Gstreamer on Android / quality of FPV

suny99

mocart Can you tell us what was latency of that fpv?

mocart

suny99 It`s hard to say for me. Here you are my old movie with latency test over lte.
It was test only but during the flight it looks very similar. If i find time I will try to record a new movie with sd resolution. Latency is lower but you need to give me some day to complete it.

link to old latency test movie:

https://youtu.be/7P1zh_fcV9w

Please keep in mind it was HD test.

suny99

woowww this is great, i would say it is under 500 ms. I would say you can fly with quadcopter drone. You wont be able to do any fast and hard manevours, but easy flight is more then possible. Do you know any technical data about this stream. What protocols are in use? Which servers? Which video codes is in use? etc..

mocart

suny99 Hey, I using gstreamer with RPI3 + PI cam v1.2. For qground control and airPI test movie following pipeline was send:

raspivid -n -w 864 -h 480 -b 750000 -fps 25 -t 0 -o - | \ gst-launch-1.0 --gst-debug-level=0 -v \ fdsrc ! \ h264parse ! \ rtph264pay config-interval=10 pt=96 ! \ udpsink host=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx port=5600

There are no additional sevrers for this configuration, gstreamer pipeline is send directly from RPI to Android Tab.
If you need gstreamer you can e.g. download and install UAVcast packuage.

suny99

mocart But how is communication established within RPI and Android, there has to be at least signaling server. Somehow that signal has to come from RPI to Android

mocart

suny99 Gstreamer act as streaming server. It send video pipleine from your RPI & camera ( thru LTE connection ) to Android using UDP protocol ( supported by gstreamer ). Ground control software has build in decoder + UDP support and can decode this pipeline itself.
To decode gstreamer pipeline on ground control side you have to setup following line in UDP settings field:

udpsrc port=5600 ! application/x-rtp, payload=96 ! rtpjitterbuffer ! rtph264depay ! avdec_h264 ! fpsdisplaysink sync=false text-overlay=false

suny99

Sorry i was busy lately so my project was on hold.
I still dont get you. i dont understand is are you streaming to your local network or on the server. So for an example when you stream can someone else on his pc open your stream, or just you on your local network

mocart

Gstreamer is installed on copter and it streams pipeline (video) directly to pre-defined public internet IP address (assigned to CGS). is this more clear now ?

suny99

Can i see your pipe that streams to that IP address?

mocart

suny99 Could you repeat your question please. What do you exactly want to see?
You can run this pipleline on your rpi by typing following line on command prompt:
raspivid -n -w 864 -h 480 -b 750000 -fps 25 -t 0 -o - | \ gst-launch-1.0 --gst-debug-level=0 -v \ fdsrc ! \ h264parse ! \ rtph264pay config-interval=10 pt=96 ! \ udpsink host=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx port=5600

suny99

okey i will redefine my question. When you are replacing xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx with IP ddress, what is IP address that you use. Is it something like 192.168.0.1, or something like 201.134.256.19. This is important, if address is like this 192.168.0.1 the this is your local IP. IP assigned to you by your router.

mocart

suny99 Yep, question is clear now. I am using LTE card with public (like 79.14.123.223), dynamic IP assigned from my provider APN. I dont know what country you are from but you need to check if you can buy similar card and data plan in your country. You can check this forum and maybe you will find provider and APN from your country too. if not you have public IP you have to follow solution based on VPN connection where you can setup internal IPs`s for both UAV and ground station. Probably this will be more expansive solution because you need to have VPN access with additional limit for data transfer. I never tested VPN solution but I know some peoples are using it also.

Sinamics

mocart if not you have public IP you have to follow solution based on VPN connection where you can setup internal IPs`s for both UAV and ground station

Well, you actually dont need public IP for the modem located in your aircraft. You only need public IP on the receiver end, e.g Ground Control Station. This applies when you use UDP as transfer protocol.

suny99

I have succeed to transfer video to my android phone, but im unable to tranfer it to qground control on my pc. Have you tried to do something like that, tranfer video to your pc?

mocart

suny99 Have you tried to do something like that, tranfer video to your pc?

Yes, it works for me.
I plugged in LTE modem with the same SIM card to local PC usb port and it was fine.

suny99

i just can't make it work. On my android it's working fine, but on pc with same IP address it doesn't work. I tested latency also on android and it's 750 ms, in my opinion you can't drive with that, you will feel that quad is not following your commands So i think qground control receiver and decoder is not working like it should. Latency should be around 200 to max 300 ms to be able to drive without feeling like quad is not following commands.

Sinamics

suny99 Are you streaming on your local network? or using LTE modem?
If you stream using LTE modem you need to put in your external IP adress for your computer, you also need to open video & telem port in your assosiated router and forward them to your computer local IP address.