Few facts about SEMTECH SX1276 LoRa modem and 20dBm (100mW) mode:
The biggest problem with +20dBm on PA_BOOST is allowed 1% duty cycle. On the other hand, +17dBm mode (50mW) does not have such a limitation and maximum range should be only 1.42 times shorter than in 100mW mode.
I have a nasty habit of buying things and then forgetting about them. Something like that happened to Tiny Frsky 8CH Receiver (Wolfbox F802 software compatible) from Banggood I’ve purchased last year. For some time I used it in JJPro P175 quadcopter, but then it landed in a box and I forgot about until last week.
So, let’s do overdue “hands on” on Tiny Frsky 8CH Receiver from Banggood… Continue reading “Hands on: Tiny Frsky 8CH Receiver from Banggood” »
It was a good weekend. At least for me and CDEbyte E45-TTL-100 868MHz LoRa serial wireless modules based on SX1276. Why? Since weather was nice and looks like those modules are way better than datasheet specifies. Specs states: 3km in open space. And I’ve proven almost twice that much range! Last Friday I’ve placed one E45-TTL-100 with stock antenna on my balcony, took second with me and went for a car ride.
Area around my home is full of small hills and copses, so most of the time something was blocking the line between transmitter and receiver. But every time I was high enough, I was getting clear signal without any packets lost. At the furthest point of my trip I was 5.7km from the transmitter, inside a car and a copse was between me and TX module. That means no line-of-sight and as a result I’m pretty, pretty sure E45-TTL-100 should be able to work on much higher range that that. I only have to find a good place to test it.
With upcoming Betaflight 3.2, we will be given a new, outstanding, new feature: dynamic filtering. An belive me, it was worth waiting for Betaflight 3.2 only to get it. I do not care much about other changes that happened with version 3.2 but dynamic filtering it the thing! In this post I will explain, in simple words, what is dynamic filtering and how to enable it.
Gyro has a nasty tendency to pick up a lot of noise. Vibrations. After all, there are a lot of things that can vibrate (motors, propellers) and resonate (frame). Without a good way to filter all that noise out, our racers would not fly as good as they fly now. And you would be replacing motors and ESCs even more often. I you want to know more about gyro noise sources and filtering, please watch my Gyroscope and filtering series on YouTube.
Continue reading “Betaflight 3.2 Dynamic Filtering Explained” »
With a (more less) free evening I decided to finally start testing range of 868MHz LoRa E45-TTL-100 radio modules I described only yesterday. Instead of building new testing rig, I only upgraded testing setup I used to test range of FS1000A and XY-MK-5V 433MHz radio modules. Few hours later I came up with this:
I’ve left transmitter on a desk and went for a walk. Even before leaving the building radio signal had to cross around 1 meter of bricks. Then travel through another building and only then go into the direction when I walked.
I must say: I was impressed. I still am. At 511 meters transmission was clear only when I was not blocking it with my body. Or standing near to metal fence. So I can safely assume: 500m is maximum range in densly populated urban area. On stock antennas and 100mW output power. Next week I will try stronger, dipole antennas.
I will be very honest: until very recently I did not really understood how PID controller’s Dterm really works. Yes, something with dampening, something with “looking into future”, bla bla bla. But the reason for not understanding was because I was overthinking it. There is no “magic” only simple mathematics and few basic concepts which I will now explain.
Setpoint is the value which we request from our system. In case of multirotors, PID setpoint will be a rotation speed around axis given in degrees per second [dps]. Setpoint 0 means we do not want to rotate (keep current attitude) and setpoint 200 means we want to rotate at 200dps
Measurement the value that represents actual state of the system measured by some kind of sensor. In our case, it will be the gyroscope and rotation-around-axis speed measured in degrees per second
Error the difference between Setpoint and Measurement computed as Error = Setpoint – Measurement. In our case, when Error is above 0, that means drone is rotating too slow and should speed up. If Error is below 0, drone is rotating too fast and should slow down
Continue reading “Understanding Dterm: how Dterm really works” »
My quest for ultimate (?) DIY telemetry system for UAVs continues. Last year I was playing with HC-12 433MHz wireless modules with pretty decent results. After all, more than 1km of range for a few bucks is more than acceptable. Still, HC-12 has at least few problems:
Continue reading “Hands on: E45-TTL-100 868MHz LoRa wireless modules” »
When few months ago my older daughter (10 years old) started to express interest in FPV quadcopters, I was both happy and concerned. Happy, since I would have someone to fly with. Concerned, since she has no idea how to fly, I do not have a quadcopter for her and there is a big chance she will get bored fast. So, instead of getting her a brand new, cheap, standard off-the-shelf drone, I checked my repository of “spare” parts and drones, purchased this and that and week later “Omlette du fromage” came to life…
Continue reading “Very custom FPV quadcopter for my daughter” »
In this episode of “Gyroscope and filtering” I show you how to configure notch filters using Betaflight Configurator and INAV Configurator software.
Previous episodes:
Two months ago, when I published first FS1000A and XY-MK-5V range test, I was little surprised that I was able to reach 315 meters of stable connection. And I was almost sure, that they can do more.
Having some free time during my summer vacation, I’ve left transmitter on a towel and took a walk with a receiver. In a surroundings just like that:
Results? 332 meters with a FS1000A powered with 7.4V and 1000bps over-the-air data speed.
For the second time, I’m sure I can pull more from this setup. This time, there were two problems:
So, expect third attempt…
