Has anyone verified if 900+ and 900X will link up?

I have several airplanes with 900+, 900+ on my antenna tracker, and 900+ on my ground station. If I get a 900x for my new airplane will it link up. I hope that I don't have to pitch all my 900+ stuff and get 900x for everything. That would be a huge expense.


.

Originally Posted by RC Man

Has anyone verified if 900+ and 900X will link up?

I have several airplanes with 900+, 900+ on my antenna tracker, and 900+ on my ground station. If I get a 900x for my new airplane will it link up. I hope that I don't have to pitch all my 900+ stuff and get 900x for everything. That would be a huge expense.


.

out of luck there i think
i know my flying buddy sell them he tells me the don't talk to each other which is a bummer as i have 6 old 900+

Seppos
the new tool how to you choose what firmware to up load
if i click on upload firmware should a window open to select firmware if yes its not working on my windows 10 pc

Originally Posted by Seppos

It has been a long time since updating everyone on what we have been up to!

The RFD900x and RFD868x have been quietly released into the marketplace and are proving to be as good as expected.
The key differences between the RFD900+ and RFD900x series is the replacement of the processor with a 32 bit arm based processor, along with an improved radio transceiver.

The processor gives a large capability boost which has let us implement: Encryption, transparent PPM pass through and higher data rates.

All the new features, PPM, Encryption, are explained in the datasheets which are online ( Sorry it took ages to get them up! )
One key thing to be aware of is that the 900X series modems are only 3.3V I/O tolerant., The 900+ are able to take 5V on I/O pins.

We are in the process of developing a JR style TX module which can plug into the back of an existing transmitter and give RC control over a 900MHz link, **AS WELL AS** a Wifi access point for mission planner to connect to and pass through telemetry data, wirelessly from your laptop, tablet, or android phone running tower. We have prototypes working and are getting plastic tooling manufactured at the moment

A ruggedised base station is also under design which houses a similar access point, and is battery powered.
This enables a clean, wireless ground station setup.

With earlier versions of 900x firmware we were able to get a net throughput of around 300kb/s, which some beta customers were able to put through 640x480 x 20FPS video over the RFD900x link. We have proto firmware working at higher rates, expecting up to around 700-800kb/s to be a practical limit of where we get to. This should give a more reasonable video quality. Range will not be as good as with the normal telemetry rates of 64kb/s, but, should still be quite respectable. The target is to achieve around 5km or more with video over the link.

We have also been busy in the background with an asynchronous version of firmware which allows virtually any number of nodes to be in the network at the same time. This is planned to be used for industrial applications, but, could very well be useful for swarming applications of UAVs. We have had a few discussions with Mike Oborne on ways of making it all work nicely with Mission Planner, but, at the moment, the swarming support is only in planning stages. The Async firmware is working well overall and is the recommended multipoint solution.

Modem Tools - originally they were based on Python and Glade which was OK for a while, but, the transition to WIN10, broke a fair few things with the libaries which are very frustrating to try to track down. We have changed over to a C# implementation which is based on the work from Mike O, and integrated all the options on the 868/900u, 868/900+ and 868/900x. The new modem tools are available to download in the files/Tools section on our support site. http://files.rfdesign.com.au

On our web store you may also notice a bunch of Pixhawk2 related hardware. We have found working with the UAV developer and manufacturer community really enjoyable over the years and figured that we would like to help by supporting the Ardupilot community with great hardware and good service.

I also just realised that it is around 5 years since my first post in 2012, announcing the original RFD900 modem. I am thankful for your support over the years which has enabled us to keep making new products and being able to be a small part of your projects as well.

Seppo

Happy to hear all that! Welcome back and keep informing us about those advances!

Regards.

Modem Tool 2.0 not working with 900+

I have both modem tool 1.6 and 2.0 on the same computer. My 900+ will link with 1.6 but not 2.0. What am I doing wrong?
Has anyone else had this problem?


.

Originally Posted by RC Man

Modem Tool 2.0 not working with 900+

I have both modem tool 1.6 and 2.0 on the same computer. My 900+ will link with 1.6 but not 2.0. What am I doing wrong?
Has anyone else had this problem?


.

i use the 3DR tool in MP and works great....the RFD modem tool is garbage for me, crashed all the time

I just bought 2, 900x's and with the JR style tx unit and ground station all the 900x equipment sounds great, a whole new world for RFDesign radios, especially with the repeater ability to link radios together

Something that I've been trying to figure out is how I can get RTK correction data from a stationary RTK base to the aircraft in challenging environments where I need to use a mobile laptop base station for flight operations.

For now, I'm running PPM injection using a r/c receiver at the laptop base and also injecting RTK correction data at the laptop. I've thought about trying to setup LoRa based correction data transmission directly from the RTK base to the aircraft but I don't think it has enough bandwidth and I also suspect the RFD900x would interfere. One option I've been curious about is to use one of the GPIO pins as a low bandwidth secondary serial connection specifically for RTK correction data instead of injecting the corrections into the mavlink stream.

For what it's worth, I'd love to have a RFD900x/micro where it's an "x" but it has the u.fl connectors so I can place the radio where I want on the aircraft and run micro-coax to antennas elsewhere. I'd also love to see the "micro/x" use a single JST-GH connector instead of the 0.1" headers to make the whole package more compact For now, I 3d print a mount for the 900x and use a 2x8 Molex SL and it works but it is slightly bulky.

Finally, I'd love to be able to set some type of "failsafe" output on the PPM-out side of the rfd900x so during a loss of link event, I know the telemetry radio will at least send "safe" r/c inputs to the flight controller. I recently accidentally unplugged the PPM-in end of my telemetry radio while the aircraft was still flying and even though the aircraft was set to RTL for some reason it completely disarmed and fell from the air instead.

Originally Posted by prototype3a

Something that I've been trying to figure out is how I can get RTK correction data from a stationary RTK base to the aircraft in challenging environments where I need to use a mobile laptop base station for flight operations.

For now, I'm running PPM injection using a r/c receiver at the laptop base and also injecting RTK correction data at the laptop. I've thought about trying to setup LoRa based correction data transmission directly from the RTK base to the aircraft but I don't think it has enough bandwidth and I also suspect the RFD900x would interfere. One option I've been curious about is to use one of the GPIO pins as a low bandwidth secondary serial connection specifically for RTK correction data instead of injecting the corrections into the mavlink stream.

For what it's worth, I'd love to have a RFD900x/micro where it's an "x" but it has the u.fl connectors so I can place the radio where I want on the aircraft and run micro-coax to antennas elsewhere. I'd also love to see the "micro/x" use a single JST-GH connector instead of the 0.1" headers to make the whole package more compact For now, I 3d print a mount for the 900x and use a 2x8 Molex SL and it works but it is slightly bulky.

Finally, I'd love to be able to set some type of "failsafe" output on the PPM-out side of the rfd900x so during a loss of link event, I know the telemetry radio will at least send "safe" r/c inputs to the flight controller. I recently accidentally unplugged the PPM-in end of my telemetry radio while the aircraft was still flying and even though the aircraft was set to RTL for some reason it completely disarmed and fell from the air instead.

Mission planner injects rtk corrected data to the rover using the rfdesign radios or any of the 3DR type radios in less challenging environments MP of course works with the Here + rtk system

You've missed the point that if I'm operating somewhere where I have to move my GCS continuously to maintain line of sight, moving the RTK base is extremely inconvenient and would reduce the accuracy of all the flights.

Also, I think the RTK system would work better if it completely bypassed Mission Planner/MavLink/Pixhawk to reduce the potential for correction data latency.

Originally Posted by prototype3a

You've missed the point that if I'm operating somewhere where I have to move my GCS continuously to maintain line of sight, moving the RTK base is extremely inconvenient and would reduce the accuracy of all the flights.

Also, I think the RTK system would work better if it completely bypassed Mission Planner/MavLink/Pixhawk to reduce the potential for correction data latency.

The RFD systems are extremely low latency...how much accuracy are you needing?.....usually in an hour if the location is fairly good you can have .5 meters accy....That question can be better ask in the FB thread or arducopter forum ..I know there are others out there that has thier own systems for injecting correction data before the Here + SYSTEM....but I do know the RFD radios are the Preferred RADIOS for injection data for the Here+ systems

I've never seen that sort of accuracy on a survey in, in an hour. What I have seen is roughly -0.0005m per second. But then again, I wasn't saying that the radios were adding latency. I was suggesting that having having the data routed through mission planner and the pixhawk might be causing problems. But, then again, with a Here+, it's extremely difficult to monitor things since they made it hard to get to the USB connection on the rover while the system was operating.

All the same, that 0.5m accuracy for each individual survey in, would make the entire system largely pointless. This isn't a hard concept. If I need to do 10 flights in an area in one day and I have to spend a minimum of 1hr per flight to survey in the RTK at a new area on a site then that is 10 hours wasted and I have 10 data sets that all have a different offset to absolute accuracy.

On the other hand, if I can survey in (hopefully overnight) once and then fly all 10 areas then not only is it more time efficient but all 10 data sets will have the same offset to absolute accuracy.

I used to be a member of the various FB groups but it always came down to people not wanting to accept that their system has painfully obvious flaws. FWIW, the TinyRTK is superior and cheaper than the Here+ but at this point I believe the actual problem is somewhere in the M8P firmware as it seems to have problems outputting a continuous stream of corrections when using more than one GPS constellation. Though, I'm still suspect of the MissionPlanner/Pixhawk injection as I've only ever achieved RTK fix when using other radios to directly forward the correction data, which, isn't even an option with the Here+ since they didn't break out the serial connections.

Originally Posted by prototype3a

I've never seen that sort of accuracy on a survey in, in an hour. What I have seen is roughly -0.0005m per second. But then again, I wasn't saying that the radios were adding latency. I was suggesting that having having the data routed through mission planner and the pixhawk might be causing problems. But, then again, with a Here+, it's extremely difficult to monitor things since they made it hard to get to the USB connection on the rover while the system was operating.

All the same, that 0.5m accuracy for each individual survey in, would make the entire system largely pointless. This isn't a hard concept. If I need to do 10 flights in an area in one day and I have to spend a minimum of 1hr per flight to survey in the RTK at a new area on a site then that is 10 hours wasted and I have 10 data sets that all have a different offset to absolute accuracy.

On the other hand, if I can survey in (hopefully overnight) once and then fly all 10 areas then not only is it more time efficient but all 10 data sets will have the same offset to absolute accuracy.

I used to be a member of the various FB groups but it always came down to people not wanting to accept that their system has painfully obvious flaws. FWIW, the TinyRTK is superior and cheaper than the Here+ but at this point I believe the actual problem is somewhere in the M8P firmware as it seems to have problems outputting a continuous stream of corrections when using more than one GPS constellation. Though, I'm still suspect of the MissionPlanner/Pixhawk injection as I've only ever achieved RTK fix when using other radios to directly forward the correction data, which, isn't even an option with the Here+ since they didn't break out the serial connections.

And how large is this area you are needing 10 flights in..????

The next phase if philip can get the support is a public rtk network, that was proposed a few months ago and still being looked at from all aspects of it

I've been trying to connect 2 868+ and have a very weak connection even at under 150 metres. I have been using the antennas provided by RFD, have decreased number of channels, lowered air rate, and increased tx power. Though these measures helped the connection is still weak. I am using an autopilot program and it starts dropping and regaining radio link at about 100 metres. Has anyone experienced similar issues?

Attached are my settings and an RSSI graph from walking about 120 metres across an open field and back.

Originally Posted by aj2994

I've been trying to connect 2 868+ and have a very weak connection even at under 150 metres. I have been using the antennas provided by RFD, have decreased number of channels, lowered air rate, and increased tx power. Though these measures helped the connection is still weak. I am using an autopilot program and it starts dropping and regaining radio link at about 100 metres. Has anyone experienced similar issues?

Attached are my settings and an RSSI graph from walking about 120 metres across an open field and back.

Looks like the noise floor if killing you. You need to find out why it's so high.

Also make sure they are 868 and not 900 antennas.

.