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Messages - LukeZ
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166
« on: April 12, 2021, 12:49:36 PM »
Hi Sub, thanks for the doing all that troubleshooting work and reporting back, it certainly could help someone else in the future. Out of curiosity, what ESCs were they? In my testing even the cheap Chinese ESCs seem to be pretty well matched but there is always a first time for everything.
167
« on: April 11, 2021, 12:43:35 PM »
I managed to apply the settings on the TX and the activation switch , It did work, the only issue is as we thought trying to sync the turret speed as it always moved much earlier than the motors did. I tried altering the percentages of the settings but could not get over the lag of the drive motors, i will keep trying over time to see what can be done.  I presume you have disabled any inertia/momentum on the drive motors? Those would cause the drive motors to be slow to start, but they might simply be slower to move anyway since they have a lot more drag to overcome than the turret. As a final hack you could possibly increase the Deadband on the turret rotation channel, which would delay when the turret starts moving, but not its overall speed... Anyway it is a good effort and you learned some new things about your transmitter.
168
« on: April 11, 2021, 12:37:45 PM »
Thank you for reporting back!
169
« on: April 09, 2021, 04:20:30 PM »
Not a step too far at all! In fact it is a clever idea. I have always used my thumbs to create the effect you describe but it is not always easy!
As you say, you just need to slave the rudder channel (turret traverse) to the aileron channel (steering). Of course your turret is likely to move at a different speed than your model can perform a neutral turn, but you can compensate for this by adjusting the ratios in the mix. No doubt some experimenting will be needed to get the correct mix, but I think your approach will work very well.
I see no problem with this at all and the TCB won't even know you're doing something fancy on the radio side. For all it knows you are using your two thumbs to give commands to the turret and steering at the same time. The ability to turn the effect off and on using another switch on the transmitter is also a good touch.
Give it a try and let us know what happens! If I see a dark mushroom cloud on the horizon I'll know it was you (just kidding!)
170
« on: April 09, 2021, 04:12:54 PM »
i did do a full inspection on the iffy board and saw no breaks, dry soldered joints, or physical damage to any of it. no sign of cooking, or damage to the pcb. i even cleaned the output pins (magnifying visor, acetone and stripped down cotton bud) so unless the main chip has given up the ghost nothing is visible. This is certainly strange. If the processor had "given up the ghost" we would find that nothing works, but in your case several things still do, including other RC outputs. I've helped troubleshoot a lot of problems over the years and from my experience what appears to be the most serious problems usually turn out to be something very simple that was overlooked. Without being there in person I can't say for sure, but I suspect your boards can still operate correctly, but something is definitely going on. On closer inspection of your OPZ file it doesn't appear to be the case that you have run through the Radio Setup routine (all channel values were still at defaults). This doesn't necessarily explain your issue but does point to something simple overlooked, which means there could be others. If you want to continue troubleshooting, I would recommend starting at the beginning. Complete the Radio Setup process as described in the wiki. Then disconnect everything from your TCB except power, your receiver, and a servo on RC Output 1. Try manipulating it again using your throttle or steering channel, or better yet, set the drive motors to something other than RC Output (which will free RC Output 1 and 2 for other uses), then assign one of your analog aux channels as a trigger to the "RC Output 1 - Pass-through" function. This second approach eliminates needing to start the engine for that output to become active. Troubleshooting is a process of eliminating as many variables as possible until we find a baseline condition that works, then slowly adding back complexity until we find the thing that is causing a problem. Using the Snoop feature of the OP Config console (on the Firmware tab) can also be a useful troubleshooting tool, as can the onboard red and green LEDs. Earlier you mentioned having difficulty setting up a tank-style mix on your transmitter, but your proposed solution is to essentially recreate the TCB in code using a second Arduino. This is going to be much more challenging than creating a channel mix on your radio. But I am not discouraging you from experimenting with that approach at all! It will be a good experience and you will learn much, and it may even be enjoyable. However it is often the case that people give up on what can admittedly be a tedious troubleshooting effort, only to turn to more difficult solutions than what would ultimately have been the fix to the original problem had it been discovered. Whatever you do, keep us posted on your progress and I will be interested to hear how you get on.
171
« on: April 08, 2021, 05:31:06 PM »
It is certainly possible to leverage transmitter mixing to expand what is possible, and I don't think you will damage anything by doing so, but depending on what you do you might confuse the TCB a little!  It helps to have a good understanding of how the TCB works, which I suspect you do. Maybe if you describe what you are hoping to accomplish I can be of more help? Note also that it is possible to assign multiple functions to a single switch (or trigger source) in OP Config, sometimes this can be useful if you are running out of controls on your transmitter, but it just depends on what you're doing. I've definitely used 15 functions and more before, so I know how it can be!
172
« on: April 08, 2021, 05:04:03 PM »
Ok, thanks for doing the test. It looked like you might have been using a Taigen sound card, presumably then RC Output 8 (labeled Prop 1) is working? Is your barrel elevation servo and/or recoil servo working (outputs 4 and 5)?
I'm just trying to find out if it is only RC output 1 and 2 that are broken somehow, or all RC outputs.
I've not know anyone to encounter this kind of problem before and it would be rather unusual to physically damage those RC output pins, but at the same time since your board appears to be functional in other respects I do not suspect any kind of firmware issue. That leaves hardware, so unusual or not, for the moment that would seem our best hypothesis.
The other option you have for drive is to get a Sabertooth dual motor controller. That costs money but it may be easier than your original suggestion of programming an Arduino...
173
« on: April 08, 2021, 01:54:02 PM »
Ok, let me know the result of the servo test. Your OPZ file looks fine.
174
« on: April 06, 2021, 09:35:20 AM »
Using a voltmeter to troubleshoot an ESC signal is probably not the first thing I would do to troubleshoot, since even if it is working you will get odd readings unless you have an oscilloscope. First, can you tell me what ESCs you are using? It sounds like they might be the XCar 45A speed controllers. If you attach different ESCs does it work, or is it the case that no ESCs work whatsoever work with that board? By the same token, do the ESCs in this model work with your second TCB? Have you made sure to remove the +5 volt (center) ESC pin as described in the wiki? Try this: unplug the ESCs and attach a servo to RC Output 1 or 2 (Left or Right outputs). Make sure you have a way to "start the engine," and now move your throttle and steering sticks. Does the servo move? If so, we can be sure the correct signal is being generated. Also, can you post your OPZ file for me to look at? Open OP Config, connect to your TCB, read the settings from the TCB (click the green down arrow at the top right of the application), then go to File -> Save Settings to File, then upload that file to your response using the Attachments option.
175
« on: April 06, 2021, 01:41:52 AM »
My parts arrived and I did a test today using the General Purpose I/O ports on the TCB with a dual channel relay module and the barrel smoke seems to work well with this setup. These are the parts I used: Heng Long Smoke Generator 7.4 voltsI noticed that these new smokers are being sold in both 6 volt and 7.4 volt versions. For our purposes, the 7.4 volt is preferable since you are going to power it directly from the battery which is usually a 2S lipo or 7 volt NiMH. I guess the 6 volt versions are for use with the new Heng Long boards which have a dedicated 6 volt output for the barrel smoker. Dual Channel DC 5V Relay Switch Module for Arduino Raspberry PiThere are a million cheap relay modules available on eBay, Amazon, AliExpress, etc... Make sure to buy one that is rated at 5 volts (sometimes they sell 12 volt versions). 0.1" 2.54MM Jumper Wires Female-Female F/FThese little jumpers let us connect the General Purpose output pins to the relay module. You could also use some standard servo leads, but we only need 4 connections and of course servo leads have 3 positions so that is a little awkward. The links to these items will no doubt break eventually but I've posted photos of these items below (first three images). The fourth image below shows how I wired everything, and the 5th and 6th images show the settings in OP Config that I used as well as the function triggers. Basically we are controlling two relays with the A & B outputs on the TCB board. One relay controls the blower motor, the other relay controls the heating element. Due to the way I wired the blower and heater to the relays, if the heater is turned off the blower motor can not run. When the heater is turned on the blower motor is not automatically turned on, but becomes able to be turned on. The blower is "pulsed" briefly with a function assigned to the same trigger that I assign the Cannon Fire function to. The blower relay is connected to External Output A and the heater relay is connected to External Output B. The particular relay module I bought actually activates the relays when the control pins are held to ground, instead of to +5 volts as we might expect. That is no problem, in OP Config we just set the outputs to Default High and then the pulse will be the opposite (held to ground). But other modules may work differently, so just experiment. Either way with the correct settings in OP Config you can get it to work. Previously OP Config did not have an option to adjust the external output pulse times, I've added this in the latest release (OP Config and TCB firmware versions 0.93.73). Before you updated your software/firmware save an OPZ file because these changes will cause your previous settings to be erased from the TCB. Anyway, we can now adjust the pulse time which will be the length of time the blower motor runs when triggered. I found that it really doesn't need to be very long. In the crappy video I took below, I was only using 150mS (0.15 seconds). Other than the Heng Long smoker, the other parts are very cheap. I think the ability to turn off the heater from the radio is a good one, because unlike the exhaust smoke units which have a fan running over them all the time, this one will only have a very brief bit of air blown through when the cannon is fired, the rest of the time the heating element would just be steaming away, and I found it will even start pushing a little smoke out the barrel as the gases start to expand in the smoke reservoir. Most people aren't using the general purpose outputs for anything so this approach doesn't take away any other functionality from the TCB. It does require two Aux channels from your transmitter though.
176
« on: April 05, 2021, 11:11:11 PM »
Im tinkering with the idea of keeping it in the 1/10 and piggybacking an ardruino board from the receiver to operate the ESCs and using the OP for all other functions. could this cause any issues that anyone is aware of?
Since you are using ESCs anyway, I don't think you'd need another Arduino, just connect them directly to your receiver and run them the same way you would if it were an RC car or other vehicle. Most radios these days offer the ability to setup the mixing that would be necessary for a dual-tracked vehicle. If you'd like help troubleshooting the ESC issue with your TCB I'm happy to do that as well.
177
« on: April 04, 2021, 02:55:31 PM »
However there definitely is something weird going on because the same code should really compile to roughly the same size and in this case the difference between IDEs is not even close. I will need to do some more research and probably post a help request over at the Arduino forums, but I really would like to get to the bottom of this. Whenever I do, I will report back here what I find. Hi Eric, my apologies for taking such a long time to return to this issue. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a simple resolution. I sought assistance with the Arduino team but they couldn't identify the problem either. For now, if people want to compile this project, they can take one of two approaches: - The first is as Eric ended up doing - use Arduino IDE version 1.8.5. Prior IDE versions can be downloaded on this page.
- I have found it is also possible to compile with a newer IDE version (tested up to 1.8.13), but with some changes to the environment. After you open the newer IDE, go to the Tools menu and select Board->Boards Manager. Wait for the Boards information to load, then under the AVR Boards section click the drop-down box to select a different boards version. Select version 1.6.20 (not 1.6.2) and then click Install. After installation has completed, click Close to close the Boards Manager, and then compile. In my testing it will compile at reasonable global memory levels.
In both cases, remember also that we are compiling for the Arduino Nano (in the IDE Tools -> Board -> Arduino AVR Boards -> Arduino Nano) Neither approach is ideal, but the second one does offer the advantage that you can use the most recent IDE and it is fairly painless to switch back to the most recent Boards version for your other projects. I suspect this project is not being very widely used, but for those that want to one of these methods should at least make it possible. I hope this helps, and my apologies for the hassle!
178
« on: March 29, 2021, 05:21:29 PM »
Ok, that is probably wisest rather than risk making things worse. I'm sorry this one has given you problems. There were some quality control issues with the Hobby King boards but this is the first I've heard of anything related to the smoker.
179
« on: March 28, 2021, 05:19:37 PM »
Well that's very strange, since if the pin from the processor is at 0 volts, the output of the MOSFET should be off. It can be hard to get a good reading sometimes, it seems like you really have to jab your multimeter probes hard into the surface, which then of course risks slipping and shorting something. If the input from the chip is really 0 volts and your smoker is still running, then we can conclude the MOSFET is bad and would need to be replaced. It can be done by hand if you have some soldering experience, a good iron, and some flux would really help with the removal as well. Putting on the new one will be much easier than taking off the old one. If you're not entirely confident about it, I'd recommend against the procedure because it is certainly possible to make things worse. The MOSFET part number is FDD8780. It doesn't look like Farnell UK has it, but it's still available from DigiKey in the States. They ship abroad but I don't know their rates. I also just did a quick search for FDD8780 on the UK eBay and I see several listings.
180
« on: March 28, 2021, 10:06:04 AM »
Great! My parts should arrive next week and I will do a test with the relay method.
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