This is a reprint of a reply I made in "Corrupting xBee during Ardupilot initialization". I thought it would help to bring this solution out in it's own discussion. So far I have only tested it on the bench, but I don't see any reason why it won't work just as well in the field. As long as you position the switch in a manner that prevents vibration from allowing the circuit to open temporarily you should have uninterrupted serial data.
I just installed a simple solution to this problem, which negates having
to remember to disconnect the xbee every time I power up the AP. I
bought a simple SPTD roller switch at Radio shack, wired it to the comm
line between the AP Tx, and the xbee Rx. The switch will be located in
the access panel where I provide power to the plane and AP. Whenever I
remove the hatch the circuit is open, when I button up this hatch, the
circuit is closed.The hatch will always be off when starting up the AP,
and will remain off until the IMU achieves GPS lock and calibrates.
Therefore I will never again have to "brick" an xbee!
Hope this helps anyone who has experienced this frustrating problem!
Perhaps soon we will eliminate the problem at it's source, until
then........
Keep flying!
Nathaniel
Replies
Nice solution and very ingenious. However, I believe that the APM does not have this problem since it has the extra serial ports and most of us will be moving to the APM once the software has been firmed up.
Regards,
TCIII