jDrones NEWS: IOBoard goes MAVLink 1.0
Time has come to make another exciting release. New software has been released for our mini IOBoard. With this software you are not anymore depending on static flashes, blinks and other patterns.
We made blog post about basic jD-IOBoard few weeks ago and you can read it in here. Now it just get's better and better.
jD-IOBoard now listens full MAVLink 1.0 protocol and acts depending on flight modes. Currently we are supporting ArduCopter and ArduPlane style flight modes but more has been planned. Basically all MAVLink compatible systems works fine with this.
Big thanks to Michael Oborne for his great jD-IOBoard Confgurator program that allows users easily to configure and test play different patterns. Michael is the man behind Mission Planner and also OSD Configurator.
On configurator you can create 16 step patterns and 8 patterns that can be binded on different flight modes. On right hand side of every pattern you have Test box where you can simulate your pattern. Just click Test and then change on/off positions to get your desired outcome.
With Configurator you can also upload our latest HEX files from Arducodes repository.
Here is quick demo video of how it works in real-life with 3 different patterns.
Currently we are only allowing REAR pattern to be changed but in future there will be others coming too.
You can always find latest HEX and other files from our: Arducodes repository (jD-IOBoard 1.4 MAVLink. HEX)
Latest Configurator can always been downloaded from our: Software repository (Setup.EXE). Setup file is available on our Arducodes repository too.
Configurator has builtin update feature installed so it will make sure that you always have latest version of it. Source code is on our repository.
jD-IOBoard can be found from our store at http://store.jdrones.com and also from our distributors around world.
Have fun with your flashing lights. Evenings are getting darker but planes and copter more brighter.
Regards,
Jani / jDrones
Comments
Well this is interesting, I have managed to get the jDrones IO Board to speak :-)
It now says "System Armed".
Its a little quiet, but work using just 1 output pin and ground for the speaker.
OK, the IO board seems a lot more stable now when powered by the telemetry pins.
I guess the next stage is to utilise the MavLink. Although the .hex files are available, is the actual Arduino code available as i would now like to modify my code so that the pattern turns on when the motors are armed for example and the front arm blue led lights when there is a GPS lock. Is this possible?
I am familiar with the Arduino code, just need a shove in the right direction.
Here is what my flash pattern looks like, the white strobe LED is REALLY bright.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYQc70F1NMs&feature=plcp
Which APM are you using mate ?
I have APM 2.5 and i have what I think is a telemetry cable which has 5 wires.
I can't seem to find what each pin is on the output from the board to make sure its connected and the cable has one red (obviously +Ve) and 4 black wires just to confuse matters.
Do you have a picture of your board ?
Does anyone know how to stop the left right green red flashing that happens about every minute. It makes for nervous night flying when they start blinking and I lose a little orientation.
How are you powering your IO Board F11music (sorry, don't know your name).
Although I am not using the MAVLink code at the moment, I have generated my own program on the Arduino based IO board.
Currently it is powered by the ESC BEC however the results are inconsistent. When connecting the battery, sometimes the board will do what it supposed too, sometimes some LED sequences are missed, sometimes the board doesn't power up at all.
However when running from the USB FTDI cable, all is fine.
Although this has been tested just on my bench, i wonder if the IOBoard is susceptible to noise as the BEC is outputting 5v it would appear.
Any suggestions please as you seem to have a good working model :-)
Kind regards,
Steve
Is there a way to get rid of the right left flashing that happens about every minute or so. Even when flying it does this. It happens on the ground as I wait for a GPS lock.
I've been getting use to the new lights and it's working great. I went from just solid green on the right two arms and red on the left two. Now with the inboard I changed it around a bit as you can see in the video. Blue on the back and white on the front helps a lot with orientation. I'm having a little bit of strange behavior with the status light and also sometimes in flight the green and red will alternate flashing like it's lost mavlink signal or is that indicating something else? I didn't set up any battery monitoring so maybe it's thinking my battery is low?
Is there some flash sequence to indicate a GPS lock like when the APM gets a solid blue? My APM2 is a bit hidden so finding the blue light can be a challenge. I'm hoping it can give some dance to the red green lights or something else to indicate when it's safe to take off.
Jani, i have done a adapter with a 5x3 Connector Header male and a 5x1 Header Female solered back to back and sealed with heatshrink.
When you connect the Telemetry, OSD and IOBoard, do you connect the 5 cables in all of them? Or you connect TX just on the Telemetry?
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