Using MAVLink for telemetry, Mission Planner and Bluetooth between computer and Crossfire TX.
We tested using it all mounted on a wooden plate and drove with cars to different places with and without LOS.
At a short distance it all works great! 20 meters for example.
The RC-link worked up to 5 kilometers using 500mW when testing (it lowered it self to 100mW).
But the telemetry is very bad at 100 meters, it has worked really sluggish at up to 1 km.
First the GPS-position stops, then the rotation of the multicopter, then leaning in the HUD for example stops, then the telemetry strength is at 0%.
The RC-link seems to work great but the telemetry is loosing a lot of packets at a very short range compared to the RC-link.
MIssion Planner is getting parameters for a looong time, never stops.
According to TBS, only the Nano RX Pro has high power telemetry. It will go to 100mw, but the rest only have 40mw. So, yes you’ll have command and control a long way, but you won’t be getting much back. Range is also worse on the ground than it is even a little way into the air so that’s not helping matters.
As for using mission planner with crossfire wifi or bluetooth, that’s been generally met with limited success by most around here. I keep wanting to try again, but then I use a basic set of SIK radios and I forget about it.
Of that list I can only speak to the RFD radios. They are great and range is amazing. I’ve used a mixture of the X and UX versions and they’ve all performed well. Powering the air side can be an issue if you run them at 1w (30db) so keep that in mind. They can draw more power than what the normal serial port is rated to supply so you’ll need to consider an additional voltage regulator/BEC, or turn down the output power. I’ve turned some down to 25db (~500mw I think, but that math is off the cuff so don’t hold me to it) and I’ve still had plenty of range. Several KM at least without issue.
Thanks for the really fast answer. Have a mission very soon and with the telemetry lost in a few hundred meters… it is a problem.
Does the Pixhawk 2.1 (or the Pixhawk 1) deliver enough current to run the standard 100mW SIK-radios? I have reached 500 meters max with 100mW SIK-radios at max power on an old MiniAPM in a Bormatec Ninox wing, not with a metal+carbon-filled multicopter with a bunch of ESCs, motors, 6S-cables, 6S-batteries, BEC, UBEC, …
I do have 500mW SIK-radios as well. But I guess those cant be run on the current from the Telemetry-port on the Pixhawks? Havent tried them though… only on the table building planes/copters.
The Crossfire have its own external power on the transmitter and also onboard the heavylifter. Telemetry-range… max 200 meters.
Crossfire have better antennas I guess (I have the standard + the tuned high powered). But SIK-radion all have the little Omni-antenna. Would be great to find better antennas for them for better range at reasonable low power outputs.
