Bluetooth Telemetry Bridge Now on Kickstarter

Thanks to everyone for your feedback and suggestions on our last post about this project. We've decided to go ahead and have just launched a Kickstarter project for it today!

We will offer both a 433 and 915MHz version of the Bluetooth Bridge, each is compatible with its counterpart 3DR Radio. The 915MHz version is also compatible with RFD900 radios. Range when paired with a 3DR radio is approximately 1km, when paired with an RFD900 the range will be approximately 4km. The Bluetooth Bridge has been designed to be as simple and easy to use as possible. The unit comes with an internal, rechargeable battery so you won't need to find an extra LiPo with the 'right' kind of connector. Charging is as simple as plugging the unit in to a PC or laptop with a Micro-USB cable. The unit also lets you know the status of the battery with a green, yellow or red LED.

The Kickstarter page is live now and is currently the only place to make an order. Once the Kickstarter is complete, we'll begin accepting orders through our web store. The price will be $139 which includes the Bluetooth Bridge module in a durable enclosure and an internal, rechargeable battery. You'll still need your old air side radio module, but if you don't have one we'll also be selling compatible packs for $189.

Check out more details on the Kickstarter page and leave us your comments/questions below!

@Arthur

Scott Plunkett actually had a near ready product back in 2011 (developed separately and in parallel to the little box I made). We actually collaborated at the time with 3DR staff, with Scott providing his electrical layouts (August 2011, I have a prototype), although they cancelled it in favour of something else (not sure of details). Basically it had the same functions, but with an XBee.

On a side note; while I was forced to stop the Copter-GCS effort due to work (no personal time for mote than a year, and no copter flying at all, couldn't really help it), I do keep seeing the HUD, ripped from that project, every time I see promotional materials from a commercial company (which I realize, of course, is simply using public software, both GCS and APM, to sell product). I made it open source and all that of course. And the new Ardu GCSs have built on it of course (kudos), but all the same.

The bridge looks nice though.

PS. I just realized that Jeff Taylor was also on that effort in 2011,....

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Comments

Drone Nerd December 3, 2013 at 8:05pm

Well done, Jeff.
Bart December 3, 2013 at 6:54pm

@Jeff No wifi or browser was involved in the bridge we worked on (perhaps that was something else at 3DR?). The bridge prototype we built was a bluetooth to XBee bridge.
Jeff Taylor December 3, 2013 at 6:41pm

Thanks Arthur! What kind of specs did you want to see?

@Sam Thanks for the pledge! :)

@Mario - we'll have to send out a survey for folks who backed the early award, we'll follow up with an email if you don't see the survey, no worries.

I do recall Scott and Bart's project from 2011 and I was involved - I believe we got hung up on trying to use Wifi to get the GCS to appear in a browser. That ended up being quite challenging, technically, for the limited resources at our disposal at the time. Brings back memories!
Bart December 3, 2013 at 6:19pm

@Arthur

Scott Plunkett actually had a near ready product back in 2011 (developed separately and in parallel to the little box I made). We actually collaborated at the time with 3DR staff, with Scott providing his electrical layouts (August 2011, I have a prototype), although they cancelled it in favour of something else (not sure of details). Basically it had the same functions, but with an XBee.

On a side note; while I was forced to stop the Copter-GCS effort due to work (no personal time for mote than a year, and no copter flying at all, couldn't really help it), I do keep seeing the HUD, ripped from that project, every time I see promotional materials from a commercial company (which I realize, of course, is simply using public software, both GCS and APM, to sell product). I made it open source and all that of course. And the new Ardu GCSs have built on it of course (kudos), but all the same.

The bridge looks nice though.

PS. I just realized that Jeff Taylor was also on that effort in 2011,....
Mario December 3, 2013 at 5:01pm

Backed !!
Mario December 3, 2013 at 5:00pm

Hey Guys ! Good work !

Please tel me where to specify the frequency I want. I did not see any field for that in the process.
Jeff Taylor December 3, 2013 at 4:04pm

Thanks for the support, everyone!

Thanks for the feedback Hugues - I think there are still enough people who might want a ready to go unit. I wouldn't discourage anyone from building their own telemetry bridge, as you've done.
3D Robotics

Chris Anderson December 3, 2013 at 3:59pm

Looks great. Backed!
Moderator

Gary Mortimer December 3, 2013 at 1:23pm

An awful lot of folks don't want to build their own gear.
MR60

Hugues December 3, 2013 at 1:14pm

Hello,

Very nice case. However I wonder if your kickstarter project is not too late in terms of existing competition and cheap alternatives. Have you done your research on similar products/ideas ? There are plenty on this diydrones.com that were published and it is certainly not exhaustive, just a few examples:

-http://www.diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/droidplanner-telemetry-blue...

-http://www.diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/connecting-to-apm-2-5-via-b...

-http://www.diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/ten-dollar-telemetry-blueto...

-http://www.diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/android-based-gcs-with

-http://www.diydrones.com/profiles/blog/show?id=705844%3ABlogPost%3A...

I do not want to ruin your idea or anything but if you want commercial success you should offer strong differientiation and added value versus what everybody can do easily now for a few bucks....

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