I have a new NanoRadar NRA24 that cannot be made to work with the latest Arduplane 4.6.2 on a Matek H743 Wing V3 on Serial 1 (3.3v) or Serial 4 (5V tolerant) when powered by 12V.
I have it all configured as per wiki. Rangefinder 1 in Mission Planner never registers any readings on the bench. I am aware that movement is needed to register a reading and I have successfully tested this with Nanoradar’s test software ( NSM_Tool_V2.0.7_20250115 I) with an FTDI>USB adaptor. It registers correct readings on the bench.
I have seen others have the same issue when trying to use the Ainstein USD1 driver with this rangefinder. I really think the wiki should make this more clear even it did indicate that it has not been tested via UART by Devs. I suggest updating it to state that UART does not work. I have had to spend another $300 and order a CAN version.
If anyone has any ideas I am open to suggestions. Anyone have one of these working via UART? I am 100% sure the wiring is fine and power supply is fine. I have contacted Nanoradar via email but heard nothing back.
I probably will but I can see on the bench that it’s not working. I have the plane armed and the mission planner status window shows rangefinder1 stuck at zero even when I move the plane around. It outputs readings when I have it hooked up to the test software from the vendor. And it seems others have had this issue.
Sure. I will post this but I 100% know my wiring is ok. I literally have tested this in place using the 12v supply and jumpering to a FTDI device so that I can read the serial traffic with the vendor’s PC test software. The RX/TX wiring is very simple and obviously being an H743 I can swap the serial lines without physically doing so.
The other rangefinder settings are simple enough. But I will absolutely post as you suggest when I get a chance. I have also ordered a CAN version of this rangefinder as it does seem that Ardupilot users have more success with the CAN version.
Yes, but not from for example SerialX to SerialY. And very often we see some discrepancies inthe numbering scheme of the FC.
On this FC
SERIAL1 = UART7
SERIAL4 = USART3
SERIAL6 = UART4
Thanks for the pointers but I use the Matek documentation. I know how the board labelling maps to Ardupilot serial numbering and I believe I can swap Rx/Tx for any given UART on an H743 using the Serial option parameter. This has always worked for me. I have even gone as far as to connect it to a tested Serial 1 UART used for telemetry to isolate any issues with Serial 4 on which I placed it.
Ok, ok.
I don’t think that in general single NRA24 connected by UART will not work, as some other users get it to work. So I like to save you money by assisting. Sometimes 4 eyes see more than 2.
But ok.
Help is much appreciated. I will post a log, paramaters, and pics later. I have also seen a lot of other people fail to get it working via UART. And the truth is they are using another vendor’s driver so who knows what changes have been made to break the serial connection.
Hi Marc！Nice to meet you here！My name is Jenny a sales engineer from Nanoradar.May I help you? My WhatsApp is 8615973700250, my email is heyazhen@nanoradar.cn. The NRA24 UART has different versions. The open-source version we provide supports it.
Could you take pic about the NRA24 label，we need make sure about the type. Also can send it to my WhatsApp ,our testing engineer also will in the chat group.
Jenny, do you mind doing the support on this forum. It would be very helpful for the Ardupilot community to follow along.
Also where is the best store to purchase these? I have actually ordered another CAN version from the same ebay vendor (although he is being slow to ship this one).
(@hwurzburg It may be a good idea to update the Wiki to inform people that you need to use the Open Source version of these devices and if you do not have said version they need to be reflashed. Happy to update the wiki but I do not have such privileges).
Yes I was. I contacted Nanoradar’s support who were actually excellent. My basic issue is that I had the wrong version. For Ardupilot you need to have the Open Source version. This is not explained well in the Wiki or even on their website. If you buy a UART version off Ebay or Aliexpress then you likely have the incorrect version. First thing is to download the PC Tool from their website and see if it connects to it via an FTDI adaptor (ie USB>TTL dongle). If it does you have the wrong version and you need to use that same tool to flash the firmware – this is really easy to do BUT do it carefully as it is a one-way trip. I could post the firmware but I do advise you to send a pic of the version to Jenny of tech support (see a few posts up). If you power-down accidentally while flashing you can brick it and I understand as of now you can’t reflash it after flashing the open source version. Their downloadable tool does not work with the open source version. I think they can send you a version that will. It is my understanding that they are going to release a version of their tool that will work for all versions. Here is the page to download the NRA24 PC Tool software. Drone Radar_Hunan Nanoradar Science &Technology_Accurate Detection
And here is the UART version of their open source firmware. Proceed with caution and make sure you do indeed need to flash it by verifying what version you have by connecting their tool as linked above. I also have the CAN version of the open source firmware.