Announcing MAVBoard Indiegogo Campaign

I have finally got the MAVBoard to a state where I am ready to take pre orders via Indiegogo! After several revisions of the boards, I am quite happy with them and would like to take pre orders so I can get a large batch of them made.

Here is the description of the MAVBoard from the campaign:

The MAVBoard is a way to share a single MAVLink telemetry connection (the telemetry port on a 3D Robotics APM 2.X, for example) among multiple devices, such as OSDs, telemetry radios, telemetry converters or other add-on boards. Until now, the solution is to create a custom soldered cable harnesses which are difficult to make and not as flexible, since only one device can be connected to the "Tx" pin of the MAVLink connection.

I ended up splitting the design into two models: MAVBoard Lite and MAVBoard Pro. The Lite board has no AVR chip, and is simply a bus for MAVLink connections, with a jumper to select the Tx device. The Pro board contains the AVR to do telemetry conversion, as well as has several digital and analog pins (including the ones for I2C) available at the edge of the board. The board is all SMD-component based now, and the size has shrunk quite a bit from the first prototype I announced last year.

I am hoping to get at least 100 in the pre-order, but I plan to make more than that. If you sell drone/multi-rotor parts online and would be interested in stocking the MAVboards, let me know.

So, with that, please checkout the campaign and support it if this project would be useful to you!

All feedback is welcome!

Hey Bill,

I am behind getting docs together. Been busy making and shipping the boards themselves. In about a week I will have full documentation showing what all the pins/ports do and specifically how to connect it to an FrSky D series telemetry receiver. Thanks for hanging in there. In the mean time, hopefully the info below can get you up and going.

The boards shipped with the Arduino Pro Mini bootloader and I flashed them with the FrSky hub protocol firmware. So if you are using an FrSky D series telemetry system, you don't need to upload any software. The link to the version I flashed for reference is: https://github.com/mavboard/jD-IOBoard

The wiring is pretty straight forward. Simply connect the "Tx" pin from the MAVBoard 4 pin "RC" header to the "Rx" pin on the side of your D series FrSky telemerty receiver (such as the D4R-II or the D8R-XP). It is literally just the single wire, usually no need to even hook up Gnd or + since its already powered and grounded from the RC channel pins.

Let me know if you have any issues!

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Comments

David B Bitton October 5, 2015 at 5:18pm

Mike,

Have you completed the s-port code port? It would sure put this item over the top. Thanks!
Moderator

Bill Piedra June 18, 2014 at 10:38am

@ mP1 - funny, I was thinking of the same thing... use the otherwise unused audio channel. Do you know anyone that's made it work.
Mike Machado April 12, 2014 at 3:21pm

Oh, and to flash new firmware to the MAVBoard, connect the jumper on the JP1 header, as this connects to the Tx line to the ATMega, and then simply connect your FTDI adapter to the "IN" port.

From the Arduino IDE, select the board "Arduino Pro or Pro Mini (5V, 16Mhz) w/ ATmega 328P"
Mike Machado April 12, 2014 at 3:18pm

Hey Bill,

I am behind getting docs together. Been busy making and shipping the boards themselves. In about a week I will have full documentation showing what all the pins/ports do and specifically how to connect it to an FrSky D series telemetry receiver. Thanks for hanging in there. In the mean time, hopefully the info below can get you up and going.

The boards shipped with the Arduino Pro Mini bootloader and I flashed them with the FrSky hub protocol firmware. So if you are using an FrSky D series telemetry system, you don't need to upload any software. The link to the version I flashed for reference is: https://github.com/mavboard/jD-IOBoard

The wiring is pretty straight forward. Simply connect the "Tx" pin from the MAVBoard 4 pin "RC" header to the "Rx" pin on the side of your D series FrSky telemerty receiver (such as the D4R-II or the D8R-XP). It is literally just the single wire, usually no need to even hook up Gnd or + since its already powered and grounded from the RC channel pins.

Let me know if you have any issues!

mavboard/jD-IOBoard

IOBoard with MAVLink and FrSky protocol support. Contribute to mavboard/jD-IOBoard development by creating an account on GitHub.
Developer

Bill Bonney April 12, 2014 at 3:07pm

Can somebody help me find information on how I can flash an image that allows FrSky receiver be connected up?(both the older D4R-II and the newer X8D)

If the software needs some help to gte working, I am happy to offer some help there as well.
John Hutchison April 12, 2014 at 2:49pm

Just got my mavboard pro, lite, and rssiboard's today! Thanks.
T3

healthyfatboy February 28, 2014 at 6:08pm

Excellent. I'll save myself the $20 on the Teensy and stay put for a couple of months for MAVBoard. In the meantime, I'll be putting my plane back together after my broken hand heals :(
Mustafa TULU February 28, 2014 at 5:01pm

Looking good:) MAVBoard already quarter of it's goal. Go MAVBoard GO :)
Mike Machado February 28, 2014 at 3:47pm

healthyfatboy - yes, that is exactly my goal to support the Taranis telemetry. I have already looked at Rolf's code, and the MAVBoard can support the inverted serial required by the FrSky S.Port just fine, so now I just need to actually get my hands on the Taranis to do the port. It shouldn't take long.
T3

healthyfatboy February 28, 2014 at 3:28pm

I backed your project. Looks great!

Before I go spending more money, will this MAVBoard work in place of the Teensy 3.1 as shown in this post? http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/amp-to-frsky-x8r-sport-converter

If so, I won't worry about getting a Teensy. I won't be able to fly much until May anyway so I can wait to integrate it into my Taranis.

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