Moderator Comment by Mark Harrison on August 4, 2012 at 3:04pm

Nicely Done... Isn't the 3DR radio great?  I love mine! Here's my observations and notes. Definitely make something for strain relief, I don't want to see the "We busted off our USB connector" edition of the Geek Show!

http://eastbay-rc.blogspot.com/2012/04/review-3dr-900mhz-radio.html
http://eastbay-rc.blogspot.com/2012/04/setting-network-address-on-3...
http://eastbay-rc.blogspot.com/2012/04/strain-relief-carrier-for-3d...

Comment by Carl La France on August 4, 2012 at 6:45pm

Excellent  I have been following your progress Have a great day! 

3D Robotics Comment by Sam Kelly on August 4, 2012 at 8:48pm

Trent, you could try updating the firmware on the OSD (I'm assuming you're using the MinimOSD). We were still shipping units with MAVlink 0.9 firmware, while APM and the Planner were now on MAVlink 1.0. Updating should be pretty easy with the OSD config tool.

Comment by Dave on August 4, 2012 at 9:19pm

Good stuff guys.

Mark your blog is a great resource and I'll be checking it out.

Developer Comment by jasonshort on August 4, 2012 at 9:19pm

I feel underdressed at the flying field now...

Be sure to change the default ID to a random number or risk loosing telemetry when flying with friends.

Jason

Developer Comment by Andrew Tridgell on August 4, 2012 at 9:41pm

Hi Trent,

I'm glad the telemetry is working well for you!

For your cross-country flights I'd really recommend you get one or two of these:

http://rfdesign.com.au/index.php/rfd900

Those radios use the same firmware as the 3DR radio you have now (so they are compatible, and can talk to each other), but they have 10x the transmit power, and a high gain low noise receive amplifier. You can expect a range of over 70km with omni antennas. The RFD900 is right on the legal limit of what you can transmit in the 900MHz band in the US (ie. 1W, 30dBm), whereas the 3DR radio is 100mW.

The only other thing I'd recommend you watch out for is interference with your GPS. You may keep GPS lock, but the signal could be degraded. If using the 3DR radios for a long distance flight I'd recommend you get a 900MHz low pass filter like this one. If you get the RFD900 you won't need that, as they have a low pass filter builtin.

Cheers, Tridge

Comment by Lloyd Breckenridge on August 5, 2012 at 1:09am

Try the reset button on the osd after the camera and transmitter are powered up.

Comment by Rana on August 5, 2012 at 3:37am

Andrew, what is the maximum RF baud of the RFD900 ?, It is nowhere mentioned at the product page.

Why two antenna port ? Are both ports transmitting - receiving ? Or one port is only dedicated TX port and the other dedicated RX port.

Generically receivers only have been seen with diversity antenna. 

Comment by Rana on August 5, 2012 at 3:41am

What highest baud the RFD900 would support with APM, without any link loss ?

Comment by Rana on August 5, 2012 at 11:29am

Andrew, based on my query in RCGroups forum also, they have updated the product web page, now every thing is clear.

• Air Data transfer rates: 4, 8, 16, 19, 24, 32, 48, 64, 96, 128, 192 and 250 kbit/sec ( User selectable, 64k default )
• UART data transfer rates: 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200, 38400, 57600, 115200 baud  ( User selectable, 57600 default )

For two antenna ports, they said;

Two antenna ports are used for diversity. The Si1000 has built in diversity support such that it will select the best antenna for every packet. Both antennas get used for transmit and receive, depending on which has the best signal.
If you have a specific requirement for one antenna to transmit, the other to receive, it is possible to modify the open source firmware to do this.

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