Not 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.
Replies
I used this tracker since v0.2 and I know telem2 doesn't work and don't use it. I use two pairs radio one pair connect vehicle and pc and one pair for AT and pc, first connect vehicle and pc, then press "CTRL F" pop up a window , Click "mavlink" button for connecting AT radio. this way data flow Vehicle - PC -AT and it work fine. but you have to fine tune AT's parameter manually.
What controller I use is pixhawk
Dick,
Thanks for that info. I've never personally done it that way but I guess that works too. What's happening when configured the way you describe is the mission planner is acting as the mavlink message passthrough. In the wiki-described-way it's the antenna tracker that's doing the pass through.
MP-in-the-middle-method: Vehicle <-> PC <-> AntennaTracker
AT-in-the-middle-method: Vehicle <-> AT <-> PC
My personal preference is the AT-in-the-middle way because it's less wires attached to the PC, and works with GCS besides the mission planner but I'm not trying to push that on anyone and the AT is a bit rough around the edges stll.
The telem2 is now working by the way in AT0.4.
Hello iskess,
What range does your RFD900 offer with stock Antennaes??
Also i want to fly my UAV at 20 kms (LOS). What would be the right Antennae setup? Do i need to get a Directional 12 dBi Yagi (I already have the Yagi) with a Tracker??
Thanks in advance!!
I imagine with a pair of RDF900 and a Yagi you should be able to exceed your 20km goal. Go to Suppo's thread, there are a lot of more knowledgable folks to share their experience.
Thanks a lot, iskess!!!
Will do and let u know!
Silvio,
Ok, what's causing this is that copter by default only sends heartbeats out on it's telemetry links until a GCS connects and asks for a specfic rate (which you can configure). The problem is that if you connect the copter later, the MP has already sent it's requested rates to the antenna tracker. When the copter joins the party it's missed the messages.
The easiest solution is to set the SR0_, SR1_ or SR2_ parameters on the vehicle's flight controller manually using the mission planner's full parameter list (or full parameter tree). So for example, if the vehicle's APM/Pixhawk has a 3dr radio on Telem1 you would connect to it with the mission planner and set SR1_POSITION to "5" (or some other number) and press "Write Params" button. With this done, the next time the copter is turned on it will immediately start sending position information 5x per second.
I could be mistaken but I don't believe the AT is set up to support continuous-rotation servos..
According to the documentation it does, but I think it has to be one or the other. Either both are regular or both are continuous.
@Silvio,
Thanks for testing.
Proxy mode has been removed in AT0.4 because it's got smarter routing now that makes it unnecessary.
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