Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by OlivierD. on April 10, 2009 at 10:31am

Alex, you can start with this link:
http://www.diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/adding-wireless-telemetry-to
You can use XBEE in europe but it would have to be the non 900 Mhz models.
You can probably use ArduPilot and a paraglider, whatever means it uses to turn, assign that servo to the relevant port on the ArduPilot, I don't see why not.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Breaksbassbleeps on April 10, 2009 at 10:33am

Cool. Thanks for the help :)

I was wondering how to send remote commands to the ardupilot. Is this possible?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by OlivierD. on April 10, 2009 at 11:15am

I don't know if anybody has done it yet. I would ask Jordi, he is the code guru behind all this development.
I am sure it is possible with the ArduPilot though.
If you are looking for an autopilot system that allows retasking from the get-go, I would turn towards a Paparazzi unit, the ground station software allows you to issue remote commands to retask in mid-air.
Check this link:
http://paparazzi.enac.fr/wiki/Main_Page
and this link to get the hardware required:
http://paparazzi.enac.fr/wiki/Get_Hardware
This is developed in France at the ENAC university. It requires a minimal knowledge of the Linux operating system. It also uses Xbee (2units), one on the ground, one in the plane and infrared stabilization. (X,Y,Z)
A lot of help is available online so it is a pretty cool unit, reasonably priced too.

• ▶ Reply

3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on April 10, 2009 at 12:41pm

No, that is not currently possible because we only have one serial port and the incoming side is being used by the GPS. But it will be possible with ArduPilot Pro, out near the end of the year.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Reto on April 10, 2009 at 2:28pm

Chris, I understand it is not possible with the current code. But tell me if I'm wrong on this: wouldn't it be possible for ArduPilot to receive serial from the GPS as NMEA and receive serial as well from an Xbee as "pseudo NMEA" sent from ground? This pseudo-NMEA sentences could for example be a new set of waypoint coordinates which ArduPilot would parse similarly to GPS NMEA sentences and then assign those coordinates to array variables. I mean if that was coded and there was enough memory to store the additional functions, it could be possible, no?

• ▶ Reply

3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on April 10, 2009 at 11:27pm

I don't know how to connect two devices to one serial Rx line, without screwing up the handshaking. Do you?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by automatik on April 10, 2009 at 11:51pm

Does ArduPilot board has the ability to open serial port on DIO pins - Like arduino where "main" serial port is on pins 0 and 1 (and USB connector as well) but can open additional port on other DIO pins? If so then what Reto asked if I understood it properly, should be possible.

I have a set up on (toy) RC car where Arduino is connected to car's controller board (AIO) and main serial is connected via USB plug to onboard WiFi router; GPS is connected to Arduino via two DIO pins that I configured as additional serial port. From my remote "ground station" comp I can send commands to Arduino (Wifi to router and then router to main serial), and also receive status back from Arduino, including NMEA data and car status (I receive NEMA data on "additional" port and transfer it to "main" serial port, and then combine it with other status data before transmitting).
For this kind of a set up reliability is not realllly critical, but I do receive status back from the car at least once a sec without issues (not that I noticed at least). I was worried that I will get a lot of lost data but so far that hasn't been the case. For simplicity purposes I did use Software Serial lib, and it has "big minuses" but for my purposes works ok. My main goal was to get proof of concept...There might be possibility to get a better, and perhaps, more reliable performance using other methods (I looked at them but haven't tried them yet)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Reto on April 11, 2009 at 3:13am

It is a similar process I am trying to achieve. I intend to use the NewSoftSerial library. It will just be used to add only one single software serial Rx on my second Ardupilot board. This Rx will gather GPS NMEA (in parallel of the autopilot ArduPilot board) and parse the NMEA sentences with added information to the video OSD. This ArduPilot board is also programmed to use the hardware serial input from Xbee for commanding the pan&tilt video camera. As to the autopilot ArduPilot serial Tx, it sends ground station data to the Xbee Rx.
My current communication schema looks like this:

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Robert Drone on April 11, 2009 at 6:40am

Could you input fake signals via rc into the stabilizing sensors[fma thermopile] to controll the auto remotely? As for data sending could you parasite the tx unit across the gps's output wires?

-just throwing a few ideas out there

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Reto on April 11, 2009 at 7:12am

I'm afraid I'm not getting you. What kind of fake signals through rc and why into thermopiles? What kind of control you'll expect? As to your input for data sending, what do you mean by parasiting, which tx would be the "victim" of this, and for what purpose do you want to mix the tx (which one?) "across the gps output"? Sorry, but I do not see what the intentions are.

Permalink Reply by Robert Drone on April 11, 2009 at 7:20am

I mean you could make it was off-balance forcing it to turn.

As far as parasiting that was the wrong term I mean sort of like a y cable splitter [two thinks picking up the same signal]

Permalink Reply by automatik on April 11, 2009 at 11:38am

@Reto - Looking at your schema I think it will work. I haven't tried NewSoft Serial lib yet, so no direct experience on it's performance, but it's one one the things I meant under "other methods" in my previous post (other one is trying to write my own interrupt driven serial com). I would be interested to hear your opinion on New Soft Serial lib, it's performance and ease of use.

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page