Getting the FMOD switch to work on Devo 7e

I wasn't sure where to put this, so General Discussion is as good as any.

Anyways, I've decided to build my first FPV quad, as well as my first real RC build. That being said, I'm really new to all this stuff.
The model I ended up getting uses a DSM2 receiver, so because these Devos are a ways cheaper than the other options, I picked one up (a 7e, to be exact.) I loaded up Deviation and all that jazz, so that I could actually connect to the DSM2 receiver.

The board I have needs to be programmed with a computer, and so I ended up using OpenPilot, as that's what the manufacturer of the drone kit suggested. I've gotten everything to work thus far (about 50% luck and 50% being able to see patterns), everything but the FMOD switch. When I go through the transmitter setup wizard, I can get through the FMOD part by flipping the switch like the wizard tells me to, yet after that, the switch is permanently recognized as being in the 2nd position, regardless of what the actual position is.

I figured maybe there was something in the model setup I had to do, but I was greeted with three different things for FMOD. I thought the switch only transmitted through one channel.

I have no idea what I'm doing. Please help

Welcome to the world of deviation. I'll try to address your question, but I want to first remind you that the Devo 7e user manual is linked on the left of this page.

Also, can you post your Model.ini file?

There are two screens that you need to use to track this, the Channel Monitor and Input monitor. They are in the Transmitter menu; It lists the Channel monitor and you use the right arrow button to see the inputs. The Input monitor should show when you flip the switch, and the channel monitor shows what channel values will be sent to the RX. I'm thinking you've got something assigned on the virtual channels, Virt 1 and Virt 2. I suggest clearing those by changing the mix to none. Then make sure you have channel six set to a simple mix, assign src FMODE0, use a 1-to-1 curve. You can leave the rest at default. Use the monitor screens to confirm that you see the FMOD switch changing and that the channel six value changes. If that's not happening at the TX, your Flight controller won't see it.

Virtual channels are part of what makes Deviation great! But let's walk before running, right? Once the desired channels are working we can use the virtual channels for flight modes, rates, and other functions if needed.

Let us know the results.

Okay, I feel like I'm getting there. I did have the virts set to things. I turned them off and set Ch6 to FMOD0 with a 1-1 curve. The Ch6 output from the channel monitor reads 100 when then switch is in the 1st position and -100 when it's in the second. The stick input shows that the FMOD0 and 1 are doing stuff as well.

I can still get through the wizard, but OpenPilot still isn't recognizing my switch, and defaults to positions 2. Thanks for the help thus far, by the way.

I also attached the model1.ini

It really helps to see the INI!

Take out channel 7, Trim5 and Trim6. Those are also using FMODE states. Actually Channel 7 may be OK; do you know what OpenPilot expects there? In the current setting it will always have the OPPOSITE setting of Channel 6.... but you'll only be able to see that on the channel monitor if you set Channels=7 in the model setup screen.

Oh, a bit picky I am... also set your FixedID to something else. "123456" is the default and it's a bad idea to leave it there. It's easiest to change in the gui... bind first, then make the change so the RX sees the change and you don't have to bind again.

You're getting there. Let us know what OpenPilot wants on each channel.

I turned the trims off, and I'm still having the same issues. I'll attach a screenshot of OpenPilot's input config screen.

Did you try calibrating in OpenPilot? It seems to see the Channel 6 input as 853 for min and max. But your channel monitor shows (in Devo scale) -100 to 100, so OpenPilot should see the full range on Channel 6. That's almost like it's either not connected or it is tied to ground. Does your RX channel 6 signal wire connect to the right pins on the FC?

Okay, so attached is a picture of the wires connected to my board. They are channels 6-1 from left to right. The channels 1-4 have what I'm guessing are motor wires. The one left over I'm going to assume is the FMOD wire (?), if that's a thing. It's in channel 5's slot, so I guess I should fix that.

I moved the wire over to channel 6 and re-did the setup. The switch is still unresponsive, but the numbers for the min and max have changed (to 171, see 2nd attachment)

Can you tell me the exact model of your receiver and the flight controller? This really seems like a hardware thing.

The first four wires should be channels 1-4, usually aileron, elevator, throttle and rudder. Unless your RX and FC can talk SBus or CPPM. If the wires are connected to motors then we're looking in the wrong place. So if II know the models, maybe I can figure out the right wiring.

Okay, so the FC is a modified CC3D board. The differences can be found here www.buddyrc.com/cc3d-flight-control-board.html

And as for the receiver, I honestly don't know. I ordered a kit ( www.buddyrc.com/spedix-s250-arf-kit-cc3d-version.html ) and it doesn't give it a name in the info besides "1x DSM2 compatible receiver satellite" I'll try to see if there's any visual marking on the receiver itself when I get home.

Edit: Also, when I said motor wires, I meant ESC wires

FWIW, that looks like an OrangeRx. If it's not got a label on it, you probably can't do much better than that.

If that's the same receiver you got that is on the RCGroups page, then that receiver plugs into the FC via an SBUS connection located opposite the pins you've shown. The long pins are for FC Output, e.g. go to ESC or servos. SBUS carries all your channels, if you've connected the little three-wire cable with white ends to the FC. So you don't need anything connected to the sixth position of the output.

Also, the notes in that thread indicate that channel 5 is the Flight Mode selection. Set up Channel 5 with a switch and see if that works.

I'm sorry I'm not really that familiar with the FC and receiver, but I've worked on a few. I hope this is helpful.

Okay, I'll try this when I get home. So the red and brown wire in the picture a gave a couple posts up should remain in the ch5 slot?

What is the red and brown wire connected to? If the RX you have is an SBUS satellite like the kit shows, then you would only connect one cable from the RX to the SBUS port on the FC. I'm guessing, so if you can post a full shot of the FC and the RX I can probably confirm.

Here's all the sides of the FC. It looks like the red/brown wire is connected to the power distribution board (I'm putting it in an imgur because the thing keeps erroring out when I try to attach pictures). Maybe a low voltage alarm thing? I don't really know.

I'll go change the transmitter's settings and get back to you on that.

Edit: I swapped the transmitter's FMOD to ch5, and redid the setup. It still doesn't register me flipping the switch, but it did understand that the channel changed to 5 from 6

The red brown wire provides 5v or 3.3v power to the FC and RX from the power distribution board. Your RX connects to the FC probably via a three- or four-wire cable with white Molex ends. The RX is probably using SBUS, which maybe means the channels are preconfigured.

If it was me I would configure one switch (maybe gear or dr) to change channel 5 and a different switch to change channel 6, just to see which is moving. If that works, great! But since OpenPilot has become LibrePilot, it's hard to find reliable docs, and you may need to pose the question on the RCG forum for this quad. I think you want to use channel 5, and it appears to be the default, but it appears to be selectable.

Oh, I noticed that the FMODE switch is still in use in the trims 5 and 6. Go into the trims menu and remove those entries. I can't check it now, but I am wondering if the trims are set to momentary they may be preventing the FMODE values from changing. Maybe?

Let us know what you get.

I'm pretty sure that trims 5 and 6 are disabled. Here's my current model1.ini

Besides that, you want me to change channel 6 on my transmitter to something (like gear or dr) and the same with my channel 5? Or am I misunderstanding?

Edit: Okay, so I went and set Ch2 to FMOD, Ch3 to throttle, Ch4 as yaw, Ch5 roll, and Ch6 to pitch. Everything seems to work fine except the FMOD (it's doing the same things it always has been doing, just on a different channel). The only thing that's odd is that when I move my pitch up, the value goes to the minimum and not the max. Seems like a setup error, but I've done the setup multiple times and it always ends up that way.

I'm assuming that the FMOD transmits properly, and that the receiver receives the data, but it doesn't deal with the numbers correctly. Is that about right?

I'm suggesting that you use two switches for two channels, so that you can see which channel works. Here is essentially the mix I mean:
...
[channel5]
template=simple
[mixer]
src=HOLD1
dest=Ch5

[channel6]
template=simple
[mixer]
src=FMODE1
dest=Ch6
...

Also please remove channel 7. Your trims no longer include those channels, so the rest of the ini you attached is ok except that both channel 5 and 7 used the FMOD switch, and that's probably not useful right now.

We know that the Devo 7e thinks the FMODE switch is working correctly in the input screen. When we assign it to only channel 6, the channel monitor should show it going from -100 to 100. We should see the same behavior on channel 5 when you use the HOLD switch. So please confirm 1. That the input screen shows the HOLD and FMODE switches working, and 2. That the channel monitor shows channel 5 changing off to on with the HOLD switch, and that you get the same results with channel 6 using FMODE.

If this is working then the FC should be able to see these channels correctly.

Okay, I set Ch5 to HOLD1 and Ch6 to FMOD1. Both the input and output screens show the two switches working correctly. I also turned off Ch7. I had the amount of channels in my model setup as 6, so I forgot about turning Ch7 off as it didn't chow up on my screen. Also, thanks for the help so far.

Edit: Okay, I think I got it to work! I was looking at the values the transmitter sent versus what OpenPilot saw them as, and I realized that when the transmitter sent a value of 100, the receiver (or FC, not sure) understood it as 853, with 171 being it's counterpart (for -100). The FMOD switch sends a value of -100 to 100, so I set the min/ neutral/ max to 171/ 512/ 853 respectively (see attachment). Everything seems to work, but I have yet to do any flight tests with it as of now. I'm hoping this has fixed it.