Typhoon H 480 PX4 v1.10 (Stability issues ;-)

h-elsner · Mar 1, 2023

Sorry, The link in documentation is too old. The latest FW and default parameter file is here: Thunderbird/Thunderbird_170521_FT_LATEST.zip at Typhoon_H_480 · tonirosendahl/Thunderbird
To download use the button:

br HE

Niels · Mar 19, 2023

Hello guys i'm thinking to switch to thunderbird. I've read the docs but I still have one question. Why is the sonar not supported and what about the realsense. Is it hard to add it to the firmware? Does px4 not support it natively?

h-elsner · Mar 20, 2023

Thunderbird FW was a one-man show of Pöllö from Finland. He did the necessary parts of the FW to get it fly, no more. Now he is doing other things and disappeared from this forum.
Unfortunately no other developer of the community is interested in to continue the project. PX4 supports a lot of sensors, RealSense. LIDAR and so on, but it needs developer. Typhoon H is a niche product with little recognition in the PX4 community and is also relatively old. It is near the Intel Aero which was abandoned by Intel a long time ago.

I do not expect that we get something more as we have today. I found some problems in FW "Thunderbird_170521_CD". I think it is better to use still "Thunderbird_030420_CD".

br HE

1midniterider · Sunday at 2:24 PM

h-elsner said:
Thunderbird FW was a one-man show of Pöllö from Finland. He did the necessary parts of the FW to get it fly, no more. Now he is doing other things and disappeared from this forum.
Unfortunately no other developer of the community is interested in to continue the project. PX4 supports a lot of sensors, RealSense. LIDAR and so on, but it needs developer. Typhoon H is a niche product with little recognition in the PX4 community and is also relatively old. It is near the Intel Aero which was abandoned by Intel a long time ago.

I do not expect that we get something more as we have today. I found some problems in FW "Thunderbird_170521_CD". I think it is better to use still "Thunderbird_030420_CD".

br HE

Could this firmware be installed on the PixHawk 2.4.8 or the PixHawk 6C?

h-elsner · Sunday at 4:05 PM

This FW is made especially for the Typhoon H hardware. You can install it on another flight controller but this will not work.

1midniterider · Monday at 4:51 PM

In the flash documentation, it states there are two methods of connecting the FC to the firmware flash board. Is one method preferred over the other? It would seem that using the detachable cable would be preferred...

h-elsner · Tuesday at 3:31 AM

Which method you use depends on:
- your soldering experience
- how often you want to reflash the boot loader (standard case is to do it once -> method 1)
- avalibility of the connectors (method 2)
You can also think about using pogo pins if you plan a "mass production" of new-flashed mcu boards. See #207.

Typhoon H 480 PX4 v1.10 (Stability issues ;-)

A new version of the User manual is available now for review: https://github.com/h-elsner/Thunderbird/tree/Typhoon_H_480/Documentation Major updates done in chapter "Flying". br HE

yuneecpilots.com

1midniterider · 2024-04-27T08:15:49-0400

It would appear my board is slightly different than the ones depicted in the firmware flashing document. Instead of pin holes for the test points, mine has actual pads.

h-elsner · 2024-04-27T08:39:25-0400

All MCU boards have only pads. It's up to you how to connect those five wires to the SWD port at the ST-Link (soldering wires or tiny socket connectors). I have used three possibilities:
- wires direct to the pads: fast and easy, but it is dangerous if you want to do it twice or more...
- pin holes broken out from a connector row: this can be used very often if you are careful - use case for intensive testing, that was the MCU board I have used for the pictures (may be misleading but show one of the possibilities)
- if you have soldering skills and the tiny connector at hand, the the connector can be used do flash bootloader as often as you want.

Alternative and most professional would be an adapter with pogo pins. But this is only needed when you plan to flash a lot of boards.

The normal use case is one-time-fashing. For this I prefer now to solder thin wires direct to the pads.