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Anyone near me who would help a newb?

Jerry... THANK YOU!
I will try to research before I bug you guys too much, you all have been so helpful, and kind. I really couldn't have made it this far without you guys!
Randy
 
Will def keep you guys posted Virtue, and who knows, with my background I may be able to add something valuable in time, now if I can just learn to fly, :-)
I've said it before, I'll say it again, YOU GUYS ROCK!!!

For now I'll leave you with this hope
May the best your past be the worst of your future my new friends!
 
OK guys, before I make a mistake, can I get your thoughts on this...

The SPRacing F3 FC I have in this wizard looks like it has 4 uarts, number 1 I guess is reserved as a pass through port used as a console port to BF and is labeled SWD. Every video I've seen shows hooking the smart port up to the backside of the uart#2 connector on the topside of the board. When I look at the board there is through hole pads on the top side to get to uarts 1 (SWD?) &3 who's connectors are on the bottom side of the board. Is there a reason I cant/shouldnt hook smart port up to uart3 by soldering the smart port wire to the through hole of the TX pin of uart3? Seems like it would be a lot cleaner than trying to get a wire cleanly onto the backside of the uart2 connector. And am I correct in thinking the rcvr smart port is an RX and should go to a serial ports TX?
 
Wow, no response at all to my last post/question, I guess that means...

A. It was a really a stupid question
B. Nobody can tell heads or tails of my gibberish
C Nobody knows the answer
D People have better things to do and haven't seen it yet, or are ignoring my dumb ***
E. I've entered the twilight zone

Vote now!
:-)
 
HTP,

How are things going? Have you got your bird in the air yet?

Jerry
Hi Jtrjr,

I literally thought I was losing my mind, I thought, how stupid must I be to not be able to figure out how to work with this stuff, everything was going nuts, but I will wrap that up at the end. SOoooo... a brief recap of my last 2 days...

Started out great I thought, I have watched so much and read so much, I thought I knew what to do and what to look for.
So I grabbed my bird and looked and thought and thought and looked, then planned, then looked again to make fer shure fer shure, cause to be honest I just can't afford to spend an extra penny because I was STUPIDO!!! Well, things went pretty good but I had a few things that would work, and then they wouldn't. Hmm?!?

But my xsr wasn't soldered in yet, I found that if I just folded the pre-tinned wire back over the jacket on the xsr wire harness it was the perfect size to fit into the servo connector coming off the FC and make a good connection so I could power, bind, configure, and test everything before I started cutting. And everything was indeed working, no indications at all that SW/FW/HW was an issue or out of revision, or mismatched revisions. So I thought when I had a problem that maybe my connections were intermittent there and decided to bite the bullet and start cuttin

To say that "necessity is the mother of invention" is an understatement.

I didn't have a jig to hold my wires, like one of those octopus things with alligator clips all over it, while I soldered, so I found that a pair of needlenose with a rubber band around the handle it made a great, adjustable tension vise to hold one of the wires while I held the other and lap flowed it with the iron (Adjustable tension, take out or put in another wrap in the rubber band LOL :-). Great!

So then I started cutting, soldering, shrink tubing, modding, configuring and playing, all laid out breadboard style.
It was all so interesting to see it coming together, but still I had problems.

So I decided to put it all back together, and all my handywork turned out great, she was all cleaned up, modded, no more crushing of wires between PDB and FC, and everything seemed to work so I went back to my problem.

WHICH WAS... every time I thought I had things setup, something that was working, would fail to work again.
I'd restart the FC and my serial receiver would be back to Spektrum1024 when I had set it for SBUS.
The sticks would all of a sudden stop working, even when I set it back to SBUS, and then I couldn't get them to work again. So I'd reset BF and start from scratch again, or reset the Taranis and start again. Each time I would get it working only to have it fail moments later when I would check again, AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By now I was soooo tired of configuring, testing, failing, resetting and losing everything, that I was about to give up and come to you guys for help. But before I did I thought I should upgrade, no sense dealing with old stuff when I would have to upgrade at some point in the future.

So I simply upgraded the Taranis from 2.1.6 to 2.1.9 and upgraded the FC from 3.0.1 to 3.1.7 and... TADA!!! Everything configured, worked, and continues to work, FLAWLESSLY ever since.

I can now stop losing my mind, and get closer to launch.

I'll check back in later bud!

Randy
 
I guess this type of $h17 that we all have to deal with is part of what makes it so fun when you finally get one of these up in the air.
Its amazing we hang with it. The crap Jerry's going through with rf1 is what i went thru with cf and bf...lol
 
Houston, The Eagle has Lifted off!!!
One small step for Newb, one giant leap for Newbie Kind!!!

The thing had remained solid for 10 power ups, check configs, and tests... I was ready... I thought.
On lift off (which I did nervously and very gently using all my new rise and hover skills) and the be-otch flips the F out!
Fortunately she only got an inch in the air and I noticed, and shut her down. Not even a scratch on the props! LUCKY!!!!!!! :)

I immediately knew what it probably was and I was so mad at myself for not checking the FC alignment and config after I put my breadboard together, DO'H!!!

(Insert Face Plant here)

So back to the bench to test and tweak that setting and... SHE . IS . AMAZING. I haven't been this psyched since I got my Donzi 28zx back in the day!

:) :) :) :) :) :) :):)

Anyway, @Jtrjr @VirtueViolater @theGreenOrange, YOU F'in GUYS ROCK, I may actually understand a little of this stuff and with my 40 year background in troubleshooting I can only hope I find a way to help you guys sooner rather than later!!!

@Wayno52 and @Todd H. (which is easy to remember cause my only nephew out on the left coast is named Todd H :) )
Thank you guys too!
Even though we had great leaders, it did take a team (village, whatever lol) to get me some much better wings!

Thanks again you guys, will see you around the board and hopefully someday at the field.

Randy

HighTechPauper

New call sign FPV-FOG the Flying Dog!
First Person View - Friggin' Old Guy The Flying Dog

LOLOL :)
 

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HighTechPauper, HTP, Randy, FPV-FOG the Flying Dog, FOG,

Enough with the names already, I'm getting confused! Sounds like you're well on your way to FPV stardom! A Donzi 28zx and I thought my Ranger was cool!

It's great to see your excitement. I'm sure it reminds everyone of us of the day we put our first bird in the air. I'm sure with the speed that you're picking this stuff up you'll be helping all of us out in no time. That's what it's all about for me, getting a little help, comfort and support from some others and providing the same when I can.

Can't wait to see some videos of you in the air!

Jerry
 

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