The Ublox GPS instructions state to fit the 6 pin to 5 pin cable with the 6 pin end in the Ublox and the 5 pin in the APM…
However the pixhawk GPS socket is 6 pin not 5 pin. Among the bundle of assorted cable I have looking for a use I do have a 6 pin to 6 pin one so should I use that for the GPS? The Mag connection goes to i2c port, I have connected that to the i2c splitter and plugged the Mag into that, I assume that is correct?
And how do I connect the motors, I did have a quick butchers in the IRIS some time ago and if I recall correctly there was a 4 way connector connected to the signal pins, no plus or ground connections. There may have been a single ground and/ or + I am not entirely sure? But that is using a 4 way Quad ESC I think rather than the 6 ESC’s so…
What do I connect and where, the little template on the Pixhawk has Props 1 to 4 marked, where does 5 & 6 go? Do I need to cut/ remove the red & black pins from the ESC’s, all of them?
Does the power rail split like the APM board, if so would I need to do that and keep one connection from an esc to power the back rail given that I may wish to use two servos for head tracking FPV sometime before I get my bus pass?
Current state of affairs is Pixhawk, GPS, telemetry RX, Buzzer, safety switch, i2c hub all installed and connected. Looking like a proper drone now
You will need to connect the Ublox/GPS compass with the 6pin cable that was included with the pixhawk (the cables that come with the Ublox GPS are for APM2.6). But if you received the Pixhawk as part of the free upgrade because you purchased a Iris developer kit, some parts in the pixhawk kit where not included, but you can buy a new cable here
To connect the motors to your Pixhawk board you will need to connect them to the back of the Pixhawk board, with the white signal cable on the bottom as shown below.
Strictly its not necessary, but its best practice to keep the red wire on only one of the ESC’s and remove it from the rest. I prefer just remove the wire from the black connectors and put some insulation tape on it rather than cutting it, that way they can be re-used on future projects
Then just connect your ESC’s according the the numbers on the back of the Pixhawk (for hexacopter it will be 1-6).
And I almost forgot, if you want to connect any servos to Pixhawk you will need to power them from the ESC’s on the output rail, as the outputs are not powered from the battery. That is why you leave one of the ESC’s power connected to provide power the output rail.
Yes, the ESC calibration on the Pixhawk its the same as with APM, but with the added safety switch so you just need to pay attention to step 5 (press and hold the Safety button for 5 seconds to disengage the safety)
