Hi,

First of all this GCS is awesome with the Atto. Hooked it up with the FTDI cable directly to the Atto 2.0 board and it is just great to have full control of all parameters and the integration with GE. Well done!

Now I have a question... I hooked up my XBEEs with the GCS and Atto to have a downlink and I see that the modem on the Atto side is transmitting data, but the one on the PC side is quiet.

The XBEEs work in another setup so they are configured correctly at 9600 baud and the GCS is set to 9600 baud also (and the Atto). All I get is that the COM port is connected on the PC side but then nothing and the XBEE status LED is just steady red...

Any ideas anyone?

THanks,

Bjorn

Originally Posted by icebear

Hi,

First of all this GCS is awesome with the Atto. Hooked it up with the FTDI cable directly to the Atto 2.0 board and it is just great to have full control of all parameters and the integration with GE. Well done!

Now I have a question... I hooked up my XBEEs with the GCS and Atto to have a downlink and I see that the modem on the Atto side is transmitting data, but the one on the PC side is quiet.

The XBEEs work in another setup so they are configured correctly at 9600 baud and the GCS is set to 9600 baud also (and the Atto). All I get is that the COM port is connected on the PC side but then nothing and the XBEE status LED is just steady red...

Any ideas anyone?

THanks,

Bjorn

Bjorn,

Have you tried the Parallax serial terminal? Are you getting good data over in that program?

Sounds like something is not matched.

You'll need to use the Digi X-CTU application to make sure the baud rates are set the same as the telemetry parameter in Atto...

Chris is right, the best way to test it is to open some kind of serial terminal window (I use HyperTerminal or Termite for my testing purposes).

Chris,

No, I haven't tried the Parallax serial terminal, but thanks for directing me.

I have set the baud rates etc in the X-CTU app but I'll try and work with a terminal program just as you suggest. The Atto is fine, it definitely is something to do with the Xbees...

Thanks!

/Bjorn

Hi again,

Just managed to setup the modems correctly and now everything works with the downlink too!

Chris and HK - thanks for pointing me in the dircetion of the Parallax Terminal application. Much easier to use than Hyperterminal and it helped me to find the problem which was the Maxstream adapter board. I found a small Droids Xbee adapter I had laying around from another project which worked.

What do you say about using the switching BEC to power the XBEE modem? Is that too risky considering everything else is powered by this Jeti SPIN switching 5.5v BEC (i e 4xservos, GPS, Atto)...

/Bjorn

Originally Posted by icebear

Hi again,

Just managed to setup the modems correctly and now everything works with the downlink too!
/Bjorn

Hi Bjorn,

congratulations ! By the way what kind of XBees have you in use ? Which frequency ? I'm curious because I've laying around a pair of XBee Pro 868 since a while and have planned to use it together with my FY-21AP and Happys GCS in the future. 2,4 GHz XBees is a nogo for me unfortunately because I need this frequency for the FPV video downlink.

Cheers, Erwin

Originally Posted by icebear

Hi again,

Just managed to setup the modems correctly and now everything works with the downlink too!

Chris and HK - thanks for pointing me in the dircetion of the Parallax Terminal application. Much easier to use than Hyperterminal and it helped me to find the problem which was the Maxstream adapter board. I found a small Droids Xbee adapter I had laying around from another project which worked.

What do you say about using the switching BEC to power the XBEE modem? Is that too risky considering everything else is powered by this Jeti SPIN switching 5.5v BEC (i e 4xservos, GPS, Atto)...

/Bjorn

We have a voltage reg on the Xbee modem adapters. You can feed anything from 3.3v to 12v into the board although we suggest you stay away from 12V if at all possible. We generally use a separate BEC.

Cheers

In the GCS. How do you start the data recorder. It seems to be greyed out??

Has anyone flown with a Spectrum receiver on 2.4 ghz and the xbee modems in the same freq band?? I have been testing this combo out over the last week and they both seem to play nice together. I am using a 7000 receiver in the plane. I do this at work all the time but I wonder in the air.

Make sure you haven't reversed the TX & RX wires on the Plane side.

OPPS I see you got the Xbees working.

Originally Posted by WA2TQI

In the GCS. How do you start the data recorder. It seems to be greyed out??

Just click in the text box above the play pause buttons and type in a name for your file. Then the buttons will work. Cheers.

Thanks CHris! I would like to buy an adapter from you and will send a separate mail.

Erwin - good to see you here! I ahve the 2.4 XBee pro and I intend to use a regualar 35 MHz tx/rx- The 868 MHz XBee has been discussed a lot since it will need to be reset from the autopiot/GCS in order not to stop communicating (see this thread earlier) but otherwise a good frequency if you have 2.4 GHz gear othewise...

Let us know more about your project!

Cheers,

Björn

Originally Posted by icebear

Erwin - good to see you here! I ahve the 2.4 XBee pro and I intend to use a regualar 35 MHz tx/rx- The 868 MHz XBee has been discussed a lot since it will need to be reset from the autopiot/GCS in order not to stop communicating (see this thread earlier) but otherwise a good frequency if you have 2.4 GHz gear othewise...

Let us know more about your project!

Cheers,

Björn

Thanks Bjorn,

I know the problem with the 10% duty cycle on the 868 MHz XBee Pro but 868 MHz is the only legal frequency band I can use in my case. For R/C I use Thomas Scherrer's 433 MHz long range system and for the video downlink a 2,4 MHz system, respectively a 5,8 MHz system for the mikrokopter.

At the moment I'm very busy due to my dayjob but later then I'll post about my experiences with the 868 MHz XBees.

Good luck further on all your activities Bjorn, I'm always very interested in your projects . By the way what's about your mikrokopter activities ?

Cheers, Erwin

Thanks Erwin and good luck to you too with the Xbees - I have been looking at them so I would like to hear how it plays out! The MK is flying well but I have found that I prefer fixed wing for AP but it's really nice to fly the MK both autonomously and manually.

The Viking UAV is now completely ready with the Atto installed and now only awaiting test flight... See attached pic.

Cheers,

Björn

Thanks Bjorn,

very nice plane your Viking ! Can't wait for your future projects !

Cheers, Erwin

Originally Posted by icebear

Thanks Erwin and good luck to you too with the Xbees - I have been looking at them so I would like to hear how it plays out! The MK is flying well but I have found that I prefer fixed wing for AP but it's really nice to fly the MK both autonomously and manually.

The Viking UAV is now completely ready with the Atto installed and now only awaiting test flight... See attached pic.

Cheers,

Björn