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Legacy target Sparky

Paweł Spychalski edited this page Apr 14, 2021 · 1 revision

Board - Sparky

The Sparky is a very low cost and very powerful board.

  • 3 hardware serial ports.
  • Built-in serial port inverters which allows S.BUS receivers to be used without external inverters.
  • USB (can be used at the same time as the serial ports).
  • 10 PWM outputs.
  • Dedicated PPM/SerialRX input pin.
  • MPU9150 I2C Acc/Gyro/Mag
  • Baro

Tested with revision 1 & 2 boards.

TODO

  • Rangefinder
  • Display (via Flex port)
  • SoftSerial - though having 3 hardware serial ports makes it a little redundant.
  • Airplane PWM mappings.

Voltage and current monitoring (ADC support)

Voltage monitoring is possible when enabled via PWM9 pin and current can be monitored via PWM8 pin. The voltage divider and current sensor need to be connected externally. The vbatscale cli parameter need to be adjusted to fit the sensor specification. For more details regarding the sensor hardware you can check here: https://github.com/TauLabs/TauLabs/wiki/User-Guide:-Battery-Configuration

Flashing

Via Device Firmware Upload (DFU, USB) - Windows

These instructions are for flashing the Sparky board under Windows using DfuSE. Credits go to Thomas Shue (Full video of the below steps can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4yHiRVRY94)

Required Software: DfuSE Version 3.0.2 (latest version 3.0.4 causes errors): http://code.google.com/p/multipilot32/downloads/detail?name=DfuSe.rar STM VCP Driver 1.4.0: http://www.st.com/web/en/catalog/tools/PF257938

A binary file is required for DFU, not a .hex file. If one is not included in the release then build one as follows.

Unpack DfuSE and the STM VCP Drivers into a folder on your Hardrive
Download the latest Sparky release (inav_SPARKY.hex) from:
https://github.com/iNavFlight/inav/releases and store it on your Hardrive

In your DfuSE folder go to BIN and start DfuFileMgr.exe
Select: "I want to GENERATE a DFUfile from S19,HEX or BIN files" press OK
Press: "S19 or Hex.."
Go to the folder where you saved the inav_SPARKY.hex file, select it  and press open
(you might need to change the filetype in the DfuSE explorer window to "hex Files (*.hex)" to be able to see the file)
Press: "Generate" and select the .dfu output file and location
If all worked well you should see " Success for 'Image for lternate Setting 00 (ST..)'!"

Put the device into DFU mode by powering on the sparky with the bootloader pins temporarily bridged. The only light that should come on is the blue PWR led.

Check the windows device manager to make sure the board is recognized correctly. It should show up as "STM Device in DFU mode" under Universal Serial Bus Controllers

If it shows up as "STMicroelectronics Virtual COM" under Ports (COM & LPT) instead then the board is not in DFU mode. Disconnect the board, short the bootloader pins again while connecting the board.

If the board shows up as "STM 32 Bootloader" device in the device manager, the drivers need to be updated manually. Select the device in the device manager, press "update drivers", select "manual update drivers" and choose the location where you extracted the STM VCP Drivers, select "let me choose which driver to install". You shoud now be able to select either the STM32 Bootloader driver or the STM in DFU mode driver. Select the later and install.

Then flash the binary as below.

In your DfuSE folder go to BIN and start DfuSeDemo.exe
Select the Sparky Board (STM in DFU Mode) from the Available DFU and compatible HID Devices drop down list
Press "Choose.." at the bootom of the window and select the .dfu file created in the previous step
"File correctly loaded" should appear in the status bar
Press "Upgrade" and confirm with "Yes"
The status bar will show the upload progress and confirm that the upload is complete at the end

Disconnect and reconnect the board from USB and continue to configure it via the INAV configurator as per normal

Via Device Firmware Upload (DFU, USB) - Mac OS X / Linux

These instructions are for dfu-util, tested using dfu-util 0.7 for OSX from the OpenTX project.

http://www.open-tx.org/2013/07/15/dfu-util-07-for-mac-taranis-flashing-utility/

A binary file is required for DFU, not a .hex file. If one is not included in the release then build one as follows.

make TARGET=SPARKY clean
make TARGET=SPARKY binary

Put the device into DFU mode by powering on the sparky with the bootloader pins temporarily bridged. The only light that should come on is the blue PWR led.

Run 'dfu-util -l' to make sure the device is listed, as below.

$ dfu-util -l
dfu-util 0.7

Copyright 2005-2008 Weston Schmidt, Harald Welte and OpenMoko Inc.
Copyright 2010-2012 Tormod Volden and Stefan Schmidt
This program is Free Software and has ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY
Please report bugs to [email protected]

Found DFU: [0483:df11] devnum=0, cfg=1, intf=0, alt=0, name="@Internal Flash  /0x08000000/128*0002Kg"
Found DFU: [0483:df11] devnum=0, cfg=1, intf=0, alt=1, name="@Option Bytes  /0x1FFFF800/01*016 e"

Then flash the binary as below.

dfu-util -D obj/inav_SPARKY.bin --alt 0 -R -s 0x08000000

The output should be similar to this:

dfu-util 0.7

Copyright 2005-2008 Weston Schmidt, Harald Welte and OpenMoko Inc.
Copyright 2010-2012 Tormod Volden and Stefan Schmidt
This program is Free Software and has ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY
Please report bugs to [email protected]

Opening DFU capable USB device... ID 0483:df11
Run-time device DFU version 011a
Found DFU: [0483:df11] devnum=0, cfg=1, intf=0, alt=0, name="@Internal Flash  /0x08000000/128*0002Kg"
Claiming USB DFU Interface...
Setting Alternate Setting #0 ...
Determining device status: state = dfuERROR, status = 10
dfuERROR, clearing status
Determining device status: state = dfuIDLE, status = 0
dfuIDLE, continuing
DFU mode device DFU version 011a
Device returned transfer size 2048
No valid DFU suffix signature
Warning: File has no DFU suffix
DfuSe interface name: "Internal Flash  "
Downloading to address = 0x08000000, size = 76764
......................................
File downloaded successfully
can't detach
Resetting USB to switch back to runtime mode

On Linux you might want to take care that the modemmanager isn't trying to use your sparky as modem getting it into bootloader mode while doing so. In doubt you probably want to uninstall it. It could also be good idea to get udev fixed. It looks like teensy did just that -> http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/49-teensy.rules (untested)

To make a full chip erase you can use a file created by

dd if=/dev/zero of=zero.bin bs=1 count=262144

This can be used by dfu-util.

Via SWD

On the bottom of the board there is an SWD header socket onto switch a JST-SH connector can be soldered. Once you have SWD connected you can use the st-link or j-link tools to flash a binary.

See Sparky schematic for CONN2 pinouts.

TauLabs bootloader

Flashing INAV will erase the TauLabs bootloader, this is not a problem and can easily be restored using the st flashloader tool.

Serial Ports

Value Identifier RX TX Notes
1 USB VCP RX (USB) TX (USB)
2 USART1 RX / PB7 TX / PB6 Conn1 / Flexi Port.
3 USART2 RX / PA3 PWM6 / PA2 On RX is on INPUT header. Best port for Serial RX input
4 USART3 RX / PB11 TX / PB10 RX/TX is on one end of the 6-pin header about the PWM outputs.

USB VCP can be used at the same time as other serial port.

All USART ports all support automatic hardware inversion which allows direct connection of serial rx receivers like the FrSky X4RSB - no external inverter needed.

Battery Monitoring Connections

Pin Signal Function
PWM9 PA4 Battery Voltage
PWM8 PA7 Current Meter

Voltage Monitoring

The Sparky has no battery divider cricuit, PWM9 has an inline 10k resistor which has to be factored into the resistor calculations. The divider circuit should eventally create a voltage between 0v and 3.3v (MAX) at the MCU input pin.

WARNING: Double check the output of your voltage divider using a voltmeter before connecting to the FC.

Example Circuit

For a 3Cell battery divider the following circuit works:

Battery (+) ---< R1 >--- PWM9 ---< R2 >--- Battery (-)

  • R1 = 8k2 (Grey Red Red)
  • R2 = 2k0 (Red Black Red)

This gives a 2.2k for an 11.2v battery. The vbat_scale for this divider should be set around 52.

Current Monitoring

Connect a current sensor to PWM8/PA7 that gives a range between 0v and 3.3v out (MAX).

WIKI TOPICS

Wiki Home Page

INAV Version Release Notes

7.1.0 Release Notes
7.0.0 Release Notes
6.0.0 Release Notes
5.1 Release notes
5.0.0 Release Notes
4.1.0 Release Notes
4.0.0 Release Notes
3.0.0 Release Notes
2.6.0 Release Notes
2.5.1 Release notes
2.5.0 Release Notes
2.4.0 Release Notes
2.3.0 Release Notes
2.2.1 Release Notes
2.2.0 Release Notes
2.1.0 Release Notes
2.0.0 Release Notes
1.9.1 Release notes
1.9.0 Release notes
1.8.0 Release notes
1.7.3 Release notes
Older Release Notes

QUICK START GUIDES

Getting started with iNav
Fixed Wing Guide
Howto: CC3D flight controller, minimOSD , telemetry and GPS for fixed wing
Howto: CC3D flight controller, minimOSD, GPS and LTM telemetry for fixed wing
INAV for BetaFlight users
launch mode
Multirotor guide
YouTube video guides
DevDocs Getting Started.md
DevDocs INAV_Fixed_Wing_Setup_Guide.pdf
DevDocs Safety.md

Connecting to INAV

Bluetooth setup to configure your flight controller
DevDocs Wireless Connections (BLE, TCP and UDP).md\

Flashing and Upgrading

Boards, Targets and PWM allocations
Upgrading from an older version of INAV to the current version
DevDocs Installation.md
DevDocs USB Flashing.md

Setup Tab
Live 3D Graphic & Pre-Arming Checks

Calibration Tab
Accelerometer, Compass, & Optic Flow Calibration

Alignment Tool Tab
Adjust mount angle of FC & Compass

Ports Tab
Map Devices to UART Serial Ports

Receiver Tab
Set protocol and channel mapping

Mixer

Mixer Tab
Custom mixes for exotic setups
DevDocs Mixer.md

Outputs

DevDocs ESC and servo outputs.md
DevDocs Servo.md

Modes

Modes
Navigation modes
Navigation Mode: Return to Home
DevDocs Controls.md
DevDocs INAV_Modes.pdf
DevDocs Navigation.md

Configuration

Sensor auto detect and hardware failure detection

Failsafe

Failsafe
DevDocs Failsafe.md

PID Tuning

PID Attenuation and scaling
Fixed Wing Tuning for INAV 3.0
Tune INAV PIFF controller for fixedwing
DevDocs Autotune - fixedwing.md
DevDocs INAV PID Controller.md
DevDocs INAV_Wing_Tuning_Masterclass.pdf
DevDocs PID tuning.md
DevDocs Profiles.md

GPS

GPS and Compass setup
GPS Failsafe and Glitch Protection

OSD and VTx

DevDocs Betaflight 4.3 compatible OSD.md
OSD custom messages
OSD Hud and ESP32 radars
DevDocs OSD.md
DevDocs VTx.md

LED Strip

DevDocs LedStrip.md

ADVANCED

Advanced Tuning

Fixed Wing Autolaunch
DevDocs INAV_Autolaunch.pdf

Programming

DevDocs Programming Framework.md

Adjustments

DevDocs Inflight Adjustments.md

Mission Control

iNavFlight Missions
DevDocs Safehomes.md

Tethered Logging

Log when FC is connected via USB

Blackbox

DevDocs Blackbox.md
INAV blackbox variables
DevDocs USB_Mass_Storage_(MSC)_mode.md

CLI

iNav CLI variables
DevDocs Cli.md
DevDocs Settings.md

VTOL

DevDocs MixerProfile.md
DevDocs VTOL.md

TROUBLESHOOTING

"Something" is disabled Reasons
Blinkenlights
Pixel OSD FAQs
TROUBLESHOOTING
Why do I have limited servo throw in my airplane

ADTL TOPICS, FEATURES, DEV INFO

AAT Automatic Antenna Tracker
Building custom firmware
Default values for different type of aircrafts
Features safe to add and remove to fit your needs.
Developer info
INAV MSP frames changelog
INAV Remote Management, Control and Telemetry
Lightweight Telemetry (LTM)
Making a new Virtualbox to make your own INAV
MSP Navigation Messages
MSP V2
OrangeRX LRS RX and OMNIBUS F4
Rate Dynamics
Target and Sensor support
UAV Interconnect Bus
Ublox 3.01 firmware and Galileo
DevDocs 1wire.md
DevDocs ADSB.md
DevDocs Battery.md
DevDocs Buzzer.md
DevDocs Channel forwarding.md
DevDocs Display.md
DevDocs Fixed Wing Landing.md
DevDocs GPS_fix_estimation.md
DevDocs LED pin PWM.md
DevDocs Lights.md
DevDocs OSD Joystick.md
DevDocs Servo Gimbal.md
DevDocs Temperature sensors.md

OLD LEGACY INFO

Supported boards
DevDocs Boards.md
Legacy Mixers
Legacy target ChebuzzF3
Legacy target Colibri RACE
Legacy target Motolab
Legacy target Omnibus F3
Legacy target Paris Air Hero 32
Legacy target Paris Air Hero 32 F3
Legacy target Sparky
Legacy target SPRacingF3
Legacy target SPRacingF3EVO
Legacy target SPRacingF3EVO_1SS
DevDocs Configuration.md
Request form new PRESET
DevDocs Introduction.md
Welcome to INAV, useful links and products
iNav Telemetry
DevDocs Rangefinder.md
DevDocs Rssi.md
DevDocs Runcam device.md
DevDocs Serial.md
DevDocs Telemetry.md
DevDocs Rx.md
DevDocs Spektrum bind.md

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