Discussions

3DR telemetry no longer supported by 3DR....options?

Posted by Aussie in AZ on January 19, 2016 at 4:59am

I have been using the 915mhz telemetry v2 units with my Pixhawk for a while now.  One of them is not giving the range that it used to and I need a replacement.

I varified the range with the use of my Fighting Walrus iDrone Link and one unit is getting about 100m range while the other is getting good signal to where my hexacopter is just a spec in the distance.

Problem 1:

I can not get hold of Fighting Walrus any more.  They have not answered my emails since about October of 2015.  I am assuming they are no longer active? (also no updates to their iOS app for almost a year)

Problem 2:

3DR are no longer making their 900 or 433 telemetry units. (verified vie an email to them)

"Hello Justin,

Thank you for contacting 3DRobotics customer service.

We apologize for the inconvenience. Unfortunately, we do not have the Telemetry available anymore since they have been discontinued, both the 915 and 433."

I am using a Nexus 7 v2 Tablet with the Tower App (great app by the way)

Question:

Other than the $250 long range 900mhz kits (I don't need/am not allowed to use super long range) or $10 knock 3DR off kits from China (gamble as to whether you get a good one/no warranty), what options are there that are "PnP" ?

I am using a Taranis Plus TX with x8r RX and could use that telemetry but then there is no way to load missions in the field.

Thanks for input

J

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Replies

        • Aussie in AZ > Aussie in AZ January 30, 2016 at 4:12pm

          Just in case you have not read this, Chris Anderson,

          I asked you "Then what does this mean".  

          Just in case the link didn't work, here is a copy and paste.

          Your silence is deafening.

          Now I am really worried about 3DR.  You say one thing and yet here is an open letter on your site saying the opposite.

          J

          Notification: My Community Support Ending

          Hello everyone, I feel the time has come to make an announcement, which I've been avoiding for a few weeks now, but which I can't put off anymore.

          As some people are aware (and some maybe not) for a little over a year I have been doing development work and community support as a full time job, with the generous support of 3DRobotics.  This represented a major shift in the direction of my career from industrial mechanical engineering, to this burgeoning field of aerial robotics.  However, 3DR has decided to discontinue that support.  As the project has grown in scope and complexity, the overhead time requirements just to stay on top of program development and developer group communications has grown with it.  Prior to the support provided by 3DR, I was moonlighting while maintaining a "day job" outside of the industry, but that ended up burning me out and I won't go back to that situation.

          This has led to me scrambling to figure out what to do next in order to pay the bills, etc.  I actually saw the writing on the wall several months ago and began working in the direction to solidify my future in this industry, but the change happened a little before I was ready.

          In any case, regretfully I must announce that my efforts to directly support the community, answering questions, analyzing logs and doing general improvements to the code will be ending.  I am committed to seeing AC3.3 finally go Stable for Tradhelis, and updating the Wiki to be up to date with this.  But beyond that, I'm not sure how much I'll be able to help out.

          My hope is to produce revolutionary new turn-key UAV helicopter systems and use them for professional services, or 3rd party sales.  If I can make this transition, I will likely continue to do Alpha testing on new AC code and contribute new features.  I have almost completed design of an excellent new 700 helicopter design, and hoped to do a proper 500 size helicopter for mapping after that, but likely won't have the cash to bring these to market on my own at this point.  Unfortunately, due to timing, I may be entering into development contracts with other companies which will be a bit more "closed" in nature.

          It is my hope that the community can get to the point where it is self-supporting.  We already have several members who are quite successful with helicopters, and are still coming around to help others, and that is encouraging.  Hopefully this can continue to grow.  I don't want to see Helicopter support in the code die.  Helicopter mechanics are largely a "solved problem", and this platform delivers superior combination of flight performance.  VTOL of a multirotor, range and speed similar to many of the foam airplanes used today, and absolutely unmatched stability and weather tolerance, while carrying payloads greater than any platform of similar size. And Ardupilot is the only full-featured autopilot system that will fly a UAV helicopter, unless you purchase military-grade autopilot systems. I feel, and I think the worldwide UAV community agrees, that Ardupilot is the most reliable, full-featured, high performance and cost effective autopilot system available.  The fact that it is truly open source, distributed under a GPLv3 license means that is flexible, extensible and capable of meeting the needs of all users, big and small, while reflecting a share-and-share-alike mindset.  And I don't need to tell you guys that Ardupilot is flexible and cost effective on the hardware side as well, capable of running on a wide variety of hardware systems from many companies offering differing capabilities to meet various user needs.  This could be anything from tinkerers and hobbyists, to small service companies, UAV builders, academics and research groups.  It's important that the project continues to keep UAV technology accessible to all, and not be locked down by big corporations or governments.

          Best Regards,

          Rob

          • 3D Robotics
            Chris Anderson > Aussie in AZ January 30, 2016 at 4:37pm

            Thanks for posting that; I hadn't clicked on the link in your earlier comment, so my comment was based on what Rob's actually doing in the dev community, rather than what he said in that post. He is at the moment the most active developer on the Skype dev list, and you can see a glimpse of that with this screenshot of just the last 20 minutes of chat (trust me, Rob is just as present on the previous infinity hours, and appears never to sleep). 

            In short, I think you may be reading too much into Rob's post. He's going to cut down on his public-facing support function, but I see no slowing down of his actual development contributions at all. He is, as always, a rockstar. 

            3702856387?profile=original

  • T3
    healthyfatboy January 29, 2016 at 7:00am

    What's the likelihood of the 900MHz modems becoming obsolete? I'm curious as I'm interested in purchased some RFD900+ modems but don't want to put the money down for them if we're moving away from that realm.

    • Seppo > healthyfatboy January 29, 2016 at 7:10am

      Hi,

      I don't see modems in the 900MHz band becoming obsolete at all.  The frequency band is available in a large number of countries with pretty good license conditions (1W in Aus, and 4W EIRP) in the USA being available.  The propagation in the 900MHz band is also much better compared to 2.4 or 5.7GHz. For long range telemetry, I think it a really good solution.

      RFDesign will continue to supporting existing products (RFD900+, RFD868+, and u's) as well as developing new ones as long as there is is a need.   Demand for our modems has steadily increased over the years so we will keep actively developing and supporting our products!

      Hope it helps with your decisions!

      Cheers,

      Seppo @ RFDesign

      • T3
        healthyfatboy > Seppo January 29, 2016 at 8:03pm

        Excellent! I assumed it would be okay but got caught up in thinking about WiFi for everything. While it can be convenient to have all data (control, telemetry, video) in one stream, having the better propagation through air (and walls to an extent)  is still going to be important as you don't necessarily have to have video all the time.

        I'll have to save up to pick up your set.

  • Marcin Krawczyk January 28, 2016 at 1:59am

    If anyone is interested - I can provide 433/868/915 units in reasonable prices - details via PM.

    Design based on 3DR Radio v1, UART port (can be used with any USB/UART converter, i. e. FTDI-, SiLabs- or Prolific-based.

    3DR_Radio_v3.jpg

  • Richard Kennedy January 26, 2016 at 6:18pm

    re- no word from iDrone control... yea I noticed that. VERY disappointed the thing wasn't cheap and I was counting on follow me mode being supported at some point. Seems a waste they had all the hard stuff done including getting approved by Apple! I hope they come back and continue with it. Then again $10 3dr radios from China can make a $100 product hard to explain. Yet another option gone and one of the only DIRECT connect to an iPhone or iPad. Bummer. 

    • Developer
      Bill Bonney > Richard Kennedy January 27, 2016 at 6:54pm
      With ESP8266 options it's easy to connect either directly over WiFi to a drone or create a WiFi to 915MHz bridge. Cost is $3 dollars and up.

      This is supported in MAV Pilot http://AppStore.com/MAVPilot
      • Aussie in AZ > Bill Bonney January 28, 2016 at 4:47am

        Bill,

        That looks awesome!

        One question before I download a $13 app, does the WiFi connection interfere with the other on board frequencies like it used to?  One thing I remember popping up quite often in the forums was fly ways and brown out type symptoms due to interference with WiFi and 2.4 transmitter/receiver systems.

        Thanks for the post

        J

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