An Open Source Frsky Telemetry Script for the Horus X10,X12 and Taranis X9D,X9E and QX7 radios

Hi Alex,

Yes, I have the power monitor and the FLVSS sensor.
That was exactly the info I asked for, thank you!
Will try it in a few days when I get back to my quad.

Hello Alex,
I have been trying to get your telemetry script working correctly for some time now, but have been running into problems: “no telemetry data” is displayed on Taranis. My assumption is that this has to do with the serial port.

I have the script v1.7.0 setup correctly (as far as I am aware), in combination with Pixhawk 2.1 Cube (running APM:Copter v3.5.7):

  • Script is installed on Taranis X9D+ (running OpenTX 2.2.2)

  • TELEM1 port is configured as SERIAL1_PROTOCOL with value “1” (=MAVLink1), and has a 3DR radio modem connected

  • TELEM2 port is configured as SERIAL2_PROTOCOL with value “10” (=FrSky Sport passthrough); a C&T cable connects the X8R receiver from TELEM2 to the SPort

  • No other serial ports protocols have the value “10” assigned

  • SERIAL5_PROTOCOL has a value of “1” (intend to use it for MinimOSD - if possible)

In this setup, when entering the telemetry page on the Taranis, the script reports audibly with “yaapu telemetry ready” - but shows a “no telemetry data” error (on top of the Taranis telemetry page).

If I REVERSE the two connections above (and also assign TELEM2/SERIAL2_PROTOCOL value “1”, and instead assign TELEM1/SERIAL1_PROTOCOL the value “10”), - Voila - the telemetry arrives at the Taranis as expected.

That would likely mean that

  • My setup is correct as such
  • The telemetry cable is working
  • The Taranis and receiver are working

How come then, that the initial “default” setup is not working, and I have to switch the TELEM/SERIAL ports around for the sensor data to arrive properly?

EDITED: corrected MinimOSD connection to say SERIAL5_PROTOCOL

Hi,
I have no experience with Pixhawk 2.1 cube, but what do you mean by

  • SERIAL2_PROTOCOL has a value of “1” (intend to use it for MinimOSD - if possible)

haven’t you assigned SERIAL2_PROTOCOL=10 to enable frsky telemetry?

Anyway from the wiki

SERIAL1 and SERIAL2 are marked as telemetry ports by default so should both work

to recap

doesn’t work:
SERIAL1_PROTOCOL=1
SERIAL2_PROTOCOL=10

works
SERIAL1_PROTOCOL=10
SERIAL2_PROTOCOL=1

correct?

Hi Alex,
sorry that was a typo late at night (which I fixed just now to say SER…5 , for the MinimOSD connection).

Yes, I had assigned SERIAL2_PROTOCOL=10 to enable frsky telemetry, as per the Wiki. But this displayed no telemetry on the Taranis.

Your recap is correct.
When I switch the ports and values around, telemetry is displayed.

Can you think of any reason why the default setup does not work?

Hi,
just a blind guess, on pixhawk 2.1 there only are 4 uarts availbale for general use and serial5 is hard coded to debug, Maybe setting a protocol on serial5 did brake something?

Hi Alex,

serial5 can now be used not only as a debug, but as a serial port, as outlined here https://discuss.ardupilot.org/t/serial-5-pinout-on-pixhawk-2-1/29392. and here https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/pull/6761.

Plus, the unexpected behavior as outlined above happens, whether SER5 is active or not.

Could this have to do with the Frsky passthrough protocol in some way?

i am using serial 5 for my Frsky passthrough on 3 cubes 2.1 and 2 pixhawks with out an issues

And here it does not work… I had started with standard/ stock parameters and have not done “grave” modifications or parameters (as far as I am aware).
Regarding the serial ports 1+2, I have only changed between values 1 and 10, no additional parameters changed there (plus the Frsky port sets it’s own params anyways from what I understand).

Anybody have a smart idea what could be missing here? I am using a PH 2.1 from one of the very first batches, if that makes any difference?

I have no idea but by a quick glance at the code the library uses ardupilot serial manager and does not make any assumptions on the port.

Would be interesting to trace the serial port with a logic probe and see if it’s indeed sending anything at all

a quick glance at the code the library uses ardupilot serial manager and does not make any assumptions on the port.

Thanks for checking!
I also had been interested in that when I first saw that no signals seem to come out - but may not be savvy enough to do this. I had found some instructions though and might give it a try to see if anything is sent.

on the tx are you getting rx rssi and rx battery level with out any other plug into the S-port on the RX ?

Yes, these values can be displayed on a custom telemetry screen in the Taranis.

I have done some more testing these last few hours and am thinking that the TELEM2 port of the Pixhawk 2.1 simply is defective.

While switching over the Frsky telemetry cable from TELEM2 to TELEM1 did bring a result (telemetry was displayed), I later found out that this unfortunately did not mean that now the radio modem was working while connected to a properly configured TELEM2…

This hardware is still from the first batch of Pixhawks, and I now think there is a manufacturing defect.

So thanks for trying to help solve this, seems to be a hardware issue.

Hi everybody,
new release for the Horus radios

x10

Horus Widget Version 1.7.1

  • flightmodes loaded at runtime based on detected frametype
  • units settings for distance and altitude inherited from radio settings
  • units settings for horizontal and vertical speed selectable from config menu
  • fix for potential divide by zero on hud drawing code (implemented cohen-sutherland algorythm for hud line clipping) thanks @cipta
  • fix for roll and pitch clipping
  • removed Tmp1 and Tmp2 OpenTX sensors
  • moved all sensors to last instance 0xF of the respective frsky sensor ID (requires a new sensor discovery)
  • added ARM sensor to expose to OpenTX arming status
  • removed power from left panel
  • added efficiency on left panel as mAh/speed
  • fix for telemetry reset on model change
  • added script reset on timer 3 reset (motors have to be disarmed)
  • fix for battery levels alerts, now voltage needs to stay below level for 4 seconds before triggering alerts
  • lcd panel backlight control from script for messages/alerts/events (follow this guide to enable)
  • fix for limited battery alert voltage range, now from 0 to 50V

code is on github

feedback is welcome!

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Any of the serial ports that have Rx/Tx pins should work for telemetry. Just set the protocol for that port accordingly. I have Pixhack V3’s in helicopters and I’m running the FrSky telemetry on the Serial5 port, which is actually the GPS2 and Debug port otherwise. Just use the first four pins in the port and set the protocol to what you want. It works fine.

Just make sure you get the Rx and Tx pins hooked up right or it won’t work, though. I got a C&T cable that I had to reverse the Rx and Tx pins on to get it to work. There’s little arrows on the board that point in or out on the Rx and Tx. The arrow pointing out goes to the Rx pin on the controller port. It came wired backwards.

Thanks for your insights and pointers. Having dealt with this for hours and trying various scenarios, I believe by now I have gotten a reasonably good understanding of the correct settings and interactions and have heeded all instructions and tips I could find - with no joy.
Having reset the board to defaults and having tried again - with the same results, I now strongly assume it is a hardware issue, and am sending the board back to the dealer.

i think there may be a hardware issue i have just spent the night converting pixhawk chopper with pas through that works to a cube for the life of i cannot get it to work on serial 5 so i remove the cube put back in the pixhawk and it works i have other cubes that works on just not this one i wonder if they have made some change in the newer cubes ? this cube came with a remote usb cable and buzzer in one cable

got it to work on the 2 of my newer cube’s it will only work on the gps 2 port

I had bought a new Pixhawk 2.1 yesterday, and the serial ports now behave as expected (with FrSky telemetry coming through on TELEM2 and the modem connected to TELEM1).
So I believe the issue reported earlier was hardware related.

Hi everybody,
new minor release for the Horus radios X12 and X10

x10

Horus Widget Version 1.7.2

  • fix for imu temp decoding
  • fix for landing complete alert, now played only if motors are armed
  • fix for limited battery alert voltage range, now from 0 to 50V (was missing from 1.7.1)
  • changed min alert interval from 10s to 5s

code is on github

feedback is welcome!

Hi everybody,
new minor release for the Taranis radios X9D,QX7 and X-Lite

image

image

Taranis Version 1.7.1

  • fix for battery levels alerts, now voltage needs to stay below level for 4 seconds before triggering alerts
  • fix for limited battery alert voltage range, now from 0 to 50V
  • fix for IMU temp decoding
  • fix for landing complete alert, now played only if motors are armed
  • changed min allowed alerts interval from 10s to 5s

code is on github

feedback is welcome!

cheers,

Alex

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