A wifibroadcast extension to make Betaflight/Cleanflight/iNAV based flight controllers more usable for aerial photography. Intended to be a real alternative to DJI Lightbridge and other similar systems. Videodownlink and telemetry is provided by wifibroadcast. RC, smartphone app, alternative LTM downlink and command modules are provided by this project.
Many people use Pixhawk based flight controllers for their UAVs. While Pixhawk is a excellent platform for aerial photography and other tasks it is also very expensive compared to iNAV based flight controllers. The iNAV Project aims to bring UAV capabilities to Cleanflight/Betaflight and has been very successfully so far. You can get high quality iNAV compatible FCs from 30€ an on, compared to the 60€ for a Pixracer which may has less interfaces or the hundreds of dollars for a Pixhawk 2.1.
Visit http://wolfgangchristl.de/2017/not-just-another-drone-project/ for additional information about the project and its goals
Download DroneBridge Image for Raspberry Pi
Download DroneBridge Android App
To set it up please read the wiki and check out: https://github.com/bortek/EZ-WifiBroadcast/wiki#installation--setup
Discalmer: Use at your own risk. Malfunction and sudden signal loss can not be ruled out. Use with caution! Do not fly over people or animals. The pilot is responsible for any harm or damage caused by using the provided software or parts of it.
Features:
- Display low latency video stream of wifibroadcast (USB Tethering or Wifi-AP)
- Implementation of DroneBridge communication protocol
- Display RC link quality from DroneBridge control module
- User Interface to change settings of DroneBridge modules and Wifibroadcast
- Full support for LTM-Protocol including DroneBridge LTM frame
- Show home point and drone on map
- Calculate battery percent from ampere or voltage using a battery model
- Show Wifibroadcast status: bad blocks/lost packets - bitrate and link quality
- Display distance between pilot (app) and drone
- Support for MSPv1 (Betaflight/Cleanflight) and MSPv2 (iNAV)
Comming up...
- switch between GoPro preview and pi cam
- creation and upload of waypoint missions
- support for EZgui an mwp planner mission files
- MavLink support
- ...
Other configurations where a laptop functions as the groundstation or a HDMI screen/goggles are connected to the ground Pi should be possible but are untested. Other SBC might work.
Programms for TX (groundstation) and RX (drone) to control the drone (RC link). The MultiWii Serial Protocol (MSP) is used. In monitor mode packets get sent without the use of libpcap using raw interfaces. On the receiving side a BPF (Berkely Packet Filter) is used to only forward dronebridge-control packets to the receiving socket. The code is optimised for minimal system calls and lowest latency possible.
Features:
- tested
- fast
- secure and safe by design:
- RX side is a MSP-passthrough. If no packets arrive nothing is sent to FC just like a "real" RC
- detection of unplugged RC - simple replugging is possible
- custom ID for every frame sent. Allowing for multiple pilots to control their drones without need for reconfiguration. It is nearly impossible to accendantly control one others drone
- currently up to 14 channels
- auto calibration (needs to be calibrated once)
- any MSP command for FC can be sent to RX and gets passed on (like ACC/MAG calibration, missions etc.)
- easy integration of other RCs (currently i6S)
- supported by all betaflight/cleanflight based FC software
- support of MSPv2 protocol (iNAV)
- custom (raw) communication protocol for more security and less cpu usage
- SDL not required
- full XBOX controller support (future release)
Discalmer: Malfunction and sudden signal loss can not be ruled out. Use with caution! Do not fly over people or animals. The pilot is responsible for any harm or damage caused by using this software or parts of it.
Currently in beta phase. Nightly code can be found here: https://github.com/seeul8er/DroneBridge_Comm Allows to change settings of Wifibroadcast and DroneBridge modules on drone and groundstation using the DroneBridge App. Implements a custom DroneBridge LTM frame to pass extra information about RSSI to the user interface (app)
Reports Wifibroadcast status to DroneBridge App using a variant ($TZ) of DroneBridge LTM Frame. May replace telemetry module in the future.Note: MavLink & MSP uplink still missing
- add MavLink telemetry
- add MavLink and MSP waypoint missions
- make DroneBridge more indipendent of WifiBroadcast (video) > support of esp32 or esp8266 modules to allow integration in existing builds using analog video > no need for raspberry pi
- integrate GoPro into project
- implement a custom USB protocol based on android USB accessory so talbets with no sim can connect via USB
- implement VR support. Gimbal and yaw of drone can be controlled by head movement