Wiring Up GPS and FPV

[Glenfilthie]

Hey guys, I have noticed that the cool kids seem to be running these add-ons on their machines and I would appreciate some more info:

I've downloaded the KK2.1.5 manual (haven't bought one yet) - and the impression I have after my first pass through it is that the flight controller is capable of the auto level function only - and that if you want the function where the copter returns to the controllers location - that 'autopilot' feature is supplied by a separate GPS module. Is that correct? I assume another module is required for the FPV feature too? Do they draw their power from the KK2 through jumpers or do they power directly off the battery?

What are you guys running on your quads?

 

[HawkMan]

the KK board can't connect to a GPS and can't support anything but auto level.

you'll need something like an APM based board, though that's expensive and/or fairly complicated or a Taulabs based board like the Quanton or Sparky(though the sparky may not support RTH very well without disabling other stuff as I understand it due to limited memory), the Naze32 based boards also support GPS in limited fashion(basically Position hold and RTH), though their RTH is reportedly not as good as other options.

 

[makattack]

I'm no expert, having just built an electrohub tricopter using a MultiWii based Flip1.5 from witespy/rtfquads, but I you are correct in your discovery.

You generally need a flight controller that supports GPS. I don't believe KK2 does, but the most popular ones for GPS, that I know of are:

OpenSource (*):
MultiWii / MultiWii, Flip, et al. 8-bit boards
Baseflight / Naze32, Flip32, et al. 32-bit boards
Cleanflight / Naze32, Flip32, Sparky, et al. 32-bit boards
Taulabs / Sparky, Quanton, BrainFPV
ArduPilot / APM, RTFlyer, HKFlyer, PX4, Pixhawk

Commercial (not very familiar with these):
EagleTree
NAZA
FyDOS

I've heard good things about GPS flight modes on the Taulabs, and I only have experience with ArduPilot (which has been great) -- but heard the others are still more works in progress.

This is by no means a complete list, and you will find that there are different GPS receivers and connectors for all of the above, so it's important to get the right module for the F/C you choose.

 

[Noob]

I use the KK board on my main tricopter and it works great as a basic control board. Recently I have started to setup a pixhawk by 3d robotics. The pixhawk has many more options such as GPS but is far more complicated. My experience with FPV has come from fatshark. They are their own system and draw their own power. You can plug it into the balance plug of your battery but I found several things recommending that you carry a second battery for FPV purposes. So on my tricopter uses my 2200mah 3s battery and I use a 2s 500mah for my FPV setup.

 

[C0d3M0nk3y]

I assume another module is required for the FPV feature too?

Whether you're flying LOS or FPV makes no difference to the flight controller. If you're talking about OSD (on screen display), then some sort of processing is required to overlay information on the video. Some flight controllers have this built in, and some people use additional modules.