Hey all I am a newcomer to the hobby and am trying to expand my knowledge before getting tucked in, I am having trouble understanding how to use a laptop as a ground station with mission planner installed, and an RC at the same time.I understand this much, pixhawk is able to push telemetry data to your radio link receiver which is then able to send said data to your RC such as a Taranis, ok makes perfect sense, but then how is my GS connected to the plane, I understand I could for example plug my computer into the pixhawk and upload a mission but what if I where to be manually flying the AC with the Taranis whilst receiving telemetry data and decide to upload a mission planner mission to the pixhawk, DJI phantoms for example send the mission from your GS(mobile phone) through your RC to the AC you can do this whilst flying for example.Is it as simple as having a second telemetry link on board the AC specifically for the GS with a usb dongle and ariel plugged into the laptop? If this is the amswer then great that makes sense, but this is what is confusing me lets take dragonlink for example am I correct to think that dragonlink is just a radio link that is capable sending telemetry data from for example the pixhawk, so what if I wanted dragonlink from my ground station AND my RC to the AC would I need 2 complete dragonlink systems if the answer is yes, then why doesnt Dragonlink make a small receiver that doesnt have pins on it for the GS-AC link to upload missions etc, thanks everybody for youre time I understand I might be asking a silly question but getting the silly questions out of the way before building something potentially dangerous is the correct way around right?
You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!
@Chris Anderson thank you for clearing that up, and no I am not trying to fly multiple km away I just wanted to make sure I learned as much as I could first before even attempting the basics, when you say expansions do you mean incase that data link is not completely compaitable with the way a certain FC's telemetry data is sent, you could plug a gps module, pitot tube etc directly into it and then receive telemetry data on the GS that way? Or would the modules you mention perhaps be a satalite or gps/modem so you could get your flight telemetry from nearly anywhere? Again I understand I have no use for such things but im just trying to educating myself and understand all these periphals as best I can. Thanks again and I appreciate your time and patience.
Those extra pins are just for expansion (you won't need them). It uses the same cable with the same connector on the Pixhawk side as all the other telemetry radios. It's a bit janky looking, I agree.
BTW, don't start off thinking about flying kilometers away. That's illegal in most countries (flying beyond visual line of sight). A thousand feet is way far enough, and regular telemetry radios can handle that.
@Chris Anderson I promise I have done 3 days of reading including the page you sent me to, the conclusion I come to was if you want a data link from your gs to the AC you would install one, whilst the radio link receiver could also push telemetry data to be displayed on your Taranis for example I can grasp that, but why does the RFD900 Radio Modem on the page you linked have so many pins on it where as a jD-RF900Plus for example look like what I would expect a data link to look like with hardly any pins and just a wire to plug into the pixhawk. Thank you
Thanks for the answer @chris Anderson, but what if one would want telemetry to the ground station somewhere along the range of a Dragonlink for example, what if the plane was a few good few km away and I wanted to upload a mission to it.
Replies
Those extra pins are just for expansion (you won't need them). It uses the same cable with the same connector on the Pixhawk side as all the other telemetry radios. It's a bit janky looking, I agree.
BTW, don't start off thinking about flying kilometers away. That's illegal in most countries (flying beyond visual line of sight). A thousand feet is way far enough, and regular telemetry radios can handle that.
Just keep reading in the manual.
You use a separate telemetry radio, such as this one. Everything is in the manual here.