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Permalink Reply by Chad Frazer on July 31, 2012 at 12:59pm

I figured it out, so i'll leave this post for others just in case.  In order to have data being displayed it takes awhile for the data to come through.  GPS lock seems to especially matter.

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Permalink Reply by Ovidiu Sopa on August 16, 2012 at 7:33am

awhile? how much time exactly? I'm tesying indor so no gps but I'm having troubles finding a working firmware.

Tried at least 3 firmwares, each with it'mcm file.

With the oficial one i get the,charset update error.

With Gabor's firmware I have a problem because info on the screen is not updated if the TX cable is removed from MinimOSD(I also have a 3DR radio)

I tried another firmware with RSSI but with that i see on the screen "Waiting for mavlink heartbeats" APM2 firmware has Mavlink 1.0 , I suspect the firmware i tried had 0.9

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Permalink Reply by Choppy on August 18, 2012 at 5:35am

Ah, so I'm not the only one having trouble getting the osd to work:)

I have good video but no overlay. Pushing the reset switch brings up the MinimOSD icon and the phrase " Waiting for MavLink heatbeat" 

I repair aircraft GPS and some units need up to 30 mins to aquire so I thought this would be similar. Waited till the flight batteries went low (60mins) and still no OSD.

Will try re flashing the osd with latest MCM /HEx file after tomorrow. Need to fly:)

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Permalink Reply by Ovidiu Sopa on August 19, 2012 at 10:55am

I'm only having problem macking the minimOSD work toghether with my 3DRradio, if I connect both to APM2 the telemetry info is not updated on theOSD , all values are 0, except Mode (STAB, ACRO, ALTH, etc.)

If you get the error " Waiting for MavLink heatbeat"  I think you don't have the same MavLink  protocol installed on your devices, when I updatedAPM2 to firmware 2.6, the mavlink also updated from 0.9 to 1.0, but I didn't had the FTDY cable to update the firmware of MinimOSD, so the osdhad MAVlink 0.9, this caused the same issue you have. 

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Permalink Reply by Choppy on August 22, 2012 at 2:57am

OK, Just before going to bed, I loaded the latest firmware as I found a FTDI to usb adaptor in my stash from sparkfun.

Loaded successfully and what do you know, It works! It might be something to do with the old and new mavlink versions or maybe they aren't flashed before they leave the manufacturer?

I still have to press the reset button to get it to boot on power up but thats a small price to pay.

Hope you all sort things out ok. Good luck :)

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Permalink Reply by Chad Frazer on August 18, 2012 at 3:14pm

Howdy fellas, yeah, it should not take the OSD anymore than say a few seconds to pop up when you have data streaming from the APM2.  The time interval is dependent on how long it takes the APM2 to get a GPS lock.  Inside my house thats a few minutes.  Another thing that threw me off is that there is a a slightly wrong setup that you can do that will make the OSD display but have no data.  In fact it IS getting data, but WHAT your displaying for information (as in you put a check mark by it on the firmware setup for the OSD) simply has NOTHING to say, like lat and long are all 0's because you have no GPS lock.

It is a subtle "error" that fooled me for awhile.

The waiting for heartbeat and not getting it is purely a wrong connection thing.  It will be a wrong connection made to the APM2.  Check it, then re read the setup guide.  Look for pictures of functioning APM2s with the OSD hooked up.  I would provide mine but getting a good pic now is difficult due to the way everything is situated in my bird.

Let me know if you solve it too.

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Permalink Reply by Lloyd DeForrest on August 19, 2012 at 9:20am

Hi Everyone - I had this exact same issue on an APM1 with both 3DR radio and MinimOSD connected.  All looks OK but no telemetry is displayed.

This may not be your problem, but here is my error in thinking and what I did to get it to work.

You must first connect the 3DR radio with MP.  I can even power the APM from USB (APM1, rememeber), but I must connect MP and APM FIRST usng the 3DR radio.  Until I connect them, I see heartbeats but no telemetry.  Once MP and APM is connected via the 3DR radio, all works fine.  If I try to connect via USB, no telemetry.  But if I again connect via the 3DR radio, all works.  And one other thing - once I connect via the 3DR radio, I can disconnect MP and all continues to work. 

So to sum up, you must FIRST connect MP to APM via the 3DR radio to get the MinimOSD to display telemetry. 

At least, that worked for me.  Since you're on an APM2, it may behave differently.

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Permalink Reply by Ovidiu Sopa on August 19, 2012 at 11:01am

Unfortunately one of my radios is not working anymore :( I can't test the method you explained. i'm so pissed off, it worked for just one day, the next day I tried  to connect the radio to FTDY, no leds lit up

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Permalink Reply by Jordi Orlando on August 19, 2012 at 3:25pm

What are you using to stream the composite video to your computer? It seems as though it works well...

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Permalink Reply by Luke Nyhof on August 21, 2012 at 6:45pm

I have the same problem, tried with Xbee and an MK Wi.232 module, all have the same problem. The MinimOSD is receiving the heartbeat signal but will not update the telemetry (artificial horizon, GPS lat & lon, etc...) only the "mode" change and the heartbeat is displayed...

However when both the Rx & Tx lines are connected the unit works (even with the telemetry radio plugged in simultaneously)

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Permalink Reply by Ovidiu Sopa on August 21, 2012 at 11:14pm

Hello Luke,

a developer replayed to me in another thread, he explained why the minim OSD is not receiving the telemtry info without the TX connected:

here it his comment:

Comment by Sandro Benigno yesterday

@Ovidiu, that isn't a problem with the firmware. Your APM isn't sending the data automatically. So, because of that you need to request data rates by a GCS or even by your OSD board. That's why it just works with TX connected. ArduPlane saves the requested rates on EEPROM (last request from a GCS or OSD). ArduCopter doesn't do that.
Check on MPlanner on Configuration >> Parameter List:

All the params with the prefix "SR3_" are related to this. E.g.: SR3_Extra1 = 5 means the IMU data being sent through telem port (serial 3) five times per second.

So you have to connect mission planer to your radio first, and then the telemetry info should appear on screen. My radio is not working anymore so I can't test it, but now it makes sense why it's not working without TX wire plugged in.

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