Blogs

WiFi Telemetry with Cheap 3$ ESP8266

Posted by Omer on July 29, 2015 at 7:30am

Hello all,

It's not a new achievement using wifi as Telemetry but this UART to WiFi module has really long range (up to 400 meters), and unbeatable price. Very small form factor (about 2cm x 1.5cm) and light (3 gr). Great for the small sized UAVs. And your Smart Phone or Tablet will become a GCS with no additional hardware. And with module's available GPIOs it's functionality can be increased (PWM, I2C sensors) you can drive LEDs or get sensor data over wifi.

Get firmware from https://github.com/jeelabs/esp-link > this is the stable solution for UART only

Another eriksl's great firmware for ESP8266 https://github.com/eriksl/esp8266-universal-io-bridge > A lot of functions supports pwm display temp sensors but UART bridge not stable, random drop outs

I've been experimenting with new ESP8266 UART to WiFi module and happy to announce you that it can be used as Telemetry module. It should work on all MAVlink devices that uses Serial communication. I tested with ESP-03 and APM 2.6 (3.2) and range is acceptable for Follow Me, or Guided missions. it works reliable enough and its really cheap, start as low as 2,5 $ at several stores (its a 3.3v device you will need a good (about 300ma) power source).  I think APM 2.6 users should receive at least a one last bug fix release (several reports indicates 3.2.1 has some issues with altitude calculations), of course you can compile your own verison.

releated fix 

https://github.com/diydrones/ardupilot/issues/706

https://github.com/R-Lefebvre/ardupilot/commit/8360b3d

For those who are interested, I can provide APM:Copter 3.2 (not 3.2.1) firmware with the fix. I am happy with it, doing some great auto flights, checking parameters, follow me flights, you can fly your UAV even without RC controller, directly from your wifi enabled GCS.

E-mail me when people leave their comments –
Follow

You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!

Join diydrones

Comments

  • Bernardo vieira de paiva November 6, 2015 at 8:48am

    i dont now about your module, if you want to try esp8266, i may can help

  • Sky Racer November 1, 2015 at 5:53pm

    I cant get more then 30 feet before the connection is lost

  • Sky Racer November 1, 2015 at 5:50pm

    I get limited connection and mission planer keeps disconnecting  and 54mbps connection speed 802.11g,802.11n

  • Sky Racer November 1, 2015 at 5:49pm

    I added a 2 dbi external antenna how do you configure to physcal mode B?

  • Sky Racer November 1, 2015 at 5:47pm

    could we use  802.11ac RTL8812AU wifi module  for wifi 5.8 telemetry with pixhalk instead of the slow 2.4   & would this allow me to have HD fpv if it was on a Gopro?

  • Bernardo vieira de paiva November 1, 2015 at 4:56am

    put a external antenn 2 dbi and configure to physcal mode B DR WHO but with you need more than 700m, you will need a booster

  • Sky Racer October 31, 2015 at 2:07pm

    my wifi telemetry on PixHalk  has very short range useless range do I need a booster for this to work?

  • Omer October 15, 2015 at 4:56am

    These modules are newly released, I did not tried them it can be used out-of-the box who dont want to deal with ESPs 

    Wireless Wifi Telemetry Module with Antenna for Pixhawk APM Flight ...

  • Omer October 8, 2015 at 8:02am

    Since eriksls firmware changed in time -no AP mod- i highly recommend esp-link firmware, for those who interested in this subject, i recommend ESP-12 with 4M flash. Documentation is also up-to-date and more development efforts are being made. 

  • Omer October 8, 2015 at 7:48am

    Linked firmware is more reliable if you guys dont need to read another sensor or just need telemetry info use this firmware from this link.

    https://github.com/jeelabs/esp-link

    jeelabs/esp-link
    esp8266 wifi-serial bridge, outbound TCP, and arduino/AVR/LPC/NXP programmer - jeelabs/esp-link
This reply was deleted.