I am currently trying to make an autonomous quadpter with an Arduino Uno and a flight controller. To start I have built an RC quadcopter, the next step that makes logical sense to me is to figure out what signals the RC receiver sends to the flight controller in order to control speed. My current problem is that I can not get any of the PWM outputs to write in the serial monitor so that I can figure out how to replicate the signal. Any ideas on how to read this signal?
This is how I have it set up currently while trying to read one channel, I am using the example AnalogRead code:
PWM is a digital signal. The pulse width will vary from around 1mS for one extreme (0°) to 1.5mS at center (90°) to about 2mS for the opposite extreme (180°). Pulse amplitude is 0 or 5V. Connect the receiver output to a digital input pin and use pulseIn() to measure the pulse width. PulseIn() gives the pulse width in microseconds (1000 to 2000).
The output from your receiver will be exactly the same sort of thing that the Arduino produces with the servo.write(angle) and the servo.writeMicroseconds(microseconds) commands.
