Noobie question about wiring flight controller

Squiggle · Feb 19, 2018

Hey everyone, I’m trying to wire up my drone & I have to turn the FC/esc 90 degrees so I can get to the usb plug, do I still wire up the motors as normal or do I wire them up at 90 degrees too? I know I have to change the orientation in BetaFlight but just wasn’t sure about the wiring as well.

RENOV8R · Feb 19, 2018

Yes, you are going to have to change things up. For example if you're rotating the board 90 degrees clockwise, motor 1 becomes motor 3, motor 2 becomes motor 1 etc. It used to be that we'd have to physically run the ESC wires to the corresponding pads on the flight controller which made for messy complicated wiring. But now we can just move the order of the motor outputs on the flight controller with Betaflight CLI commands caller resource mapping. Much easier to post a video than try to explain, this guy explains the peocess quite well.

Squiggle · Feb 19, 2018

That’s awesome dude, thanks heaps!

DavidKersting · Feb 19, 2018

I use LibrePilot on my PC to program my FC. I wired the FC as diagrams required, then I used LibrePilot to configure the orientation of the board. I have run into this on all drones where I need to rotate the FC to fit in the drone. I recommend wiring as if the FC were pointed forward, then use the software to rotate it.

HighTechPauper · Feb 21, 2018

Agreed, Configuration page, Board and Sensor Alignment

Squiggle · Feb 22, 2018

Thanks for all the help guys, I changed the wire orientation when I soldered the motors on. Then connected to betaflight & changed the orientation of the FC, after that I followed the video above & switched the motor orientation around & everything worked. Only problem was the motors all ran backwards, but that was a simple fix of switching two wires on every motor. Now I just have to figure out the receiver problem, but that’s for another thread.

RENOV8R · Feb 22, 2018

Glad you got it figured out. And yes, you can change motor rotation by switching 2 wires. But even easier is if you have BLHeli-S ESCs, most flight controllers give you passthrough ability to go into BLHeli Suite (software configurator) and change your motor rotation with the click of a button

Squiggle · Feb 22, 2018

Good to know, thanks. Is there a video on that or do you know how to do it that way?

RENOV8R · Feb 22, 2018

Here ya do, might as well learn how to use it to keep your esc firmware up to date as well. I use the configurator instead of BLHeli Suite, find it's easier to use

Squiggle · Feb 23, 2018

Yeah I’ve been playing around on it to try & learn what I’m doing better, & I’ve been watching heaps of YT tutorials as well, still don’t know what I’m doing, lol.

DavidKersting · Feb 23, 2018

For someone who just wants to build and fly drones.... its a lot to learn eh? Been there, and still am a lot of the time. Its good though. Educational and fun....and thank goodness for google (YT).
Drones are reaching a high popularity. Those that choose off the shelf Ready To Fly drones are missing out I believe, same with Planes/ boats etc. Few like the challenge of building anymore. Takes too long

Good luck and happy flying.

Squiggle · Feb 23, 2018

I know what you mean, I’ve been racing 10th & 12th scales electric cars for years & I’ve had a few planes & heli’s in the past too (I really like slope soaring). I’ve always built the stuff myself as I believe, like you @DavidKersting, if you build it from scratch you have a better understanding of how it works & how to fix any problems or breakages. I love to learn & always hate that window when you know enough to know you don’t know anything as the realisation of how much technical knowledge there actually is to learn drops, lol. I’ve been watching a ton of YT vids & I know it will all make sense soon enough, but at the moment it’s all a bit confusing.