[HOW TO]Navio+ and RPI2, Create the ultimate 4G Drone.

Sinamics

Hi
First some math
We need to convert Mb(Megabit) into a more convenient and known datatype e.g MB(MegaByte)

There are 8bit in one Byte so let’s calculate those numbers.

Your local broadband gives you 2.05Mbit/s download speed, in other words 2.05 / 8 = 0.256MB/s or 256kb/s 0.256MB/s will be the max download speed in megabytes.

And for the 3G dongle we need to know the upload speed, aircraft will Upload telemetry and video 17.29 / 8 = 2.16MB/s
If you stream video and telemetry you will end up using approx 250kb/s every sec. That equals 180MB/s for 15min flight. These numbers are just estimated based on my experience and will change based on gstreamer settings such as bitrate, resolution, framerate.

If you consider to use only Telemetry and not video, this will be more than enough. Telemetry only needs a few kb/s. So for your home connection with 256kb/s this will be on the limit (for video and telemetry), i think you will get trouble with the video quality.

You could however fiddle with a lower bitrate,framerate and make it work. Your 3G dongle speed is more than enough. 3G dongle will switch automatically between networks or towers, or at least my dongle does. I am not familiar with other countries tower and networks configuration but i guess it will be the same.

I hope this will answer your questions...

Sinamics

mocart Is there any way to turn off WI-FI on RPI for a while and make it available again e.g after reboot?

You can probably use something like sudo ifconfig wlan0 down
But i dont know or remember if it will be enabled during reboot again.

mocart how to run UAV casting scripts during RPI booting proccess ?
and last one related my yesterdays tests

You did try sudo systemctl enable UAVcast ? Also perform a hard reboot . Power Off/on just to ensure that USB modem gets rebooted.

mocart It look like I need to have 250MB per one flight ( it my average flying time with current frame ). Did you test how to reduce this value e.g up to 150MB per 20 minutes ???

Have a look at this post Sinamics You could set lower resolution, bitrate, FPS in DroneConfig to reduce the total MB transferred.

#gStreamer Settings.
WIDTH="1280"
HEIGHT="720"
UDP_PORT="5000"
BITRATE="1500000"
FPS="20"

Noah

Cheers
Thanks

Derek_Arsenault

Maybe a crazy idea but why not just share the img file so we can flash our pi with exactly same setup instead of going through all steps with potential for errors?

Sinamics

Hi Derek.
It would be possible to clone my RPI, but the problem is that my environment is not equal to yours. A while ago i started to write a script that will install all necessary programs and script automatically.
All you need to do is editing one configuration file for which software and equipment you using.

I will try to free up some time to get this ready soon.

Derek_Arsenault

Thanks Bernt, that would be pretty cool! I know that it's hard to find free time so I completely understand (have couple of kids who like to keep me very busy!). Little by little I power up the RPI when I can sneak away and make a little progress each time.

The gstreamer install seems to take quite a while but it's running right now and seems to be installing correctly... FYI had to use...

sudo apt -  get  install gstreamer1.0

This doesn't work for me....

sudo apt -  get  gstreamer1.0

Derek

Sinamics

Hi Derek
I recognize myself in what you say. I wish i had more time..
Thx for the typo notice. I updated the blog with correct syntax.

Derek_Arsenault

Got gstreamer working tonight with a Microsoft LifeCam Cinema HD (720p) Part# H5D-00018, Model No. 1393
I played around with bitrate and got it a little better but it's quite choppy video with some noticeable lag. If the camera doesn't move the video is very clear so I'm going to have to make sure it's stabilized well.

I guess I could live with a little bit of lag but the thing is if the video is shaky then the entire video becomes blurry. I'm expecting the worst once I mount this to the quad.

I did not intend to be installing a gimbal. Have you noticed the same issues?
I'm almost thinking it would be easier to just mount a Nexus 5 (I have one collecting dust) and have the handset do all the video feed stuff instead of messing around trying to work it over Linux + gstreamer....I think I might just do that.

Sinamics

Derek.
Have you tried overcloking your RPI to 1000Mhz? This will improve streaming quality. However, you need to watch out for the AK8963: bad DEVICE ID if overcloking.

See this link .

[SOLVED] "AK8963: bad DEVICE ID" error during Ardupilot start

During each start of Ardupilot I'm keep getting "AK8963: bad DEVICE ID" error. I've tried AccelGyroMag, but it shows only this: Acc: +0.000 +0.000 +0.000 Gyr: +0.000 +0.000 +0.000 Mag: +0.000 +0.000 +0.000 Acc: +0.000 +0.000 +0.000 Gyr: +0.000 +0.000 +0.000 Mag: +0.000 +0.000 +0.000 Acc: +0.000 +0.000 +0.000 Gyr: +0.000 +0.000 +0.000 Mag: +0.000 +0.000 +0.000 Acc: +0.000 +0.000 +0.000 Gyr: +0.000 +0.000 +0.000 Mag: +0.000 +0.000 +0.000 Acc: +0.000 +0.000 +0.000 Gyr: +0.000 +0.000 +0.000 Mag: +...
Read more...

Derek_Arsenault

I have not tried overclocking yet...
I am now trying with a direct modem connection to see if that helps with latency at all. Call me stubborn but I think it should be much better without converting LTE to Wifi Hotspot.
so I am having no choice as I am unable to SSH into the RPI from an external network (Internet) since I was providing the Wifi hotspot with a Nexus 5 and I think the carrier blocks SSH passthrough over the cellular network...what a real pain :-(

One question about extra power for USB, which pins exactly ?
I just want to be double sure I don't fry my board with a BEC supply....

Derek_Arsenault

One more thing,
Looking at a product like 4Gmetry...have you tried that?
Looks interesting and much easier if it actually works...

Sinamics

Hi
See this image of my current RPI with Navio+.

image 20170314-185131.jpeg

I haven`t tried 4Gmetry yet, but i will do soon.
Please keep us informed on the way, if you are going to buy 4Gmetry .

Sinamics

Due to many of my articles are outdated, I will just make a build list for those who want to build a cell controlled Drone in shortest time. I will try to keep it clean and informative.

Vehicle

**RPI ** 0/1/2/3/4 with UAVcast-Pro Sinamics
**Extra Power ** source for RPI. I’m using 5A 5V Bec. Sinamics
**USB camera **. Preferably PiCam
**USB cell modem **. See UAVcast supported modems Huawei E3372H has worked perfectly for many people.

Ground Control

Laptop or Android device tested by mocart for capturing video and telemetry
USB Gamepad as controller. See the layout Sinamics
**USB modem ** (Video and telemetry port to be opened. Default 14550 and 5000)

Tools

**Port checker **. ~~Verifiy that your port is open Sinamics~~ Now Inlcuded in **UAVcast **
Mission Planner
QGroundControl

This is based on my experince though, i encourage you to comment and suggest changes to the current list. My intensjon is to keep the first post fluid and updated with the most recent knowledge.

I will update more later, its a start at least. 🚀

Members Showcase

vibmad 5.5 kms total, max dist from home 1.8 km

robertb

Bernt
first of all, congratulations amazing Project.
Please, I have everything working with PICamera, but the noise is really big. So I bought a C920 camera, I know the quality is a little Worse.
Did you install any driver? Because after change to C920 stops to work.

Sinamics

Hi Robert.
You dont need any driver. Could you elaborate "stops working" ? You might want to try with a external power supply connected to RPI USB hub. Make sure you got Video0 in /dev/ when connecting C920

robertb

Bernt,
thanks a lot for your reply... fixed, problems with UV4L.
regards

neuhadnes

Hi,
I'am only beginner in RC models and UAV, and this 4G drones with RPI are awesome and impress me. It's great idea. But where can I find more detailed schema or tutorial of building and connecting all this components together?

I can only find some software settings, installations, but where can I find some manuals for beginners about hardware?

crozz_91

Hi.
My RPI2 will not boot the PREEMPT_RT image. The "act" led is just on constantly.
Im only trying too stream video, so i tried with the normal Raspbian image, But get an error when running your script. Ive tried to run it line by line, and found that this error occurs in line 11. in your script.

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sudo sh gstreamer.sh
VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT: failed: Invalid argument
Video input set to 1 (Composite1: ok)
Setting pipeline to PAUSED ...
Pipeline is live and does not need PREROLL ...
ERROR: from element /GstPipeline:pipeline0/GstV4l2Src:v4l2src0: Internal data flow error.
Additional debug info:
gstbasesrc.c(2865): gst_base_src_loop (): /GstPipeline:pipeline0/GstV4l2Src:v4l2src0:
streaming task paused, reason not-negotiated (-4)
ERROR: pipeline doesn't want to preroll.
Setting pipeline to PAUSED ...
Setting pipeline to READY ...
Setting pipeline to NULL ...
Freeing pipeline ...
pi@raspberrypi ~ $

When i run "v4l2-ctl --?" it dosent list "--set-fmt-video" as a option.

General/Common options:
  --all              display all information available
  -C, --get-ctrl=[,...]
                     get the value of the controls [VIDIOC_G_EXT_CTRLS]
  -c, --set-ctrl==[,=...]
                     set the value of the controls [VIDIOC_S_EXT_CTRLS]
  -D, --info         show driver info [VIDIOC_QUERYCAP]
  -d, --device= use device instead of /dev/video0
                     if starts with a digit, then /dev/video is used
  -h, --help         display this help message
  --help-all         all options
  --help-io          input/output options
  --help-misc        miscellaneous options
  --help-overlay     overlay format options
  --help-selection   crop/selection options
  --help-stds        standards and other video timings options
  --help-streaming   streaming options
  --help-tuner       tuner/modulator options
  --help-vbi         VBI format options
  --help-vidcap      video capture format options
  --help-vidout      vidout output format options
  -k, --concise      be more concise if possible.
  -l, --list-ctrls   display all controls and their values [VIDIOC_QUERYCTRL]
  -L, --list-ctrls-menus
                     display all controls and their menus [VIDIOC_QUERYMENU]
  -w, --wrapper      use the libv4l2 wrapper library.
  --list-devices     list all v4l devices
  --log-status       log the board status in the kernel log [VIDIOC_LOG_STATUS]
  --get-priority     query the current access priority [VIDIOC_G_PRIORITY]
  --set-priority=
                     set the new access priority [VIDIOC_S_PRIORITY]
                     is 1 (background), 2 (interactive) or 3 (record)
  --silent           only set the result code, do not print any messages
  --sleep=     sleep , call QUERYCAP and close the file handle
  --verbose          turn on verbose ioctl status reporting
pi@raspberrypi ~ $

Love your work!

Sinamics

Hi Chris.
I never had problems booting RTK image. The only advice i can give is the link bellow. http://elinux.org/RPi_Easy_SD_Card_Setup#Flashing_the_SD_Card_using_Windows

What type of camera are you using? Check if /dev/video0 exsist. The error bellow refers to camera source.

ERROR: from element /GstPipeline:pipeline0/GstV4l2Src:v4l2src0: Internal data flow error

Sinamics

I also have experienced that gStreamer can crash (with logitech C920) if you try to stream without external power supply.
I think the same error will occur.

crozz_91

I forgot to say im using the Easycap. I have external powersupply.
Yes, /dev/video0 exists.

root@raspberrypi:/home/pi# lsusb 
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9514 Standard Microsystems Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub 
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 05e1:0408 Syntek Semiconductor Co., Ltd STK1160 Video Capture Device root@raspberrypi:/home/pi#

crozz_91

I got it working by changing "WIDTH=640" to "WIDTH=720" and changing "framerate=15/1" to "framerate=30000/1001"

But the video is black and white.....