OpenLRS - thUndead's MODs :D

[thundead]

my FW was kinda designed from scratch :)) didn't keep a lot of stuff from the original fw.

I could have a go and see what happens :)


I'll let u know it it worked or not.

Mihai,

Would it be possible to simply copy/paste your various bit of code into the fully working OLRS_V_1_10 firmware?

If so, I may just have a go at that over the weekend...(wish I could program properly!!).

Nigel.

[thundead]

That's great! thanks. I just love that feeling when everything works as it should haha :)

Tested that earlier it works all ok

[thundead]

I'm hopping in 70 channels right now haha :)) (not ism channels though) still on 459 :)

[thundead]

you mean its not working at all or just the channel thing ?
Mihai.

[thundead]

Haha my gf got used to it haha. gd luck tomorrow looking fw to the results :)

[Devonian]

Mihai,

Have you seen this, maybe some use...
http://www.open.com.au/mikem/arduino/RF22/index.html

Download the zip file and look at some of the files ;)
http://www.open.com.au/mikem/arduino/RF22/RF22-1.11.zip

Nigel.

[thundead]

Glad to hear that at least the Video test went ok. Not sure about the OLRS. I've got a few ideas for the next firmware which will have telemetry as well ( packet beeps at the moment ) that I'll be releasing in a few days. Still not sure if range was caused by my hopping routine or by the actual device. would be great to do a test with Melih's firmware versus mine.

Anyway, working hard on my next fw which will be an adaptive hopping pattern.

Nigel , already saw that thanks :) If my next fw doesn't life to expectations I'll try to implement that the open.com.au library and see if it works.

Bad day for me as well. Crashed my tri :( My battery tray came off at 100m altitude and went down like a brick. filmed the whole thing though so vid coming soon.

Regards,
Mihai.

Haha my gf got used to it haha. gd luck tomorrow looking fw to the results :)

Just got back from range tests....

Bit of a mixed result.  I was testing the OpenLRS with stock antenna on the Rx and I had a Diamond SRH771 on the Tx (I know its tuned to 433Mhz but I figured it had to be better than the stock rubby ducky) I was also testing my Video for range.  That was running 250mW on 5.8Ghz with a cloverleaf antenna on the Vtx and I had EagleEyes with pan/tilt running 2 Rx's for diversity.  I had a skewplanar wheel as my static Rx and a 5 turn helical as my directional antenna on the pan/tilt.

I had rock solid radio showing full RSSI till about 400 metres out then it started dropping down, I rang the girlfriend and got her to turn round and face me with the test rig and hold it up high just incase she was affecting the signal but it didnt make any real difference (my test rig was a big block of dense foam with holes cut out for lipos and other pieces of kit to protect them) I decided that while I had the girlfriend captive that we should continue with a video rangetest!!  2.2Km out I still had a rock solid video, I switched the diversity off and forced the EagleEyes to take a feed from the Skew planar wheel, and while the video was a little grainy I was pretty impressed that I still had signal, with the helical antenna it was so crystal clear I think that the range would have easily gone allot further.  Unfortunately I got a call from the little lady, and she was cold and getting a little fedup trudging across the sand.  So I packed up and fetched her in the car lol

All in all quite happy with the video, infact I am over the moon with the video as a first test. As its all wired kinda quick and and nasty (ie no ferrite rings to stop noise etc)  

The OpenLRS kinda disappointed, I dont know if the video Tx could have been affecting it or the camera (RCV922) as I am sure they put out a fair amount of noise.  Obviously in the plane there will be some smart wiring and wide seperation between these parts.  I dont know if a better Rx antenna would help...?  I know you have had much better range than me I was kinda expecting something similar, especially when the video went well and we all here about people getting video problems lol

[thundead]

that's good news! My tri has been rebuilt, it lives to fly another day haha. anyway lessons learned: do not CA things like battery trays haha. Sleep now and back to fw cooking tomorrow :)

Regards
Mihai.

[thundead]

let me know what u found and we'll figure it out in the end :) bed time for me now. talk tomorrow

Mihai.

[thundead]

thx for the research :) I'm off to the gym now but I'll look into it when I come back.


Here is something that made my day:
http://forum.flytron.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=207&p=1623#p1622

Good news for my fw :D
Mihai.

[thundead]

Loool definely go for my last fw. the yltra kight one was an ultra beta. the 18ch one is the most stable from my tests.

Regarding range test i'd test it in the worst case scenario possible lol.
Cheers,
Mihai

Yh thats good news! I may try the 18 channel hopping FW as I am running your ultralight FW right now and see if I get better range.  It may be more hopping makes me more immune to interference and gives me better distance....  I should add where I was testing was really close to the coastguard station (100metres) and they have a kinda large antenna lol I only thought of it just now that they transmit VHF ship to shore radio I think that may have had an effect on my range.  Will have to find somewhere else to range check....  Not easy to find somewhere thats an open space here

[Devonian]

For 459MHz, it's only sensible to hop over 8 channels, because it's recommended that aircraft control is from 459.1MHz to 459.475MHz as that is not a shared useage part of the band (maybe 459.5MHz as this is the band edge but that's pushing things as your signal will 'spread' out of band).

Of course, you can have up to 20 channels if you want to venture into the shared useage part of the band from 458.5MHz to 459.075MHz.

The RFM22B can only be made to space it's channels in multiples of 10kHz, so 25kHz spacing is not easily achieved, but 50kHz is easy to achieve (every other channel availability, depending on your start/base frequency).

It would have been great if we could have 5kHz spacing as then you could have 17 channels of hopping in the prime useage part of the band, but I'd settle for 8 channel hopping of prime band use.

459MHz band plan...
http://www.ukrcc.org/459mhz.html

Nigel.

[thundead]

Hey Nigel,

The 18CH firmware (latest one) hops on the following channels:

458.600
458.650
458.700
458.750
458.800
458.850
458.900
458.950
459.000
459.050
459.100
459.150
459.200
459.250
459.300
459.350
459.400
459.450

Regards,
Mihai.

For 459MHz, it's only sensible to hop over 8 channels, because it's recommended that aircraft control is from 459.1MHz to 459.475MHz as that is not a shared useage part of the band (maybe 459.5MHz as this is the band edge but that's pushing things as your signal will 'spread' out of band).

Of course, you can have up to 20 channels if you want to venture into the shared useage part of the band from 458.5MHz to 459.075MHz.

The RFM22B can only be made to space it's channels in multiples of 10kHz, so 25kHz spacing is not easily achieved, but 50kHz is easy to achieve (every other channel availability, depending on your start/base frequency).

It would have been great if we could have 5kHz spacing as then you could have 17 channels of hopping in the prime useage part of the band, but I'd settle for 8 channel hopping of prime band use.

459MHz band plan...
http://www.ukrcc.org/459mhz.html

Nigel.

[thundead]

Hmmm anyone still on around here ? :D Need a suggestion.

Here is my idea for the next fw:

-Bi-Directional FW (tx beeps letting you know RSSI is getting low )

Now this is the interesting bit:
- OLRS will only hop if rssi goes down to a specific value (50 ? where rssi range is 40-110) and will scan for the channel with the best RSSI value.

I want to go for this approach because the link seems to be better if the freq is static (not hopping everywhere)

So in the end will only hop it it really needs to donno.

Lemme know what u think so I can start coding :D

Mihai.

[thundead]

Easy, Leave the TX in your car and take the rx for a walk :D