Putting it all together

[bdi...@heartlandchristiancbia.org]

How does the wiring from the Illuminati 32 to the Power Distribution Board and the R615X wiring work with the motors??? Looked around and couldn't find any inflammation about the board or the wiring to the board out to the motors and everything else? Any Help would be great.......

[Dr. Huett]

I am also trying to get mine wired up. I will post some pictures when I get it connected. 

Anyone who already has it connected what to share?

[Dr. Huett]

Just so everyone knows what we are talking about, here are pictures of the pieces.

Power Distribution Board

Motor

ESC (Electronic Speed Controller)

Flight Controller (Illuminati 32)

Receiver (OrangeRX R615X)

Solder-On Bullet Connectors - Male and Female

[Dr. Huett]

Power to ESC to Motor Connection

These are the connections that will require the bullet connectors. The ESC just has bare wires, the power distribution board and the motors already have bullet connections.

ESC will need two male connectors on the power wires to connect to the power distribution board.

ESC will need three female bullet connectors to connect to the motor. (three phase)

Tomorrow I will work on the connection between the ESC and the Flight controller. (These appear to not have the correct connections)

There is also the connection between the flight controller and the receiver.

[Dr. Huett]

Connecting Flight Controller to Computer for configuration

1) Download/Install Cleanflight- Configurator Chrome extension.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cleanflight-configurator/enacoimjcgeinfnnnpajinjgmkahmfgb

2) Open Cleanflight Configurator

3) Connect Flight Controller (Illuminati 32) to your computer via a USB cable

(The USB cord that I charge my phone with worked for me.)

4) Select Firmware Flasher from the sidebar in Configurator.

(Though the board has a firmware installed it does not work with this version of Cleanflight.)

5)  Dropdown menu: Choose a Board - I selected NAZE

6)  Dropdown menu: Choose a Firmware version - I selected the first one.

7) At the bottom right side of the window click on Load Firmware [Online]. Wait for it to load. At the bottom of the window a dark bar should say: Loaded Online Firmware:(some number bytes)

8) Click on Flash Firmware. Dark Bar will fill up green as it progresses. Wait for it to change to Programming: SUCCESSFUL

9) Click on the USB symbol at the Top Right to connect to your board. Wait for it to connect.

10) You should now be connected to the configuration tool for the Flight Controller

https://youtu.be/h7UQADP6ZDU

[Dr. Huett]

Most of you will be using the Quad X configuration. We need to note the motor numbering and the direction of spin.

Along the left side of the Flight Controller are M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, and M6. These correspond to the signal for Motors 1 through 6.

For "Quad X" it shows them in this configuration:

There is also a little arrow on the Flight controller that should be positioned to correspond to the direction of the Red arrow in the picture. This also shows the direction that each motor should be spinning. 

We will need the numbers for the connections from the Flight Controller to the ESCs. These control were the board thinks each motor is positioned relative to itself. 

We will need the directions for the connection between the ESCs and the Motors. How you connect the three wires will determine which way the motor will spin.

[Dr. Huett]

Forgot to mention something. 

You need to change the Dip Switches before you can flash the board or update the configuration.

Dip Switches need to be changed to 5, 6 On 1, 2, 3, 4, Off for FC (Flight Controller) update.

After you have finished with the update you can change it back to normal use: 1, 2 On 3, 4, 5, 6, Off for normal use.

[Dr. Huett]

Flight Controller to ESCs connections

These are how the connections need to go:

The signal wire that you are connecting to on the ESC is the Yellow/orange wire. The ground (GND) and Positive (+5V) only need to connect to one of the ESCs (I show it connected to ESC1 but it doesn't matter which one you use). ESC Brown Wire to FC Black wire and ESC Red Wire to FC Red Wire.

[Dr. Huett]

Receiver(Rx) to Flight Controller(FC)

These are how the connections should go:

The receiver (Rx) has three rows of pins. On the side of the Rx, one of the rows is marked with an "S" in a circle. These are the signal pins. The middle one is the +V and the last one is the GND.

The GND from the FC connects to the GND on the Rx. The +5V on the FC connects to the +V on the Rx. CH1 on the FC connects to the THRO signal pin on the Rx. CH2 on the FC connects to the AILE signal pin on the Rx. The CH3 on the FC connects to the ELEV signal pin on the Rx. The CH4 on the FC connects to the RUDD on the Rx. (You will be able to check this with the Cleanflight Configurator tool)

[Dr. Huett]

So... Some of these connections currently both have female ends.

FC to ESC both have female leads. To make it work I used a #1 paper clip and cut a pin to connect the two female leads. This is probably not the best way to do it :)

Once you know you have the right connections soldering is probably going to be your best bet. Please post how you decide to make the connections.

~Dr. Huett

[spagm...@gmail.com]

Does the FC plug into the two pins on the Power Distribution board? If so, which pins on the FC? It looks like 12v could plug into "P ADC" but I'd hate to assume that and blow up the board. Thanks ~Brian~

[Dr. Huett]

The FC does NOT plug into the Power Distribution board.

The FC is going to get power from the connected ESC. This is why one of the ESCs needs to be connected to +5V and GND. 

The receiver is going to get power by being connected to the FC, +V and GND on the other side of the FC.

Don't connect the FC or the Receiver directly to the power distribution board.

Just FYI: The ESCs convert the power from the battery. They also convert the DC from the battery into 3 phase AC to run the motors. 

[spagm...@gmail.com]

Aha! Thank you. I'm glad I didn't experiment with that.

[adam...@skuttcatholic.com]

We are not able to connect the computer to the flight controller.  Here's the error that we're receiving:

We're on a MacBook Air.  Any suggestions on the port command to manually input?  Or other ideas?

[Dr. Huett]

Sorry I'm not sure I'll be of much help with a MAC. I don't have one to try it out on. 

However, the internet seems to think you need a driver. (a USB to UART Bridge Virtual COM Port (VCP) driver)

http://blog.sam-thompson.info/cleanflight-on-mac-osx/

or

http://osxtoday.blogspot.com/2016/05/connecting-baseflight-or-cleanflight.html

[byor...@student.atlanticiaschools.org]

Hello. I have found this post very helpful up to part 8.  For some reason, I Control Flight says that My flash firmware has failed. Do you have any suggestions on how to get it SUCCESSFUL?

[Britain Ragar]

Just to make sure, have you adjusted the dip switches on the flight controller into the FC update configuration? Switches 5 and 6 need to be in the on position, and 1,2,3,4 need to be in the off position. 

[aabdal...@student.atlanticiaschools.org]

Do you know how the bullet connectors connect? Are they solder, or do I need crimpers? They didn't send any tools for this, so I have no idea.

[Britain Ragar]

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/antigravitygames/DvaQu82bmAI/XVEV472LBgAJ

[Daniel E.]

Does anyone know how to unbrick this controller? specifically where the boot pins are? the Start guide is of no use on this. .. 

On Wednesday, 27 March 2019 at 06:04:54 UTC-7 bra...@google.com wrote:

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/antigravitygames/DvaQu82bmAI/XVEV472LBgAJ

[Dr. Huett]

https://groups.google.com/g/antigravitygames/c/BCbtr3k_RO4/m/N4Ur0rnrAQAJ

Look closely at the picture to find the boot pins. (they say boot)

[Scott “Mastershake44”]

My Illuminati board goes to red and won’t connect to clean flight. Any suggestions?