skycontroller 2

Table of Contents Specs Firmware hacking Battery Mod: smoother control with longer joysticks References

Specs

• No 5.8Ghz (in contrast to the Skycontroller 1)
• No GPS (you'll use the GPS on your phone/tablet to see your position relative to your Disco)
• Android-like Linux OS

Firmware hacking

The firmware runs an Android-like Linux and has 'adb' (Android Debugging Bridge) enabled by default.

The Skycontroller2 connects to the Disco over IP, and has a session on port 9988. Thus, you can find the Skycontroller's IP address from the Disco using the command netstat -nu |grep 9988 . Then you can connect with /data/ftp/uavpal/bin/adb connect <ip>:9050.^[1]

Battery

The SkyController 2 is powered by a 2-cell LiPo battery pack or a 1-cell LiIon cell. Both variants use nonstandard wiring so they can not be charged using normal balance chargers. They are charged by connecting the power cable of the SC2.

• It uses a Molex connector instead of a standard JST-XH balance connector
• The individual cells are not wired to the connector. Instead the wiring is like this:
  • Pin 1 (black) is ground/negative
  • Pin 2 (blue) is a termistor
  • Pin 3 (red) is positive pack voltage, i.e the full 7.4 volts of both cells in series.
• The pack has a built-in charging circuit to balance the cells. This does not always work great.

Christopher R. Smith has written a detailed blog post about SC2 battery modifications.

Jay Drone has done a video tutorial on how to wire up a balance connector to the 2-cell lipo. For regular charging, see: batteries

Mod: smoother control with longer joysticks

You can drop a 2.87mm screw in the joystick to elongate it.

References

1. ^ https://github.com/uavpal/disco4g/tree/master/skycontroller2