The Conversion Conundrum
2. Transforming PWM to PPM
The short answer is: yes, absolutely! You can derive a PPM signal from PWM signals. But, theres a catch (isnt there always?). It requires a bit of electronic wizardry, or at least a microcontroller and some coding knowledge. Its not as simple as plugging one wire into another and expecting magic to happen.
Think of it like this: you have a set of individual radio stations (PWM signals), and you want to combine them into a single, composite broadcast (PPM signal). You need a device a microcontroller, in this case to listen to each station, decode its message (the pulse width), and then re-encode that message as a precisely timed pulse within the PPM signal. The microcontroller acts as a translator, understanding both PWM and PPM fluently.
Essentially, the microcontroller measures the pulse width of each PWM signal representing a different control channel (e.g., throttle, aileron, elevator). It then uses these measurements to generate a PPM signal where the position of each pulse corresponds to the measured pulse width. It's like taking snapshots of the PWM signals and stitching them together into a PPM time-lapse.
Why bother with this conversion? Well, perhaps you have a receiver that only accepts PPM, but your flight controller outputs PWM for each servo. Or maybe you want to transmit multiple PWM signals over a single radio link using a PPM encoder. This conversion provides flexibility and allows you to integrate different components in your RC setup.
