Lynxmotion Quadrino Nano – MultiWii & LED Ring

This tutorial is about the connection between a Lynxmotion Quadrino Nano and the DFRobot LED Ring. Some folks around the MultiWii project (software that runs inside the Quadrino Nano) developed a piece of software to get visual feedback from the flight controller to an available LED ring. We will list the needed parts as well as the process of making the connection needed to complete this system. Some of the features that are available and coded are listed on the Google Code project page.

Items required:

• USB to Serial FTDI adapter (DFRobot suggested)
• DFRobot LEDring module
• Quadrino Nano Flight Controller
• Quadrino Nano I2C Wiring Harness (included with the Quadrino Nano)

Software required:

• Lynxmotion FCT
• Arduino IDE

Files Required

• LEDring & Quadrino Nano - V0.1.zip

1.0 - DFRobot Ring Setup

1.1 - Arduino IDE boards

In order to reprogram the DFRobot LEDring for this project, you will have to add a new board to the list of supported devices in the Arduino IDE. This is as simple as adding the text to the board.txt file in the Arduino installation folder. The file is located here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\hardware\arduino\avr\boards.txt You have to add the following to the end of the doc. We suggest using Notepad++ but it can be done in other software as well. This text is also available in the zip file named "Board ADD.txt". ############################################################## lilypado.name=DFRobot LED Ring v3 lilypado.build.board=AVR_LILYPAD lilypado.upload.tool=avrdude lilypado.bootloader.tool=avrdude lilypado.upload.protocol=arduino lilypado.upload.maximum_size=14336 lilypado.upload.speed=115200 lilypado.build.mcu=atmega168 lilypado.build.f_cpu=8000000L lilypado.build.core=arduino lilypado.build.variant=standard ############################################################## Note: Sometimes you have to copy the “boards.txt” elsewhere to edit it and put it back in its original location.

1.2 - LEDring Flashing

Now the board should be available in the list of boards in the Arduino IDE software. Open the “LEDring_for_MultiWii.ino” project and select the “DFRobot LED Ring v3” board as well as COM Port number for your FTDI adapter. Now you can flash the project. That's it for the LEDring side.

2.0 - Quadrino Nano Setup

2.1 - FCT Option

You have to enable the function in MultiWii regarding the LEDring. The option is already present in the FCT application so you just have to set it and flash your flight controller.

2.2 - Wiring

Using the Quadrino Nano I2C cable, connect the LEDring to the Quadrino on the 5V I2C port. Here are two images that show how to properly connect the cable on both ends.

Sources:

MultiWii LEDRing Project Wiki DFRobot Rainbow Ring V3