convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

All mods related to the frsky telemetry series of the firmware
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Kilrah
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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by Kilrah »

If heading is a GPS heading it will only be valid in motion, so maybe it doesn't transmit it when stationary, only in flight.

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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by bobarry »

Thanks for the idea/thought! If the data I'm looking for is FROM the GPS and not the APM compass you may be right. But there isn't a HEADING item in the er9x to choose. Mission planner does show a heading change on the ground. Meanwhile my plan is to launch from the MIDDLE of the pasture so I won't cross the roads nearby. What fun! Bo

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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by Kilrah »

bobarry wrote:But there isn't a HEADING item in the er9x to choose.
Aaah, OK, I get it now. openTx has it, didn't know er9x didn't. Not much you can do then!
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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by bobarry »

Well, maybe an answer as to why no one answered me! Gonna check out OpenTx now. :) Thanks.

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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by MikeB »

I hadn't realised I was missing the heading from the GPS on the display, partly due to not having a GPS sensor. I did recently get one so I'll look into adding it in.

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kaos
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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by kaos »

I hope there is a way to display in graphics that can show arrow of heading in relation to home as on the OSD. that would be great. Possible?
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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by MikeB »

I'm just adding the heading display to er9x as a number (whole degrees for now). I tried it out, but only seem to get 0. I'm guessing the GPS sensor needs to be moving a reasonable distance before it sends a real value, I just walked around 10 feet, probably not enough for it to work out a heading.

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kaos
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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by kaos »

10 ft is probably too little. try 10 meter. ;) unless you have a really good GPS. Even the LEA-6H can only tell up to 2.5m by spec, but realistically probably more than that.
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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by sneezy »

Hi guys.

I've just put together a Pro Mini board with the 0.5 firmware loaded on it and added it to my Quadcopter that's running an APM2.5 with firmware 3.1rc5.
I'm having some strange issues though, in getting it to display on a Taranis radio without having to reset the board. What I finding is that I don't get any APM telemetry other than RPM (which follows Arm/Disarm) unless I reset the Pro Mini board 'after' the APM is up and running. It does this consistently. Once reset I get T1, T2, Alt, HDG, Lat, Lon, etc fine. Some odd values for Volts, but I have not worried about why yet on that.

Is this normal to have to rest the board after the APM is running ?
If not has anyone seen this behaviour before ?

Also, I can't get to the jDrones IO-board documents to read more about the way the thing should work. Does anyone have the documents saved some place ?
Thanks,
Martin
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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by bobarry »

Mike & Kiawah may be 'on target' on this! Heading is probably not that essential to those who already know how to fly a Quad. :) I followed the forums about this feature and using my limited knowledge of C programming, I found reference to heading in the source code in all the related sources. HOWEVER, heading is obtained from BOTH a MOVING GPS & the electronic compass! My guess now is that the mission planner provides the latter and the FrSky mod shows the other. I bet Mike's addition will work when the quad moves enough to get its 'bearing'. :)


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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by bobarry »

Sneezy, I had the similar problem once. I put a 680 ohm resistor between the D5 output & the RX input on the er9x & it works fine now. No knowledge on this, just followed the forum. :) What a "knowledge base" (??) we have here. :) Good luck.

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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by LTMNO »

bobarry wrote:Sneezy, I had the similar problem once. I put a 680 ohm resistor between the D5 output & the RX input on the er9x & it works fine now. No knowledge on this, just followed the forum. :) What a "knowledge base" (??) we have here. :) Good luck.

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Did you ever get your v5 hex going? It has been posted on jdrones gcode site.

Will try to find for you.
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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by bobarry »

Yep I loaded the. 05 Hex file for the ioboard/telemetry & picked up a couple more variables (RPM & fuel), but no heading.

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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by sneezy »

bobarry wrote:Yep I loaded the. 05 Hex file for the ioboard/telemetry & picked up a couple more variables (RPM & fuel), but no heading.

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Bobarry, when I did get data through to the Taranis yesterday (after a IO-board reset) I do get a real heading value on it when not moving, and it's correct. Point the quad North and I get 0 degrees, point it East I get 90deg. My APM2.5 has a 3DR GPS with Mag fitted.
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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by LTMNO »

Bobarry, I will try to duplicate as I have the same setup. My 9x is currently setup and working on OpenTX. But my Taranis will be fitted week before new years. Vacation starts tomorrow and gone for a week. :-)
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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by sneezy »

Bobarry, I did as you suggested and put a series resistor between the IO-board D5 and the FrSky RX data input. Didn't help. To make sure that it's not that sort of issue I fitted a 100k trim pot instead and dialled it from end to end. Doesn't help either. What I did note was that after a reset and when the IO-board is then working I can adjust the series resistance on the trim pot to about 50kohm before it drops out. So it's not particularly sensitive or insensitive to the drive level.

Testing again tonight and I realize there is a clue going on. On the Taranis display the Fuel and the RPM readings are showing a valid reading reliably every time the APM is started without a IO-board reset. So the IO-board is in fact doing some data parsing and converting some parameters to FrSky protocol, just not all of it initially. After a reset it sends all the parameters I expected. To me this feels like a firmware bug some place, but perhaps in the RX too. I don't have another FrSky telemetry receiver spare currently, because I'd like to try another in case it's the RX firmware that's the problem (D8R running D8R-XP firmware for CPPM out).

One last thought I had. Is there anything needed to be done to the APM configuration settings in Mission Planner to be able to reliably use the IO-board ?
If so I have not read of any (yet).

Regards,
Martin
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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by bobarry »

Martin, thanks for the info & research. I did just read there is a delay parameter that can be set for Telemetry turn on (says to prevent probs with xBee telemetry). That may help. Also I don't quite understand the 'bootloader' in the "ioboard". I may have erased mine since I couldn't get it to program as explained. Then I used a straight program that dumped the ver. 05 Hex file into it. It works fine now (except heading)
Fun, frustrating, challenging & more, Bo

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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by sneezy »

Bo.
Does your APM have a mag chip ?

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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by LTMNO »

Glad to see it works now...
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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by bobarry »

It has the built in, & I have an external one coming. I'm sure the Heading display is just a software omission somewhere. :) I flew yesterday and kept it in the pasture WITHOUT the heading data. A first for me! :)

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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by sneezy »

bobarry wrote:It has the built in, & I have an external one coming. I'm sure the Heading display is just a software omission somewhere. :) I flew yesterday and kept it in the pasture WITHOUT the heading data. A first for me! :)

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That's interesting, I'd have thought it would work fine then (heading). The only difference on the APM AFAIK is the the longer wires connecting the same sensor on mine.
Having heading, altitude, and distance from home on the handset screen is nice BTW if you ever accidentally loose visual sight of the copter. I have flown one back to me by that alone once...

On my issue with the need to reset the board after the APM is running, it seems from the IO-boards source code history there has been some recent alterations of start up delay time outs, from 5 seconds to 12.5 seconds and now back again I think. Looks like there is a need for the APM to be sending clean data before the IO-board reads it in it's current form.

Cheers,
Martin
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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by sneezy »

By the way.
Can anyone point me to a How-To that shows the right settings for the Telemetry Tab settings of the Companion9X software for Taranis configuration ?

There are quite few options like the Serial protocol 'source' inputs and vario selection etc.
Rather than every newbie just trying every option is there a document that suggests what 'should' be set to mesh with the IO-boards output ?

Thanks,
Martin
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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by sneezy »

Looks like I monologuing on this thread a bit :)

I did a flight test today with a newly completed custom built quad and the Arduino mini IO-board with the MavLink to FrSky firmware V0.5, and took a photo of the Taranis telemetry screen for info.
Before I mention that though I did have a win with the reset issue. I increased the Telem_delay parameter via the Mission Planner from 0 to 10 seconds as suggested by Bo, and that seemed to have helped today as I had the telemetry reading OK without any reset. What this probably means is the IO-board firmware needs some work to handle bad or incomplete data frames at start up.

Moving on. Now that I'm paying more attention to the actual data values being displayed by the Taranis I see that only about half the data values match what they are supposed to measure.

T1 doesn't change with flight mode, or seem to change at all AFAIK.
T2 is nonsense, or I'm in 9D fix mode on the GPS :)
Hdg (Heading) is spot on correct
Alt is right most of the time but flickers to crazy values occasionally.
Cell could be right.
Cells is off the planet, it had a 3S pack attached, and the MP reads the real battery volts fine when plugged in.
Curr and Cnsp read nothing at all but for a random flash of something too big once in a while (when taking the photo the Quad was spooled up on the ground at about 20% throttle). Amps reads fine in the MP.
Fuel reading might actually be right, it does read 99 when I plug in a fresh charged pack.
RPM (down the bottom strip) reads about 1500 when Disarmed and about 3000 when the APM is Armed.
Power reads 0 (if Curr reads 0 then that's expected).
Speed may be OK as the Quad was stationary.

Does anyone with a Taranis get better results than this ?
Hoping it's just something I've not setup right and the firmware is better for other people.
Martin
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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by bobarry »

Sneezy, glad the timing delay worked. I'm going to use some spare X bees and saw the need for the delay. The only description of the Telemetry details is here in the forums, by the main software guru working on it, I think. Looking at the source code is too tuff to decode for me.
I flew today and never glanced @ my controller, only listened to the Mission Planner commands. :) I got GPS fence, RTL, & Land to work & started in the MIDDLE of the pasture (wind was STIFF). Fun...

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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by sneezy »

Good to hear the APM is working for you Bo, I'm really enjoy using my setup now. I previously used a 32bit flight controller called a FreeFlight V1.3, which was electronically identical to a Naze32. After a lot of tinkering with that board and many many firmware and PID tweaks I found the APM a real eye opener when I tried it. I'll not be using the FreeFlight again now. I too have had great success with all the GPS guided stuff, Loiter, waypoint nav, auto-land etc. Auto tune has to be the best bit though, saves so much time. Anyway I digress...

Back to the Taranis and the Telemetry screen. I flew again tonight to log vibration levels on the new frame (important to check this), and I noticed the T2 data value may well be working, but reversed to the description I read. The first digit could be the Sat Count, and the second is the 2D or 3D indicator. T1 still doesn't mean anything I can make sense of yet.
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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by NoRCExperience »

Hi all,

I would like to ask what I think is a dumb question. But the documentation on this is not very complete. In the current companion9x, there are the following, confusing choices:
FrSky
TelemetrEZ
Ardupilot
Mavlink

Since I have the SmartieParts TelemtrEZ, I select that. But I worry I am missing out on the right telemetry options in the menu by not selecting Mavlink. I think there are two things that should be clearer. The method of telemetry input to the controller (Smartieparts board vs homebrew) VS the data being displayed (FrSky, Ardu, Mav). I know the JDioboard is translating to FrSky but why so many options then? I am currently using a RS232 to TTL on my tricopter with MPNG 2.9.1 (which does the frsky formatting on board) and it seems to work but the GPS data is not correct. Since I also have APM boards, I am thinking of moving over to the JDio board.

Am I making this too difficult or are other people confused? I would like an option to relabel the headings in 9x instead of trying to remember that T2 really means satellites etc... Many people are using Mavlink and FrSky so I think there is enough demand for this. I don't even mind paying for opentx firmware to be cleaned up for Mavlink.
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Kilrah
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Re: Re : convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by Kilrah »

The mavlink option is only useable if you have transparent radio modems connected to your board's telemetry port and to the radio.
As it implies, it then uses the full mavlink protocol as if the radio was a ground station.
It is not possible to carry the mavlink protocol over an Frsky link, so the solutions using that (the ioboard and the mpng Frsky code) take the mavlink data and translate it to Frsky format. They do it more or less well by emulating Frsky sensors so that firstly the FrSky link will carry it down, and secondly an Frsky compatible display will show it. As Frsky protocol does not have fields for everything mavlink provides but has others, there's some reusing going on, and not everybody reuses the same fields so a rename isn't easy.

The radio never gets mavlink data in that case.

So if you want pure mavlink you need to take the telemetrez out, do the hardware telemetry mod yourself, and install a pair of independent radio modems.

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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by NoRCExperience »

Got it, thanks! I do have plenty of modems, but I will keep those on laptop/phone and stick with Frsky format. Thanks for giving me the long story short!
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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by bob195558 »

Hi

I have built a Quad using the MultiWii Pro V3 Flight controller board from WiteSpyQuad (Ready To Fly Quads)
and I use a 9x Radio with erSky9x firmware with FrSky XJT Transmitter Telemetry Module with the FrSky D8R-XP Receiver w/ Telemetry.


Is there a way to see the Sensor Readings on the MultiWii Pro V3 Flight Controller Board through the FrSky Telemetry System to my Sky9x Radio telemetry screens?

Bob
Er9x on 9x radio, with Smartieparts Programmer and TelemetrEZ Board.
ErSky9x on Taranis, Sky9x, 9Xtreme radios.
3D-Printing: (https://openrcforums.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=129).
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Kilrah
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Re: convert Mavlink (APM & MPNG) to Frsky

Post by Kilrah »

There is some code around for Multiwii 2.2:
http://www.multiwii.com/forum/viewtopic ... &start=190

Doesn't work with 2.3 though according to the author, would need to be adapted.

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