A Naze 32 Expert...!!!

[Glenfilthie]

The other day I was flying my FT V-Tail Electrohub when it went Bzzzzrrrrrrt! and flipped and crashed. Seems the NAZE32 board crapped out. AGAIN.

I dunno how many of those things I bought! Some didn't even work right from the store and I decided once and for all that I needed to master these things or get rid of them. So I started doing research and promptly came across a YouTube where some dude said "Stop buying NAZE32's! They're JUNK!". I personally love the board because I sort of know them now... but I have to agree, they aren't made very well and I've had much better reliability with KK2's.

This guy recommended the FLIP 32 F3 Omnibus and was crowing about how superior it was to the Naze that I figured I better have one too...no, TWO!!! They're on the way now.

What I can't figure out is how the receivers connect to this thing. Does this board even use standard receivers? I can't see any pinouts for the receivers in anything I've looked at except for a port for the Spektrum DSMX port. Does this board need a special receiver...?

Any commentary from the old hands is, as always, sincerely appreciated.

 

[luketheduke]

On the Naze32 there is a line of 8 or 10 pins to connect to your receiver. The Naze from the FT store shows this here: https://store.flitetest.com/naze32-rev-6-flight-controller-board/ It is the line of pins across from the USB port. BTW, I just had a Naze32 die on me too... :-(
Hope this helps,

 

[Glenfilthie]

Errr...sorry, Luke!

I'm trying to find out how to wire up the receiver to the FLIP 32, not the Naze 32!

The Naze is easy which is why the FT guys like it, I suppose. The FLIP seems to be the choice for the hot rodders and cool kids... and it may be a little over my head...

 

[ElectriSean]

From just a quick look at this page: http://www.readytoflyquads.com/flip-32-f3-omnibus it seems that you can't use standard PWM receivers, you'll need a CPPM or S.BUS Rx. This is not uncommon on the newer F3 based FC's. This does seem like a bit of overkill for your application with the built in OSD, at least you didn't mention any FPV stuff going on.

 

[Cereal_Killer]

Note the Omnibus / Flip32 F3's OSD doesn't have much functionality yet. Only voltage and one timer, it's NOTHING like MinimOSD.

It's in development so hopefully it'll be ready before next race season (spring 2017). Again voltage and one flight timer do work plus you can always use a standard MinimOSD hooked to a UART for now if you require more info or the AH or whatever...

 

[Glenfilthie]

That's kind of what I thought, Sean. So my next question is - do I need some kind of module to convert those signals to DSMX too? I almost need to see a build so that I can visualize it...

 

[makattack]

If you are dsmx based, it sounds like you could go the route ofa dsmx satellite receiver and use spektrum sbus.

 

[ElectriSean]

That's kind of what I thought, Sean. So my next question is - do I need some kind of module to convert those signals to DSMX too? I almost need to see a build so that I can visualize it...

If you are using a Spektrum Tx, both Orange and Lemon make CPPM and S.BUS receivers that work pretty well. You can also use a Spektrum satellite, or one of the new Spektrum race receivers. It's a much simpler setup, with only 3 wires. 1 signal, ground and +5V (or +3.3V if using a satellite)

 

[Glenfilthie]

Well thanks, boys!

Just curious though - any idea of how robust these boards are? I can't seem to keep a Naze or a KK2 running for love or money! They just seem to burn out and that's that for that! I think my local hobby shop is selling those fricken knock-offs and charging full price for them. I am so disgusted with them that I have given up on both - and I'm hoping to get a little more flight time before something craters...

 

[PsyBorg]

If you are killing FC's like that I would suspect it has more to do with how you are powering them then the FC's. They are pretty robust at this point and you are the first person I have read about having a problem with more then one FC.

I would suggest you take a meter to your power system and check some numbers. I would do this before you plug the new FC into the same system that is killing them.

 

[makattack]

Your case seems unusual. I have only used multiwii and naze32 type boards and more recently the f3 naze boards. Haven't yet had a problem with either the original abusemark or flip versions.

I would generally suspect my escs first before the flight controller based on how finicky they seem and based how I've encountered esc's from the same manufacturer with different stock blheli settings and different versions. Probably from different manufacturing batches. I think it's real easy to forget about programming or just checking the programming of those along with everything else.

It's kind of funny, but these things have to work together well, and these components are now very software dependent. When I built my last quad, I was just thinking it was mostly a project to configure the software for:

1) flight controller
2) 4x esc's
3) rx (frsky with failsafe, ppm, etc)
4) tx

Technically, I had a fifth component that needed programming: the osd which was integrated with my fc. So I had to fiddle with minimosd-mw.

Anyway there are just so many different software parts, I haven't even considered the hardware specifics that might affect reliability as well, such as what voltage regulation scheme is in play, etc?