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MinimOSD in DIYDrones Store!

Posted by Sandro Benigno on January 5, 2012 at 8:00pm

Hello guys!
I'm very happy to tell you that the MinimOSD is now in stock in the DIY Drones store!
3689439887?profile=originalAnd more: It goes with a nice customized CharSet and an open source OSD firmware already flashed! ;)
The firmware is Arduino compatible and it uses the original APM MAVLink messages to bring out with some nice features.
Here you can see the Artificial Horizon being tested on HIL side by side with the XPlane AH gauge.

Let me talk a bit more about the firmware that goes flashed on the board:
The current open sourced OSD implementation is part of the ArduCAM OSD project which has support from all the DIYD Dev Team.

The requested APM MAVLink messages are grabbed, translated and it's displayed pretty fast.
But... why it supposed to be fast?
Firstly, the OSD class descends from BetterStream from Mike Smith, which turns it able to format and print better than the Arduino's avr-libc variant does.
Second, the CharSet was rearranged to match the ASCII table. It eliminates the need for a "translation" layer.
There is also a smart way to write individual panels with less SPI transactions (that is conventionally used only to write the full screen at once).
The MAVLink parsing uses a reduced number of buffers, which fits better m328p's resources.
Those things above improves considerably the OSD job.

Our friend Jani already wrote the EEPROM routines to make it configurable. So, it has the base for an external configuration tool.
There is much more work to be done for adding functions and improve it.
We're pretty sure that it will be improved a lot in the hands of the awesome DIYD comunity.

Well, let's talk about features:

MinimOSD is able to work attached to the ArduPilot telemetry port in two modes:
1 - as master i.e. requesting rates of all required messages from APM (both TX and RX from OSD board are connected);
2 - as "sniffer" i.e. just listening to all the messages requested from the GCS (only TX from OSD board is connected).

The firmware auto-detects PAL or NTSC and adjusts the panels.
Until now it has this panels:

  • MAVBeats pulse
  • Altitude
  • Speed
  • Battery voltage
  • Battery Remaining
  • Throttle
  • Number of Visible Satellites
  • GPS Fix data
  • Latitude
  • Longitude
  • Artificial Horizon
  • Heading (0-360)
  • Compass (N,E,S,W)
  • Pitch
  • Roll
  • Distance to home*
  • Direction to home*

*Based on spherical coords with geographic distortion corrected;

The hard work continues... but, the fun is already granted, of course!

Grab yours right now and happy flights! ;)

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Comments

  • PACEFE March 8, 2012 at 6:10am

    Hi Sandro,

                       I dont think is a problem from FTDI or program used for loading the Firm/Charset.

    As mentioned above after link is stablished with CGS it works perfectly.

    Will try to connect TX pin from OSD and let you know.

     

    Pablo

  • Developer
    Sandro Benigno March 7, 2012 at 5:48pm

    @PACEFE, please, can you check on Windows if FTDI's COM port is set to "Set RTS on Close"?
    Probably, your cable is not resetting your board automatically.
    I can't affirm that the third program would affect the board, but I recommend you trying to fix the cable problem and redo both steps (Firmware and CharSet) through the original OSD Configurator.

  • PACEFE March 7, 2012 at 4:07pm

    hi sandro,

                    i have the 6 pins adapter. For loading the firmware I use a russian program because configurator did not work. For upgrading the charset the confirgurator worked well.

    Im not connecting the tx pin from MinimOSD to APM. Im using xbee on the same port.

    Minimosd only works after connecting to de MP either via USB or xbee and pressing reset button....

    Pablo

  • Developer
    Sandro Benigno March 7, 2012 at 3:59pm 
    @PACEFE, please I need ask you some questions:
    -What FTDI adapter are you using? Does it has 4 or 6 pins?
    -Are you connecting TX pin from MinimOSD to APM telemetry port IN?
  • PACEFE March 7, 2012 at 3:32pm

    Hi,

       Im having some trouble with APM 2  and minim OSD.

    I have downloaded the latest firmware to both and updated the Charset.

    When I connect the battery, the osd and apm boots but I get the message "update charset".

    If I reset the osd by pressing the button it shows the osd screen, mavlink beat changes but it does not show any value,

    The only way to make it work is first connect to MP and the connect the osd. Then starts working.

    Any hints?

    Pablo

  • Andre K. March 1, 2012 at 6:11am

    not yet.  ... and then you will ask for airspeed and current  .. and the answer is the same.  :)

  • Developer
    Sandro Benigno March 1, 2012 at 5:24am

    @Chris Kreuzer: Now that I  understood. Yes... isn't the best cable. But, probably all you need to do is press the reset on the board every time you click on a button that needs to communicate with bootloader.

    E.g.: If you click on "Save to EEPROM" so you quickly follow pressing the reset switch on the board. It should work.

  • Andre K. March 1, 2012 at 5:11am

    I do not know what he means with 4 - but it's only RX,TX and GND that are useful of those - and will work if he does like my previous post says.

  • Developer
    Sandro Benigno March 1, 2012 at 5:08am

    @Chris Kreuzer: What do you mean with 4wired? Is it the brand? Sorry if I'm misunderstanding it, but you need a all the six pins attached there. I t was tested using DIYDrone's FTDI Cable 3.3V and also FTDI basic adapter from SparkFun.

    Are you using the latest ArduCam OSD Config?

  • Andre K. March 1, 2012 at 5:08am

    Chris Kreuzer - because you use 4 wire cable, as good as three.. no reset signal

      - just apply power to minimOSD in the moment you try to communicate.

This reply was deleted.