PixPhantom - Phantom 2 Pixhawk Lite Conversion

[Bart]

Hi everyone. I just want to share a build I just finished up. Its a phantom 2 pixhawk lite conversion using the OEM battery system. Turned out really well and I'm happy to answer any questions if you want to do something similar.

PixPhantom - Phantom 2 Pixhawk Lite Conversion Project (18 min 41 sec)


I used a Pixhawk Lite for the flight controller and drop in replacements for the main PDB and ESCs (running SimonK firmware). Turned out great and I'm seeing 20 - 25m flight times and really good flight characteristics with stock PIDs.

I do still need to find a relocatable compass module so I can move the compass out of the mag field of the battery and motors. I'm using a Taranis and X4R for flight control and telemetry along with the very cool LuaPilot script for display.

I have a TVL900 for the primary FPV camera and I will be adding a 3 axis gimbal, runcam 2, and 2-way video toggle in phase I

Please post any questions and I will try to answer them.

PDB Conversion Board: Dual-way 5V/12V UBEC Distribution Board for DJI Phantom 2 APM Pixhawk PX4 Flight Controller $15.57 Free Shipping @GoodLuckBuy.com

ESCs: Happymodel 20A ESC Support 3S 4S Li-po with Green LED for DJI Phantom 1 2 Quadcopter $11.48 Free Shipping @GoodLuckBuy.com

Pixhawk Lite: http://tinyurl.com/h6h9g2x

For the ESCs, here is what I determined to the the programming pads for the IC: Holding the ESC horizontal with the capacitor on the right and the pads on the left and reading from left to right:

1 - MOSI
2 - MISO
3 - SCK
4 - GND
5 - VCC
6 - RST

Please trace a couple of these first and confirm before you power the board. I'm going from some old handwritten notes. Use the BS_NFET.hex firmware and I recommend you replace and unlock the boot loader also.

 

[RPM]

This is cool congrats, but white taranis?? Custom or shell?

 

[Bart]

It's a white replacement shell from Aloft hobbies. They have several colors. The paint is the duracoat stuff that is normally used on firearms. It looks nice up close and is very durable.

 

[SurfnSkate81]

Why bother? Just by a Solo.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Agblud2010]

hey Bart. I finally found my issue as to why the motors won't spin when armed. Everything checked out. Put another type of esc other than the opera to test my pixhawk to esc conncetion and sure enough the test esc worked great while the opera esc isn't working at all! I'm assuming I need to flash the opera esc with the simonk BSNET.HEX file but I'm not that knowledgeable about that kind of stuff so I am in desperate need of help. Can you help me out?

I should also mention that I am doing the same build you did but with the full-size pixhawk.