DIY Trigger Style Remote with Telemetry - Complete Guide

Does anyone use Torqueboard’s VESC with this remote? Any idea which pins to plug the Rx and Tx to? Currently unable to get telemetry.

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@Zyb I finally got your PCB’s in the mail from JLC (I chose the cheap shipping…big mistake) and I’m looking at your ‘FinalSMD’ pcb and making sense of all the ins and outs before I begin soldering. I think I have everything identified except the ‘I/O’ ports in the corner. It’s been so long that I can’t recall where/what these connect to. Can you remind me what the I/O pads connect to?

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@clistpdx its ok ask anything which is not clear because i kinda made it without making the circuit first :slight_smile: i/o is simply where you connect your on/off switch. it is the universal on off sign you may see it around on some electrical devices. USB is for charging usb port mind the polarity. also be careful when soldering the battery cable because i shorted it for a second and board got ruined somehow. i should have made bat holes abit far away from each other just to be safe.

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I didn’t have time to read the rest of this form from where I left off the other day but does anyone here want to make a little extra cash by making me one of these remotes…? Happy to compensate what your time and skills are worth. I am just not super handy with this stuff and am really buys with work so don’t have enough free time to try and learn. Would really appreciate more than you know. PM me or hit me back here.

Thanks so much in advance, really do appreciate anyone who can help me out! Ready with paypal payment ASAP! I live in SoCal if that makes any difference at all.

Same for me: would also like to buy this ready-to-roll remote control with the aforementioned component fixes. Kindly pm me with an offer ($$$)

So @ervinelin and @Zyb , what final nrf do you suggest now?

Also Zyb is your rx different from ervinelin’s receiver?

E01-ML01S small size SPI nRF24L01P 2.4Ghz 1mW PCB antenna IOT uhf wireless transceiver(transmitter/receiver) module http://s.aliexpress.com/ZnAZj2em?fromSns=Copy to Clipboard

I currently use this, or the version which requires an external antenna. So far this has proven to be effective without having to resort to the weird copper tape shielding of the other modules.

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Out of pure laziness. Is anyone selling something like this off the shelf?

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just a tad different. theres a place for 1000uf cap for 5v also 100uf, 10uf and 100nf for 3.3v and place for mcp130 chip other than that its the same and yes like @ervinelin suggested that chip works ok for me too tho im using it with combination of this one https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2-4GHz-rf-Wireless-uhf-Module-Power-Amplifier-E01-ML01SP4-Original-SENET-1-8km-2-4g/32806320077.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4dAN0H5T and they work great with one another

One point to note about the chip with the external antenna… MAKE SURE THE ANTENNA DOESN’T FALL OFF! Also make sure you get the right kind of antenna (2.4GHz), there are other frequencies that might fit but will be the wrong antenna.

Doing so might fry the chip.

I would recommend sticking to the inbuilt antenna version for better piece of mind.

Erv.

I am also using this VESC. Have you been able to get telemetry working? You are probably connecting to the correct pins. I used oscilloscope to read the same Tx and Rx pins while the receiver is connected, and was able to see the uart packets. However the receiver is probably not sending them out back to the remote. It seems that telemetry only work on VESC6, not 4.12

Unfortunately no. I’m still using the remote but everything’s in 0s. I’m going to try it on focboxes with the latest firmware and try it again.

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same here. going to build a new one with better nRF module and get a FOCBOX. Have you got your FOCBOX from enertion too?? I ordered mine in August and was told it will be shipped in November…

Oh I just realized, you probably mean the single FOCBOX… Mine was FOCBOX unity… It is still in production

Yep I got two normal focboxes. Ordered it in late June and just got it recently :rofl:

Also got a unity and am waiting for it too. Perhaps it’s a firmware or torqueboards ESC issue.

IMG20181121205621 Just an update after months of not changing anything…

I am redesigning the remote and PCB to use the Adafruit Feather board instead. This makes it 10x easier than before to build simply because it has both inbuilt lipo charger and regulators.

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Instead of direct soldering I am using jst plugs because they just make life easier, it also comes with wires so all I need is to trim then down to length.

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Instead of the feather that has an inbuilt 900+mhz radio module, I opted to stick with my tried and tested 2.4gHz NRF module. 2.4 being more commonly allowed. Also the bare bone feathers are cheaper.

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I made some critical mistakes. The first, for some reason I cut the PCB to fit a Feather m0 but what I actually bought were feather 328Ps! Thankfully all I needed was two short jumpers to correct the pin order.

Another issue was that the 328P feathers did not boot properly for me, same with some other people online. So I had to use a USBasp to reflash the bootloader with the Arduino equivalent.

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Once that was done, the rest was smooth sailing. JST connectors made it super easy to hook things up to test. The OLED also works on 3.3V so I didn’t need a stepup.

Still some assembly required but much much cleaner and easier than before.

That’s all for now.

I will share the files once I have fully built and tested the remote.

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Planning on building this remote in the future, can’t wait to see how this upgrade tests out.

More updates…

IMG20181122234016 Removed pins from OLED and soldered it directly… Luckily this runs off 3.3V so I didn’t need a step up reg.

IMG20181122234756 Had to use this 3 way power switch because to turn off the feather you need to ground the En pin instead.

IMG20181122235029 Everything fits just nicely…

IMG20181123000420 Swapped to a 3.3V hall sensor instead of the original 5V one so that everything just runs off 3.3v including the NRF module and the OLED.

IMG20181123004627 Neat AF compared to my previous version!! Might extend the wires for the on off and mode switches to run under the PCB instead of across it. That weird yellow blob on the right part of the PCB antenna.

IMG20181123010426 Switches work. Telemetry works. Throttle needed some calibration but also works.

IMG20181123012305 Old versus new version… The difference really is in the ease of building… the new one is much much easier. Not to mention less components.

Had problems with my 3D printer so the casing is really poorly printed… Getting it reprinted by professionals…

Now will need to test ride to know if there are problems but I am quite confident it will be fine.

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@ervinelin Great! I got all parts lying around for months to build your version, but was not proceeding because it would take some evenings.

But with the new version - wow. Happy to get the full parts list to order!

THX!

Yup you can quite easily do this in an evening… I took two because I had problems flashing the board and i had to work around my mistakes with the PCB.

Also, soldering the NRF and JST plugs is a real pain… But the JST plugs and cables just make it super easy to install…

Oh and the switches now are literally drop in. My previous version with the limit switch was a real pain to adjust till you got it just right…

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awesome update, ive been thinking to do the same thing and only thing that bothered me was the hall sensor. can you tell me which one did you use specifically? i found this one Unisonic Tech SK1816G-G03-K claims to be working in range 2.5-20V but never tried it.