Current Status of TBS Crossfire and Mission Planner Telemetry Over Bluetooth

TorqueWrench · July 20, 2020, 9:10pm

Hi everyone,

Hopefully this is a simple enough question, but I am considering investing in a TBS Crossfire. I am hoping to be able to combine the RC receiver and telemetry functionality into a single package thus eliminating the need for a separate telemetry radio.

I’ve tried doing some research, but unfortunately the information on TBS Crossfire + Ardupilot seems scarce, so before I purchase one, I just wanted to ask a few questions:

Is TBS Crossfire compatible with Bluetooth telemetry in Mission Planner?
Assuming it is, and it appears we use Mavlink here, this isn’t a unidirectional link is it? (I.e. can I still write/upload missions to the flight controller via the TBS Bluetooth connection?)
I’ve heard reports of TBS Crossfire telemetry being slow- how true is this?

Anything else I should watch out for or be concerned about? Thanks in advance!

-TorqueWrench

amilcarlucas · July 21, 2020, 12:33am

Before buying, ask TBS to add support for Mavlink 2.0. You will probably be unhappy without it. Some messages will not work at all.

TorqueWrench · July 21, 2020, 2:59pm

Thanks for the reply @amilcarlucas. Good to know about Mavlink 2.0 not being implemented. Does that mean it does work (at least with Mavlink 1)? I don’t use my telemetry for anything extravagant, just monitoring my battery voltage and the like. I haven’t even flown an auto mission yet, but it would be nice to be able to upload a mission too.

amilcarlucas · July 21, 2020, 5:55pm

I do not upload missions with it, so I can not tell. What I can tell is that it sucks that it does not support Mavlink 2.0

Other people should share their experiences with missions.

AJack · July 23, 2020, 6:30am

I used it with great succes for couple years. uploading downloading over bluetooth no problem. both on copter and plane.

adcam · July 23, 2020, 6:51am

thanks Jack

i am using it since 2 weeks. I like it as it is very integrated.
Time to time I loose the telemetry
Can you please post your setup (SR parameters in arduplane & TBS setup such as power)

It will be very appreciated

Adolfo

AJack · July 23, 2020, 8:41am

TBS i have DynamicPower On, max power 1W, bluetooth mavlink, 8ch only

You are welcomme!

adcam · September 4, 2020, 6:46pm

thanks
it is much better.
Do you know if vario is available through mavlink (I have a taranis X9D/ pixhawk 4 mini) ?

Adolfo

amilcarlucas · September 10, 2020, 8:16am

Any news on TBS supporting Mavlink 2.0 ?

Psoden · October 10, 2020, 4:36pm

Mavlink 2.0 is supported.

fingadar · October 10, 2020, 4:50pm

As far as the actual bulk of problems and issues can be called „supported“…

amilcarlucas · October 13, 2020, 2:26pm

I tested the latest TBS FW .
It only took 12 minutes to sync parameters after connecting to the latest mission planner over bt.
For us this is NOT usable.

fingadar · October 13, 2020, 4:36pm

Some people are in contact with TBS. We hope that there will be some progress on the actual issues.

ohitstarik · October 13, 2020, 6:46pm

we had the same experience trying to connect over bluetooth through dragonlink.

has it always been this long?

Also, which receiver does everyone use for telemetry? Is this one the only one that supports it?

DustyAir · October 15, 2020, 4:35pm

Very interested in this topic as well. My question is pretty closely related to your post so I won’t start a new thread. In general I’d like to know if 2-way telemetry exists between crossfire and mission planner. Meaning, can I use mission planner to send missions to my plane using the crossfire as well as use crossfire to view live mission data on my laptop. (via bluetooth from my transmitter of-course)

vierfuffzig · October 16, 2020, 9:09am

afaik in high bandwidth mode (RF mode 2), MAVLink frames will pass through the device directly with a significant frame drop rate due to bandwidth limitation over the RF data link, parameters and other MAVLink frames are intended to pass through in this mode.

In low bandwidth mode (RF mode 1 or below), due to bandwidth limitation, MAVLink frames received by the receiver will be unpacked into Crossfire internal telemetry frames and passed through the RF data link, then repacked into basic telemetry frames (same as MAVLink emulator), in which other MAVLink frames are not intended to appear on the transmitter side.

so based upon my individual testing and available information, real full-range fully bidirectional MAVLink is not supported by CRSF as for now.