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3d - Printworx

Black vortex batery monitor

Started by sturgm, Monday,July 16, 2012, 18:55:59

Previous topic - Next topic

sturgm

I have just been configuring my BV with MP and have a small question. The battery voltage displayed is the voltage of the board ( I think?)
what I require is on the screen display is the voltage of the battery.  I also read some info on the arducopter wiki site about some add-ons
that are available for the arducopter project.
Any thoughts? anybody?

Thanks

Gaza07

I think to display the voltage of your battery you need some add on board but I have never used one before so dont really know the details, I think it divides down the voltage and then connects to the BV,
You can also connect a sonar module to the black vortex for low level altitude hold, it works better than the built in baro but only works up to about 3m, you can find the module here http://www.goodluckbuy.com/ultrasonic-wave-detector-ranging-module-distance-sensor.html
You can also connect something for telemetry (wireless connection) you can buy the xbbe's for this but they are expensive a cheaper alternative the apc230 can be found here http://www.goodluckbuy.com/index.php?target=products&mode=search&subcats=Y&type=extended&avail=Y&pshort=Y&pfull=Y&pname=Y&pkeywords=Y&cid=0&q=apc230&x=0&y=0 I use a slightly earlier version of this the apc220 its a little bit slower but works ok and allows you to connect to your copter via the planner wire free  ~~
[url="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN6zN99iLCIJea5FCQPKf_g"]YouTube[/url]   [url="https://www.printing-3d.co.uk"]printing-3d[/url]  [url="https://www.thingiverse.com/Gaza07/about"]Thingiverse[/url]  [url="https://www.3d-printworx.co.uk"]3d-printworx[/url]

sturgm

Thanks for the info.  I have already purchased both items mentioned in your post.  I will be adding them in due course as I become more familiar with the general setup of the BV.  This really is a long project for me as I get more out of the building than the flying.  If I come across something that does the job of battery monitoring I will give it a post.

Thanks

Gaza07

#3
It looks like the hardware used is call the AttoPilot voltage and current sensor
you can get them from here http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9028

or here http://www.coolcomponents.co.uk/catalog/attopilot-voltage-current-sense-breakout-p-433.html


[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]


[attachimg=4]

We just need to know how to connect it to the black vortex now  :rolleyes:

[url="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN6zN99iLCIJea5FCQPKf_g"]YouTube[/url]   [url="https://www.printing-3d.co.uk"]printing-3d[/url]  [url="https://www.thingiverse.com/Gaza07/about"]Thingiverse[/url]  [url="https://www.3d-printworx.co.uk"]3d-printworx[/url]

sturgm

That seems like just what I am looking for if it can be make to talk to the BV.  Hopefully some brave soul out there will sort it out!

Thanks

Gaza07

From what Ive seen and read it has to connect to the analogue input pins which the black vortex has 5 of them not being used but I don't know which should or could be used, sg1anubis seems to be pretty clued up over on rcg about the code he might know the answer  ;)
[url="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN6zN99iLCIJea5FCQPKf_g"]YouTube[/url]   [url="https://www.printing-3d.co.uk"]printing-3d[/url]  [url="https://www.thingiverse.com/Gaza07/about"]Thingiverse[/url]  [url="https://www.3d-printworx.co.uk"]3d-printworx[/url]

sturgm

I have sent Adam a message on his web site ( I donated some time ago so I do not feel too bad :smiley:).  See what he comes up with

Mike

sturgm

I received a reply from Adam and I checked with him to make sure that I could paste it here.  So here it is


> Mike,
>
> In order to read the battery voltage you need to create a voltage
> divider and connect the output to one of the unused analog pins (I
> believe it is set as the furthest analog pin to the right along the
> top of the board, left of the serial port). This will only provide the
> voltage, which I find helpful for fpv, but it won't display current
> capacity. I believe there is a tutorial in the arducopter wiki.
> Adjusting the voltage sensor in the mission planner is nearly
> impossible to explain, I have never been able to narrow down an exact
> method of adjusting it because the numbers are always very different.
> However, with multiwii it is quite easy to setup, there is just a single number in config.h that you must change to adjust the scale.
>
> Many OSDs allow you to directly connect your battery for voltage
> displays, but I find the minimOSD (compatible with megapirates) to be
> the best one that I have used. The minimOSD simply wires to the extra
> serial output on the black vortex and displays plenty of data using
> the sensors that are already integrated in the black vortex. This
> reduces the number of external sensors and wires needed to setup an
> OSD. I haven't used a current sensor, such as the attopilot, so I
> can't speak for its functionality and neither have I used an OSD with
> multiwii. I would say the most useful function of an OSD is to display
> the voltage. RSSI can also be useful, but I never fly very far so I
> don't need RSSI. I haven't had a whole lot of experience with OSDs as I am still working out a comfortable fpv setup for my quad.
>
> Adam