Thanks to everyone for your feedback and suggestions on our last post about this project. We've decided to go ahead and have just launched a Kickstarter project for it today!
We will offer both a 433 and 915MHz version of the Bluetooth Bridge, each is compatible with its counterpart 3DR Radio. The 915MHz version is also compatible with RFD900 radios. Range when paired with a 3DR radio is approximately 1km, when paired with an RFD900 the range will be approximately 4km. The Bluetooth Bridge has been designed to be as simple and easy to use as possible. The unit comes with an internal, rechargeable battery so you won't need to find an extra LiPo with the 'right' kind of connector. Charging is as simple as plugging the unit in to a PC or laptop with a Micro-USB cable. The unit also lets you know the status of the battery with a green, yellow or red LED.
The Kickstarter page is live now and is currently the only place to make an order. Once the Kickstarter is complete, we'll begin accepting orders through our web store. The price will be $139 which includes the Bluetooth Bridge module in a durable enclosure and an internal, rechargeable battery. You'll still need your old air side radio module, but if you don't have one we'll also be selling compatible packs for $189.
Check out more details on the Kickstarter page and leave us your comments/questions below!
Comments
It's a VM-24 from polycase. Pretty expensive but nice and sturdy!
So cool to finally see this come to fruition!! Bart sent me an email and I could hardly believe my eyes! That was even one of the cases we looked at! With regard to the connection to multiple things simultaneously via BT...the answer is it depends on protocols (for example if there were audio and you wanted to, with some modules you could simultaneously use the serial and audio protocols,) but for our purposes the answer is essentially no. I am assuming this is still using the same module we were looking at back a couple of years ago - it looks like it is judging from the schematic that looks very close to what we did before and some of the images in the Kickstarter page. Congrats Jeff!
Yes that's right, bluetooth can only be connected to one device at a time as far as I know. I agree it would be sweet to have multiple outputs!
I assume that with this, you can still only connect to one tablet at a time right? I was just thinking it would be neat to have one be the main ground station and then have another for an observer.
@Bart
I tried to contact you at the start of this year to continue the development of copter-gcs or start a new app by using concepts like the HUD you did. But as you said I think you where to busy at the time, since I got no response. I started it anyway, by using your HUD and now there are a lot of yours. Thanks for the inspiration!
And if you want to join our dev. team we would be happy :)
@Butler: Having an USB port is meaningless on this system, that's if you have Bluetooth on your notebook.
The runtime will be 5 hours at a minimum, we're experimenting with bigger batteries to get it even longer and keep it in our budget though. I think it's likely to be more than that.
@Alan, Justin - thanks guys!!
@Thomas it's not really *needed* like you *need* a propeller, it just makes the job that much smoother and nicer! I am relieved to not be lugging my laptop out to the field most of the time anymore, though it's still better if you have major tuning to do. Thanks for the feedback!
Thanks to everyone who pledged, we reached our goal in less than 24 hours and still going strong!
You don't have a cable to fall off (I concede there is a battery to fail) and you can put it on a stick. Perhaps with a high gain antenna. No feed loss through coax.
Of course you don't have to buy one!
Congratulations Jeff.
Congrats on the successful kickstarter Jeff!
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