Navio+, Awsome flight controller from Emlid. Tested with 4G Cellular communications

Hi Everyone.

I would like to share my experience using navio+ as flight controller.

At first when discovered navio i was a little skeptic if this board could really be as good as it looks. I read all the documentation over at Emlid.com and i finally decides to order one for testing.

When i got my hands on this board, i immediately fell in love. Nice layout and solid connectors and at last, this board fits beautifully on top of the RPI.

Then i installed Real Time Kernel for RPI and Ardupilot. Installation went painless, just following theirs instruction line by line.

An important note! You dont need to be a linux geek to get this going. Everyone is able to put this togheter.

After the installation is complete, you can launch anyone of the supported vehicles:

APMrover2
ArduPlane
ArduCopter-quad
ArduCopter-tri
ArduCopter-hexa
ArduCopter-y6
ArduCopter-octa
ArduCopter-octa-quad
ArduCopter-heli
ArduCopter-single

Typical ArduPilot start command:

sudo ArduPlane -A udp:<GCS_DYNDNS>:14550

Then just use Mission Planner and connect using UDP option.

So after several days with bad and ruff wheatear, the sun was finally shining and i immediately packed up for maden flight.

Today i was flying for 60min using Navio+ as flight controller and 4G for video and telemetry.

I have one word; Awesome.

My aircraft Skua FPV was rock solid after running Autotune function.

My setup:

Navio +
RPI 2
4G USB Cellular adapter
Logitech C920 webcam with gstreamer
Logitech Gamepad F710
GCS ( My Laptop with Mission Planner )
Airframe Skua FPV

This brilliant board keeps everything in one piece, specially when using 4G / 3G cellular. There is no need for extra converters as i used before with APM or pixhawk in conjunction with RPI.

I simply connect the 4G usb to RPI2 and start the Ardupilot with UDP telemetry option. Simple as that.

Guys at Emlid currently works to get the Odroid-C1 support for Navio+ .

APM autopilot port for Navio+ currently works with:

Raspberry Pi Model A
Raspberry Pi Model B
Raspberry Pi Model A+
Raspberry Pi Model B+
Raspberry Pi 2 Model B

I will post an "HowTo configure RPI, Navio+ and Cellular network" at my website: UAVmatrix.com

So for those of you that are skeptic, try it. you won’t be disappointed.

Emlid gives you great and fast support at theirs community section.

Regards

Bernt Christian Egeland

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Comments

Bernt Christian Egeland May 3, 2015 at 12:28pm

@Jouni Helminen
Skua is a great airplane and yes you can hand-launch it without any problem. What do you get for 60$ nowadays, :)

Just PM me or mail me at uavmatrix@uavmatrix.com
Jouni Helminen May 2, 2015 at 1:28pm

@bernt Nice, will follow your instructions to get gstreamer working on RPi2! Will test the h265 pipeline and do a write up once I have it working :)

BTW - I am thinking of getting a fixed wing for doing mapping with a sony nex or CHDK canon pointed downwards, do you recommend the Skua? Can you hand launch it? Noticed Hobbyking have the frame for £60. Would it be ok to email you directly to ask some specifics about the build? What's your email? Never flown a fixed wing before!
Bernt Christian Egeland May 2, 2015 at 1:48am

@benbojangles

Left stick is always centered, I need to force it back or forth to adjust the throttle. But while in air i normally i use cruise mode and left stick is not used. One idea is to remove the X-axis spring inside the controller. Not tested.

@c j g

Thx for the info. Im already looking into OpenVPN with Cloudsigma.

@Jouni Helminen

Great, you will not be disepointed, Navio+ is awsome. I will create a [HOW TO NAVIO+ RPI] on my website very soon.

I have not tried H265, and i don’t know how to assemble the pipeline with H265.
If you have any further info, then please share. :)

I successfully compiled gStreamer 1.4 on my RPI2 so hopefully H265 will not be a problem.
Jouni Helminen May 1, 2015 at 4:16am

Great demo @bernt.

I've got the Navio+ but haven't gotten round to flying with it yet, this looks like fun. Will be following your instructions! I'm flying in urban areas so will probably try with a smaller wing like the Z-84.

Have you tried h265 instead of h264 with gstreamer? Should get about same quality video with less than 20% of h264 data rate. Pretty CPU intensive though so not sure if the RPi2 can muscle it but worth a try!
Jack LaLanne April 25, 2015 at 8:05am

Nice, a PixHawk Fire Cape with extra support for russian gps.
c j g April 21, 2015 at 6:47am

@Bernt Christian Egeland, cool!!! Very interested in your future developments.

For using VPN on android (as ground station), maybe there are some (old, maybe now too old) hints in the postings of my old 3G project: http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/telemetry-over-3g-video-over-3g-i...

best c.
Nicolas.Wang April 21, 2015 at 5:44am

Gorgeous. I"m working on similar setup and will following your update
benbojangles April 21, 2015 at 12:36am

I'm interested in the Logitech controller more - is the throttle stick always centered like on most analogue game controllers? How might the pilot be affected by this for things such as take-off? You must hold it at zero throttle with your thumb?
Bernt Christian Egeland April 20, 2015 at 11:23pm

@Marc Dornan
I’m not sure how much data i consumed. I will check next time and post the numbers.

@johnkowalsky
This setup makes it allot easier and cleaner. One piece for everything. :)
Before when I’m used Pixhawk or APM, i had to use TTL to UDP converter in between to be able to stream telemetry at UDP which involves extra cables and components.

@c j g
Yep, I’m currently working on this. I guess my next video will probably be with VPN. I will make a How To tutorial as soon this is tested.

+1 for security..
Tim V April 20, 2015 at 5:52pm

@c_j_g,

Great IDEAS on setting up VPN, given not much has yet been done on the security side of things.

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