Crossfire isn’t a radio modem system it’s a long range / low latency RC link. I think the confusion often comes from the term ‘telemetry radio’ which mean different things to different market sectors.
MAVLink seems to need much more bandwidth than the LoRa modulation scheme used by Crossfire can provide. Even if you select the Crossfire option of ‘RC over MAVLink’ instead of using a separate sBus connection to the flight controller the data rate is still not enough it seems (I get failsafes & control freezes).
TBS have messed up here by trying to support MAVLink when realistically the modulation scheme used can’t handle it.
This morning I decided to have another go at Wi-fi telem. Updated to 4.11 and updated the Wi-fi module to 1.42alpha (didn’t see that before) It’s still not fast to load params but it gets there.
did not have to keep turning mavlink on in Wi-fi module.
have connected without hotspot (which is a first) power cycled several times to make sure it wasn’t just luck. Also changed to my tough pad and it connects on that too without hotspot.
Using CRSF and Mavlink over 2 serial ports
Can’t post the vid here but have put on on the ardupilot users group on telegram.
I just did the wifi update to 1.41alpha. Wow, what a difference. Night and day. I can’t wait to try and fly this. Yes, the parameter download was slow but light speed compared to what it was before.
Wow, the TXMOD V2 system from the RFD folks wasn’t even on my radar. Thanks @Allister for sharing, that looks promising to me, only on my bigger builds as you mentioned, and for the same reasons you mentioned. I’ve got the stock RFD setup on my bigger builds already, and I was thinking about ways to pipe the RC control over it, with no idea the RFD folks already have a system for it.
I, too, I’m trying to get the crossfire system setup on my small setup, due to space/weight limitations on my 7", but I may spring for this TXMOD V2 system for the bigger system. I might have to hit you up for some advice on the RFD setup if/when the time comes, since you’ve been there/done that.
Now that spring is finally here I may get to use that gear again. Since I put the planes away for the winter RDF has put out an update for the TXModV2. Hopefully I’ll be updating everything and trying it out again soon.
From a build perspective it’s sure nice having everything on one radio. But there’s a little voice in the back of my head that would like the GCS and the RC on different radios. I’ve toyed with the idea of using CRSF (SBUS only, that failsafe thing in copter 4.1 has me nervous) for the RC link and leave the RDF for telemetry. But I’m not sure what the impact of having two 900MHz radios on one plane would be.
hey that’s a great idea also, I’m so far down the rabbit hole I had forgotten that the sbus could sidestep the failsafe issue (while preserving the radio range that crossfire offers). I forgot that I was going for two things: 1) range 2) telemetry (in that order). I could consider that setup for my large build; like you I like the redundancy. But for telemetry, the RFD900x is just not going onto my smaller 7" no matter what, so I’m holding my breath for the csrf pass-through telemetry for the smaller build.
Much smaller than the regular RDF900X. From what I’ve read they are compatible with each other so you should be able to use it with your TXMODV2. (They sell it as a bundle as well).
But it’s still massive compared to a CRSF nano. But it works.
I love the Yaapu script on my radio. But I’m coming to grips that when I’m flying something long range, I’m not going to be using that, I’m using the GCS for my information.
Hi All. I’m making my quarterly pass by this issue. I spent some time this past winter on this and gave up on it. I came across someone posting this morning over on the FB TBS lounge about telemetry mirror using an HC05 module on the uart on an x9, but I fly a qx7, which I’m not giving up until they pry it from my cold, dead hands. . I’ll update to 4.11 and give it a try.
I also fly RFD almost exclusively for work projects. Once they added the sbus passthrough, it became much more viable for a lot of use cases. It’s now the only thing I fly at work. I also got frustrated with the size and found one of the rfd900ux SMD modules and built a 30.5mm compliant carrier board through OSH park.
Hi,
I also invested days of trial and error for getting Mavlink over bluetooth working.
I just read the solution mentioned here about first connecting via wifi before it is able to work.
I am using the fullsize TX that has not the wifi module installed (it’s from 2016 and I already had a look inside).
Is there no way to get this working without wifi first? I do not wanna buy a new TX.
Mavlink Instector only shows Radio_Status. On Diversity RX I enabled Mavlink RX on CH7 and Mavlink TX on CH8.
Using a scope I see a data stream sent from my Pixhawk4 to CH7 of my Diversity Mavlink RX.
Any idea?
Thx in advance, GZNW
//edit: got it working after finding out that serial baud rate in FW6.03 needs to be set to 115200, so no wifi needed
@gznw Thanks for your post. I too have been struggling with getting Mavlink working with the Diversity Nano. After numerous emails to TBS, with tech’s asking for the same information and me sending pics of my setup, fw version, and configuration, I hooked up an oscilloscope to understand where the problem is. The Orange cube was communicating, but the diversity wasn’t. I was using 57K and didn’t think the baud rate was incorrect. After reading your post the 115K setting was the trick. Nobody from TBS ever said try this baud rate. They just asked to verify simple things like check your connections. I guess the Mavlink is a request/send system, since I am new to this I didn’t think of that.
Has anyone had success with this botched implementation? The packet rate seems so terrible that it would take half a day just to load the params in MP and QGC won’t even play the game, it just pretends nothing is happening. I found no difference in TCP or UDP, XF wifi or my home router. I think it’s just broken unless someone thinks I’m missing something…?
Nope you’re not missing anything. It sucks. Totally unusable. Anyone who says they have it working is either flying los or lying. I got it to work a while ago using QGC and MP but once you get out any distance it just fails. Subsequent firmware releases have totally messed it up. Trappy reached out to me directly to try to resolve as he said he had taken over the software team to fix a bunch of issues. After a couple exchanges, he just disappeared.
I’ve come to terms that TBS is not interested in this. They are more towards quad pilots and I don’t see how this could ever be a viable solution.
How could you get so nice telemetry distance with R9? I have also R9 with various receivers, but I only get telemetry from max 6 km. What is your setup? Frsky firmware (what versions on receiver and module) or Elrs? I have prodrone pl. 868 moxon on the transmitter. Thank you very much!
So I have a “Full crossfire with Bluetooth”, and a “Crossfire Nano Diversity” and a “Crossfire Nano RX the small one”.
Crossfire Nano Diversity, output;
CRFT TX => FC RX
CRFT RX => FC TX
Mavlink RX => FC TX
Mavlink TX => FC RX
PC connects to the Crossfire TX v Bluetooth and everything works very well super happy !!
But! I also have another plane with a Crossfire Nano RX
Crossfire Nano RX, output;
CRFT TX => FC RX
CRFT RX => FC TX
Mavlink RX => FC TX
Mavlink TX => FC RX
Doesn’t work! but if i switch the outputs to be ‘wrong’??
Mavlink RX => FC RX
Mavlink TX => FC TX
it works, but not very well. Only seem to get some data and MP is stuck in “Safety” and is unusable. So maybe a Nano RX bug?
Hi,
I am struggling since a few weeks (or rather months) to get my setup to work.
I have a Crossfire Micro TX V2 with a Nano RX connected to a MATEK F405 WMN flight controller. The Micro TX is running in my trusty Taranis X9D+.
Since I am new to the crossfire ecosystem, I might have missed a few things. So far, I got the WIFI on the Micro TX running and can connect to it from my PC. In mission planner, I can connect via UDP and get basic telemetry data (yaw, artifical horizon, etc) on the screen, but got stuck during the parameter download. No matter how long I wait, it simply won’t get any parameters.
Could you please tell me, what parameters you’ve set in Ardupilot and the Crossfire Lua script to have a connection?
Thank you in advance for your help and kind advice.
I just managed to establish the link to Mission Planner and have the setup running without issues.
I realized that I forgot the addtional hardware connection from S3/S4 of the Nano RX to a UART on the FC for transferring telemetry data in addition to the RC control.
It seems to work as it should and I am curious to see how this will work outside in flight.
!!