Flat backup battery on new out of the packet Autoquad 6

[jabram]

I received my Autoqaud 6 today and 6 ESC32, noticed just how small the backup battery is and wondered if it is already flat.

Well it is FLAT, measured 0.8 mV, YES!! zero point 8 millivolts.

Made sure contacts are good underneath, nope, it is FLAT.

Now what ?

Read the wiki on development

"To change and compile the code into a flashable *.hex file the AQ Team uses the Rowley Crossworks Compiler for ARM. You can download a fully functional evaluation version here."

Sure for 30 days which is hardly enough to do anything, then it is $1500 plus another $300 for debug

I thought not having a schematic would be OK, now I find it is NOT OK.

What is so darn secret about the schematic, I see little bits dribbled out when questions are asked.

You need to reconsider giving us a schematic.

My initial enthusiasm for Autoquad has taken a nose dive, sorry, guys, not good enough IMHO.

The hassle of finding such a small battery, soldering it on and wondering when it will next go flat, the money to be paid to Crossworks when free compilers are abundant.

I can see a lot of obvious engineering issues with both the FC and the ESC32 and to risk thousands of dollars of equipment and time on this. the word reliable does not immediately come to mind.

In the quest to make it so small a lot of reliability has been thrown aside, I would much rather see a LARGER well engineered board.

[chris24g]

[joebar.rc]

[kinderkram]

@ jabram: if you're not happy with the board - send it back. If the battery was doa then you have the right to ask for a repair. In your case you could ask for refund.
If you see "a lot of obvious engineering issues with both the FC and the ESC32" it would be nice to share your views on the matter.

btw: The Rowley compiler comes at 150$ for a private version. A cost free alternative is beeing worked on by Roberto aka redfox.
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=44

[JussiH]

The "battery" is actually a supercapacitor. So until you put power on board it wont be charged. After ca one minute it will be fully charged to 3.3v, and give you backup power on gps.

[jabram]

[aBUGSworstnightmare]

[jabram]

[aBUGSworstnightmare]

Hi jabram,

well, at the moment the hardware is still closed source.

There is only one Ground (GND) on the board. One of the RECOMs is supplying the FC itself, the other on can be used to supply servos, external components, ...


You need to solder a connection between the middle pin and the small pad (indicated with the yellow circle in the pic) to supply 5V to your external hardware (i.e. when using a S-BUS receiver).
You can also use one of the leftover motor I/Os to connect it to your camera, LED driver, ...

Yes, I agree: some things need more documentation (i.e the expansion header on the top side of the FC; maybe that would be best suited to add your additional hardware for zoom control too)! Not a question! But, you know, we're in a public beta run, so one goal is to get all those things sorted out and fixed.
In additon, some protocols (I2C, CAN) need to be implemented/tested too.

So, you're more than welcome to contribute to this project! Maybe you can ask Bill to sign an NDA with you to grant you access to the schematics (all AQ-team members have an NDA in place). This will allow you to contribute to the hardware/software and still keep the HW closed source for others.

aBUGSworstnightmare

[jabram]