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Parallax's ELEV-8 Flight Controller is now available! — Parallax Forums

Parallax's ELEV-8 Flight Controller is now available!

Kyle M.Kyle M. Posts: 112
edited 2016-04-27 16:03 in Robotics
Hop on over to the Parallax store to get your very own ELEV-8 Flight Controller (at an introductory discount)!
You can also access all of the product documentation and open-source files!
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Comments

  • ElectrodudeElectrodude Posts: 1,621
    edited 2016-02-01 19:14
    Is this compatible with the ELEV-8 V2? I'm thinking of upgrading my controller board.
  • David BetzDavid Betz Posts: 14,511
    Kyle M. wrote: »
    Hop on over to the Parallax store to get your very own ELEV-8 Flight Controller (at an introductory discount)!
    You can also access all of the product documentation and open-source files!
    Nice looking board!

  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    I'll let Kyle fill in the details, but it should work with the Ver 1 and Ver 2 ELEVs.

    The ESC's have changed with the Ver 3, with a custom software on board the ESC's, but I don't think it would change any upgrade of the FC.

    I will be doing a Ver 2 upgrade soon, so I'll let you know.

  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    I believe the Ground Station software will adapt to the ECS just fine. Jason may have to weigh in on that.

  • JasonDorieJasonDorie Posts: 1,930
    edited 2016-02-01 22:18
    The new flight controller can be used on pretty much any quadcopter you can mount it to, including the Elev8-V2. It produces standard ESC pulses to drive the motors, and will accept PWM, PPM, or S-BUS receiver input (selectable in the GroundStation software).

    You may have to alter your battery connection a little because the flight controller takes power directly from the battery instead of the ESCs like the Hoverfly controller.

    The Elev8-V3 has better vibration isolation, and better motors and ESCs, so if you're buying new I'd recommend the new one, but you shouldn't have issues using the new FC to fly a V2. I've used the board to fly a few different quads and they all handled very well.
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    Like Jason said, The Ver3 ESC's do not have a BEC (Battery Eliminator Circuit). The power to the Flight Controller comes directly from the battery, which is a good thing, because the FC can monitor the battery voltage and give an alarm if it drops below a preset value.

    On an ELEV8 Ver2, it would be pretty easy to adapt. The power harness has two unused bullet connectors, (unless you used them for LED's , etc). Two male bullet connectors soldered into a servo extension cable would provide the power to the FC. On a Ver1, you would have to break into the main power cable to do the same, solder wires to a servo extension cable.



  • ElectrodudeElectrodude Posts: 1,621
    Publison wrote: »
    Like Jason said, The Ver3 ESC's do not have a BEC (Battery Eliminator Circuit). The power to the Flight Controller comes directly from the battery, which is a good thing, because the FC can monitor the battery voltage and give an alarm if it drops below a preset value.

    On an ELEV8 Ver2, it would be pretty easy to adapt. The power harness has two unused bullet connectors, (unless you used them for LED's , etc). Two male bullet connectors soldered into a servo extension cable would provide the power to the FC. On a Ver1, you would have to break into the main power cable to do the same, solder wires to a servo extension cable.

    That seems like it would be really nice, since then I wouldn't need to unplug the ESCs to reprogram the Propeller.

  • xanaduxanadu Posts: 3,347
    PPM and S-Bus :) Does it give out peanuts and soda at cruise alt too?

  • JasonDorieJasonDorie Posts: 1,930
    Not yet, but we're getting close. :)

    It does leave 2 cogs, 8kb, and ~30% of the CPU time on the main core available for user code, so you might be able to whip something up. ;)
  • Kyle M.Kyle M. Posts: 112
    While the ELEV-8 Flight Controller has been designed for and extensively tested with the ELEV-8 v3 Quadcopter, it should work with the ELEV-8 v2 (and v1), as well as other quadcopters. I have flown an ELEV-8 v2 with the ELEV-8 Flight Controller without issue! However, for reasons detailed below, I do not want to promise compatibility or officially support use with the ELEV-8 v2 and v1 Quadcopters at this time.

    Certain modifications to the chassis, electrical system, and firmware will be necessary to retrofit the ELEV-8 Flight Controller onto the ELEV-8 v1 and v2 Quadcopters. Those modifications will include (but not necessarily be limited to) mounting & vibration isolation, power supply, switching motor & propeller directions, and PID tuning. Because these modifications/adaptations have not yet been documented, and because the ELEV-8 Flight Controller has not yet been extensively tested with the v1 and v2, I do not want to promise compatibility or official support at this time. I'm being very conservative here as I do not over-promise and under-deliver, nor over-burden our technical support, and for some legal reasons.

    Once the aforementioned has been satisfactorily documented and tested (or our policy changes), Parallax will reconsider official support for the ELEV-8 Flight Controller. It is my understanding that Publison is planning to work on such documentation, but I'll let him clarify.
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    As I am not a Parallax employee, I will start a separate thread as as user, so it will not be taken as an official Parallax upgrade.

  • Kyle M.Kyle M. Posts: 112
    Publison wrote: »
    As I am not a Parallax employee, I will start a separate thread as as user, so it will not be taken as an official Parallax upgrade.
    I don't think it would be taken as such unless it came from an employee, but if you want to start a new thread for the v2 integration to keep things better organized, be my guest.
  • DavidZemonDavidZemon Posts: 2,973
    Publison wrote: »
    As I am not a Parallax employee, I will start a separate thread as as user, so it will not be taken as an official Parallax upgrade.

    This is a really good idea. It's very hard to tell who is and is not a Parallax employee from my computer chair.
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    edited 2016-02-02 18:20
    Have have to fine tune my Ver3 first, all blades are balanced, just adding LightCommander, LEDS, and Battery Monitor
    Then balance the chassis.

    Then do the VER2.

    BTW: I think the Du-Bro 499 Balancer is the best I have ever used.
  • David BetzDavid Betz Posts: 14,511
    Publison wrote: »
    Have have to fine tune my Ver3 first, all blades are balanced, just adding LightCommander, LEDS, and Battery Monitor
    Then balance the chassis.

    Then do the VER2.

    BTW: I think the Du-Bro 499 Balancer is the best I have ever used.
    And then the Ver1? :-)

  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    David Betz wrote: »
    Publison wrote: »
    Have have to fine tune my Ver3 first, all blades are balanced, just adding LightCommander, LEDS, and Battery Monitor
    Then balance the chassis.

    Then do the VER2.

    BTW: I think the Du-Bro 499 Balancer is the best I have ever used.
    And then the Ver1? :-)

    Once Ver2 is done, the Ver1 should be about the same. Same ESC's. More soldering to do on VER1 though.

  • xanaduxanadu Posts: 3,347
    Mounting and tuning challenges are a big part of this hobby. Sometimes I worry about things being too compatible, bleh...
  • ElectrodudeElectrodude Posts: 1,621
    Publison wrote: »
    David Betz wrote: »
    Publison wrote: »
    Have have to fine tune my Ver3 first, all blades are balanced, just adding LightCommander, LEDS, and Battery Monitor
    Then balance the chassis.

    Then do the VER2.

    BTW: I think the Du-Bro 499 Balancer is the best I have ever used.
    And then the Ver1? :-)

    Once Ver2 is done, the Ver1 should be about the same. Same ESC's. More soldering to do on VER1 though.

    It's possible for something to require more soldering than the V2?!? :)
  • FireNWaterFireNWater Posts: 93
    .
    I just ordered a v3 controller board for my v2. If anyone is interested in my v2 board, send a PM and I'll make you a deal.
    .
  • GlassKNeesGlassKNees Posts: 181
    If you want to upgrade a V2 Elev-8, you might want to consider using an APM flight controller/autopilot. The official 3DR APM is a bit pricey, but you can get Chinese clones for around $40. The advantages are:

    More flight modes: Loiter, Alt Hold, Circle, Acro, Auto - Fly a waypoint mission autonomously, RTL, and more.

    Mature groundstation software (Mission Planner) - free download as well as DroidPlanner for tablet devices

    All of the S/W is open source

    Drawbacks are:

    The controller assumes a different ordering of the motors and spin direction - you'll have to remove the bottom chassis plate to get to the wiring and renumber the motors.

    You'll need to buy an external GPS/compass as well as telemetry transceivers

    You'll have to splice the APM power module into the power distribution harness


    As some of you know, I've built two Elev-8's, both V2's; the first used the Hoverfly board and the second was built with using the APM in mind. I later upgraded the first with an APM - both fly great!
  • FireNWaterFireNWater Posts: 93
    .
    Yeah, but I can't get direct responses from the designers like I can here . . .
    .
  • xanaduxanadu Posts: 3,347
    APM can also be incredibly boring and result in far more crashes due to complexity of setup.
  • JasonDorieJasonDorie Posts: 1,930
    APM is indeed open source, but it's not terribly readable, and if I'm not mistaken, is no longer in active development now that PixHawk is available (please correct me if I'm wrong on that).

    The Elev8-FC source is commented and documented, and intended as a learning platform. I also have altitude hold coming (almost working), and there are add-ins planned.

    I'm not suggesting that APM is a bad platform - it's very good, and been in use for quite a while, but their motivation is a little different.
  • Kyle M.Kyle M. Posts: 112
    I will point out that as GlassKNees discusses in his project thread, he has have multiple fly-aways with is APM craft that I assume have ended up costing him hundreds of dollars in damage/replacement parts.
  • rjo__rjo__ Posts: 2,114
    Kyle have a look see over in the P2 forum... at the "Spinning Fozzie" thread. I left something for you.

    Regards
  • FireNWaterFireNWater Posts: 93
    edited 2016-02-20 16:01
    Kyle M. wrote: »
    I will point out that as GlassKNees discusses in his project thread, he has have multiple fly-aways with is APM craft that I assume have ended up costing him hundreds of dollars in damage/replacement parts.
    .
    If you love something, set it free. If it loves you back, it will return . . .
    .

  • max72max72 Posts: 1,155
    I'm doing some quads with cheap APM modules, and switching to my beloved propeller would be a great thing.
    I'm testing them for photogrammetry, so I'm looking for altitude hold, position hold and mission planning.
    I have some navigation routines in spin that I posted in the forum and that I would like to reuse. Would it be possible to use another propeller with GPS to handle the navigation aspects? Would it be difficult to implement it in the elev8?
    I'm a lame c programmer by the way..
    To better explain my idea..
    I'm thinking of a solution similar to the former mikrokopter boards.
    In this case they have the flight control unit and an additional navigation board. In a similar way elev8 would be the flight controller and the separate board would take care of GPS, connection with ground station and all the navigation tasks.
    Massimo
  • JasonDorieJasonDorie Posts: 1,930
    It is possible, certainly. The code for the Elev8-FC as implemented does have altitude hold, but it's been disabled until I work out a bug with it. There is no position hold, but with a secondary module handling the GPS routines, that would certainly be feasible. I believe it would be possible to add position hold to this unit without an additional processor, though an extra Prop would simplify some things and make further expansion much easier (like waypoints, etc). There are two serial ports available and an expansion header designated for communication to external modules.
  • max72max72 Posts: 1,155
    Thanks!
    Massimo
  • Kyle M.Kyle M. Posts: 112
    edited 2017-01-31 19:08
    Just in time for the one-year anniversary of the ELEV-8 v3 and ELEV-8 Flight Controller....
    We are now shipping Revision B of the ELEV-8 Flight Controller! (Store Link) (Updated Product Guide)
    80204_0.png?itok=scyE3LGW

    Revision B is an evolution of Revision A, with numerous "behind-the-scenes" design and manufacturing improvements, redesigned power supply circuitry, improved reverse polarity protection, SRR/DSM header pads, and 3.3V accessory power pads. These improvements make the ELEV-8 Flight Controller more reliable and user-friendly. Best of all, it runs on the same firmware as RevA and all connections are backwards compatible.

    The SRR/DSM header pads are compatible with Spektrum brand remote receivers, and will accept a JST ZH series connector, such as part number: S3B-ZR(LF)(SN) (DigiKey Link). For additional information, including pin-out, see the updated product guide.

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