Additional battery and question on main board pins

[Andrew Schmidt]

Hey guys new member here. I am trying to take the internals of a crashed Solo and 3d print my own Inspire 1 esq quad. That being said. Does anyone have infomation, or know where I can start looking on the following topics.

1.) What does the 8pin motor pod connector pinout actually do, and is it possible to bypass with another simonK esc. (600kv motors with 13-14 rotors are the goal) My board only has one 8pin cable left on it, (ebay damnit) and I need to figure out what to do as far as getting this board to run new esc's and motors.

2.)Has anyone read/heard of successful implementation of a 3dr power module ? I bought two solo batteries off of ebay, one broken and one not broken, and I'm trying to double the power capacity of the drone by doubling the batteries. potentially with a multistar 4s 5200 to match the solo battery. I feel that 10400mah should be enough power for a 600kv setup but im new at this. Also, the reason for this is to (hopefully) maintain smart battery functionality as Ive read that it is a nightmare to navigate the sm-bus documentation.

3.)If anyone has heard or found any successful attempts at a moving servo connected to the accessory bay bus. I would love some info from that area as well.

So far what started as an innocent "what-if" has turned into a giant research project, but I believe if i can pull this off, the results would be pretty darn cool.

Once again, thanks in advance guys. This forum is saving my skin at the moment haha.

 

[TonySloth]

Hey guys new member here. I am trying to take the internals of a crashed Solo and 3d print my own Inspire 1 esq quad. That being said. Does anyone have infomation, or know where I can start looking on the following topics.

1.) What does the 8pin motor pod connector pinout actually do, and is it possible to bypass with another simonK esc. (600kv motors with 13-14 rotors are the goal) My board only has one 8pin cable left on it, (ebay damnit) and I need to figure out what to do as far as getting this board to run new esc's and motors.

2.)Has anyone read/heard of successful implementation of a 3dr power module ? I bought two solo batteries off of ebay, one broken and one not broken, and I'm trying to double the power capacity of the drone by doubling the batteries. potentially with a multistar 4s 5200 to match the solo battery. I feel that 10400mah should be enough power for a 600kv setup but im new at this. Also, the reason for this is to (hopefully) maintain smart battery functionality as Ive read that it is a nightmare to navigate the sm-bus documentation.

3.)If anyone has heard or found any successful attempts at a moving servo connected to the accessory bay bus. I would love some info from that area as well.

So far what started as an innocent "what-if" has turned into a giant research project, but I believe if i can pull this off, the results would be pretty darn cool.

Once again, thanks in advance guys. This forum is saving my skin at the moment haha.View attachment 5286 View attachment 5287 View attachment 5286 View attachment 5287

I've been upgrading one of my solos and keeping all the extra parts and also bought a solo body with everything except motor pods and lenses.

I'm actually making an inspire clone controlled by solo and in the same spot as you the servo shouldn't be a problem but the motor upgrades I've seen use the same esc's. I'll keep you up on the process. The battery shouldn't be a problem since you won't need it to be in the original 3dr case, putting 2 5200 in parallel should be fine. The only issue you might come across is the battery still thinking it only has 5200mah.

 

[Frank Foster]

Very interesting......

 

[Andrew Schmidt]

I've been upgrading one of my solos and keeping all the extra parts and also bought a solo body with everything except motor pods and lenses.

I'm actually making an inspire clone controlled by solo and in the same spot as you the servo shouldn't be a problem but the motor upgrades I've seen use the same esc's. I'll keep you up on the process. The battery shouldn't be a problem since you won't need it to be in the original 3dr case, putting 2 5200 in parallel should be fine. The only issue you might come across is the battery still thinking it only has 5200mah.

Glad to hear I'm not the only crazy one Tony! Technically it will be 10400mah since they will be running in parallel. (right?) That may change depending on how the drone can handle the weight of the two batteries... maybe I will run three. As far as the design goes, I am going to try and utilize the standard battery enclosure form factor and make a sort of socket design where the battery clicks in (picture this charging dock.) 3DR Solo Triple Charger by piratetv and then the parallel wires will run out the rear bottom of the battery and be bracketed below the drone. I want to keep the center of gravity low just like the inspire as I believe that is one of the drawbacks of the Solo (having the battery on top).

Also, after looking at the cost of used solo motor pods, I am really trying to figure out how to replace the esc's without headache.... That might be to no avail, but I can't really stomach 80/pair for the pods when I am going to hack them up anyway. My largest obstacle currently is that I only have one of the esc cables, and I don't know the pinout for the esc's yet. More research I guess. I am going to extend a request for information out to 3dr in regards to tracking down the cables or at least the pinout at this point.

Ive got a lot of cad work to begin, let me know your thoughts!

 

[Andrew Schmidt]

Thanks for all your help guys, I have a main thread for this project, if you wish to follow my progress, you may do so here! Building a DJI Inspire 2 with Solo Internals - Dev Help Requested! [INSPI-3DR]

 

[Air_Max]

I like your thinking here.
I too, was thinking should there come the day of an irreparable crash, I would move some of the SOLO internals to one of my other previous Quad designs. (get the best of both worlds)
So this info would be most useful, and I will continue to watch this as you and others proceed..

Best of discoveries and designs to you and this project.

 

[Andrew Schmidt]

Thanks Air_max! Make sure to follow the thread I posted in my previous posting. All my findings and progress will be in there!