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3DR Radios as all purpose solution for long range autonomous vehicle (telemetry, commands, sensor/imagery data transfer, etc)

Posted by John Ess on July 18, 2012 at 5:40pm

Hey all,

I haven't yet ordered the 3D radios and am currently just doing some research. I'm in the process of designing and building what will be a long range autonomous boat. The boat will be travelling in an area that ranges from 3km to 30km from the "ground station". 

I was wondering if anyone can speak to their experiences with the 3DR Radios for communications in general, perhaps outside simply integrating them for use with APM(2).

I'm particularly curious if the radios can be used to send/receive custom commands/data to and from the ground station (e.g. retask and send navigational instructions to the boat). I'm also hoping they can be used to send imagery back from the boat to ground station. Not at a live update rate, but perhaps an image every few seconds or something. 

Also if both ends are fitted with proper antennas and amplifiers, can a ~30km range be achieved. Any personal stories of range achievements would be awesome :). 

Thanks!

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Replies

  • Jake Stew July 18, 2012 at 10:36pm

    Seppo is making a 1W version of the 3DR type (Si100x based) radio.  This would give you the range you're looking for.

    The data rate on these is usually only up to 256kbps, but you could certainly run multiple radios.

  • Toby Mills July 18, 2012 at 6:12pm

    I use these in non APM situations for long range IP links (20km plus)...

    http://www.ubnt.com/airmax#nanostationm

    and I use one of these on my plane for Telemetry  / Video over 3G

    http://www.amplified.com.au/HSUPA_Router_Ethernet.aspx

  • Toby Mills July 18, 2012 at 6:02pm

    forgot to add, I personally use 3G exactly as you describe as point to point technology is too messy and complicated.

  • Toby Mills July 18, 2012 at 6:01pm

    I don't think the 3DR radio is what you need here.
    If you need all of this over one connection, I would suggest an IP based connection and mux the various streams over it.
    IP is born for this type of shared link connection.
    Check out the ubiquiti gear for long range point to point comms over IP.

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