Adding wireless telemetry to ArduPilot
The first thing to keep in mind is that you should use Xbee modules in a different frequency range than your RC equipment.
If you've got 72Mhz RC gear, you can use 2.4Ghz Xbee modules. We use Xbee Pro wireless modules with a Adafruit adapter board on the aircraft side, and a Sparkfun USB adapter board on the ground/laptop side.
If you've got 2.4Ghz RC gear, you should use 900Mhz Xbee modules. We use a Xbee Pro with the wire antenna for the aircraft, and and Xbee Pro with a SMA antenna connector (and a good 900Mhz antenna) on the ground, with the same adapter boards as above.
Next, you need to set up your Xbee modules. They ship with a default of 9600bps, which you must change to 4800 bps for ArduPilot 1.0 or 57,600bps for ArduPilot 2.x. Connect them with your FTDI cable (see instructions here) then use Digi's X-CTU utility to change the baud rate to 4800 or 57,600 (in the modem configuration tab--press the Read button and then click on and change the baud rate line). You should also give them unique Network IDs so they'll be paired. Just use any 3-digit number, and just make sure you've set it the same on both modules. (Don't use 999 if you're going to be flying around me--that's mine!). When you're done with the settings, click "Write". Remember that after you change the baud rate you have to switch back to the PC Settings tab and change the baud rate there, too, or the utility won't be able to communicate with the module. (Switch it back to 9600 when you're switch to the second module, if it's still in the default mode, and repeat the process.)
On the ArduPilot side, use three jumper wires to connect the following pins circled in red on the board below:
--Xbee RX to ArduPilot FTDI port TXO
--Xbee 5v+ and GND to the VCC and GND pins next to the FTDI port.
It will end up looking like this:
(Note: the above is to get telemetry from the Autopilot. If you just want to see the NMEA data from the GPS module, connect the TX pin to ArduPilot's RXI pin, right next to the to TXO pin, instead.)
On the ground side, connect the other Xbee module to your laptop with your FTDI cable, as described here.
That's it! If you open up a terminal program on your laptop and set the baud rate to 4800 or 56,000, depending on which ArduPilot software version you're using, you should see ArduPilot telemetry coming in. Anytime there is a "Serial.println" in the code, that data will be sent through the Xbees to the ground. You can record any data you want, and even GPS datalog from the ground! Couldn't be easier.
BTW, if you want to test the range of your Xbee link, connect the plane-side Xbee module's RX and TX pins together to create a loopback circuit and use the X-CTU utlitity's range test function. For the modules we're using you should get around a mile.
Once you've got the wireless connection set up, you can use our Ground Station to display real-time telemetry with ArduPilot 2.1 and up:
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Comment by Muot Vuong on July 8, 2009 at 11:45am -
I want to build a UAV with telemetry and video down-link. Are there any major interference issues with a 72MHz RC gear, 900MHz XBee, and a 2.4GHz video transmitter combination? Has anyone done this type of setup before? Any suggestions and tips would be really appreciated before I put out some hard earned cash. Thanks.
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3D Robotics Comment by Jordi Muñoz on July 8, 2009 at 12:52pm -
Muot,
You should not have problems. But your government may confuse your plane as an electromagnetic flying weapon trying to jam their systems. LOL. (kidding).
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Comment by Reto on July 8, 2009 at 12:58pm -
It's the approach I've chosen and it's in the finish line now. Only difference is I use 35Mhz for RC instead of 72Mhz. With the 3 different RF signals, it seems there are no interferences. But I try to keep antennas and devices at max distance from each other in the airframe. I also tried to have differing antenna orientations, but with no noticeable differences in result. For now, I do not have made longer distances tests, neither standard RC Tx/Rx ground test with undeployed Tx antenna.
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Comment by Peter Meister on July 23, 2009 at 9:06pm -
Jordi,
Is the source code for the ardustation available for those who wish to modify it ?
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3D Robotics Comment by Jordi Muñoz on July 23, 2009 at 9:09pm -
Of course! 100% DIY and with a good example to start with. All is found here:
http://store.diydrones.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=DE-0001-01
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Comment by Peter Meister on July 23, 2009 at 9:19pm
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Thanks - I am going to modify it, make it fit to a smaller screen resolution of 800x600 and also add some changes to the displays...thanks...
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Comment by Peter Meister on July 23, 2009 at 9:20pm
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Ok, maybe I didn't clarify my question properly. I was looking for the ardustation groundstation source code . My bad... I found the other one, thats for the board version correct. I want to modify to software version for windows, if that is possible ? If not no biggie...
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Comment by David Low on July 23, 2009 at 9:22pm -
@Peter
you meant ardupilot groundstation right?
then it is over here, btw u need labview in order to edit the source code
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Comment by Peter Meister on July 23, 2009 at 9:27pm
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Yup thats what I am looking for. I have Labview Pro. So I am good to go to modify it...thanks david...
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