Liquid flow sensor driver

ArduCopter
1

Hello,
I want to integrate this liquid flow sensor , https://posifatech.com/plf2000/, into my cube black and I have a few questions:

1-From what I have seen so far, it seems there is no driver for this sensor , in any protocol, within arducopter. Can someone confirm me this?

2- If confirmed there is no driver for this sensor, the solutions I thought are:
a- Write myself the driver
b-Connect the sensor to a companion computer, like a RPI,and send the data to my cube black.This part I don’t fully comprehend how would I do it, if I could simply send the data through the telemetry cable between cube and rpi and then follow the instructions here:https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-fuel-sensors.html . Can someone give some guidance in this point?

2

The simplest would be to use the analog output, and set it up like a current sensor.

3

Assuming I wouldn’t use analog output from the sensor, can you confirm or deny my assumptions?

4

I can confirm and deny the following:

This particular sensor device can be used as I2C and analog output.

So:
A. As an analog output device, it can be used straight forward using the Ardupilot wiki.
Thus, we can deny all the rest assumptions.

B. As I2C device and your assumptions:

  1. Confirmed

  2. a. confirmed

  3. b. Usually we connect a sensor to the companion if we want all the processing to taken care of by the CC. Or you could make a custom mavlink message and stream it through the rest telemetry by merging it with the main that you collect from the AP. So, IMHO it’s too much hassle for just a flow that is already implemented.

5

Hello,
Thank you for your answer.I understand your points.

If it’s not much trouble, could you explain the whole process you described in 3b? I understand it can be a hassle, but there isn’t guides about a specific topic of “Create a custom mavlink message for a sensor to send to the stream”. Well, if there is I couldn’t find yet

6

This how far my knowledge goes : https://ardupilot.org/dev/docs/code-overview-adding-a-new-mavlink-message.html

You can request for more specific help in the forums once you start your project.

Best,
Dimitris

7

You could create a small driver for the analog or i2c using Lua scripting bindings.