Hi, I have been thinking on a project for some time where I want to combine a tablet/phone running an application like this and some “normal” radio gimbals + switches.
Today I found this page: kadevice.com/
They have a small interface ment for DIY arcade games that supports windows, linux, Android… and can act as a gamecontroller (Xbox/PS…) or emulate keys on a tablet keyboard…
What I want to do is combine:
Android tablet or phone
The Kade interface that supports Android OTG
A pair of Taranis 9x Gimbals
MavLink radio
A small USB Hub
some switches…
Design a 3D printable “dock” where you can mount a tablet (nexus 7) or a phone
Do the application support external game controllers connected using USB and a OTG cable?
If yes, is it possible to assign buttons/keys on a device like this to functions in the application like flight modes, camera controls, gimbals…?
If this is possible, my plan is to make a radio where you communicate with the multicopter using the telemetry link, use a Android phone/tablet as the “brain” and use physical gimbals and switches combined with the application.
I have ordered the KAD interface, a pair of taranis gimbals - I already have the rest + I have a 3D printer
It is like a small groundstation/radio, that also can be used as a standalone radio if the telemetry radio range is ok + it can be used as a radio for operator 2 to control the camera gimbal, testing waipoints… while operator 1 use a normal radio…
I think this is a simple way to make a grounstation/radio where you can combine a phone/tablet and normal gimbal/switches…
If I get this to work, I consider integrating a FPV display and FPV RX module.
The interface can be configured to simulate a game controller or keyboard… what I do not know is if the Droidplanner application supports external controllers in this way - if keys on a keyboard or buttons on a game controller can be assigned functions like flight modes…
DroidPlanner supports joysticks that are embedded with Android devices, or external modules like this: mogaanywhere.com/
We use the android api for joysticks, but unfortunately it doesn’t work with USB sticks (tried). Maybe it could work if you wrote a driver for droidplanner, or used a third party library to do the joystick handling.
The problem with using Telemetry to do the drone control is that it can be slow, but there are people working on the problem (Kevin).
ok, I may have to wait with the part where I want to control the multicopter using external gimbals/sticks then, but I guess a setup like this could be used to control the camera gimbal/camera using a external stick/switches if I connect using bluetooth?
