Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by george on September 5, 2011 at 8:50am

Hope you find a solution. I've got a couple xtends I'd like to use as well.

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Permalink Reply by John Leichty on September 5, 2011 at 5:25pm

Well, it works now.

 

Long story short, my XTend modules came with the RT parameter (GPI1 purpose) set to [1 - BINARY COMMAND INDICATOR]. I set it to [0 - UNUSED] on the GCS module and everything works great. Since the other option is [2 - RTS FLOW CONTROL], I'm guessing that the computer was setting it when ready, putting the module into some mode where it wasn't ready to put data into the Tx buffer.

 

Next up, range test!

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Permalink Reply by Toby Mills on September 5, 2011 at 5:56pm

Will be really interested to see what range you get with these. What sort of antenna are you using on the ground?

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Permalink Reply by John Leichty on September 16, 2011 at 9:11pm

I'll be using this antenna on the ground: http://www.l-com.com/item.aspx?id=25690

Standard duck antenna that came with it on the remote unit.

 

Of course the transmit power on the ground unit will be dialed down appropriately.

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Permalink Reply by Claudio Natoli on December 1, 2011 at 5:09am

 Exact same thing happened to me.

 

Funny thing is, I actually saw your post *before* I ran into this problem, and specifically checked the GPI1 value to make sure it was set to 0.  Did some experimentation with X-CTU, set up to the APM, and ran into the same issue you did. Re-reading params in X-CTU, and found that GPI1 was set to 1 on the GCS module.

 

It seems that using the X-CTU range test with the RSSI option temporarily sets the GPI1 value to 1 (i.e. binary command; which is also why CTS/RTS need to be connected to get the RSSI output to work in the range test) - if you then inadvertently write this parameter back to the card, or simply don't power cycle the modem before attempting to connect to the GCS after running a range-test, you'll end up getting this error.

 

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Permalink Reply by john on December 8, 2011 at 7:21am

Hey guys,  

How is the range testing going? 

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Permalink Reply by John Leichty on December 10, 2011 at 12:28am

I've continued to have a lot of trouble with these units not being able to connect consistently between the APM and the Mission Planner. The one day I took them out to do testing, I couldn't get anything working no matter what I tried.

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Permalink Reply by John Cousins on February 8, 2012 at 1:34am

Hey John!

Another John here also using X-tend modems. I was wondering if you have had any more luck with your modems. I'm also having inconsistent comms with occasional dropots and low telemetry % readings?

Cheers

John Cousins

 

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Permalink Reply by John Leichty on February 8, 2012 at 2:45am

Sorry John, I haven't done anything with these since last year. I was actually just borrowing them, and have since returned them. If I ever borrow them again and work with them, I'll post here. There seemed to be some subtle setup or connection issue when I used them -- I couldn't figure out what made them work or not work.

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Permalink Reply by John Cousins on February 8, 2012 at 3:24am

Thanks for the reply mate. I'm in EXACTLY the same boat... I'll keep on searching.... and testing.

Cheers

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Permalink Reply by Paul Hoi on June 22, 2012 at 11:20am

I'd refer you to my discussion -> http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/xtend-apm2-gcs-solution-and-more-...

I found a few solutions that you might want to take a look at.

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