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Open-source embedable low-cost wifi board used for arducopter telemetry.

Posted by Saulius L. on May 6, 2012 at 12:00pm

This blog record is about using Carambola with Arducotper to get live telemetry data from quadcopter.

Carambola is low cost, open-source WiFi (21.5 dB / 2.4GHz) embeddable platform from 8devices. I have decided to use this board to control arducopter from computer. In order to have reliable link I have used two Carambolas. One as AP (on the quadcopter) other as Client (ground station). Mission planner connects to arducopter via bridge created by these boards.

Because article is pretty long I did not re-posted it here. Read full post here http://lukse.lt/uzrasai/2012-05-carambola-powered-quadcoper/


IMG_0481_2-1024x908.jpg?width=600

Tags: 8devices, carambola, ardupilot, lukse, quadcopter, telemetry
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Comments

  • Luc van Helfteren July 13, 2012 at 5:48pm

    How did the test go?

  • Saulius L. May 10, 2012 at 3:46am

    I will test control+telemetry+video over Carambola bridge on weekend (or at least I hope so).

  • Miguel Martín Mateo May 10, 2012 at 12:48am

    Saulius,
    You used to send telemetry simultaneously with the video board Carambola?
    I think it may be a good solution to simplify the system having a transmission of bidirectional telemetry (Xbee) and a video transmission system for FPV. Would have a similar system to that used in AR.Drone.
    I hope to include management ArdupilotMegaPlanner streaming video.

    regards,
              Miguel.

  • Saulius L. May 9, 2012 at 8:39am

    Miguel,

    Quadcopter:

    Nothing fancy:
    * Custom frame 500mm from prop-to-prop
    * Propellers APC 11x4.7
    * BESC Hobbyking SS 25-30A
    * Motors Turborix 750rpm/v (thrust wih this setup 1Kg for 1 motor)
    * Battery 5Ah
    * Flight time ~15min
    * Fully loaded weight ~2kg
    * AMP2 Ardupilot with alomst default settings + Sonar
    * Radio:
      TX Graupner MX-16s
      RX Corona RP8D1 (Works way better than default)

    I did not used live video on this particular drone, but system is tested here: http://www.8devices.com/wiki_carambola/doku.php/carambola_robot1

    Carambola video streaming should work with any camera which supports UVC standard (I have tested microSoft LiveCam and some unbranded one). Live view can be seen with VLC player. APM planner does not support network streaming yet. Which I hope will change :) Video lag on 720p was less than 0.5s

  • Miguel Martín Mateo May 9, 2012 at 7:57am

    Saulius an excellent job.
    Could you give details of the configuration and connection of the board with the Carambola Ardupilot and the camera, as well as details of the hardware used (webcam, GroundStation, ...).
    You may use the image from the camera within the ArdupilotMegaPlanner?

  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson May 7, 2012 at 11:17am

    This got picked up by Hackaday! 

  • Saulius L. May 6, 2012 at 8:55pm

    Sky Monkey, 300m works flawlessly. I did not tested max range yet, but that's not a problem. With directional antennas in open space you can reach 5km or more.

  • Sky Monkey May 6, 2012 at 2:17pm

    Nice!  Have you performed any range checks?  What do you think the maximum link distance might be?

  • Jack Crossfire May 6, 2012 at 1:07pm

    That's a lot more power for a lot less money than I could get with the home made edition.  Takes a lot of capitol to use a BGA.

This reply was deleted.