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OSD with vector graphics compatible with MinimOSD

Posted by Andy Little on January 16, 2015 at 7:43am

Hi,

Have been working on an OSD compatible with MinimOSD, but based on a STM32F4. The OSD can do vector graphics and also can send data to the ground station using the unused frames after the Vsync pulses ( like teletext).( I use this to send data to my antenna tracker.) The OSD is desigtned to be a drop in replacement for MinimOSD and accepts Mavlink data. Also has 2 audio channels ( so can be used e.g fo vario) and various peripherals ( serial port, i2C, SPI and PWM capture etc,) broken out on headers.

Here is a video of the prototype working

regards

Andy

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Replies

Gareth February 21, 2016 at 11:51pm

Andy

Really interested in this project! Been thinking about doing the same thing with an stm32 board I'd made but you've beaten me to it!

I'm actually based in Portsmouth.. You seem near?
- Developer
  
  Andy Little > Gareth February 23, 2016 at 12:07pm
  
  @Gareth,
  
  Hi,
  
  I'm based North West of London, you are lucky to live on the south coast :)
  
  Is your board an OSD board? If it's open source I am always interested in OSD hardware.
  
  I have actually moved more to focus on combining the OSD and Flight controller now on a single board, rather than a MinimOSD replacement, since I found the STM32F4 is quite capable:
  
  http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/ardupilot-flight-controller-wit...
  
  regards
  
  Andy
Andrew Fernie April 26, 2015 at 3:39pm

And yes, the card works with Arducopter also. I have built up a V2.1 board (thanks to Andy for providing a blank PCB) and added some new symbology parameters. My version is heavily text based right now, but the OSD will allow for nicer graphics to be added (like Andy's compass). Shouldn't be any issue running this with Arduplane - just need to change the flight mode strings and enable the airspeed parameter display (only GPS speed enabled in this video).

I didn't have any GPS issues with this version, but did have the OSD under my DJI X550 frame and the GPS is on the top above the controller so did have some distance between them.
- Developer
  
  Andy Little > Andrew Fernie April 27, 2015 at 4:40pm
  
  Looking good and nice to see the board working in NTSC mode
  
  The V2.1 board is definitely not bad at all from a GPS point of view and is also slightly easier to build than V1, therefore I have removed the V1 board from OSHPark and replaced it there with the V2.1 board.
  
  https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/yiU4RsLa
  
  The OSHPark page has links to the schematics, source and a Bill Of Materials too.
  
  regards
  
  Andy
  
  OSH Park ~
  - Pavel > Andy Little June 14, 2015 at 4:05pm
    
    Looks very interesting. I just found another OSD playuav OSD. http://diydrones.com/profiles/blog/show?id=705844%3ABlogPost%3A2002...
ColinC April 18, 2015 at 6:38am

Hey Andy, I saw this and thought of you: http://www.bot-thoughts.com/2014/02/openmv-low-cost-hackable-script...
Colin

OpenMV: low cost, hackable, scriptable machine vision

Introduction OpenMV Cam will be the most hackable, low cost machine vision platform out there, because Ibrahim and I want to change th...
- ColinC > ColinC April 24, 2015 at 10:32am
  
  I was thinking more along the lines of the programability of the thing. But I don't know enough about mico python to know if it's worth the trouble.
  Cheers,
  Colin
  - Developer
    
    Andy Little > ColinC April 24, 2015 at 2:09pm
    
    I have actually got a micropython board and it seems quite easy to use, though not done much with it. In terms of programming the OSD in Python. I think it would realistic to get a python API. Though Python is pretty slow, It should be quite efficient too since the Python interpreter is only at the highest level and most of the grunt would still be C++.
    
    Its another path for the OSD waiting to be explored. :)
    
    regards
    
    Andy
- Developer
  
  Andy Little > ColinC April 24, 2015 at 5:41am
  
  Hi Colin,
  
  I would think that object recognition is some way down the road! But its a fascinating project
  
  regards
  
  Andy
Developer

Andy Little April 13, 2015 at 4:51pm

Managed to get the FixedWing maiden of the OSD today..

Telemetry for the tracker is working via Video Audio and FrSky telemetry RX, Need to adjust artificial horizon pitch, but can do so via flash variables for next time. so Next task is to get the video vsync telemetry working, which will make the Audio telemetry redundant pretty much , though has been fun to experiment with software FSK modem on the STM32. Also looking forward to pulling in Andrew Fernies work on switching screens etc on Github...

YouTube