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Neither ArduPilotGSC nor ArdustationV12 recognizes Wireless Telemetry Data?

Posted by Austin Duff on May 29, 2010 at 12:07pm
Good afternoon,

I'm experiences issues with the wireless telemetry aspect of my ArduPilot system. Here's my equipment:

On Plane side: ArduPilot_2_6  w/ NO airspeed adapter
EM406 GPS @ 57600
Adafruit Xbee Adapter
Xbee PRO 900 w/ wire antenna

Ground #1: ArduPilotGCS setup on COM8 and 57600
Arduino Duemillinove in RESET with Xbee Shield
Xbee PRO 900 w/ Duck antenna

or

Ground #2: ArduStationV12
Xbee PRO 900 w/ Duck antenna


I have setup both Xbee's on 57600 baud and the same ID and I am able to communicate wirelessly between 2 laptops via X-CTU's Terminal. I also can successfully read incoming data through the terminal from my ArduPilot, The data that comes in is the same as what i see in the ArduPilotGCS debug tab. (shown below)

Here's what happens:

I start up ArduPilotGCS on the computer and set COM8, which is my Arduino board with the Xbee 900, and baud is 57600. Next I turn on the ArduPilot and wait about 5 seconds before the GPS gets a lock and the blue light stays solid. On ArduPilotGCS the Comm status goes green but none of the meters nor the map changes. I go to the debug tab and i see this data coming in:


.......... 


lat/lng * 10^7:391823996, -771677629, alt: 135m, gs: 2.5399999618m/s


.......... 


lat/lng * 10^7:391824921, -771678016, alt: 137m, gs: 2.8599998474m/s


.......... 


lat/lng * 10^7:391824962, -771677887, alt: 141m, gs: 2.4900000095m/s

This data on the debug tab and the Comm status light is the only indicator on ArduPilotGCS that my ArduPilot is working. I assume the ArduPilot is working as it is achieving a GPS lock and I can understand the raw data above, The coordinates match my location, however it seems as if ArduPilotGCS cannot understand it's syntax. 

I have tried the same with my ArduStation. The RSS LED on the Station lights blue when the ArduPilot is turned on, indicating that the Xbee's are communicating at some level, however all Data on the screen remains 0's. I am running ArduStationV12.

I have not added any servos or sensors to my ArduPilot yet as i want to at least get wireless telemetry running before i purchase a hundred dollars worth of sensors. I tried using the RED adapter board with airspeed sensor but i ran into problems that became fixed after it was removed. I have ordered the new BLUE one, as well as a uBlox GPS and adapter. I plan on upgrading once they are delivered.

I appreciate the help!
- Austin Duff

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Tags: 900, ardupilot, ardupilotgcs, ardustation, arduino, auto, data, em406, gps, pilot
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Replies

  • Austin Duff May 29, 2010 at 9:13pm
    No actually I figured out the issue, The problem was that in my ArduPilot_2_6 configuration I had the GCS_Protocol set to something other than 0. My misunderstanding stemmed from the lack of comment in the header file. It says option 0 is for "LabVIEW/HappyKillmore ground station" but I had forgotten that ArduPilot_GCS runs in LabView. I had it set to either 1 or 2, in attempt to troubleshoot other problems, not knowing that 0 is required for GCS and ArduStation to recognize data. If this was cleared up in the manual or the comments for example by adding "ArduPilot_GCS/HappyKillmore = 0", it would prevent people like me who overlook details from having problems :)

    Thank you!
  • automatik May 29, 2010 at 3:36pm
    @ Austin,
    glad it worked out :)

    Since you are not the only one that happen to, perhaps there is a link on ArduPilot page / wiki that points to "old" ArduPilot code version...I tried to find it but had no luck.

    Do you think you very recently downloaded the "old" code ( if so from which page so that we can fix it), or was it just honest omission on code version?
  • Austin Duff May 29, 2010 at 2:05pm
    automatik, I just uploaded the code you provided and everything is working perfectly :)

    I could have sworn i was using that code version already but thank you very much for helping out, ArduStation is receiving data as well :)
  • automatik May 29, 2010 at 1:47pm
    Hi Austin,
    just in case please make sure you are using latest 2.6 code from the link I referenced earlier or "straight" download from here:
    http://ardupilot.googlecode.com/files/ArduPilot_2_6.zip

    I've seen people thinking that they are using latest AP 2.6 firmware and reporting GCS problems, however it turned out that they had some earlier AP version without realizing it...so just to eliminate that possibility please follow the links provided :)
  • Austin Duff May 29, 2010 at 1:34pm
    Thanks for the response,

    automatik, yes as far as I know I have the latest firmware downloaded, I got it from the google repository recommended on the ArduPilot page. It is ArduPilot_2_6.

    Chris, I have included the AP_2_6_header.h as well as the ArduPilot GCS.ini file that is currently being used. I also have included the main .pde file I uploaded to my ArduPilot.

    Thanks

    AP_2_6_header.h

    ArduPilot GCS.ini

    ArduPilot_2_6.pde

  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson May 29, 2010 at 1:23pm
    Austin, can you upload your config file? Automatik is right--that's not normal ArduPilot output.
  • automatik May 29, 2010 at 12:55pm
    Hi Austin,
    your example does not look like ArduPilot data telemetry syntax. It should look something like:
    LAT:52379928,LON:-1855986,SPD:0.2399999856,CRT:21.0000000000,ALT:162, etc

    and ArduPilot GCS will understand that.

    Arde you using latest ArduPilot 2.6 firmware?
    You can find it here:
    http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot/downloads/detail?name=ArduPilot_...
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