This quick start guide shows how power the Pixhawk Mini and connect its most important peripherals (including output connections for copter, plane, and VTOL vehicles).
Warning Under construction.
The image below shows standard quadcopter wiring using the Pixhawk Mini Kit and 3DR Telemetry Radios (along with ESC, motor, battery and a ground control station running on a phone). We'll go through each main part in the following sections.
Note The output wiring/powering is slightly different for other types of vehicles. This is covered in more detail below for VTOL, Plane, Copter.
The Pixhawk Mini should be mounted on the frame using vibration-damping foam pads (included in the kit). It should be positioned as close to your vehicle’s center of gravity as possible, oriented top-side up with the arrow points towards the front of the vehicle.
Note If the controller cannot be mounted in the recommended/default orientation (e.g. due to space constraints) you will need to configure the autopilot software with the orientation that you actually used: Flight Controller Orientation.
Attach the 3DR GPS + Compass to the Pixhawk Mini's GPS&I2C port (top right) using the supplied 6 pin cable. The GPS/Compass should be mounted on the frame as far away from other electronics as possible, facing the front of the vehicle (separating the compass from other electronics will reduce interference).
NOTE - INSERT IMAGE SHOWING BOTH PORTS? OR FRONT-FACING image of GPS&I2C
[IN CALIBRATION, IS ORIENTATION TO VEHICLE FRONT or RELATIVE TO PIXHAWK?]
The compass must be calibrated before it is first used. For more information see: [COMPASS CALIBRATION LINK]
The image below shows typical power-supply wiring when using Pixhawk Mini in a Quadcopter. This uses the Quad Power Distribution Board that comes in the kit to supply both the Pixhawk Mini and the ESC/Motor from the battery (and can also power other accessories).
Note The Quad Power Distribution Board includes a power module (PM) that is suitable for batteries <= 4S. The 3DR 10S Power Module is recommended if you need more power.
[PLACHOLDER IMAGE - need more detail and consistent name for power board]
The Pixhawk Mini is powered through the PM port. When using a power module (as in this case) the port will also read analog voltage and current measurements.
Up to 4 ESCs can be separately powered from the power distribution board (though in this case we only have one connected).
The control signals come from MAIN OUT. In this case there is only one control channel, which is connected to the ESC via the 8 Channel PWM Breakout Board.
The Pixhawk Mini output rail (MAIN OUT) cannot power attached devices (and does not need to in the circuit as shown). For vehicles where MAIN OUT is attached to devices that draw power (e.g. a servo used in a plane) then you will need to power the rail using a BEC (battery elimination circuit). The included breakout board allows one channel to provide power on the other outputs. [Show a diagram of this?]
Pixhawk Mini supports many different radio receiver models:
-
PPM and S.BUS receivers must connect to the RCIN port.
-
PWM receivers (with individual cables for each channel) must connect to the RCIN channel via a PPM encoder like this one.
-
Spektrum and DSM receivers must connect to the SPKT/DSM input.
PX4 and Pixhawk Mini is have been validated with:
- All Spektrum DSM RC receivers
- All Futaba S.BUS and S.BUS2 RC receivers
- All FrSky PPM and S.Bus models
- Graupner HoTT
- All PPM models from other manufacturers
Note ADD SOMETHING ON BINDING TO RECIEVER TO BIND Note ADD SOMETHING ON DIFFERENT TRANSMITTERS. We PERHAPS NEED A COMPATIBILITY PAGE
The controller has an integrated safety switch that you can use for motor activation once the autopilot is ready to take off. If this switch is hard to access on a particular vehicle you can attach the (optional) external safety button, as shown below.
[IMAGE PLACEHOLDER - GOOD IMAGE of SIDE PORTS + CONNECTED SWITCH]
The Airframe Reference shows the default output port to motor/servos mappings for common airframe types.
The tables below show the most common mapping of output port to motor/servos for each type of vehicle. As noted above, these may differ by airframe type (and can be fully configured for a particular vehicle using parameters).
There is a 1:1 mapping between pin-out and motor (obviously the actual number of motors used depends on the vehicle).
| Output | Connection |
|---|---|
| MAIN 1 | Motor 1 |
| MAIN 2 | Motor 2 |
| MAIN 3 | Motor 3 |
| MAIN 4 | Motor 4 |
| MAIN 5 | Motor 5 |
| MAIN 6 | Motor 6 |
| MAIN 7 | Motor 7 |
| MAIN 8 | Motor 8 |
| Output | Connection |
|---|---|
| MAIN 1 | Aileron (assuming a Y cable) |
| MAIN 2 | Elevator |
| MAIN 3 | Throttle |
| MAIN 4 | Rudder |
| MAIN 5 | |
| MAIN 6 | |
| MAIN 7 | |
| MAIN 8 |
Caution It is assumed that your pusher/puller motor uses an ESC with an integrated BEC so that power will be supplied to the Pixhawk on AUX5. If not, you will need to setup a 5V BEC to connect to one of the free Pixhawk ports. Failure to do so will result in nonfunctional servos.
Warning Pixhawk Mini cannot be used for QuadPlane. This is because QuadPlane requires 9 outputs (4 Main, 5 AUX) and the Pixhawk Mini only has 8 outputs (8 Main).
| Output | Connection |
|---|---|
| MAIN 1 | Motor right |
| MAIN 2 | Motor left |
| MAIN 3 | Motor back |
| MAIN 4 | empty |
| MAIN 5 | Tilt servo right |
| MAIN 6 | Tilt servo left |
| MAIN 7 | Elevon right |
| MAIN 8 | Elevon left |
| Output | Actuator |
|---|---|
| MAIN1 | Left motor controller |
| MAIN2 | Right motor controller |
| MAIN3 | Empty |
| MAIN4 | Empty |
| MAIN5 | Left aileron servo |
| MAIN6 | Right aileron servo |
General configuration information is covered in: Autopilot Configuration.
QuadPlane specific configuration is covered here: QuadPlane VTOL Configuration