Are you inexperienced to cell UAV? Read this!

mattiao

Hi Bernt,
because I would like to use a servo connected to the Aux output of my Pixhawk, I have to buy an Ubec and I was thinking at this 3A UBEC , my question is: why does it have 3 wires as output?
I imagine it should have power and ground, but what is the signal for?

Then in this page they recommend to use a Zener Diode, I don't understand why... and is it mandatory? Thanks.

Sinamics

Hi there.
The 3rd wire is signal, used for programming. You dont need to worry about it,
Just use + & -.

Zener diode is recommended becouse it will protect your pixhawk against voltage spikes. It makes it more safe to use.
A voltage spike can be harmful to the pixhawk. That said, i never used it myself, but to be on the safe side you probably should use one.

mattiao

Thanks Bernt for your advices!

Sinamics

Mattio,
Are you satisfied using Mavlink? Do you notice any impact on gstreamer while using Mavlink?
Could you post your CPU usage when everything is running on your PI. ( use TOP command)

mattiao

Bernt, for the moment I only did "static tests" because as you know I have interferences between the GSM and my 35mhz receiver, I am waiting to order the FrSky X9D before flying with this configuration.
Anyway in all the tests I did using Gstreamer and Mavlink together, the CPU usage of the Raspberry PI2 never went more than 40%.

Looking forward to make a real flight!!!

Sinamics

Great news mattio.
Im really looking forward to see some flight vids.. 🙂 Hopefully your new Radio will solve all the interference problems you had.

Jon_Rowe

New member here and looking forward to the dialog. I have a couple questions regarding the Navio2/RPI2 setup.

Could I use an existing wifi hotspot I have (Verizon Jetpack) and my cell phone, which can also be used as a hotspot, to make/test the connection between Navio2/RPI2 and GCS? I'm waiting on my Navio2 and getting ready to install UAVcast on RPI2 this weekend.
This idea for now to test the connection (and because I already own them and pay the fees) is connect wireless wifi on RPI2 to the Jetpack and on the other end use phone as hotspot for GCS laptop. As long as I sort out the APN/IP/PORTs would this work? 2) I'm interested in connecting to the telemetry on my phone using UDP and the 3DR Tower application. It would be VERY cool to have my phone mounted on the game controller and have everything I need to fly, drive etc with live telemetry. Could I use my smartphone (Samsung/Android) as the 'target' device for telemetry and possibly video and run Tower GCS?

Sorry for the long message, thanks in advance for everyones assistance.
Hope you weather is as nice as it is in Nebraska this weekend and you get to fly!
Jon

Sinamics

Hi Jon and welcome..

The outside temperature is -5C and Snowy / windy, so you better stay in Nebraska. 🙂

1) Sure you can use WIFI hotspot for your RPI. That wont be a problem. Just keep in mind that if you are going to use a regular 2.4Ghz receiver in conjunction with cellular hotspot, you might end up with very high interference between those two! As long as I sort out the APN/IP/PORTs would this work? You are absolutely correct.

2) Yes, that wont be a problem either. You can connect whatever you want to that telemetry stream. I agree, it will be awesome to have a phone or a small tablet connected to the Gamepad.

momoleharico

Hi everyone,

I need your help about the streaming with raspidiv and Gstream please
I can send the streaming in TCP from my RPI and receive it in Mac os or Windows. It works well. But in order to reduce the latency (therorically), I try to put in place UDP with udpsink.

For your information, I have created a VPN in order to have the RPI, the windows laptop and Mac laptop on the same network and avoid the issue of port close or open with the SIM card.

So, I use this commande for the RPI sender (192.168.0.6) :

raspivid -t 999999 -h 720 -w 1080 -fps 25 -vf -hf -b 500000 -o - | gst-launch-1.0 -e -vvv 
fdsrc ! h264parse ! rtph264pay pt=96 config-interval=5 ! udpsink host=192.168.0.10 port=5000

And I use this commande for the receiver windows (192.168.0.10):

C:\gstreamer\1.0\x86_64\bin>gst-launch-1.0 -e udpsrc port=5000 ! gdpdepay ! rtph 264depay ! 
avdec_h264 ! fpsdisplaysink sync=false text-overlay=false

Below the Results when I send the streaming video seems ok :

root@raspberrypi:/etc/init.d# ./udpstreamingStart.sh 
Setting pipeline to PAUSED ... Pipeline is PREROLLING ..
/GstPipeline:pipeline0/GstH264Parse:h264parse0.GstPad:src: caps = video/x-h264, width=(int)1080, 
height=(int)720, parsed=(boolean)true, stream-format=(string)avc, alignment=(string)au, 
codec_data=(buffer)01640028ffe1000f27640028ac2b402202df2f00f1226a01000528ee01372c
/GstPipeline:pipeline0/GstRtpH264Pay:rtph264pay0.GstPad:src: caps = application/x-rtp, 
media=(string)video, clock-rate=(int)90000, encoding-name=(string)H264, 
sprop-parameter-sets=(string)"J2QAKKwrQCIC3y8A8SJq\,KO4BNyw\=", 
payload=(int)96, ssrc=(uint)3523485211, timestamp-offset=(uint)1217596606, seqnum-offset=(uint)49526
/GstPipeline:pipeline0/GstUDPSink:udpsink0.GstPad:sink: 
caps = application/x-rtp, media=(string)video, clock-rate=(int)90000,
 encoding-name=(string)H264, sprop-parameter-sets=(string)"J2QAKKwrQCIC3y8A8SJq\,KO4BNyw\=", 
payload=(int)96, ssrc=(uint)3523485211, timestamp-offset=(uint)1217596606, 
seqnum-offset=(uint)49526 /GstPipeline:pipeline0/GstRtpH264Pay:rtph264pay0.GstPad:sink: 
caps = video/x-h264, width=(int)1080, height=(int)720, parsed=(boolean)true, 
stream-format=(string)avc, alignment=(string)au, codec_data
(buffer)01640028ffe1000f27640028ac2b402202df2f00f1226a01000528ee01372c
/GstPipeline:pipeline0/GstRtpH264Pay:rtph264pay0: timestamp = 1217596606
/GstPipeline:pipeline0/GstRtpH264Pay:rtph264pay0: seqnum = 49526 Pipeline is PREROLLED ... 

Setting pipeline to PLAYING ... New clock: GstSystemClock

And result on the Receiver seems ok (it is waiting the flux) :

C:\gstreamer\1.0\x86_64\bin>gst-launch-1.0 -e udpsrc port=5000 ! gdpdepay ! rtph 264depay ! avdec_h264 ! fpsdisplaysink sync=false text-overlay=false Setting pipeline to PAUSED ...
Pipeline is live and does not need PREROLL ... Setting pipeline to PLAYING ... New clock: GstSystemClock

I can ping any computer in the VPN network.

The port is open, because I used it in TCP and it works. I also try an other 9000 port without succes. I tried with an other computer on Mac, using his IP adress, and it doesn't works also.

I try to unplugged the Pixhawk in order to see if it blocks something, but it is not the case.
I know that @mattiao use UPD to stream, so if you can help me please.

Thank you guys.

Maurice

mattiao

Hi Maurice,

this is the command Iuse to stream from the RPI:

raspivid -t 999999 -h 720 -w 1080 -fps 25 -vf -hf -b 500000 -o - | gst-launch-1.0 -e -vvv fdsrc ! 
h264parse ! rtph264pay pt=96 config-interval=5 ! udpsink host=xxx.xxx.xx.xx port=9000

And this is the command I use to receive the streaming in the ground station:

gst-launch-1.0 -v udpsrc port="9000" caps="application/x-rtp,media=(string)video,
clock-rate=(int)90000,encoding-name=(string)H264,payload=(int)96,ssrc=(uint)237526004,
clock-base=(uint)1584170994,seqnum-base=(uint)42626" ! rtph264depay ! decodebin! autovideosink -v

Try with this, in my case it works fine, very low latency and also not high data traffic.

Can you tell me how you did the VPN? Is that created in the RPI or in another network?

Sinamics

Maurice, a VPN tutorial would be awesome.. ;)

Ramon_van_der_Heijde

+1 on the VPN tutorial. Also, what kind of latency do you get when using VPN? Are you hosting from home? Or have you setup a cloud server?

momoleharico

Hi,
Thank you, I will test it.
Regarding the VPN, I will work on it and go back to you. It will take time to make it properly, so give me one week. The principal is to rent a VPS to OVH for 2€/month (with ssd) with fixe IP address., debian OS (You can do it at home also)

Then to install OPENVPN and use it as server, creating cretificate for many clients and file server.conf
Then install also OPENVPN on RPI or Windows . For Mac OS you can use any other client. Then import certificate from the server and create file client.conf or client.ovpn regarding the sorftware that you use.

Then put in place static IP address in order to be able to create pipe between two computer. The difficult part is tu put in place the route. I'm not confident on my setting, but it works so...

See you guys
Maurice

Seatown

Hi There,

Thank you for keeping this project going. It gave me the confidence to build one of my own. Right now, I'm at the planning stage and would like to share my adventure here as I progress. Please let me know what I'm missing in this setup? My goal is long range and dual camers..

image 160170451657294d67e2d46190303345.png

UAVPilot

Bernt,

This is a very informative article, I have several questions on setting this up.

Since I will use the Logitech Gamepad F710 connected to laptop, what importance is the port forwarding feature of the LTE modom/router?
Here is the US we have VRZ, AT&T, Sprint & T-Mobile as the main four LTE carriers...no Huawei. I see the need for a 4G LTE USB stick that has a public IP connecting it to the LTE cellular towers. However what is the purpose of the Huawei E5372T unit or similar device?
When the Navio+ board connects to the RPI board, is there configurations that needs to be set or is it plug-n-play?
I do not fly using the Pixhawk, instead I have the ArduPilot APM 2.6 Flight Controller Board. Is it possible to use the ArduPilo controller board instead connecting to the Serial to Ethernet converter?
If so, the Ardu board has a single telemetry port (See link below) compared to the Pixhawk which has two. How do I connect the Serial to Ethernet converter to a single telemetry port on the ArduPilo board? http://www.sierrarc.com/images/apmcase-side-2.jpg

Thank you KA

Sinamics

Hi UAVpilot.
I just recored those answers in a short video. Hopefully this will answer your questions.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4xm1Z4fRFuvYlhrSDl6aUdiWTg/preview

Answers.mp4

UAVPilot

Bernt,
That was very good explaination, it cleared up a lot. I will send a follow message shortly.
KA

UAVPilot

Bernt,
Your video explained and clarified quite a lot, thanks.
So the focus is to go in the field (obviously), which would explain why the huawei E5372T or comparable device is needed. This makes sense.

So when in the field, both huawei 3276 for UAV, and huawei E5372T for GCS must have its own public IP correct?
At 5:58 of the video above, you mentioned that when NOT in the field and I want to test near to my home network, I can use my home router as the GCS. If so, there is no public IP associated with the home router. The home internet providers connect to home used via a private IP, not public. So why is it I can operate my UAV at home with a private IP, but when in the field the GCS must had a router with a public IP?
You replied to my youtube message by saying that "I can use M2M simcard without tel number". So basically a separate SIMcard for both huawei 3276 & huawei E5372T is needed for each device for internet connection and no tel numb needed, correct?
Does the huawei E5372T connect to my laptop via USB, Ethernet or WifI?
Please see my email with attached Visio. Let me know.

Thank you
Karl

super

Hi UavPilot,

Not both. Only one of the two (typically GCS) must be "externally reachable" by the other. Why? What happens behind the scenes? When a route is established from a private IP to a public IP, then the public IP can send information back to the private IP, and a bi-directional channel is established. This kind of magic ( hole-punching ) happens everyday when you surf the net. Probably now your device is behind a router, and is not publicly reachable (behind router, firewall, NAT, ecc..). But when you type "uavmatrix.com" in your browser and you ask for this page, this page lands exactly on your device, and not to your colleague's one (although you're behind the same router).
Via 4G you can't if neither the UV nor the GCS are publicly reachable. Unless you implement a VPN (see later). Via Wifi you obviously always can, as the router assignes mutually reachable IPs in your network (but please pay attention to WiFi range).
Yes, M2M data plan is enough, unless you want to hang a phonecall with your UAV 🙂
Yes.
VPN is the best way to control your UAV is to implement a solid, well-designed VPN. We (at Volta Robots w/ 4Gmetry ) we do only use VPN, as it is affordable, cheap and very transparent. We've a dedicated server that manages mavlink/gstreamer streams transparently. We will publish a video w/ Bernt piloting our UV from Norway to Italy 😉

Right Bernt? 😉
Best, S.

UAVPilot

S. & Bernt,
Thanks for the response. I went to the Verizon store and inquired about the 4G USB stick as well as the 4G router for GCS.
They confirmed the 4G router for GCS will have it's own IP address, however they verified the 4G USB stick will also. So when you stated above "externally reachable", you meant the GSC router needs a public IP while the USB stick can be private as long as the USB on the UAV is "externally reachable" or within range of the 4G router for GCS, correct?
What I want is the ability to go BLOS, which means I "must" have a public IP for both the 4G USB stick and the 4G GCS router. Would you agree?
Or two 4G USB stick with public IPs, one for UAV, one for GCS. Would you agree?

Thanks K

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