Developer

FPV setup with raspberry Pi

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After much chasing, and testing, I have found this to be an efficient way of getting low latency high quality HD video out of an Aircraft. The latency is around 0.4 seconds at worst which would be OK for an FPV with an APM doing the hard work.

I will continue to search for methods to drop the latency down further, but this is a lot better than the 6-12 seconds I was getting on my first attempts.

Any comment (with useful instructions) would be appreciated.

For the wireless link, I am using two UBIQUITY ROCKET M 900 with Australian ACMA approved firmware, at the base station, I am using a tracking (yet to built the tracker...) 1.5 meter long X and Y polarised Yagi, and on the plane, two RF Design flexible strip antennas, placed at right angles to each other.

but how you do that bit is up to you.....

the critical bit is getting the Raspberry Pi's to chat to each other.

I have tried to make this as user friendly as possible... good luck.

 

Setting up IP video for Raspberry Pi 1080p video (FPV)

 

You will need 2 B model Raspberry Pi's and 1 Pi Camera. (Element 14, or RS components)

Preparing your Raspberry Pi for first boot…

 

Follow the instructions at http://www.raspberrypi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/quick-start-guide-v2_1.pdf

Install the prepared SD card in the Pi and boot.

Setting up your Pi

Connect the Pi to your router with a network cable.

On Start-up it will resize the FAT partition and present you with a menu.

Set your language, and keyboard layout.

Select Raspbian… then click install.

After this has extracted (will take a while….) it will reboot into the configuration screen (again will take a while for this first boot.)

The important things to change here are

  1. Enable the camera
  2. In advance options…..
    1. Set the host name (camera, for the camera end, receiver, for the viewing end)
    2. Memory split, set the memory for the GPU to 256
    3. Enable SSH ( will come in handy later, as you may need to talk to the Pi in the air.....

Then finish and reboot.

First login

Username: pi

Password: raspberry

Setting up the required programs for video streaming

 

Install the dependencies by running the following in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install mplayer netcat

cd /opt/vc/src/hello_pi

make –C libs/ilclient

make –C libs/vgfont

cd /opt/vc/src/hello_pi/hello_video

make

cd ~

Now repeat this for the other Pi….

 

Streaming…

First set up the receiver….

Ensure the receiver is connected to your network and run

ifconfig

after you press enter, you can find your ip Address.  Note this down.

Then run the following.

mkfifo buffer

nc -p 5001 -l > buffer | /opt/vc/src/hello_pi/hello_video/hello_video.bin buffer

the Pi will now wait for the feed.

On the Camera Pi

Ensure camera is connected to the Pi

Ensure Pi is connected to the network (you can confirm this with ifconfig)

(see instructions at http://www.raspberrypi.org/camera for how to connect the camera)

 

 

In the following command, replace the ip address with the one you just noted down.

raspivid -t 0 -fps 15 -o - | nc 192.168.1.85 5001

if all goes well you should be streaming 1080P video at 15fps with less than 0.5seconds of delay..

now add your wireless bridge between the two, and away you go J

This information has come from the Raspberry Pi foundation website, and other sources, tested and proven by myself..

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Comments

  • Patrick,

    Nice setup! Looking forward to your flight video.

    Can you tell me how much the Rocket M5 weights (board-only, without the casing)?

    Regards,
    Saad

  • @Patrick,

    Could you please post the batch file here? And also the instructions for the ground station would be very much helpful. Do you have a setup instructions for linux? If not, windows is also doable.

    Thanks.

  • Developer
    That is perfectly on topic :)
    Looking forward to seeing the results of your long range tests, I assume 60km?
    If it all goes well, can you make a ready to go Pi SD image for us to all try? I will link to it :)
  • Hi Patrick, 

    I ve the same effect on my ardrone mod rc 1 with bosom HD19 . I resolve this with this http://www.top-flite.com/accys/topq5700.html - this balancer is wonderful for killing this jello effect ! 

    I ve seen other solution with iphone on David Windstal's site  - rcexplorer.se - with iphone and iVibration meter (I m not sure the name of the app he use to balance his tricopter : http://rcexplorer.se/projects/2013/01/the-tricopter-v2-6hv-delux/) 

    Sure you do a wonderful work Patrick ! Me, I'm more on GPRS or 3G setup right now  but your work seems to open new road ! 

    Skydrone.aero probably the best solution for us but is expensive with 4G data plan. (http://www.skydrone.aero) 

    even if it's fully compatible with Mavlink and Oculus VR 

  • I should preface that by saying "great work!" to you and the other HD FPV pioneers on this thread!!
  • I'm not sure that is jello effect in your video Patrick, it looks like video frame tearing, where the compressor doesn't have enough time to do the entire frame. This could be tested by running the system at the same distance but with motor off, ie by walking or driving the copter away, then panning around.
  • Developer
    Glad to help :) 150ms is great, please let us know how you got it so fast on the end :)
    Phil
  • Developer
    At 500kbs it is a bit slow for video, but could be good for telemetry...
  • Somebody have look on http://rpi900.com ?
    I've read an interesting info on magPî and this solution could be great for us ?
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  • Developer
    So far I have only tested short range, if you want NLOS then 900 is really your only option. If you have a look through the thread, you will see a few people who have used the Pi to send their telemetry to the GCS over wifi. Make sure you use a level shifter though.
    Phil
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