Hello from Oklahoma after a 20yr hiatus. I feel like Rip van Winkle!

Welcome! I think a lot of us are scraping rust off after having our main gig take us elsewhere. It comes back pretty fast-ish.

Your project sounds cool. 😉

Welcome to the forum Rusty!  Yep, know exactly what you mean about technology.. For me though, I was neck deep into it for the last 47 years as a instrumentation/electrical technician..I agree with you that technology has really taken off in the past 20 years, and with the advent of the Web, researching, and learning, it now easier than ever before..no more trips to the library hoping to find information your looking for...lol

Most of the last 30 years was working in process control, automation.. learned a lot, but still need to learn these OOP ( Object orientated programming) like C++.. That's pretty much my focus now, and there are plenty of folks that are ready good at it to help us..

Again, welcome, have fun, and be safe!

    kind regards,

   LouisR

@inst-tech Heh. Once you're in the software zone, I'm yer Maverick. I was thinking of doing a series of some sort on using OO techniques for the arduino. My first thought was to rewrite the "Hello LED" sketch to use better structural techniques, but the benefits of it only come clear when you increase the complexity. 

@BinaryRhyme, Indeed, While I'm not new to programming concepts as I have been using MsAccess and VBA for decades now, along with my programming experiences with other OOP's, like PLC's (Programmable Logic Controller,), and various DCS (distributed control systems) throughout my career, it's learning the syntax of a new language, and the command structure that's a daunting task lol...I will appreciate any help you can give. Fortunately, there are many resources on the Web for me to research, and I make avail of them all! As I'm retired, I have all the time I need to do just that..hehehe

Thank you for your assistance it helping me sludge through that steep learning curve.

Kind regards,

LouisR

@binaryrhyme Their is a video by Pawel Spychalski on LEDs with an ATTiny that may be exactly what I am trying to do.  Just need to adjust brightness with the throttle.  Fun and doable challenge.

@fpvcurmudgeon & @Binaryrhyme, Indeed, it may work, with the only draw back that I can see is it need a 5 Volt power supply source as it has no on board regulator. 

Hummm.. more problems to figure out...lol  Good luck...

kind regards,

LouisR

@inst-tech Most flight controllers have a regulated 5v out or a buck can do the job, although it is much bigger than the ATTiny and board.  lol

My recently adopted breakout for a solid, steady +5v is the Pololu S7V7F5 buck/boost - and it's quite small.

(It's in the same family as the the buck/boost converter @dronebot-workshop mentioned in his video Powering Your Electronic Projects | DroneBot Workshop)

Pololu 5V Step-Up/Step-Down Voltage Regulator S7V7F5 (pishop.ca)

@binaryrhyme Thanks for the tip and also the tip about the video.  Too much to learn.  OpenSoftware/Hardware is wonderful, you can do anything, but nothing is easy!  lol

DroneBot represents an incredible amount of work.  It is wonderful that people take the time to share their hard won information!

@fpvcurmudgeon The joy is in the mastery. 🙂 You know the famous speech by Dan Pink? I have the book, lol.

RSA ANIMATE: Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us - YouTube

 Need to look into Dan Pink!  lol

That was my "quote" when working with Unix!  lol

Thanks for the pointer to the power discussion.  I'm wondering if I could add a 78xx mosfet (guess) to the little board to regulate the power.  Have to add a chip to invert the sbus signal, another chip ain't nothing.  lol

BTW, I finally figured out that what I like most is learning!  Tends to cause me to jump around, the old "beagle in a rabbit warren" problem.  For me, the joy is in the learning, but it's painful at times.  😀 😀 

@FPVCurmudgeon, Indeed, your 100% correct.. the joy is in the learning, but it comes with the cost of the pain..But hey, after 75 years on planet earth, I've become immune to the pain...lol

A a tech for over 50 years, I'm quite use to trouble-shooting problems.., it's all part of the learning process.. It looks like @Binaryrhyme came up with a solution to the power supply dilemma as far as size.

I copied the specs  of the from the site:

The S7V7F5 switching step-up/step-down regulator efficiently produces 5 V from input voltages between 2.7 V and 11.8 V. Its ability to convert both higher and lower input voltages makes it useful for applications where the power supply voltage can vary greatly, as with batteries that start above but discharge below 5 V. The very compact (0.35″ × 0.475″) module has a typical efficiency of over 90% and can supply up to 1 A when stepping down and about 500 mA when stepping up.

A little pricey @ about $11.95 US...lol

kind regards,

         LouisR

@inst-tech I shopped it and got it for about five bucks CDN. from pishop.ca - link in the original post with the coin.

@binaryrhyme That's strange, pishop is usually the most expensive.