change and displays a different light sequence on the LEDs attached to it.

This board will work with RGB LED strips, so in theory strips along the arms of my Y6 can be set up show the same colours as the single WKM LED.

Daft idea or logical thinking?

 

[kloner]

what about using the led output from the fc for those lights that change as the controller for this board? or a second board doing that part

 

[plingboot]

The only problem I see is that what you'll be seeing is the *intent* of your radio commands… so just keep that in mind.

Fair point and definitely worth considering.

I don't intend this as a replacement for the single WKM LED which i will still use for confirmation of *actual* mode etc.

Was just trying to think of a more useful/responsive way of implementing the IOBoard other than having it just blindly flash the boom mounted LED's.

In an ideal world DJI (or some other clever sausage) would out a hub for the communication bus and strips of boom LED's - which would simply be plug and play reflecting the *actual* state.

 

[kloner]

wouldn't a y cable on the led output give you the varrying voltage or pulses to display that?

 

[R_Lefebvre]

Fair point and definitely worth considering.

I don't intend this as a replacement for the single WKM LED which i will still use for confirmation of *actual* mode etc.

Was just trying to think of a more useful/responsive way of implementing the IOBoard other than having it just blindly flash the boom mounted LED's.

In an ideal world DJI (or some other clever sausage) would out a hub for the communication bus and strips of boom LED's - which would simply be plug and play reflecting the *actual* state.

Yup, they could. Of course you have to wait for them to do it, and they would have to see a market for them to want to do it. That's why I like open source, I wanted something, so I just did it.

Plingboot:

What you propose is actually potentially a good idea. I don't know how RGB LED's work exactly, and what the signal looks like. But it's possible this could be done simply without using any microcontroller at all. It could be a simple case of using a darlington transistor or FET, driven by the small LED signal, which would the amplify the same signal to drive a larger RGB LED array.

How do RGB's work? It is just as simple as a stream of 3 pulsewidths going to the LED? What is the frequency?

 

[plingboot]

Below is a clip showing the board in action.

Jani has aslo included a couple of arduino scripts in his wiki, including one for rgb led strips.

To be honest it's a while since i've played around with adruino code, so a bit of reading will be required…

 

[R_Lefebvre]

Looking into this a bit more, it seems like it's is as simple as PWM out to the 4-wire RGB LED bulb. I would strongly consider skipping the whole microcontroller thing for what you want to do, and simply use a 2803 Darlington Transistor to get it's signal from the WKM board directly. You'll have to do a bit of legwork, looking into the switching speed, power draw, etc. But this is probably way easier.