Just a few days ago I stumbled on an article on how to connect the board to my PC using a FTDI basic adapter. I have on of these adapters as they are very useful when working with quad building. They are relatively cheap and can be purchased her on Ebay.
Grab your FTDI basic
Connect the cables
Find J2/serial port
GND on the basic goes to GND on the FC
VCC on Basic goes to +5v on the FC
TXD on the basic goes to RXD on the FC
RXD on the basic goes to TXD on the FC
DTR on the Basic goes to DTR on the FC
Connect the usb cable from the PC to the USB port on the basic, Remember to download the drivers for the FTDI controller from her and install them.
Your flight controller should fire up,
Choose the correct com port and you can again update your firmware using the FTDI basic
Now you can start mission planner, choose the correct COM port and press connect, you are now able to use your board like you did before
Well hope it helped....
You could easy repair this, i had also a bad usb connector from an ARM Cortex Development kit, Add some flux to the pads, make them flat.
SvarSletThen place the connector and solder the four grounding pads on each side.
After this place a small ammount of flux on the usb connections and again with a small ammount of solder on the iron tip solder the remaining pads.
And always clean that flux.
BTW i've finaly finished my tricopter. :D
Take a look here https://plus.google.com/u/0/107852056227918760440/posts/KixiKDGY7nr?pid=6139354544874765794&oid=107852056227918760440
I had a little problem with yaw, i should invert the servo.
Otherwise it spins like crazy. I just broke a couple of zip ties.
Im gonna try today with the inverted yaw output.
Sounds easy...but i don' t have a fine tipped soldering iron. I installed a telemetry unit on the board then i could connect the PC with the unit via the telemetry. So all the same. Nice build by the way.
SvarSletOh good work arround, cable free. What did u use? Bluetooth adapter?
SvarSletIm also thinking about adding telemetry on the flight controller.
I'm thinking about an easy application,
1 arduino nano pro 1 BT adapter and 1 Wireless Serial adapter on the ground.
1 Serial adapter on the copter connected to FC.
This application will provide longer range and will use the BT to communicate on the ground. we could use the phone running a multiwii monitoring application to get the telemetry on Android/iOS just by connecting on with BT.
What do you think? let me know.