Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Seppo on May 9, 2012 at 8:43am

Hi Derek,

When the green LEDs are blinking, it means that the radios are not connected to each other.

It could be that the radios are configured differently.

If you connect to each radio individually and do the following, it should reset the radios to default configuration:

1) Connect to the radio with a terminal program ( typically 57600, N, 8, 1)

2) Type +++    , and wait for at least a second, do not press any other keys (not even enter)

3) The message "OK" should appear if you have entered command mode.

4) Typing ATI5 <enter> will give you a list of config settings for your info.

5) AT&F will reset the radio to factory defaults

6) AT&W will save the settings so they are available when the radio is powered up next time, or reset

7) ATZ will let you reset the radio via software.

...

If you do this for both radios and when you power them both up, the green led should be solid.

Hope it helps :)

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Permalink Reply by Derek Golding on May 9, 2012 at 1:52pm

Thanks for the reply,

Shouldn't they come with the same settings from the factory?

Will I need another cable for the uav side or can I connect through the planner and a usb cable?

Cheers

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Permalink Reply by Seppo on May 9, 2012 at 5:57pm

The radios should be preconfigured and they should connect to each other on powerup.

The configuration of them is one relatively easy thing to reset.

The cable needed for the uav side is something that can convert USB into 3.3v, or 5v TTL serial.

I think 3DR has some of those on their website and other people have had luck with other converter cables.

I have used the TTL-232R-3V3 cables from FTDI, and a sparkfun USB to TTL converter with success.

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Permalink Reply by Derek Golding on May 9, 2012 at 6:12pm

thanks for that, postage is expensive and would cost more than the cable if I imported it, I'll try to find one locally.

What should the settings be? I'll try and change the computer side and see if I can get a lock onto the uav.

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Permalink Reply by eric.stubkjaer on May 9, 2012 at 6:13pm

I just got my radio working tonight. Here is what I found and did. Air board is purple and does not match the picture on the store link. Looking at the radio board with the daughter board up, starting at the pin in the corner as 1 (I found the silkscreen labels on the air board correct as follows)

1 no connection

2 TX to the RX pin on the APM-2 board

3 RX to the TX pin on the APM-2

4 +5 to +5 on APM-2

5 no connection

6 ground to gnd on APM-2

I already had (or it loaded automatically) the FTDI driver, I am using Win 7 64 bit

Fumbled around to find I am on COM6

I could not get the 'Load Settings' button to work on the radio configuration, but the 'Link Stats..." blue text was visible and clicking it showed the link was working! Finally realized you have to be disconnected before the stats will load.

The PC side is ver 1.5 and the air side is 1.3 but everything seems to work correctly. But update only updates the PC side. ?

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Permalink Reply by Derek Golding on May 9, 2012 at 8:03pm

Here are the settings I get when I click Load Settings in the planner.

D

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Permalink Reply by Derek Golding on May 9, 2012 at 8:39pm

just ordered a cable here in nz, $50!!!

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Permalink Reply by Seppo on May 9, 2012 at 8:40pm

Those settings for the PC side radio look OK ...

Not sure why it is not connecting??...

I have found that some times the link does take a bit long to come up, power cycling one end has made it lock quicker..   On the UAV side, is it possible, just to supply +5v to the UAV radio only to isolate any other kind of interaction on other lines? - +5v is all it needs to power up and get a link lock if all is OK.

Another thought - how far apart are the radios when testing?

It also may be possible that the antennas may be damaged? - Do you have alternate antennas you can test?

 

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Permalink Reply by Derek Golding on May 9, 2012 at 9:02pm

the tx and rx are right next to each other, have tried a different antenna to no avail :(

Will wait for the cable to arrive tomorrow to check see what the problem is with the uav side.

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Permalink Reply by Jake Stew on May 9, 2012 at 11:57pm

Don't spend more than $10, shipped on a TTL serial cable.  I use the cheapest Chinese 3.3v TTL serial converter you can buy and it works just fine.  I think I paid about $4 for it.  It should be a 5v TTL cable, but they must have hit the sweet spot to get both 3.3v and 5v to work fine.

The only complaint I have with the cheap converter is that the power it puts out is pretty dirty.  That could also be the computers fault, but there's certainly no decent filtering on the board.  It only causes a problem with a little GPS unit I have, and then it just makes the reception crappy.  I ended up soldering a capacitor across the 5v and ground, which helped a fair bit.

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Permalink Reply by Derek Golding on May 10, 2012 at 12:38am

already bought and on it's way unfortunately. I need to get this thing up in the air!

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Permalink Reply by Derek Golding on May 10, 2012 at 2:59pm

Lead has arrived, will let you all know how I get on.

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