SSH into companion computer over telemetry?

APSync / Companion Computers
1

Hi, I’ve been toying around with autonomous drones for a while now but have hit a wall when it comes to developing and monitoring in real-time in-flight.

My intention is to have a fully autonomous drone but while in the development phase I am limited in how I can monitor the drone in-flight. I am able to ssh into the companion computer via wifi and run the takeoff and land python script from the command line, but I must stay within wifi range. I would now like the companion computer to issue the next step up in commands - i.e. travel to a waypoint then return, but once it leaves wifi range I can only monitor it via QGroundControl and I have no visibility of what the companion computer is doing.

Is there a way to SSH, or otherwise communicate with the companion computer using 915Mhz telemetry?

My drone has a 500mW 915Mhz Holybro telemetry module connected to the FC and the RPi is also connected ot the FC via a serial connection. I’m kind of hoping I can find a way to communicate with the RPi via SSH over the telemetry module to run commands and check system status etc. Does anyone know if this is possible, or if there is another way to achieve what I’m trying to achieve?

Much appreciated

2

No. But it might be possible in the future with PPP.

3

Thank you for your reply. If I can’t monitor the companion computer directly do you know if it is possible for the companion computer and my laptop to both monitor for mavlink messages sent from the other source? If this is possible the my thinking is that the following milestone would be to construct custom messages that trigger events on the other device - i.e. ‘switch off automation and return to home’, or updates on the state of the autonomous control system.

4

Add a LTE module, it would be possible for ssh login remotely. Or try using wifi signal such as Rpanion-Server [Rpanion Electronics Documentation]

5

I’ve controlled a drone using Sik 915mhz telemetry radios;

and running both my own code to send mavlink as well as Mission Planner or QGroundControl. The Sik radio plugs into the USB on my macbook pro and as far as the software is concerned it just looks like a serial cable. I ran mavproxy on the macbook and configured it with two outputs. It’s fairly straightforward. I’m working on mounting a Pi4b on the drone now, to communicate with over WiFi.