Developer Comment by Mark Colwell on April 22, 2011 at 7:30am

Nice TM kit!  Plug and play!  Do you test each kit before shipping?

 

Ante,  

You can add a SMA connector to the wire Xbee, but requires some good skills, I have replaced my worn out wire antenna too.  

Comment by Don Brooks on April 22, 2011 at 7:31am

Fantastic idea that will make it a lot easier for first timers to get the right equipment. Am I missing a detail though, or is this going to be a let down for anyone who orders a mega kit, telem kit, but doesn't know they need to buy some of these?

3D Robotics Comment by Chris Anderson on April 22, 2011 at 7:54am

Yes, we'll add a cable to the kit.

Distributor Comment by Martint BuildYourOwnDrone.co.uk on April 22, 2011 at 8:23am

@ Pete,

I've seen the kit listed at cool, I have not used it with any of the GCS's found hear, do you have any experience first hand? I'm looking to stock a telemetry kit here in the UK and have been in contact with Chris already to see what needs to be done to make the 2.4 xbees work here in the UK & EU markets.

The 868's are a non starter, see this blog if you like a read:

http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/xbee-868-revived

But to save time, just know they are not a good route to take. One of my customers has been trying to get them working well for some time!

Regards

Martin

www.buildyourowndrone.co.uk

Comment by Darren on April 22, 2011 at 8:59am

I believe with the adoption of mavlink protocol, the +++ issue is resolved.

Comment by Sam Kelly on April 22, 2011 at 9:03am

@ Mark Colwell, the XBees in each kit are set up as specified in the APM manual, and each pair is tested for correct transmission/reception.

Distributor Comment by Martint BuildYourOwnDrone.co.uk on April 22, 2011 at 9:53am

Hi Darren,
The coding of the +++ is not the issue with the 868s, they used to be fine, you could send a uart signal and then reset the units, there was a new firmware released last year which stopped this function :(

Regards

Martin

Comment by Ante Vukorepa on April 22, 2011 at 10:00am

@Mark Colwell - Bought two SMA bees from Sparkfun, since the weight difference isn't too important for me (next to >1 kg made up by the rest of the Arducopter) and they're more convenient for other uses as well that way.

If'd have known about this kit, i would've bought it regardless of the SMA connector, though, since i don't care much about the range at this point. Plus, as you've said, i can always solder a connector on.

Comment by Pete Birley on April 22, 2011 at 10:23am

Martin:

Yep been using no probs.

Im aware of the isues with the 868. The 868's should be good with a bit of work though may require some dedicated h/w to fully get round the duty cycle issue. I'm tossing up between getting some or a freescale radio modem at the mo..

Distributor Comment by Martint BuildYourOwnDrone.co.uk on April 22, 2011 at 10:37am

Hi Pete,

I can tell you how to do "it" with a hardware solution, but please be mindful the hardware reset does not stop the data transmissions so can cause the units to lock up, it sounds like you may already know a lot about these units, but thought it might be worth pointing this out. :)

Regards

Martin

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