Newbie Drone build help needed

Yes, for variuos resons I paused my build. But now it's getting done! Finally...hopefully. Thanks all for helping when needed. Right now I'm trying to figure out if there'äs a way to get hold of a ribbon cable with connectors to connect my Matek FCHUB-6S PDB to my Airbot Omnibus F4 V5 FCB?! I don't understand. If they are not delivered with the components I bought, where do people get them? I can't find this cable online. Maybe I didn't search well enough, anyone that can point me to the right cable? I rather not solder if I don't need to for this.
 
Yah sorry I would assume come with kit versions of it would come with the appropriate cable, I've had them come completely bare or with some cables included, personally I've always just soldered my signal wires into the through hole connections (when using this PDB I did use some little silicone wires to basically make the 'cable' between the FC through hole connections and the PDB). I've done a lot of soldering between electric skateboard building and quadcopters so this isn't really a huge ask for me and saves from hunting for cables all day and then questioning how good the crimp connections are etc. etc. (I'd rather have a wire soldered on two ends going between boards than connectors where possible/practical, anything "permanent" can be soldered).

All that said would need to find the diagram for pinout for your specific FC and PDB to see if the pins for the connection match up or if some things would need to be swapped to make it work
blog.dronetrest.com

Omnibus F4 V5 Flight Controller Guide

Right now many agree that the Omnibus F4 series is one of the best F4 flight controllers you can buy for the money. There where a few issues with the first few versions, but since V4, they now work flawlessly and this is the flight controller I recommencement to everyone.
blog.dronetrest.com blog.dronetrest.com

Honestly in this case I think the "easy route" is actually way harder :D. Maybe @RENOV8R or another forum member can point you to a simple out of the box solution. Think usually when people are using the cable for the connection to a 4 in one ESC from FC or otherwise it's when they buy a full 30x30 or 20x20 stack with everything included, like these packages:

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If you want to use a ribbon cable it comes with the Matek F405-OSD Flight Controller. The airbot v5 is compatible with your pdb but you'll have to solder all the wires directly.
As Wafflejock said direct soldering is THE best way to do it although not the easiest.
 
Ok, I think I can do this. I just want to make sure I understand exactly what I need to do and why. So, I'm supposed to solder thin silicone wires from the PDB to the FCB. These wires will throughput signals from the FCB to the ECS's, via the PDB and the thin orange wires connected to the ECS's? The S1-S4 on the PDB corresponds to the S1-S4 in each corner on the PDB and these are then supposed to be connected up to where it says PWM 1-4 on on the schema in the attached pic? If not, where?
 

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No you need to solder the signal wires coming off the escs into the fcb (flight control board) not the pdb; motor 1 wire gets soldered to s1 hole on the fcb.

You should not have the esc signal wires soldered to the pdb (echub) unless you're using the ribbon cable with the matek f7 board.

You might have to un-solder some wires.
 
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At this point you have two options:

1. Un-solder the signal wires from your pdb and re-solder them into your fcb.

2.Buy the matek f7 board that comes with the ribbon cable to hook it up that way.

I would probably spend the $40 and try the f7 if it was me but it's your choice and either way you'll have an awesome flying kwad!
 
Thanks @Dugdog47. I soldered the signal wires to the PB due to instructions I found online, didn't realize I needed the ribbon clable (which I didn't know I don't have) for that approach. I'll just reconnect it to thje FCB instead, should be easy enough. Thanks!
 
This wouldn't be the kind of cable I need between the FCB and PDB? https://www.getfpv.com/8pin-jst-sh-4-in-1-esc-to-fc-cable-3cm.html I really need to find a cable if at all possible. It won't be optimal to extened cables etc., and I bet there will be more wires I need to connect between the boards too if I don't have this cable. Much slicker with a ribbon cable. Ps. I connected the FCB to the BetaFlight App and it all seem to work fine.
 
That could work but it is not "plug and play". You would have to do a little modification and solder some wires together.
 
It helps to have a pin map, just google omnibus f4 v5 pinmap and you should be able to find something like this pic. Notice the red circle, that's where the plug goes each wire gets soldered to a spot on your pdb.

PhotoEditor_20200320_163737579(1).jpg
 
What you should do is order the matek f722 board that comes with a simple ribbon cable that IS plug and play with the fchub pdb as shown here. I don't even know how to plug these ribbon cables in lol!!
20200320_165421(1).jpg
 
Dugdog47 said:
What you should do is order the matek f722 board that comes with a simple ribbon cable that IS plug and play with the fchub pdb as shown here. I don't even know how to plug these ribbon cables in lol!!
View attachment 5569
Click to expand...
You just carefully push the little black clip back away from the white part the ribbon goes into then with the pins exposed facing the PCB and push it all the way in so it sits flat then push the little black clips towards the white part to lock it down. They are a little fiddly but work surprisingly well.

Fingernails help here you just slide the black clip back and forward but don't try to pull it up away from the PCB or anything it just slides.
 
I really want to put this on a beater kwad and see how well it holds up to rough landings probably much better than the jst but is it better than directly soldering the signal wires strait into the flight controller? Inquiring minds wanna know
 
Dugdog47 said:
I really want to put this on a beater kwad and see how well it holds up to rough landings probably much better than the jst but is it better than directly soldering the signal wires strait into the flight controller? Inquiring minds wanna know
Click to expand...
Yah think your assessment is probably right, better than jst probably less reliable and higher resistance connection than soldered but they are used for raspberry pi cameras and some board components in phones as interconnects. Think so long as the ribbon part is pretty well secured it shouldn't vibrate too much and come loose or cause issues.

oh right my runcam uses them too and haven't had an issue with it on there, was no signal when bad connection or full good signal with good connecfion.
 
Dugdog47 said:
What you should do is order the matek f722 board that comes with a simple ribbon cable that IS plug and play with the fchub pdb as shown here. I don't even know how to plug these ribbon cables in lol!!
Click to expand...

Thanks, but I need to find another solution. After all I have a good FCB and a good PDB. Not motivated to put that extra monay on the table just to get a cable. But next time I will buy a combo, wish I had known about this optrion earlier. Thx
 
Dugdog47 said:
It helps to have a pin map, just google omnibus f4 v5 pinmap and you should be able to find something like this pic. Notice the red circle, that's where the plug goes each wire gets soldered to a spot on your pdb.
Click to expand...

Cool. I will order one of those cables so I can keep the setup I have already and just need to solder each of those wires to the PDB. Thx
 
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