Discussions

Is it possible to connect the RFD900/3DR Radios directly to Arduino?

The idea is instead of connecting the telemetry radios to a computer, I'll connect it to a microcontroller that will be able to decode the received data then send the decoded data to different ports. At the same time, it can also encode data from different input ports that will be sent through telemetry.

The reason for building this is because of the unreliability and/or bulkiness of laptop computers during field flights. Sometimes, windows PC programs suddenly crashes and if ever monitoring devices shuts down, control and video will still be maintained since there are other control 'inputs'.

Here's a picture of what I'm talking about.

However, some settings such as the tuning/trim for joystick controls will still be set at a computer then maybe, stored at the Arduino server. The whole GCS will be placed in a suitcase like other groundstations but having two screens, the FPV/Camera Video and the screen with the Map and other data. The tablet will also handle the setting of waypoints or other actions similar to mission planner like the application developed here. Possible look of GCS will be like this:

The suitcase may also have buttons that can enable RTL, control camera pan-tilt, or change flight mode. 

However, these are only possibilities if the RFD900 can be interfaced easily to the arduino board.

If connecting the radios to arduino is possible, then maybe its time to learn the protocol used (MAVLink) that will be decoded/encoded in the arduino.

Its cool to have multiple inputs/multiple outputs with proper coding.

Developers and experts, give me insights on these as the ZigBee/XBee module is new to me and I want to learn more since RFD900 range and speed is very tempting.