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Bit the bullet, bought RC gear

A project log for GimbalBot

Gimbaled thrusters, aerospace-grade adhesives, carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers, and inertial measurement units. This is a space project!

zakqwyzakqwy 03/02/2015 at 04:123 Comments

Should have happened 6 months ago. I got sick of putzing about with short range USB toys; time to step up my control game. Next week this shows up. The FlySky FS-TH9X isn't the fanciest transmitter around, but enough people seem to like it that I think I'll be happy. Extra bonus for getting 8 analog channels with a receiver for under $100. Excitement levels are building!

Discussions

frankstripod wrote 03/15/2015 at 06:38 point

I think I saw one of those controlling a crane on time (on TV.) Can't wait to see the tear down, weather its used in this project or not.

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frankstripod wrote 03/15/2015 at 05:52 point

Looks great! Just curious, what happened with the radio control belt pack and receiver? (Omnex?) I was jealous, but as excited as you were when you got it.

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zakqwy wrote 03/15/2015 at 06:19 point

The radio arrived a few days ago; I've been looking it over and everything seems to be pretty excellent. I found a few folks online that have tapped directly into the SPI bus in the receiver, meaning I might be able to avoid mucking about with reading 8 PWM inputs (stupid servo protocol). 

Ah! To answer your question--the Omnex radio has been thoroughly disassembled, but I haven't had a chance to document the tear-down. The device I had was a demo unit, meaning that the only boards it had were the two joystick controllers that mount to the back of the actual joystick frames. These boards aren't exactly new technology, but they are a bit more complex than I'd originally anticipated. The joysticks are pretty slick; they're built with magnets that get passed across a few Hall effect sensors. Definitely designed to survive pretty crazy harsh conditions. 

In any case, I decided that such slick hardware needs to be given the respect it deserves. I want to design a set of boards that fit the existing Omnex frame and include the proper Hall effect sensors, but communicate with a base receiver using some slick protocol. Or better, getting a commercially available RC transmitter/receiver pair and integrating THAT with the radio. In any case, that project will be broken out at a later date.

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