Open Source Radio Control
Hi everybody,
I've been thinking a bit about creating an open source radio control TX/RX system. I think that as a community, we can do better than what Spektrum/JR/Futaba/etc. have been putting out, and certainly do it for cheaper (adding two channels seems to double the price of a radio these days, which doesn't make sense). I've seen the Open Source Spektrum Receiver, and it's really excellent, but I think integrating something like that into a full system, potentially using the Arduino platform, could be very powerful. Thoughts?
Tags: RC, RX, TX, open-source
Replies to This Discussion
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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on -
There's already open source firmware for the Turnigy 2.4HGhz line. The stock gear has good (and very cheap) hardware, but terrible firmware, so an open source alternative makes sense. It uses an Atmega processor, so it's similar to Arduino. See this for more.
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Permalink Reply by Brad Powers on -
Interesting. It's definitely food for thought. Do you know what kind of Atmega it uses?
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Permalink Reply by Brad Powers on
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One thing that I'm thinking is that PPM is maybe not the best protocol for autopilot use. I was looking into the AR7000, and it appears that the satellite receiver communicates using a simple serial packet. Something like this could be very useful in an autopilot, as it would let you use your digital lines for something else, and instead only need to use a serial line of some sort (UART, SPI, I2C...)
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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on -
PPM is really fast and easy to read for most microprocessors. Autopilots these days tend to have loads of extra digital pins (ArduPilot Mega has 40 spare!) and never enough serial ports, so keeping RC on digital makes sense.
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Permalink Reply by Brad Powers on
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Interesting. I've been reading about the open source "Speck Drum" receiver, which does mixing and such on the receiver instead of the TX. What do you think about that? Also, what do you think about moving from a typical RC radio connection to something like Sparkfun's Extend modem?
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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on -
I'm sure there are some advantages (maybe range), but for what we do, which is constrained to line of sight, I don't see the case for it. There are so many challenges in aerial robotics that reinventing the perfectly serviceable RC standards (which are cheap and low-latency RF communications) just seems like a pretty low priority to me.
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JDronesPermalink Reply by Jani Hirvinen on -
Brad, you can find more technical information from their wiki/repository at http://code.google.com/p/th9x/
There are also links to other similar projects. Check it out.. it's rather good :)
And that radio.. Well I have one TGY 9X and also Futaba 7CAP.. I can say that TGY is way more better than Futte. Price for radio was about 60 US and Futte 400 US or so. Futte feels like a toy and TGY like a real radio. Ok I have minor problems with two switches on TGY. When hacking it it really does not matter, I can always replace those mode switches with new switches that costs 2 US :)
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Permalink Reply by Earl on -
I have an eurgle 9x radio, same radio as the TGY 9x just rebranded
I found the svn for reprogramming the radio.
FANTASTIC !
here is more info
http://code.google.com/p/er9x/
Earl
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