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Permalink Reply by Michael Pursifull on June 24, 2012 at 12:43am

Yes, but not with ArduPlane/ArduCopter.

It is not something you can simply turn on. You have to tell your application how to use it. That is why it is called API mode. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_programming_interface

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Permalink Reply by swaroop.hangal on June 24, 2012 at 1:12am

Yup thats true...trying to do that ...I am trying to insert my XBee API header and footer before and after the MAVlink packet in the function _mav_finalize_message_chan_send contained in mavlink_helpers.h file. But as soon as I download them to the board all communication just goes down. Most probably, this is something to do with the timing for sending a telemetry packet. Hence the query.

Regards,

Swaroop

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Permalink Reply by Michael Pursifull on June 24, 2012 at 1:41am

Get a copy of "Building Wireless Sensor Networks" by Robert Faludi

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Permalink Reply by Michael Pursifull on June 24, 2012 at 1:43am

See also http://code.google.com/p/xbee-arduino/ (Make sure you are using Series 1 examples)

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Permalink Reply by Christian Lopez on October 8, 2012 at 4:35pm

Any luck working this out? I am looking to do something similar- Use API to send MAVLink packet, so that I can try the Series 2 mesh network concept with MAVLink data. Let me know if you have made any progress/ decided it is not possible.

Thanks,

Christian

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Permalink Reply by swaroop.hangal on October 29, 2012 at 9:38pm

Hi Christian,

We were successful in transmitting a MAVlink packet to QGCS using XBees programmed in API mode. Just attach the API header and calculated checksum as the footer to the MAVLink packet in MAVLink_helpers.h. We also implemented a framework for HILS of a bunch of aircrafts using the XBee API mode for inter a/c comms.

Swaroop

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Permalink Reply by Christian Lopez on November 13, 2012 at 6:01pm

That's great news... I took a break from trying to crack the XBee problem to put out some other fires, but I will definitely give that a try. 

I am working on demonstrating multiple a/c formation flight - I'd love to hear more about your HILS framework... What is the set-up?

Christian

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Permalink Reply by swaroop.hangal on November 15, 2012 at 6:01am

Nothing much...we were using APM1.4 without the oilpan with the firmware that JLN had modified to work w/o an oilpan (http://code.google.com/p/ardupilotdev/downloads/detail?name=ArduPla...) . We connected 3 APMs to a laptop started 3 FGFS instances with different port numbers, set the same port numbers in the 3 individual  APM mission planners and that's it!! The a/c communicated with each other via XBee. The Overall system was monitored via QGCS. Hope this helps...

Swaroop 

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Permalink Reply by Christian Lopez on November 15, 2012 at 5:48pm

Swaroop,

How did you deal with the API on the GCS side? I understand that the modified Mavlink_Helpers takes care of things on the UAV side, but how did you get the mission planner to deal with the extra junk?

Thanks,

Christian

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Permalink Reply by swaroop.hangal on November 16, 2012 at 4:43am

QGCS is a clever piece of software. It just ignores the XBee API headers and picks out the MAVLINK info only. BUT, we did have to configure the QGCS side XBee in API mode, and disable just the API mode.

Mission planner goes crazy if it gets multiple a/c packets and cannot distinguish between the a/c since it does not distinguish between the a/c id in MAVLINK. So, we used APM Mission planner just as a glue between FGFS and APM.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Swaroop

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Permalink Reply by Christian Lopez on November 20, 2012 at 2:14am

Swaroop,

I'm having having a hard time trouble-shooting. 

I'm wondering if I am actually missing some crucial steps... Most resources I've seen tend to hand-wave the initialization of an ZigBee network using the API mode. Are you doing any special setup for the network in an initialization function?

Thanks,

Christian

Permalink Reply by Christian Lopez on November 28, 2012 at 2:22pm

Swaroop,

 

I think this is my sticking point... What do you mean by this?

"BUT, we did have to configure the QGCS side XBee in API mode, and disable just the API mode."

The more I understand about the API mode, the more I feel like QGCS needs to know it is dealing with an XBee in API. I see an option in the QGCS communication setup to work with an XBee in API, but I have not had any luck establishing a connection with that.

Right now, I have XBees on the UAV side in API as well as the XBee on the QGCS. I have the API header and checksum wrapped around the outgoing MAVLink protocol. Still can't them talking. Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

-Christian

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