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Pixhawk & raspberry pi

Posted by Nicolas-Michael El Jamal on November 10, 2014 at 11:11am

Hello guys!

I am making for my final year project a quad-copter that will detect an object at a specific longitude and latitude. I am using raspberry pi for image processing and pixhawk for the control.
As you know the the GPS is not accurate enough and it might give an error of 1 + meters. For that, the logic behind the project is to let the quad-copter go first to the predefined lon/lat of the object then try to find the target.
My question is the following: I know that I can interface the raspberry pi and pixhawk using Mavlink. But is there any command in Mavlink that allows the raspberry pi to send a move left command for x meters...to the pixhawk?  

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Tags: pixhawk, px4, raspberry pi
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Replies

  • sameena shaikh December 14, 2017 at 11:21pm

    Hi,

    I am doing a similar project. Have you found anythin realted to it. I have been succesful in dsetting up the connection between raspberry pi and pixhawk. How would i get gps data from pixhawk to raspberry pi??

    Any help appreciated

    Thanks & Regards

  • Khushal B April 5, 2017 at 11:30pm



    Nicolas-Michael El Jamal said:

    Hey Sergey, 

    It's good to know that I am not the only one stuck with this problem.

    I managed to successfully send commands to the pixhawk via Mavproxy. 

    This is my sequence of commands after running mavproxy.py according to this thread (http://dev.ardupilot.com/wiki/raspberry-pi-via-mavlink/) :

    switch 0

    rc 3 1500 //(throttle)

    arm throttle

    These commands will activate the motors, so be careful and remove your propellers. Also, you can send yaw, pitch and roll commands by changing the number in the 2nd command. e.g: rc i 1600; i= 1, 2, 3, 4.

    Thank you & good luck!

    NJ

    Hey did you get this to work? I'm also looking for a quick fix like this without having to get into the whole dronekit documentation for my line follower project. Please have a look at what I'm trying to do here: http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/line-follower-project-using-a-mac...

  • Joanna Dumagpi November 27, 2016 at 4:13pm

    Hi Nicholas!

    How's this project of yours now? I am working on a similar one. I needed to know how to send commands to the pixhawk to move "x" meters forward or sideways. How were you able to do this? By the way, I am also using python.

  • Mike Isted May 1, 2015 at 8:55pm

    Hi All

    Apologies for my absence.  I have had to take a month out of the project, but now can get back into it.

    I have got as far as successfully sending some limited commands from a C++ program to the PixHawk (rather than from the command screen/monitor).

    Next steps are to expand the repertoire of commands able to be sent and to receive messages back from the PixHawk.

    Has anyone else made progress?

    • This reply was deleted.
      • Waladi September 4, 2015 at 2:54am

        Hi Logan,

        Any progress that you made with above route?

        Very interested to know the performance of Mission Planner running on Pi 2 meanwhile also analyzing the image using OpenCV..

        And how do you receive the video input from the drone? using Gtreamer? or simple video transmitter (5.8ghz, etc) and feed it into Pi 2?

        Thanks for sharing.

        Waladi

      • Moderator
        Nicolas-Michael El Jamal August 22, 2015 at 11:58am

        Hey All,

        I also apologize for my absence, I took also a few months out of the project.

        I decided finally to use python to send the movement commands to the pixhawk (via MAVproxy) and I will extend my python module with C++ (OpenCV) using boost. 

        I finished testing my modules individually. However today, I connected the Raspberry Pi with the Pixhawk according to the link below:

        http://dev.ardupilot.com/wiki/companion-computers/raspberry-pi-via-...

        I followed the tutorial and I was powering my Pixhawk from my laptop's USB port. When I ran MAVproxy on the Raspberry pi  I got garbage. Do you think that's because I am powering Pixhawk from my laptop's USB?

        I recommend that you use python and extend it with C++ because it is much easier. dronekit.io  is a good starting point.

        Thank you!

        Cheers 

  • Sergey B February 19, 2015 at 4:26pm

    Hey Nicolas-Michael!

    I am making pretty same project as you do, and I am also trying to deal with same problem of controlling PixHawk from on-board computer.

    The solution which I am trying to implement now is like this:
    I am connecting via MavProxy to PixHawk and I am sending MavLink command MANUAL_CONTROL which overrides the RC input. Here is the description of this command:

    https://pixhawk.ethz.ch/mavlink/#MANUAL_CONTROL

    I would be grateful if somebody would share his experience using this method.

    • Mike Isted > Sergey B March 4, 2015 at 3:31am

      Hi Sergey

      It may be the answer lies with the instructions here: http://www.qgroundcontrol.org/dev/mavlink_onboard_integration_tutorial

      With this, it should be possible to build some software on the Pi to directly send Mavlink commands.  The Pi can then also run OpenCV for tracking etc. and provide the 'intelligence' required.

      Unless someone has a better idea (which would be very welcome!), I'm going to take that route for now...

      Cheers

      Mike

    • Mike Isted > Sergey B March 4, 2015 at 2:51am

      Hi Everyone

      I am working on a Masters project doing something similar, so wanting to control the Pixhawk using Mavlink commands sent from a Raspberry Pi.

      I have the two boards communicating but need to decide what to do next.  As MavProxy is a command line application, I'm wondering if it is not suited to be adapted to give a continuous stream of messages to the Pixhawk.  Is it best to build a program on the Raspberry Pi from scratch? 

      Any thoughts anyone?

      Cheers

      Mike

      • Moderator
        Nicolas-Michael El Jamal > Mike Isted March 4, 2015 at 4:10am

        Hey Mike, 

        Well as you replied to Sergey, you can use the mavlink onboard integration tutorial to achieve your goal. However, since I am on a tight schedule I am willing to send commands via Mavproxy. Using my opencv C/C++ code for image processing, I will be executing bash commands using the "system" function of C. With this, after getting the results of the image processing, I will run mavproxy.py and will send commands accordingly to the pixhawk (such as rc 1 2000, etc.).

        I know this might be a bad idea. I didn't try it yet, but I am sure that it will work. It is just an easy fix since I have to present my project at the end of May. 

        Good luck with your Project!

        Nicolas

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