Hi Kenny, thank you so much for all your advice.
I will be recalibrating the apm from scratch one last time before upgrading the gear to hopefully help in making all this work.
Also I think to fine tune the rover I will need the telemetry kit as Randy shows in he’s YouTube uploads to see what the rover is doing while in manual mode, cruise speed, wheel turn angles etc. Now I need to buy an FTDI cable to connect the telemetary kit as they can no longer find each other. This is the telemetry that I have:
The Air Module I have has 5 pins but majority of FTDI cables on amazon have 6 pins. Now I’m wondering which FTDI cable is suitable.
Here’s one but like I said it has 6 pins:
Like you said the tuning is crucial right now & I don’t think buying more expensive kit will solve my issue, it’s the tuning that needs attention like you have said. By the way I’ve checked out your project on YouTube it’s a beast of a machine you’ve made!! I love the concept of what it does. Congrats on your build Kenny👍🏼
Those radios should work out of the box. Post a screenshot of the Sik radio setup screen after attempting to connect. So, in Mission Planner select the port the ground radio is connected to. In Windows device manager it will say “USB serial port COMxx”. Then set the baud to 57600. Do not connect! Go to the Initial Setup>Optional Hardware>Sik Radio screen and select “load settings”. What does it do and what is displayed on the local and remote screens (screenshot).
I have a set of those but 915 Mhz. Along with some other brands. I do recall a problem with them not working out of the box. I forget what I had to change though.
Very similar to my telemetry radios. I don’t see why you need the FTDI converter. Ground radio already is USB. Air radio is ttl, which surely is what the APM is. As Dave mentioned, should work out of box with nothing else.
The left side which is in the ground usb shows all the correct data, on the other side the air module data is blank, then I copy the settings to be applied to the air module but only a couple of things get copied over to the air module.
The first time I did it all the settings on both sides was present & also a solid green light on both “it was a beautiful moment” then somehow I messed it up. The data on the air module side hasn’t got the required data on the module to communicate with the ground module anymore.
Now I need to figure out how to add the data to the air module hence why I thought of the FTDI cable. @ktrussell@David_Boulanger
Now the right side is blank, not even the name is showing up. Seems somehow I have erased all data on the air module & now it doesn’t recognise the ground module. Might have to bite the bullet and buy another one like a plonker
you should find the air side setting in the same place when you plug into the apm directly, it will be the local in that case, just copy evreything across maunaly
Could you please write me down a quick step by step guide on how to copy over the details manually. The air module is plugged directly into the apm telemetary port, you mentioned “it will be in the local”. Please elaborate on this further and once I’m home from work I will try.
Once the telemetry is hopefully resolved I can then crack on with tuning the rover for the auto missions. Thanks in advance
I just hooked up the same module and the attached picture are my settings. What i’m curious about is why does the version say Sik 1.5 on a RFD900A on his screenshot? That’s not a RFD.
tbh, I’m just guessing, I vaguely remember doing something like that, I would have to dig through my box of out of date kit and see if i can work it out myself before I could give you step by step instructions
edit: i think you said you had a arduino, there quite easy to setup as ftdi adapters
I don’t know what firmware you have on those radios. As David says they are certainly not RFD900’s, the latest/last Rev firmware for Sik radios is 1.9 and has been for years now, and you said you bought 433Mhz radios and these look to be 915. Also, what version of Mission Planner are you running? When you post a screen shot include the entire MP screen so we can see what’s going on.
Pete your a Genius!! It worked mate!! Now connected via telemetry and everything is working perfectly. Maybe now I can tune this the right way & input the right data into Basic Tuning section to hopefully make the rover run better in auto mode. Thank you so much🙏🏼
Strange thing now is when I connect to telemetry and do what Randy Mackay has instructed on steering tuning by selecting Piddesired & Pidachieved there’s no movement in the live tuning screen when I move the wheels
Yeah I did that already and set it to steering. Weird thing is when I flip the auto switch on my transmitter it has movement but no movement from the wheel steering control
