Switch things on and off with your Betaflight FC pinio and pinio_box in depth tutorial

Uncertain about what to buy? Check out THE ULTIMATE FPV SHOPPING LIST: www.fpvknowitall.com/ultimate...
SUPPORT ME ON PATREON at: bit.ly/2Ep5Sia
THIS IS MY FULL TIME JOB. Here are other ways that you can support me: www.fpvknowitall.com/support-me/
---
Betaflight's pinio and pinio_box are some of the most powerful and mysterious functions of Betaflight. Let's take a look at how you can us them to switch things on and off with your Betaflight FC.
Betaflight Wiki pinio page: github.com/betaflight/betafli...
-- TABLE OF CONTENTS --
0:00 - Introduction
1:30 - Choose a pad on your FC to control the pinio device
5:11 - Back up your configuration
5:58 - Find the pin that corresponds to your selected pad using "resource" command
What can you remap where in Betaflight? • Betaflight Resource Re...
9:07 - What even is pinio_box anyway?
13:05 - Set up User aux modes
How to set up aux modes? • Beginner Guide $120 FP...
14:41 - Assign pinio modes to pins using resource remapping
16:15 - What is really happening when you flip the switch
17:02 - Check for pre-existing pinio assignments before you start!
18:23 - Conclusion

[@sunshynff]

Thanks sooo much Joshua, this video is proof positive for me that the more of your tutorials someone watches as they get into the hobby, or just learn a new skill, the better off they are down the road learning more in depth stuff. You're tutorial on re-mapping motors a while back, helped me in so many situations, and have gotten very comfortable doing so. Watching this video, everything seemed like a natural continuation from the re-mapping video, and I got my naked GoPro 8 on a Aux switch in no time at all. Thanks for all you do!!

[@DerDirkBelana]

After all these years of learning from your greate work, I realized today, that you are left handed. It's about the little things, that make me happy :-D AND AS ALLWAYS: ""Great job Joshua!"

[@justfpv9475]

Great video, Joshua! Thank you so much for all your work! Cheers

[@Kriselice]

Truly clear and complete. As always. thx.

[@dermechaniker9950]

Thanks man had a problem to recreate and resource the led light function for my cinebot30 o3 after switching from betaflight 4.3 to 4.5...but now i got it ! Love your vids! So go on...😊 And thanks for introducing me in the hobby 4 yesrs ago ...have built 6 quads until now and its always fun👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 Best wisches from Germany

[@lezartvert]

You're the only one best FPV'S teatcher, Joshua ! 👍 🏆

[@MCsCreations]

Pretty interesting process, Joshua! 😊 Thanks a lot!!! Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[@preaudetjeanjason357]

nice Joshua, i was struggling with this you are the boss

[@banabread1113]

Great video, very informative!

[@neekfpv7131]

great info as always

[@thejeffhendrix]

Saving this in my play list.

[@colbiecallister2307]

Really love the “under the hood type content” thanks man 🤘

[@StuckOnAFireHydrant]

Is that a pilot metropolitan I see JB? I see your a fan of your pens as well! Great, informative video as always man!

[@patricksharp3355]

that's what I saw. Blew my mind scary how he likes all of our hobbies

[@kendalackron3093]

Thank you i was wondering what that was!

[@johnk8825]

Clear as mud until you sprayed the mud off. This is really neat, I luv stuff like this, well done Joshua.

[@alexburrows202]

That's awesome - on a related note is there anyway to use the peripheral controls on the DJI controller such as the shoulder buttons, or can we only use the aux switches? Guessing the peripheral controls are not exposed to betaflight, reserved for DJI FPV.

[@jeffcopus]

LOL, I just wired up my SMO 4K on Saturday Evening. I must have been channeling my inner Joshua. I pieced the steps together from a couple of other videos you did a while back.

[@starman5565]

Thanks was really stuck not now though Thanks an love your channel

[@juliannojungle]

I have an og Runcam dvr that doesn't have an uart on it, but the start/stop button on it connects signal to gnd. I just soldered a wire from button's signal pin to the buzzer's gnd pin on flight controller. The buzzer's gnd pin is the only one that switch gnd rather than signal on a flight controller. Than I now can start/stop recording on the radio using pinio beautifully! 🙌🏻🎉🚀👍🏻 In fact using this method you can turn on/off almost any device. You just need to figure out what are their power buttons doing (connecting signal to gnd or signal to vcc) to know where to put it on the FC.

[@ccdevil773]

Thanks for the useful infos Josh, but what about if we would like to switch the VTX on/off without using external device ? Is it possible to use this method ? Thanks

[@ShaneKnudsen]

Coming from the land of Arduino, I figured there had to be a way to do this. Now I know. Thanks!

[@hateeternalmaver]

THANKS, Joshua!

[@PAYNEFPV]

Works great with my 95x and smo! Not sure why BetaFPV didn’t wire it like this from the get-go, it was pretty much plug and play.

[@mightyminer4001]

Great video, but I'm having an issue. Dohe all the steps above and the red light on my naked gopro is always red. the fc im using is blitz mini f7 and i have the yellow wire connected to T3, any help please

[@illusionistsam]

So that means we can also make two pads as rx and tx for additional port maybe is i understand it right

[@Gosuminer]

Is this camera smart enough to finish saving the recording before powering off? If not we could use a logical switch in OpenTX to delay powering off (folks using a DJI or Flysky radio are out of luck). Also I propose to add an (advanced mode) user interface for PinIO in BF configurator. It is too useful to be hidden within the CLI.

[@richardamiss7000]

Great info! I'm totally confused as to why those soft serial pins were pre-assigned to motors as well though. Seems like you would have met confusion if you either wanted to use motors 5/6 or the soft serial. Or maybe only an issue if you enable both?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Correct. You could use a hex mixer with those pads as motor outputs.

[@flowstate_link]

Thanks for the information. I am curious to know what the reliability of this is like. I had everything setup and working. They it just stopped. Osca Liang mentioned problems with reliability what has your experience been long term? Also thank you for diving into various bits covered in this video. Great work!

[@richardamiss7000]

If it stops working then a setting has changed or hardware issues like a broken pad or cable.

[@1spiralout]

I learned the Xilo Stax FC can switch power on and off to a VTX with pinio by flashing Emuflight, where it was off by default. Took a while to figure out why there was no power to my VTX.

[@alwayshathbeen3340]

I’m so ready to learn somethin’ today. I’ll finally be able to get my RunCam DVR-S board to start/stop recording.

[@xrxfpv1994]

I only connected the stop/start recording .... and it also powers on the SMO 4k. kinda cool, not sure as it doesn't seem the intention.

[@maddercat]

I have a fc I bought second hand, my tx3 and rx3 are set to none, how do I put the uart back on them? Any ideas? When I typed that in google it led me here, I guess this has the commands to do it but I need to know the pinout for my chip and which one its not using I guess, and I need to assign that pin a box value I guess?

[@its_AlphaSloth]

That's a nice pen

[@trevorimpulsebuyguy6398]

I like it alot

[@anthonyechevarria5485]

Damn wish this video came out before I smashed my SMO4k. Still, great video Bardwell.

[@f0xvibes]

I've a jhemcu f722BT. it has 2 cam Input which can be switched with user 1. unfortunately i made a solder bride from vin to 5v. now the ic labeled 3108 is dead. do you know what part this is? 6legs: 1 goes to cam1 2 goes to cam2 3 gnd 4 goes user 1 pin on the f722 5 goes to the osd vin via 75ohm resistor 6 probably NC i could directly solder 1 cam to the 75ohm resistor and it works, but i like to replace the IC. but for this i need to know what ic it is which is labeled 3108....

[@Joe_Hannsen]

Hi Joshua, thank you for the great video and the explanations. My current task for our drone project is to get our SMO 4k Camera to work without using the Betaflight FC controller and after listening to your 20 minutes of explanation the task looks a bit less overwhelming!! Am I getting it right that the ON/OFF and the record pins of the camera are controlled by just high signal for ON and low signal for OFF? Like in my theory it should work by first putting 3.3V continously on the ON/OFF pin, then 3.3V continously on the Record pin as long as I wanna record. In the firsts tests the camera recorded unreadable video and the LED turned red (Solid), which indicates a battery signal(???). Do you have an advice? Update: I guess I figured it out. The blue ON/OFF wire of the camera needs a short impulse of 3.3V to turn the cam on and a long impulse (~2 sec) to turn it off. While the cam is active the yellow Rec wire of the camera first needs a short impulse to start the recording and again a short impulse to stop recording. The only thing that confuses me still is that you could measure constant 3.3V signal on the ON/OFF wire with your multimeter when your aux channel turned it on. My camera turns off after a few seconds when I keep up the High signal. Anyways, thanks again for the great video!

[@aldimetech1134]

Gratitude!

[@aLDimeDevUAV_FPV]

ATTENTION! DO NOT try to set this up for BetaFPV SMO 4K - it will never work properly!!!

[@CopterBeeFPV]

I want this t-shirt 😮😂

[@rubenvaneupen7327]

Can you also switch betaflight parameters on/off with a radio switch? anti-taz runaway_takeoff_prevention parameter ON/OFF on a radio switch? Nice to not have an auto-disarm when you are stuck on a roof with 3 blades of grass around one prop. Being able to spin up to full throttle no matter what can save you an unsave trip to the rooftop. I noticed my quad was often not able to take of with just minor entanglements of one motor/prop, that I'm sure would be cut off if the prop was allowed to spin up properly (putting the throttle stick to full).

[@laurynasagejevas1200]

Woah so powerful! You could hook this up to some transistors and diy yourself a cheatercam switch or some laser tag shooting thingy or repurpose your fc to a 500hz expresslrs light switch!

[@laurynasagejevas1200]

Or finally make my tarsier start/stop recording in flight!

[@JoshuaBardwell]

With this function, wired properly, you can basically emulate a button press on a device like a Tarsier or a typical vTX. Back in the day, people would use this function to change band/channel on vTX that didn't have smartaudio.

[@laurynasagejevas1200]

@@JoshuaBardwell yep, but with some transistors and pull up/down resistors on a prototyping board you can switch basically anything :D

[@richardamiss7000]

Or get yerself a 3.3v relay and drop parachutes or turn on lights or control your garage door from your drone. The sky is the limit!

[@paulblase3955]

Thanks. One of the problems with software like Betalight is that the people writing the manuals assume that you know what you're doing. It took me three days to figure out that "Pinio" is a CLI function! If you're writing manuals, don't assume.

[@abimaputra]

But u cant directly control cam since it was logic 1 aka 3.3v/5v. U have to add transistor or scr or similar to givr power to cam

[@speedracerjg]

So I just got the defender 25 with the dji o3 and I have a few dji remote 2 grey controllers so I figured I would just try out the remote 2 pnp option. I’m thinking that may have been a mistake because the way this looks to operate, without a second uart controlling rtx, I can’t shut the unit off via remote and still have rx connectivity…doesn’t the rrx and vrx run through the air unit when it’s configured this way? Should I just add a nano rx and get rid of this sbus wire so I can use my tango 2? I tried to configure the dji remote 2 to turn off vtx, but it killed the vtx permanently until I reloaded the config and cycled power….it’s like the FC couldn’t power the o3 back up without the remote command. And if the o3 is powered down, I get no radio. Is there a way to make it work?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

No there's no way to make it work. If you shut down the O3, you also lose controller link.

[@speedracerjg]

@@JoshuaBardwell yeah…I’m going to add the nano. I really feel like I should have known this was the case before I ordered it, but they could easily add a note to the product page that the pnp option will limit vtx power mode functionality…but I should’ve known lol…

[@speedracerjg]

@@JoshuaBardwell Thanks. Got the nano rx installed and kept the sbus from the o3 wired up and the tango 2 works fine. Very easy and clean. Now to tune it. The PIDs on this out of the box seem crazy high.

[@FPVMATE]

Can I do this on runcam5 such that I can record the footage and turn on blackbox recording on the same instant?

[@Gosuminer]

There is no easy way to do that. In theory you could open your Runcam 5, solder wires to the start/stop button and use a relais connected to a PinIO pad. If your goal is to sync your video to your blackbox recording this wouldn't help much because the Runcam needs a little time before actually starting the recording. It's easier to start the recording manually and then giving the quad a small bump that you will be able to see in the video and in the gyro movement in blackbox.

[@FPVMATE]

@@Gosuminer thanks a lot for replying man, yeah I agree with your point ,it's hectic to do this, I opened the cam and learned that inside the switch there are three terminals the middle one is at 0V and to its right and left the terminals are at 1.78V each. If the switch is pressed the 1.78 V pins are brought to 0v so I thought I will assign a button in tx such that at its normal position the blackbox is recording but if I do the above mentioned steps shown in video and assign that when the switch's state is changed the blackbox recording will stop and as soon as I leave the switch it will spring back to its original position making the camera to start recording and the blackbox will start a new log. But as you said if the camera has some inbuilt delay after the button being released then this won't work.

[@Fz.adrenaline]

Hello joshua , need ur help . i have LeD for my drone and its only 2 wire. + and - only . it is possible to make a switch or we must need 3 wire led to make it switch on and off using pinio ?

[@Fz.adrenaline]

Mines was 24v led , connect via bat pad on the fc , i wonder can it make a switch using pinio ? only have 2 wire .

[@JoshuaBardwell]

You need a "realpit" device to switch that led in and off using pinio.

[@Fz.adrenaline]

@@JoshuaBardwell what do you mean real pit ?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/pYSQdph3pJpmo5o

[@GoatZilla]

Kind of wish they would implement IOCFG_OUT_OD. Not sure why it's not supported...

[@baggszilla]

Could you use this as a pit switch to switch off/on your VTX?

[@GRANOLAFPV]

AFAIK, for a VTX, this requires a switchable power output - whereas this video is using switchable signal outputs. That means the FC itself has to support power output switching, since otherwise the power pads are permanently and physically connected to power. That said, FCs with built-in power switching _do_ use the pinio function to assign the User 1 mode to the switchable power output. (JB mentions this briefly at 17:20 as well.)

[@baggszilla]

@@GRANOLAFPV thanks makes sense!

[@KifScheuer]

I'm trying this path but running into an issue - when I try to check and see if there's anything assigned already and type get pinio_box or get pinio_config, I'm getting ###ERROR: INVALID NAME### I think I should get a return even if nothing is assigned (255,255,255,255) Does this mean my fc (an older spracing F3 Neo) can't do this?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Yes correct. The F3 isn't running a version of Betaflight that supports this.

[@KifScheuer]

@@JoshuaBardwell Ah well. Thanks for confirming. And more importantly, thanks for all your work in this space. You are a pretty amazing teacher. As someone who often struggles my way through the technical side of quads, I always know your videos will make it easier to understand. I've learned so much from you. Blows me away you that you directly responded here so quickly. What an awesome human you are!

[@jtcustomknives]

Oh fancy pen

[@flyingquad]

Can this be used to turn on/off the led lights ? Want to turn them on/off and change their color once it is on

[@JoshuaBardwell]

If the LEDs are programmable then use Betaflight led tab to turn them on and off and change their color. The LED LOW aux mode will turn off all LEDs. If the LEDs are not programmable, the a pit switch and pinio can turn them on and off.

[@flyingquad]

@@JoshuaBardwell Thank you so much, want to be able to turn off LEDS so as to not freak out the neighbors, yes i have programmable LED's

[@alexhalemba1484]

The reallity is: Digital data are decoded with on / off. That's where the name came from. Motor outputs using pulse width modulation as example to tell the ESC how he should power the motor. Simplified saying. PWM keeps the signal high for a specific percentage of an specified time frame. Analog signals are not just on/off. But they are "constructed" with an digital/analog converter they also have a resolution (8bit or 12bit...). Meaning, they can not output every value...

[@JR-kk6ce]

I haven't forgotten. You called us all "sons of bitches."

[@user-eq2ug7in7b]

Can this be used to turn off the VTX?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Yes. If you have a pit switch device.

[@ianpataky]

What about the ppm pad

[@michelepistolesi2050]

Can you use pinio to control a servo?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

No you would use Betaflight's servo function for that.

[@JekleFPV]

Great video! I do have one question though: isn’t the GoPro set up so that you have to have the switch to ‘ON’ for about a second, then back to ‘OFF’ to get it to start recording? And same thing to get it to stop?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Yes that's correct. I go I to more detail in my naked GoPro tutorial but since this is a pinio tutorial I left that detail out.

[@JekleFPV]

@@JoshuaBardwellok, so for a GoPro, make sure you use a momentary switch! And preferably with a timer on it to make sure it’s working correctly.

[@cloudninjaphotography6304]

First like 👍

[@Cre8ionz.]

10:36 min - auto Bluetooth off when armed - does this need to be set up ?!

[@Cre8ionz.]

Gonna check later if mine has it pre configured...

[@raps55]

Lol hes using that flair ink pen. Man of culture i see

[@Epic501]

nifty

[@da_bits]

Lefty with a fountain pen. brave man...

[@orga7012]

Are the live streams over or Joshua's just taking a break?

[@johnk8825]

He's been out of town.

[@orga7012]

@@johnk8825 good to know (: Thanks.

[@madegowdar8190]

I can contact you

[@madegowdar8190]

Hi

[@computation9815]

First

[@JazzXP]

Triggered by "Pin Number" even though in this case it's correct.

[@Kriselice]

Merci !

[@aLDimeDevUAV_FPV]

ATTENTION! DO NOT try to set this up for BetaFPV SMO 4K - it will never work properly!!!