We've been experimenting more and more with tablet ground stations here at Event 38 and have had a lot of success using the DroidPlanner app. The software has been working well for us but we found our ground station setup was really cluttered, the opposite of what we were going for when switching to tablets. My main complaint was having the ground side telemetry radio dangling from my phone or tablet. Not only was it a hassle and prone to coming unplugged, it was also hard to keep it in a good position for radio reception.
Following Arthur Benemann's instructions, we set up a bluetooth bridge that would let us at least set the radio down and move freely with the ground station tablet. A huge improvement, no doubt, but still a little rough around the edges, even needing power from a laptop. So we added a nice case and a single cell LiPo battery to power it all. This worked even better, and looked pretty nice as well!
It still had some power management issues but it worked well enough for our purposes. At this point we're thinking about running a Kickstarter campaign to run a production scale build of these but we'd like to get some feedback from potential users before we solidify the specs. I'd appreciate any/all comments on what kind of features you'd like to see on something like this, if any, besides the telemetry bridge to Bluetooth. Right now we're planning on including the following:
- Internal LiPo battery, rechargeable by USB
- Battery status LEDs
- 433 and 915MHz variants to be compatible with any 3DR Radio
- ~20m Bluetooth range
- ~1km telemetry range
- 5-6 hours battery life
- A durable plastic enclosure
Is there anything else we should consider adding to improve the functionality or usability? Do you think this would be priced fairly at $139? Let us know what you think!
Comments
Nothing yet @ltmno - I'll post something more complete as soon as time allows.
After using it for a while I missed being able to see the green connection LED on the radio so this is now a bright case mounted red LED. Great for feedback. Pic later.
@Jeff
That re-connect issue is problematic, we probably can fix that from inside Droidplanner. I just need to start using bluetooth to feel the pain and fix that.
Thanks again for the feedback!
We haven't had problems with data drops, we're also using the RN-42 Bluetooth module. It will probably be a single cell 1000mAh but we'll make sure that lasts at least 5-6 hours first.
We did get about 20 meters range on Bluetooth as well and this is where the only problem we've seen so far comes in - if you go out of range then walk back in, our devices didn't automatically reconnect by Bluetooth at first. I installed an app called Bluetooth Auto Connect and this does the trick of automatically reconnecting to previously paired BT devices when they're in range.
@Rob, that is amazing.... do you have a thread/blog somewhere on the write up for how to?
In this post I show how I managed to simply connect the telemetry to a bluetooth module ant that's it:
http://www.diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/update-droidplanner-v1-0-0-...
Ps: I only needed to connect the telemetry module to a usb power bank to give it power to Telemetry itself and also to the bluetooth module.
Guy, so the issue with dropped packets was more to do with not having a clean pass-through on the Arduino using software serial? I should be fine if I correct it directly with no Arduino in the middle?
How about using an Arduino Mega which has 4 UARTs? Then you should be able to passthrough cleanly without the need to buffer?
Are you going to share your full code for the antenna tracker and power management portion? I'd appreciate it. I love the idea of a wireless antenna tracker.
This would take care of the MAVlink connection. The video connection can be done by using a second 5.8Ghz low-power Tx on another channel using linear polarization hopefully won't clobber the long range video link too badly. Then the only part I'm not sure about is the radio control link.
Hi Guy, I've been using the bridge below for about 2 weeks.
I used an RN-42 based Bluetooth module (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10393) and have had no problems with dropouts at 57kbs with a direct connection to the 3DR radio.
There's also a small regulator in there (5v from 2S - 6S) for flexible power options when attached to my ground stuff.
Range to tablet is about 20m. Will replace the BT module with an RN-41 class1 module sometime for greater range.
I spotted this on a Trimble Gatewing X100 GCS a while ago and thought it would be brilliant to have ..... Jeff if you can create a better version that does not need to be tethered but also came with a way to attached it to a tablet I'd be happy to pay $150 for the unit. :)
I ordered this Bluetooth module last week:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=...
I think it should work directly to the 3DRadio?
Very Cool Jeff!
It would be interesting to hear about some of your findings... do you have any information so share on the connectivity.. loss of data, etc.. Did the bluetooth ever drop connection?
What size Battery, I think I read a single cell 3.7v 1000Mah?
Great work!!!
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