pixracer
The Pixhawk® XRacer board family is optimized for small racing quads and planes. In contrast to Pixfalcon and Pixhawk it has in-built Wifi, new sensors, convenient full servo headers, CAN and supports 2M flash.
Key Features
- Main System-on-Chip: STM32F427VIT6 rev.3
- CPU: 180 MHz ARM Cortex® M4 with single-precision FPU
- RAM: 256 KB SRAM (L1)
- Standard FPV form factor: 36×36 mm with standard 30.5 mm hole pattern
- Invensense® ICM-20608 Accel / Gyro (4 KHz) / MPU9250 Accel / Gyro / Mag (4 KHz)
- HMC5983 magnetometer with temperature compensation
- Measurement Specialties MS5611 barometer
- JST GH connectors
- microSD (logging)
- Futaba S.BUS and S.BUS2 / Spektrum DSM2 and DSMX / Graupner SUMD / PPM input / Yuneec ST24
- FrSky® telemetry port
- OneShot PWM out (configurable)
- Optional: Safety switch and buzzer
Accessories include:
- Digital airspeed sensor
- HKPilot Transceiver Telemetry Radio Set V2 (915Mhz – US Telemetry)
- Hobbyking® OSD + EU Telemetry (433 MHz)
Kit
The Pixracer is designed to use a separate avionics power supply. This is necessary to avoid current surges from motors or ESCs to flow back to the flight controller and disturb its delicate sensors.
- Power module (with voltage and current sensing)
- I2C splitter (supporting AUAV, Hobbyking and 3DR® peripherals)
- Cable kit for all common peripherals
Wifi (no USB required)
One of the main features of the board is its ability to use Wifi for flashing new firmware, system setup and in-flight telemetry. This frees it of the need of any desktop system.
Setup and telemetry are already available, firmware upgrade is already supported by the default bootloader but not yet enabled
Wiring Diagrams
Connectors
All connectors follow the Dronecode connector standard. Unless noted otherwise all connectors are JST GH.
Pinouts
TELEM1, TELEM2+OSD ports
| Pin | Signal | Volt |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (red) | VCC | +5V |
| 2 (blk) | TX (OUT) | +3.3V |
| 3 (blk) | RX (IN) | +3.3V |
| 4 (blk) | CTS (IN) | +3.3V |
| 5 (blk) | RTS (OUT) | +3.3V |
| 6 (blk) | GND | GND |
GPS port
| Pin | Signal | Volt |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (red) | VCC | +5V |
| 2 (blk) | TX (OUT) | +3.3V |
| 3 (blk) | RX (IN) | +3.3V |
| 4 (blk) | I2C1 SCL | +3.3V |
| 5 (blk) | I2C1 SDA | +3.3V |
| 6 (blk) | GND | GND |
FrSky Telemetry / SERIAL4
| Pin | Signal | Volt |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (red) | VCC | +5V |
| 2 (blk) | TX (OUT) | +3.3V |
| 3 (blk) | RX (IN) | +3.3V |
| 4 (blk) | GND | GND |
RC Input (accepts PPM / S.BUS / Spektrum / SUMD / ST24)
| Pin | Signal | Volt |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (red) | VCC | +5V |
| 2 (blk) | RC IN | +3.3V |
| 3 (blk) | RSSI IN | +3.3V |
| 4 (blk) | VDD 3V3 | +3.3V |
| 5 (blk) | GND | GND |
CAN
| Pin | Signal | Volt |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (red) | VCC | +5V |
| 2 (blk) | CAN_H | +12V |
| 3 (blk) | CAN_L | +12V |
| 4 (blk) | GND | GND |
POWER
| Pin | Signal | Volt |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (red) | VCC | +5V |
| 2 (blk) | VCC | +5V |
| 3 (blk) | CURRENT | +3.3V |
| 4 (blk) | VOLTAGE | +3.3V |
| 5 (blk) | GND | GND |
| 6 (blk) | GND | GND |
SWITCH
| Pin | Signal | Volt |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (red) | SAFETY | GND |
| 2 (blk) | !IO_LED_SAFETY | GND |
| 3 (blk) | VCC | +3.3V |
| 4 (blk) | BUZZER- | – |
| 5 (blk) | BUZZER+ | – |
Dronecode debug port (JST SM06B connector)
| Pin | Signal | Volt |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (red) | VCC TARGET SHIFT | +3.3V |
| 2 (blk) | CONSOLE TX (OUT) | +3.3V |
| 3 (blk) | CONSOLE RX (IN) | +3.3V |
| 4 (blk) | SWDIO | +3.3V |
| 5 (blk) | SWCLK | +3.3V |
| 6 (blk) | GND | GND |
Schematics
The reference is provided as: Altium Design Files
The following PDF files are provided for convenience only:
- pixracer-rc12-12-06-2015-1330.pdf
- pixracer-r14.pdf – R14 or RC14 is printed next to the SDCard socket
Building Firmware
Most users will not need to build this firmware! It is pre-built and automatically installed by QGroundControl when appropriate hardware is connected.
To build PX4 for this target:
make px4_fmu-v4_default