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DroneCell and 900Mhz Xbee problems ?....

Posted by ARHEXA on May 15, 2011 at 11:03am

 

I had the brilliant idea of building a device that will send GPS location over SMS text messages.

this, after i lost my prototype quad Arducopter last week. it felt not too far, i could hear it, but a few days of searching in the forest gave nothing....

 

R.I.P. dear copter.

here is the last successful flight, in memory..

 

 

 

to the point,

BR-Dronecell-01-2T.jpg?width=249

the Xbees are working at 900Mhz,

and the DroneCell is quad band, but the local cell company is using both 900Mhz and 1800.

 

should there be interference between them ?

and how can one know if the Dronecell will choose 900 or 1800 Mhz ? given the cell company support both...

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Comments

  • ARHEXA May 15, 2011 at 10:51pm

    Yes the beeper is on the way too.

     

    but how does that RF beacon works ?

    i've heard of sending signals of different tones with different power settings, that way, the more signal you have, the more different tones you hear.

    but actually, you must use a very narrow directional antenna, no ? their scanner seems to use a regular antenna, how does it find the direction ?

  • T3
    healthyfatboy May 15, 2011 at 6:55pm
    FMKIT does some good work, especially with his beacons. Definitely give that a try if you're concerned about losing your hexa.
  • Greg Fletcher May 15, 2011 at 3:09pm
    On my set up I record some of the telemetry with a modified Ardustation with a micro sd card board from Sparkfun. I always have a permanent record of my fight as long as there is telem and GPS. You could also get a 5 V beeper and connect it to the rely on the shield. Set it up so that the beeper beeps when RC is not received. I once lost a micro heli in some tall weeds near my house ~ 80 ft. away and I saw it go down. I never found it. I was trying to hear the servos as I had done before, but this time I was being circled by angry shrieking bird and couldn't hear the little servos. After dark I looked for the blinking red led and never found it. Battery dead, $100 gone. The farmer plowed it under after gave up looking. That reminds me, get a beeper!
  • d-creator May 15, 2011 at 2:03pm
    u can use 35Mhz 75Mhz 433Mhz 850Mhz 1200Mhz
  • ARHEXA May 15, 2011 at 1:45pm
    And with 2.4G telemetry, what frequency do you use for radio ? and what products ?
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson May 15, 2011 at 1:22pm

    Max, I don't know if we'll be offering a 2.4Ghz telemetry kit. There is very little demand for that in the US, and it's expensive for us to purchase 2.4 Xbees in bulk (the only way to get reasonable pricing) and inventory them given the small and uncertain demand. We'd also have to design a new XtreamBee adapter boards. All in all, a costly process for something that people can just put together themselves if they can't use our standard kit.

     

    Alternatively dealers in countries that can't use 900Mhz could offer their own telemetry kits, which would be great.

  • d-creator May 15, 2011 at 1:19pm
    AR PROJECTS" i have about 15 gps modules that i have dissasembled from "carlog", these are 20 ch UBOX tim4 i think they will do the job.
  • ARHEXA May 15, 2011 at 12:51pm

    @Dimitar, check here http://www.diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/parachute-anyone

     

    not yet done, but as you see we're having  other problems right now

  • ARHEXA May 15, 2011 at 11:52am

    all your remarks make sense.

     

    1. I didn't have the Xbees back then, i added them after the loss.

    2. I find it really A MUST to invest 150$ more into that, to save a 1XXX $ hexacopter, carrying a 2XXX $ DSLR

     

    i just can't think of losing the new Hexa version i'm building with the expensive DSLR.

     

    yes, if it crashes, if Xbees stop working, if Xbees are out of range, if main battery disconnects and throws away at the crash... etc.

     

    the small device i'm building will include a standalone GPS, dronecell, and independent battery (2S 370mah).

    it will be in a very protected "black box" firmly attached to the frame.

     

    these 150$ will be the most priceless 150$ in the world if it saves me the copter and DSLR next time...

    is there anyone thinking otherwise ?

  • d-creator May 15, 2011 at 11:47am
    in israel the cellphones are 1800Mhz but 900Mhz is problematic band, both "MIRS" and military uses the band so there could be interference. DroneCell uses cellular network to send SMS's so there is no problem (but how knows).
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