Hi,I wonder has there been any work on running multiple serial devices on the ardupilot. The SoftwareSerial library seems pretty robust and would be good for use with the xbee. This would allow the xbee to be used for telemetry and an uplink. Remote control via digital radio rather that RC has to be the way forward. This would allow full remote control over long distances limited only by hardware from Digi Or even GPRS.That been said, maybe there is a fundamental reason why an RC link should be in the loop (not counting regulatory reasons).CheersDiarmuid
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We use a software line with success. The soft serial library contained with the Arduino IDE is severely lacking, but Mikal Harts Soft Serial library (http://arduiniana.org/) is much more functional (although it shares a timer used to control servos, but jitters were quick enough and small enough to not affect stability that we can tell)
We run the GPS through the dedicated line and two way communication on the software serial line (we communicate at roughly 12 Hz with GS). We decided to use the software line for the comm rather than GPS simply because it is more convient to use the existing ArduPilot layout.
The Solution is to move away from Com port Serial; it's beyond anachronistic. If you understand the history of Serial comm's, it is not a component to component com protocol, but rather intended for much longer distances - but of course, it's slower than smoke signals on a rainy day. There really isn't any purpose for which comm serial is even remotely the best solution.
Except of course history. Because of its long history, most chip makers have some free com IP, and so it's often a default choice - but I have yet to see one product in which it was a good choice, more often it becomes the obvious flaw. It (and its cousin the parallel port) were the first ports to disappear from the modern PC landscape for good reason.
PC use I2C etc for short board level connections with these kinds of bandwidth requirements.
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We run the GPS through the dedicated line and two way communication on the software serial line (we communicate at roughly 12 Hz with GS). We decided to use the software line for the comm rather than GPS simply because it is more convient to use the existing ArduPilot layout.
Here is a link to how we did the two way stuff and the code we used.
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/our-very-first-flight-with-two
Except of course history. Because of its long history, most chip makers have some free com IP, and so it's often a default choice - but I have yet to see one product in which it was a good choice, more often it becomes the obvious flaw. It (and its cousin the parallel port) were the first ports to disappear from the modern PC landscape for good reason.
PC use I2C etc for short board level connections with these kinds of bandwidth requirements.