67 replies to this topic

[fertito]

Hello,
this is a great day!

I just finished to mod a really small tp link router (usb, wifi and serial) to be able to make the bridge between the gcs and the openpilot board.

The router look like this :

And inside:


It is really small and light.
On this I putted an openwrt distribution with webcam driver on which I plugged a logitech pro 9000 webcam :

which is able to stream HD video...

After some soldering I succeded in getting the serial lines out and some scripting skill (which normally I have not), I did the bridge using ser2net between the gcs tcp telemetry option and the serial lines...
And.. bingo, it works!!!!
the gcs is getting the openpilot board data and I can also stream the live view of the webcam

On his picture the openpilot board is the cutom one at the bottom...

So, what next...

-dismentle the camera to light it, I only need the pcb, the sensor and the optic, shorten his cable.
-put an usb hub on the router to be able to plug the openpilot in HID usb mode to free the mainport of the telemetry
-remove any unecessary components, like usb plugs
-put a real antenna on the router to increase the range, why not an amplifier
-developp an iphone, android app to control everything...
-add a qt widget with the streamed video

And ... tada ... you have an ardrone like, but much better

[fertito]

here is a short video :



it looks laggy for the video, becaus my pc is an old one which is very slow, but indestructible, which is great on the field

[dankers]

That's looking great, nice work. For sure keep this thread updated, I'd love to see where you take this.

[KD4WEN]

I am very interested in this. Good work. I have been waiting on the release of the Sony GoPro Wifi backpack. But you have carried it to the next level. If you would build another I would gladly buy one setup and working even in rough form.

[Galad]

Hi Fertito

Nice Hijack, I love that :-) ! You used the TL-WR703N (32MB ram) version, right ? not TL-WR702N (16MB ram) advertised on TP-Link website.

[fertito]

hello, yes the 703, the 702 has not enough ram to make openwrt run...

[fertito]

I am very interested in this. Good work. I have been waiting on the release of the Sony GoPro Wifi backpack. But you have carried it to the next level. If you would build another I would gladly buy one setup and working even in rough form.

next level is that, instead of a webcam, i'm planing on using an AVCAP to catch the hd composite video signal of the gopro...

I dismanteled my logitech webcam, it is really light, it will be nice

[fertito]

first try on my quad : (propeller-less, of course)



I have lot of latency via wifi compared at usb, maybe I should slow down telemetry link to have more control, it looks like the board is loosing frames...

When I'll have made it work with the usb-hid instead of serial it will be better...

[D-Lite]

I like this very much. Great job and a good and simple approach to have video + telemetry in one link.

I have lot of latency via wifi compared at usb, maybe I should slow down telemetry link to have more control, it looks like the board is loosing frames...

At what speed are you running the serial link between the Wifi router and CopterControl? In my tests with GCS controlled flights, it worked best at 57600 baud. At 115200, CopterControl started to lose incoming bytes which very much looked like increased latency.

[fertito]

That's it, I'm runing at 115200 bauds... I'll try to slow it down.
Thanks.

[fertito]

the openwrt router is also compatible with 3G modem, see what's next?

[A*Morale]

You can try to enable USB VCP telemetry instead of hid so that it should work out of the box.

[fertito]

You're right that'ld be the best, but I things it is a little too much hardcore for me...

I'll try...

[A*Morale]

I have to check how to enable openwrt's Virtual com port support (i.e. supports serial over usb, it does as it works with 3G usb modems).
Than from the CopterControl hardware configuration page on GCS you have to choose Telemetry for the USB VCP combobox so that the board is seen as a USB Serial port.
Be sure to have a firmware compiled with the clear setting option just to be on the safe side is something goes wrong

[A*Morale]

Ok, here is a page that refers to 3G modem but you can take the part related to usb-serial.
http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/recipes/3gdongle
Basically you have to install the module for the usb controller(probably kmod-usb2 is ok) and then kmod-usb-serial,
At that point you have to tell to the serial mod that the CopterControl is a serial device.

Follow the openwrt wiki page as it should be simple.

[fertito]

it is ok on the openwrt side
it is on coptercontrol side that it doesn't run, I don't have this combo box, and I'm sure my firmware doesn't have this option

[fertito]

so made a try at 57600bds with a good PC, it works fine, a small latency but should be ok.

I would like to try another things, usbip, but I have no space left on the router...

will try to compile coptercontrol with a usb cdc driver...

[A*Morale]

Look for the "next" branch in git.

[fertito]

hello,
it is sad to say, but I don't know how to use Git correctly... except the clone function...

[A*Morale]

Here in the wiki there is a short guide:
http://wiki.openpilo...etting the code