Connecting a matek f405 CTR to FS-iA6B receiver

wasteofspace · 28 September 2018 09:34

Hello
I am not only a newbie, but I am also old, so this will be quite a challenge for anyone wishing to help me.

I have managed to ruin a fair bit of kit so far, and it is getting quite expensive.

I have a Matek F405 CTR FC and I would like to hook it up to a FS-iA6B receiver. I keep getting lost in the terminology.

I can get the motors to turn on in Betaflight but the transmitter is not connected. So basically, How the F@#$ do I connect it to that board. I have read the manual loads of times and also looked online for other help but so far my peak accomplishment has been miserable abject failure, and getting worse.

I am using cheap parts to make a tricopter. The specs are:

Motors: A2212 1000KV
ESCs: HP 30A

I have connected each ESC’s wires to their respective Pos and Neg positions on the board.

I connected the signal wires to their respective S1, S2, and S3 pads

I folded back and insulated with hot melt glue, the small red wires from the ESCs on each pad

I modified the CLI in Betaflight as per Matek instructions (which I might be able to find again, but it would take a while)

So, my problem now, is how to attach the receiver to the FC so that they can talk intelligently to one another.

General instructions don’t seem to work too well for me in this hobby, I need something along the lines of:

Attach wireA2 to Matek board at position () (here I may well need a picture of the board with the wire shown in place). and attach the other end to position A1 on receiver.

A sketch showing all the required connections would also be great if possible

I would be very grateful to anybody who can help me in this as I have been stuffing around with this for well over a month now.

I’ll worry about a camera later.

Thank you

DoomedFPV · 28 September 2018 12:55

You should be able to connect the RX to the FC using ibus, power and ground.

If I don’t get time now… when I get home I’ll comment again with a diagram that will help you make the connections

RX IBUS > FC RX2
RX 5v+ > FC 5v+ (Pick a close pad)
RX GND > FC GND (pick a close pad to the others)

unmannedtech1 · 28 September 2018 17:17

With flysky gear it’s also important to make sure your radio setting are correct. So that it is set to output ibus and also in afhds mode is on too (can’t recall exact acronym off hand)

Krewett · 28 September 2018 19:06

500px-FlySky_IA6B_pinout-f89eed4f
Just connect ibus from photo above to sbus on flight controller. Ignore sbus from photo

If now dont work you have to change settings in radio or betaflight

Krewett · 28 September 2018 19:11

Check yours aux channels in transmiter if they are setup correctly

wasteofspace · 29 September 2018 04:23

Thank you all for your time.
I have the following settings in BetaFlight.
PORTS
UART1 OFF
UART2 ONhttps://www.dronetrest.com/t/connecting-a-matek-f405-ctr-to-fs-ia6b-receiver/7081/4
UART3 RC Tramp (Peripherals)
UART4 OFF
UART5 ESC (Sensor input)
Soft Serial Smart Port (Telemetry)

CONFIGURATION
Receiver:
Serial Based (Mode)
IBUS (Provider)

ESC/Motor Features
PWM

Other features that are turned on:
Servo_tilt
SoftSerial
Telemetry
OSD
Anti_gravity
Dynamic_filter

+++++++++++++END++++++++++++++

Other information:
Motors will spin up when I understand the risks involved and the battery is installed

On plugging in to BetaFlight (Perhaps I should have put this info first)
Red (LED2) comes on and stays on.
Blue (LED0) and Red (LED1) lights will flash very quickly 4 or 5 times, then Blue light continues to flash about twice a second - the receiver light also flashes.
I plug in the battery and then I get musical chimes followed by 3 beeps then 1 beep
Turn on transmitter and receiver goes solid red.
Transmitter
Output mode shows as Serial i-bus on the right and PWM on the left.
Sticks adjust allows me to make the rows go dark.
Reverse all set to normal
End points all at 100%
Subtrim all at zero%
Trims seem to be off
Rate/Exp Rate 100 Exp 0
Auxillary channels
Starts on channel 5 and says that the channel is used for FLY MODE!
Channel 6 is set to use SwC
Channel 7 is set to use SwD
Channel 8 is set to use SwB
Channel 9 - none
Channel 10 - none
I don’t know how to access the channels numbers 1 (or zero) to 4
Mix 1 Off
Fail safe Channel 3 minus 100% All the rest are zero%
Under the FLY MODE
Channel1: 5 is Appears to be off as that is what shows, but it could also mean that it is on and the only other option is off. It also shows S1:SwA S2:SwC
1: Tricky 15:00 (tricky seems like a good name for a Tricopter)
I still have no control (in betaflight) of any stick movements, so I am obviously still missing something.

Thanks again for taking the time to read all this.

Krewett · 29 September 2018 11:18

Soo receiver should be connected like this
vFvmp0c
To flight ctrl like on photo before.
If its like that its setup problem. And your setup looks ok for me .Maybe change in transmitter for new model, bind receiver again and check if this will make any difference.

wasteofspace · 29 September 2018 14:30

Hi Krewett
Thanks for replying.
I tried again with a Turnigy X6B and I get similar results.
I tried a ‘status’ in the CLI and I get:

status

System Uptime: 20 seconds
Current Time: 2018-09-29T14:07:30.368+00:00
Voltage: 0 * 0.1V (0S battery - NOT PRESENT)
CPU Clock=168MHz, Vref=3.30V, Core temp=30degC, GYRO=MPU6000, ACC=MPU6000, BARO=BMP280
SD card: Startup failed
Stack size: 2048, Stack address: 0x1000fff0
I2C Errors: 2, config size: 2562, max available config: 16384
CPU:7%, cycle time: 129, GYRO rate: 7751, RX rate: 33, System rate: 9
Arming disable flags: RXLOSS CLI MSP

I tried again with the FS-i6B I get the following:

status

System Uptime: 73 seconds
Current Time: 2018-09-29T13:59:48.219+00:00
Voltage: 0 * 0.1V (0S battery - NOT PRESENT)
CPU Clock=168MHz, Vref=3.30V, Core temp=30degC, GYRO=MPU6000, ACC=MPU6000, BARO=BMP280
SD card: Startup failed
Stack size: 2048, Stack address: 0x1000fff0
I2C Errors: 1, config size: 2562, max available config: 16384
CPU:7%, cycle time: 126, GYRO rate: 7936, RX rate: 33, System rate: 9
Arming disable flags: RXLOSS CLI MSP
I note that it says there are I2C Errors, but I don’t know what thatmeans

Here are a couple of pictures of the board.

Krewett · 30 September 2018 09:44

Ok few questions.

Is the led on receiver on.
Led light on receiver is flashinh or its still ?
In tranmsitter configuration Should be output ppm serial ibus.
Is the transmitter see receiver ?

wasteofspace · 30 September 2018 12:14

1 and 2 LED receiver on and solid red

transmitter set to ppm sbus
Yes, the transmitter does see the receiver.

status

System Uptime: 161 seconds
Current Time: 2018-09-30T11:57:04.314+00:00
Voltage: 120 * 0.1V (3S battery - OK)
CPU Clock=168MHz, Vref=3.30V, Core temp=28degC, GYRO=MPU6000, ACC=MPU6000, BARO=BMP280
SD card: Startup failed
Stack size: 2048, Stack address: 0x1000fff0
I2C Errors: 2, config size: 2562, max available config: 16384
CPU:7%, cycle time: 129, GYRO rate: 7751, RX rate: 129, System rate: 9
Arming disable flags: BADRX CLI ARMSWITC

Transmitter set to ppm ibus

status

System Uptime: 24 seconds
Current Time: 2018-09-30T12:00:51.713+00:00
Voltage: 120 * 0.1V (3S battery - OK)
CPU Clock=168MHz, Vref=3.30V, Core temp=30degC, GYRO=MPU6000, ACC=MPU6000, BARO=BMP280
SD card: Startup failed
Stack size: 2048, Stack address: 0x1000fff0
I2C Errors: 2, config size: 2562, max available config: 16384
CPU:7%, cycle time: 131, GYRO rate: 7633, RX rate: 33, System rate: 9
Arming disable flags: RXLOSS CLI MSP

DoomedFPV · 30 September 2018 12:42

I don’t think your RX is setup correctly and working…

RX LOSS(1)	No valid receiver signal is detected	3	3	3	Your receiver is either faulty or has no link to the transmitter.
BAD RX(1)	Your receiver has just recovered from receiver failsafe but the arm switch is on	4	4	4	Switch the arm switch off.

wasteofspace · 30 September 2018 12:50

So how do I find out where I am going wrong then?

Krewett · 30 September 2018 12:51

Ok soo we can leave receiver and transmiter and concentrate on betaflight.
You mentioned about cli command from manial. Miss this step this time.
Now i would suggest reset betaflight settings
Then set uart 1 to serial rx and save.
Now setup configuration tab for ibus.
Now everything should work.
If not next step for me would be move ibus cable to rx4( closest rx port )
Set uart 4 to rx serial. And check if it works now .This should show if uart 1 was working correctly.

wasteofspace · 30 September 2018 13:11

OK
Reset Betaflight
Set UART1 to serial 1 on
Config tab set to ibus (also changed to PWM for ESCs)
Motors start within betaflight, but not via transmitter.
I can see where RX4 is on the board, do you mean me to take a wire directly to the RX4 on the FC instead of to the ibus (Sbus), shown in the sketch above?

DoomedFPV · 30 September 2018 13:24

Have you had a look at this guide?

https://www.propwashed.com/ibus-betaflight-guide/

It may be of some use

wasteofspace · 30 September 2018 13:38

Thank you DoomedFPV
That guide seems to be a litle out of date from a Betaflight point of view. Also, I have the latest FS-I6S transmitter. Some of the controls are either no longer there are in a completely different format.

I would also mention that I have a servo I connected to CH4 on the receiver, and this seems to work fine from the transmitter.

DoomedFPV · 30 September 2018 13:48

Shame… I was hoping there would be something useful for you that guide.

so your servo works from the transmitter… So at least that proves your TX is binded to you RX and working.

Just need to get it to work with Betaflight.

wasteofspace · 30 September 2018 13:51

From that same guide, I just noticed hat it says " For the same reason, though, you should not wire your IBUS receiver to a pin labeled “SBUS”"

That is what Krewett has advised me to do above.

DoomedFPV · 30 September 2018 13:51

I think I have something…

connect the ibus to RX2
and set it up in betaflight.

IBUS needs a univerted signal…
sbus is inverted signal

DoomedFPV · 30 September 2018 13:52

first 60 seconds on this video

I haven’t watched it all yet… just doing that now