Developer

figuring out the Antenna Tracker

3691139590?profile=originalNot many people know but we have an piece of open source software for controlling an Antenna Tracker.  It's been built by Tridge (Arduplane lead developer) for use in the outback challenge.

Sadly we have no documentation and, as far as I know, nobody except Tridge has used it.  Still given Tridge's track record on building great software I suspect it works well and if it doesn't, I'm sure we can fix it.  So to not let this piece of code go to waste, I'd like some help from people who are interested to give it a try and help me figure out how it works.

Here's the little that I know:

  • It runs on any of our supported board (APM1, APM2, PX4, Pixhawk, Flymaple and perhaps VRBrain)
  • For APM1/APM2 users building the code is as easy as opening our hacked ArduinoIDE and selecting File > SketchBook > Tools > AntennaTracker and then building in the normal way.  For PX4/Pixhawk, our autobuilder doesn't automatically build a binary but I can provide one if people are interested.
  • It can control a Pan and Tilt gimbal like this or this found on servocity.com.
  • It may or may not require a GPS
  • It must somehow receive vehicle position updates from the ground station which has the telemetry radio that is connected to the vehicle. Maybe through a USB cable.  Tridge probably uses the python ground station, MAVProxy, to passthrough the vehicle position data to the AT but perhaps we can get MichaelO to build out a similar feature in Mission Planner.
  • I imagine this antenna tracker could also be used to keep a camera focused on the vehicle which might be good for easing the burden on creating videos of our vehicles.

So if you want to give it a try please do and stick any findings, questions or issues below. Alternatively Issues can go into the issues list.

I'll start sticking things into the wiki as they become clear.

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Replies

  • Palo,

    It's a good question but I do not know how to do it. I searched for v0.8.0 firmware in the repository but did not find it.

    palo sestak said:

    Yep,

    thats it I didn't look at the whole line in the drop down menu just at first few letters :-/. My fault.

    Anyway is there possibility how to store it on my local hard drive? I mean I would like to back it up, just in case in next releases of Mission Planner it disappears...

    Thanks Greg.

  • Hi, yes I like the flat profile as it doesn't need any counter-weight and the ImmersionRC products always work very well.

    fred flintstone said:

    Hi buddy i see your using Immersion Circular Polarized patch antenna any good ?

  • Yep,

    thats it I didn't look at the whole line in the drop down menu just at first few letters :-/. My fault.

    Anyway is there possibility how to store it on my local hard drive? I mean I would like to back it up, just in case in next releases of Mission Planner it disappears...

    Thanks Greg.

  • Palo,

    Try this technique. On the Mission Planner "Install Firmware" screen select "Pick Previous Firmware". Then in the drop down menu you will see at the very top of the list, "AP 3.6.0 AR 3.0.1 AT 0.8.0". Select this line and the Antenna Tracker icon will change to V0.8.0.

    Good luck!



    palo sestak said:

    Greg,

    Using latest version of MissionPlanner I can't find this FW 0.8.0 in combobox when clicking on "Pick prev firmware" button.

    The only AT FW I can see here is 0.7.6 and 0.7.3. Can you please send me hex file with AT 0.8.0?



    Greg Covey said:

    Nikola,

    Version 0.8.0 firmware is working very well for me when ALT_SOURCE is set for GPS. You can still select version 0.8.0 by pressing the "Pick previous firmware" link in the Install Firmware section of Mission Planner. It works well for both copter and plane.

    I have not tried version 1.0 yet...

  • Greg,

    Using latest version of MissionPlanner I can't find this FW 0.8.0 in combobox when clicking on "Pick prev firmware" button.

    The only AT FW I can see here is 0.7.6 and 0.7.3. Can you please send me hex file with AT 0.8.0?



    Greg Covey said:

    Nikola,

    Version 0.8.0 firmware is working very well for me when ALT_SOURCE is set for GPS. You can still select version 0.8.0 by pressing the "Pick previous firmware" link in the Install Firmware section of Mission Planner. It works well for both copter and plane.

    I have not tried version 1.0 yet...

  • Hi buddy i see your using Immersion Circular Polarized patch antenna any good ?


    Greg Covey said:

    I tested the new v0.8.0 of the APM Antenna Tracker which included a new filter to smooth input to the controllers. It worked great for both APM Copter v3.3.3 and APM Plane v3.2.3. My ALT_SOURCE parameter was set to use GPS.

    My tracker uses an EZTracker with extra side car from ReadyMadeRC, a long range RDF900 telemetry unit and an ImmersionRC DUO 5.8GHz receiver with a directional and omni antenna. The extra side car acts as a counter-balance and a spare battery holder.

    I posted my param file for those that are interested...

    APM Antenna Tracker v0.8.0 from Gregory Covey on Vimeo.

  • Nikola,

    Others have reported oscillations with v1.0 firmware so hopefully you will not see them in v0.8. A few pages back, Randy posted the differences added to v1.0. Maybe you can check out his blog entry. I copied his post below.

    Reply by Randy on July 28, 2016 at 5:24am

    You may have seen that I've done a blog post about Tracker version 1.0.  Basically this is 0.8 but it's got three improvements including the tilt compensation and PITCH_MIN and PITCH_MAX parameters replace the PITCH_RANGE parameter.  Version 1.0 is available through the Mission Planner's Beta firmwares link and if people think it's ok, I'll make it the official version next week some time.

  • Thank you, will give it a try! Any suggestion how to tune shaking servos just in case I keep having that issue?


    Greg Covey said:

    Nikola,

    Version 0.8.0 firmware is working very well for me when ALT_SOURCE is set for GPS. You can still select version 0.8.0 by pressing the "Pick previous firmware" link in the Install Firmware section of Mission Planner. It works well for both copter and plane.

    I have not tried version 1.0 yet...

  • Nikola,

    Version 0.8.0 firmware is working very well for me when ALT_SOURCE is set for GPS. You can still select version 0.8.0 by pressing the "Pick previous firmware" link in the Install Firmware section of Mission Planner. It works well for both copter and plane.

    I have not tried version 1.0 yet...

  • Will the next version be out any time soon?

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