Frsky X8R smart port

[asangag]

Hi

Thanks for developing this tracker & the support you provide. I read your RC group thread and still a little bit confused most probably due to my lack on knowledge in this area!

If I'm to use X8R receiver and feed telemetry data from FC to smart port and then receive that on either my taranis or jumper T16 can I then extract telemetry data (what's required for the tracker ) through one of the pins in the module bay on the back of either radio ?

If so do I need 5V to 3.3V level converter ?

Thanks

[zs6buj]

Hi asangag, Yes you can take 3.3v telemetry from the back bay of a Taranis or similar rc controller directly into the AntTracker.

You could also use an ESP32 board with this firmware to relay BT or WiFi telemetry to the Tracker. The ESP would be mounted on the back of your Jumper.

[asangag]

Hi asangag, Yes you can take 3.3v telemetry from the back bay of a Taranis or similar rc controller directly into the AntTracker.

You could also use an ESP32 board with this firmware to relay BT or WiFi telemetry to the Tracker. The ESP would be mounted on the back of your Jumper.

Thanks. On the air side if I use Matek 405-wing with Ardupilot then do I have to use an inverter (bidirectional or single) ?

[zs6buj]

First of all, if you are using S.Port, on the X8R, then it is inverted (idle low) with reference to a "regular" uart signal, which is idle high. (If you ever use the F.Port on one of the newer FrSky receivers, it is NOT inverted).

I'm afraid I don't have much experience with F405 telemetry, but I do know that some uarts on many F405 boards can invert the the signal and convert to one-wire. If you are using BetaFlight, there are some telemery settings and CLI commands that must be executed, and it can be be quite tricky. Here is a YouTube video you might find useful.

[asangag]

thanks a lot for your quick response! I have a X8R with a hacked S.Port , so I can use that receiver which can take either inverted or non-inverted signal to test if I can get telemetry out from F405. Do i have to use pass through elementary on Ardupilot ? sorry about so many questions!

[asangag]

Below is the Ardupilot configuration from matek website

Frsky Smartport Telemetry non-inverted (hacked) S.Port signal TX1 pad of F405-WING SERIAL1_BAUD 57 SERIAL1_OPTIONS 7 SERIAL1_PROTOCOL 4 or 10(for yaapu) or TX6 pad of F405-WING SERIAL6_BAUD 57 SERIAL6_OPTIONS 7 SERIAL6_PROTOCOL 4 or 10(for yaapu) CRSF

[zs6buj]

Ok, I didn't realize you were on Ardupilot. You would use protocol = 10

[asangag]

thanks. I used my X8R with hacked smart port and connected the smart port signal wire to Tx 1 of the F405-wing and straight away got a whole bunch of sensors showing up on taranis (protocol=4) but if change it to protocol 10 then I only get GPS, RSSI and Voltage sensors. Is that normal ?

[zs6buj]

Sounds a bit strange. I believe the board has an accelerometer, so you should also get attitude (x,y,z) data. I have not (yet) tried APM on an F405 stack like the Matek, but I have a little 5" racer with a Mamba F405 and Betaflight. It does have a magnetometer/compass but no barometer (for altitude). EDIT

For tracking you need GPS co-ordinates and altitude, and then you want a compass to orientate to the world co-ordinates around you. EDIT

[asangag]

Yes the F405-wing board has accelerometer & barometer and for protocol 4, I get altitude, X,Y,Z data but not for protocol 10. is there a disadvantage to using protocol 4 over 10 ? Since 4 is working I can use it like that and will the tracker be able to recognize the protocol 4 output from taranis ?

[zs6buj]

You can use protocol 4 for the tracker. I originally coded for it, but only recently tested it with pan-sattan. It seems to be ok now.

yaapu has a very nice GUI lua script for the transmitters, including the Jumpers, but his scripts expects to see protocol 10.

[asangag]

looks like I won't be able to use yaapu then...damn! but my main objective is to use the tracker and its good to know it works with protocol 4, do i need an inverter between taranis and tracker ?

[zs6buj]

The tracker has an invert option.

[asangag]

I tried so many times with few DIY inverters and two Receivers with smartport (X8R and R9) to get protocol 10 but , it just doesn't work. Only protocol 4 works. But even with protocol 4, I dont know if I'm getting all parameters required for the tracker. what are the mandatory parameters for the tracker to work ? Then can check if I'm receiving them via smartport .

[zs6buj]

Ardupilot protocol 10 can be tricky. One issue I found is that it will not simply start sending telemetry without receiving heartbeats (on a different uart of course) from a GCS like Mission Planner. EDIT: Also, since the FrSky protocol interleaves frames into the receiver's telemetry stream, it has to listen (read) before it can send (write|). So, if the FC uart is not receiving recognisable polls from the receiver, it will not send FrSky telemtry.

Assuming you have a compass on the tracker-box, then in D-mode (4) we need the following message types

• 0x100 - Altitude
• 0x410 - GPS Status
• 0x800 - GPS co-ordinates

and if you want to fix the home position when the motors are armed

• 0x400 Flight mode and arm_flag

In the tracker activate this debug option to see which message types you are receiving:

define Debug_FrSkyD_Flight_Mode

If you don't have a compass on the tracker-box, then you need one on the plane, alternatively you can go through a simple procedure to determine the orientation of the tracker box using the GPS co-ordinates only.

[zs6buj]

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