Pixhawk and Xbee

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1

Hello everyone,

I am working on a project to track wifi signal strengths using a quadcopter having a Pixhawk flight controller. If am able to use xbee is there a way how to connect them? Also, how would I program/change Pixhawk to receive such data and navigate to find signals? I thought about using an arduino, but again, how to connect it and how to send data to pixhawk. Do I have to add a user function to APM to react to it?

Thanks for any advice provided.

2

The simplest way would be to use an arduino or Propeller chip to read in the Xbee data.
Then you would need to use Mavlink and interface to the Pixhawk to control the copter to move in the direction of the signal.

Mike

3

Mike,

Thanks for the reply. I can connect the xbee to arduino, and then arduino would be connected to Pixhawk? If so, I have tried to look up how to connect an arduino to a Pixhawk, but I have not found anything. Getting wifi signals using arduino and xbee, I can do that. But connecting arduino to pixhawk, how would the connection be.

Thanks

4

Here is a page with the xbee configuration. You would use some other device in place of the xbee.

copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-telemetry-xbee/

The data being output from serial 1 is Mavlink data that is used by a ground control station.

Please note that the Receivers for the flight controller use WiFi frequencies. 2.4 Ghz. This would always be the strongest signal.

Mike

5

Mike,

Thanks again for the reply. I am not going to use Xbee but wifi pineapple. But what do you mean by serial 1? from the pixhawk? Is it possible to use an arduino to capture the wifi signal strengths and using mavlink to guide the quad. I also came across an ideas about connecting arduino to pixhawk via uart. Is this possible and would mission planner be able to receive the data?

Thanks

6

Serial 1 out of the Pixhawk is normally used by the radio to talk to Mission Planner or Droid Planner using Mavlink. You can connect your arduino in place of the radio and process the Mavlink data directly and also by putting the copter into Guided Mode you can control the copter as well.

If you have a Pixhawk you can also use Serial 2 and do the same thing.

Mike