Tag: Taranis

Talking Taranis – teach FrSky Taranis to talk to you

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One of the most important features of modern, computerized, radios is that you can make them talk to you. After all, with setup telemetry link from UAV, radio should “know” things. Things like battery voltage for example. Why not make FrSky Taranis (or Horus or Taranis X Q7) talk to you and report LiPo voltage in a smart way?

Before we proceed, you have to setup SmartPort telemetry or “legacy” FrSky telemetry. This post does not covers this topic. You might want to take a look here and here.

Let’s go

In OpenTX menu navigate to last page called Telemetry and check if VFAS is reporting proper value.

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HC-12 433MHz RF serial module range test

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As I mentioned in my first post about HC-12 433MHz radio modules, I’ve put my interest in them for telemetry purposes. While S.Port telemetry I’m using in FrSky Taranis radio might have higher range than HC-12, it is closed environment. Since $10 for a pair of HC-12 is not much, I’ve decided for more open DIY solution.

Setup on a quadcopter consist of one HC-12 configured for FU3 mode and baud rate 9600bps connected to SPRacingF3 UART3 port and “air cooled” (shortened with a coil) 433MHz whip antenna. Well, to be precise, it’s 450MHz since I changed working frequency. Antenna is not tuned or scientifically computed. Just 433MHz version shortened a little using proportions. Antenna is mounted on GPS mast. In next version I will probably replace whip antenna with Vee antenna.

HC-12 Rf 433MHz module in quadcopter

"Air cooled" antenna on quadcopter

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Multiple flight modes for Cleanflight with Taranis

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FrSky X9D Plus Taranis or cheaper FrSky Taranis Q X7 or even more expensive X10S Horus, are incredible radios. But also can be intimidation when migrating from simpler radios. A great example is mixing multiple switches into 1 channel to pass flight mode to the flight controller. Yes, you can do it, but it can be a pain in the ass on a Mixer level. I've lost a lot of time trying to understand the logic behind mixer weight and offset only to discover possibility to replace channel value, not add. And everything was simple again. So, here what I wanted, and what I did.

What I wanted

When I fly bigger FPV quadcopter, I want to use 7 different flight modes:

  • Angle without Altitude Hold (no BARO),
  • Horizon without Altitude Hold (no BARO),
  • Acro/Rate without Altitude Hold,
  • Angle with Altitude Hold (BARO),
  • Horizon with Altitude Hold (BARO),
  • Position Hold with Altitude Hold (BARO),
  • Return To Home with Altitude Hold (BARO)
    And I've figured out, that 3 switches should be used to enable all the flight modes: SC, SD, and SG. SC toggles Angle/Horizon/Acro. SD switches PosHold and RTH (as well as BARO and overrides SC and SG). SG enables Altitude Hold but only when SC is in up or middle position. 3 switches, 7 modes. I could do it with 3 radio channels, but that would have few flaws: would use 3 channels instead of one, and would allow for mistakes like no BARO with POSHOLD. So, advanced mixes and logical switches that is. Read More