P2V+, Data Link and Ground Station - WORKS!!!!!

PhantomRock · Jul 1, 2014

EspenA said:
It seems to be a problem when you set the repeater/range extender to another channel, it looses connection to the P2V+

EspenA

Linuxkidd on this topic:
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=17704
really knows his stuff, and can help you with this.
He is really helping everyone with this stuff.

EspenA · Jul 1, 2014

Hello all.

Just finished more testing and anyway I place the antennas on the air unit, place the antenna on the ground unit, it is loosing the battle to the range extender on the controller. Even though I got the signals a bit better (iOS Ground app showing 2-3 bars on the signal), it's not taking commands when trying to pause and upload in the air. As soon as I turn of the range extender it works perfectly (just beautiful). All the commands fly up there and my P2V+ reacts instantly. I'm therefore positive both systems are using channel 1 and that's what's causing at least my problems.

I have therefore decided to follow linuxkid's (http://www.phantompilots.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=17704) guide to connect to the repeater and the P2V+ and change channels on them both far away from channel 1

Wish me luck. I'll keep U all posted

EspenA

wattsn · Jul 1, 2014

EspenA said:
Hello all.

Just finished more testing and anyway I place the antennas on the air unit, place the antenna on the ground unit, it is loosing the battle to the range extender on the controller. Even though I got the signals a bit better (iOS Ground app showing 2-3 bars on the signal), it's not taking commands when trying to pause and upload in the air. As soon as I turn of the range extender it works perfectly (just beautiful). All the commands fly up there and my P2V+ reacts instantly. I'm therefore positive both systems are using channel 1 and that's what's causing at least my problems.

I have therefore decided to follow linuxkid's (http://www.phantompilots.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=17704) guide to connect to the repeater and the P2V+ and change channels on them both far away from channel 1

Wish me luck. I'll keep U all posted

EspenA

Good luck

I hope it works out.

PhantomRock · Jul 1, 2014

Best of luck to you.

NYG · Jul 2, 2014

EspenA said:
Hello all.

Just finished more testing and anyway I place the antennas on the air unit, place the antenna on the ground unit, it is loosing the battle to the range extender on the controller. Even though I got the signals a bit better (iOS Ground app showing 2-3 bars on the signal), it's not taking commands when trying to pause and upload in the air. As soon as I turn of the range extender it works perfectly (just beautiful). All the commands fly up there and my P2V+ reacts instantly. I'm therefore positive both systems are using channel 1 and that's what's causing at least my problems.

I have therefore decided to follow linuxkid's (http://www.phantompilots.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=17704) guide to connect to the repeater and the P2V+ and change channels on them both far away from channel 1

Wish me luck. I'll keep U all posted

EspenA

Any update? I'd love to hear how things are going and if you worked your way through the channel change.

vmehta211 · Jul 2, 2014

Looking forward to hearing what happens with the channel thing

PhantomRock · Jul 2, 2014

You can see on Linux kid thread that EsPenA is trying it now. I'm sure he will come back here when he is finished with his testing.

EspenA · Jul 3, 2014

NYG said:
EspenA said:

Hello all.

Just finished more testing and anyway I place the antennas on the air unit, place the antenna on the ground unit, it is loosing the battle to the range extender on the controller. Even though I got the signals a bit better (iOS Ground app showing 2-3 bars on the signal), it's not taking commands when trying to pause and upload in the air. As soon as I turn of the range extender it works perfectly (just beautiful). All the commands fly up there and my P2V+ reacts instantly. I'm therefore positive both systems are using channel 1 and that's what's causing at least my problems.

I have therefore decided to follow linuxkid's (http://www.phantompilots.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=17704) guide to connect to the repeater and the P2V+ and change channels on them both far away from channel 1

Wish me luck. I'll keep U all posted

EspenA

Click to expand...

Any update? I'd love to hear how things are going and if you worked your way through the channel change.

Hello all.

Yes I have finished the job on my P2V+ and the range extender and P2V+ FPV system are now using ch.11 instead of 1

Anyways the job was quite easy, following the Linuxkids's guides, and it is really nice having a webGUI on both the range extender and the Phantom, to adjust things like this.

I'm sad to say though, that I think there is still a bit trouble in paradise here :/ I was only able to do a short test yesterday and at first I was really happy since the signal strenght btw. the DataLink ground and air end reported back good in the iOS GS app. I thought, great this solved my issues! L8r though, having my controller close to the DataLink ground unit, the signals went down and I struggled to issue commands (like pause) to my P2V+ in the air, not more than 40-50 meters away

That said, the test was short and therefore I can't say my testing is consistent yet.

I have been talking to Linuxkid about this and it seems that the DataLink system does not run in a traditional WiFi way as the Phantom does, but is just using the 2,4Ghz public broad spectrum frequencies (2400-2483Mhz) and therefore not locked to any specific channel (like ch.1) which I hoped , therefore it could be that these to systems won't be able to coexist together very well

Saying this, I'm not done with this work and not giving up on getting these two systems to work better together for me

What I think is strange though is that wattsn setup (which I have copied), seems to work very well, compare to mine??

Btw. wattsn, have you tried to issue commands like the pause command from iOS GS to the P2V+ while in flight, and having your controller and DataLink ground station close together, and it works good on distances like 50+ meters to your P2V+? Even though my iOS GS states that I have like 2-3 bars up on the signal strength, it can struggle doing that when I have my controller near the DataLink ground station, which I think has to do with the repeater interfering.

I'll keep you all posted on any progress I make.

EspenA.

vmehta211 · Jul 3, 2014

Awesome work EspenA!

I too noticed that when I moved my iPhone running the Vision app with live video feed near the ground station it caused the bars on the ground station - air end to go down.

I have a question - I haven't yet tested this with my setup. Would it be possible to set a mission with the ground station, then turn off the ground station and watch the bird fly and complete the mission via the Vision app? I understand I loose all control and do not have feed back on a map but I would be able to set waypoints further than 500m. Then when I want to regain control I just toggle S1.

EspenA · Jul 3, 2014

vmehta211 said:
Awesome work EspenA!

I too noticed that when I moved my iPhone running the Vision app with live video feed near the ground station it caused the bars on the ground station - air end to go down.

I have a question - I haven't yet tested this with my setup. Would it be possible to set a mission with the ground station, then turn off the ground station and watch the bird fly and complete the mission via the Vision app? I understand I loose all control and do not have feed back on a map but I would be able to set waypoints further than 500m. Then when I want to regain control I just toggle S1.

vmheta....

Not sure how the GS and P2V+ work together, I mean if the drone will automatically Go Home when it looses connection with the DataLink ground end or not. If not I don't see why you have to close GS at all, it will reconnect coming back. No problem program the WP and send it since it will fly the cords. anyways.

Only one way to get the answer

Good luck on the testing.

rgds,

EspenA

walksm8 · Jul 5, 2014

Ok some feedback with my first flight with the ground station today. I did see partial interference with the ground station and the wireless receiver...I did read in the ground station manual that all receiver's should be 1.5m away from the datalink ground end.

What did happen during mid flight though it one second my bird was flying the waypoints on the ios app and then suddenly the waypoints dropped from the app as if it was a completely blank map. I panicked and called it home since it was slightly out of sight. I'm not sure if I lost signal between the air end or ground end but it didn't appear to continue on with it's flight path. Will have to do some further testing. I took plenty of recordings during the couple of flights I did and fpv didn't appear to get in the way of the groundstation software.

wattsn · Jul 5, 2014

That's very strange as continuation of mission is not dependent upon link to ground station. Ie once the waypoints have been transferred to the bird it then just executes.

walksm8 · Jul 5, 2014

I can't be sure but if could have simply lost connection...what was strange though was the waypoints disappearing off the map. I would have thought the behaviour would have been like fpv where once you come back into range it resumes ie. the bird is updated on the map along the waypoints?

Will have to test further but definitely was no where near the 2km limit that has been suggested.

sheldrake · Jul 7, 2014

Is this all I need to install groundstation in my V+ ?
Any power required?

wattsn · Jul 9, 2014

You need the kit which consists of 3 parts

1. Ground data link module (as pic above)
2. Air data link module
3. Ground end bluetooth module

All 3 items are provided in thd Ground Station Data Link kit - http://www.helipal.com/dji-ipad-ground- ... odule.html

NYG · Jul 9, 2014

You also need this. Or at least the 4-wire cable for splicing.

http://www.uavdirect.com/Phantom-2-CAN-Module-p/djisp-p2-canmod.htm

sheldrake · Jul 9, 2014

Thank you guys. I should have opened the box for the photo - I have all those parts and also the leg with can module.. Now I just need the time and confidence to make the mod.

DronePilot · Jul 10, 2014

I received my iOS Data link and have been trying this out. I like the GS software much better than what's provided with the P2V+.

I have been having some interference difficulties and have not figured out a way to get it to work reliably yet. I've been running with FPS running to an iphone and GS on an ipad. The way I use this is I take off to get above the trees and then I press go on the GS. The trouble is it has a great difficulty transferring the waypoints to the phantom, if more than 100 feet away it will often fail to transfer. I end up spending 10-15% of my battery trying to get the waypoints transferred and I imaging I can't update in flight. It does seem to keep the GS tracking running during flight although I haven't traveled that far with it yet.

It's a bit disappointing that it only allows 16 waypoints and there is no facility to control orientation in flight.

If I could solve the interference issues it would certainly be more usable. Could others chime in one how it is working for them? Can you update in flight? Can you press Go while in the air? How have you positioned you antennas? Thanks!

NYG · Jul 10, 2014

DronePilot said:
I received my iOS Data link and have been trying this out. I like the GS software much better than what's provided with the P2V+.

I have been having some interference difficulties and have not figured out a way to get it to work reliably yet. I've been running with FPS running to an iphone and GS on an ipad. The way I use this is I take off to get above the trees and then I press go on the GS. The trouble is it has a great difficulty transferring the waypoints to the phantom, if more than 100 feet away it will often fail to transfer. I end up spending 10-15% of my battery trying to get the waypoints transferred and I imaging I can't update in flight. It does seem to keep the GS tracking running during flight although I haven't traveled that far with it yet.

It's a bit disappointing that it only allows 16 waypoints and there is no facility to control orientation in flight.

If I could solve the interference issues it would certainly be more usable. Could others chime in one how it is working for them? Can you update in flight? Can you press Go while in the air? How have you positioned you antennas? Thanks!

I've had mine installed for a week and a half or so but haven't really had time for a good test. It looks like some have bigger problems with the 2.4ghz signals interfering with each other than others. How close do you have the GS data link to the repeater on your controller? Try to keep as much distance between them as you can. The antennas at the air end should be configured at 90 degrees from each other. You might also want to test placement via trial and error to see what works best.

I'm thinking of testing different antennas on the ground end. I may also take the air unit apart to see about changing out the wire antennas but that's just a thought right now.

DronePilot · Jul 10, 2014

GS by itself works really well for me. However, just to get a good connection with the datalink I need to shutoff my wifi repeater. Seems as if the datalink signal is better then the stock 5.8Ghz control signal. As I fly around at some distance I can see the control link drop on the GS display left corner while I still appear to have strong signal to the datalink, albeit I've shut off the wifi repeater.

wattsn, EspenA or others who have tried the datalink and GS, can you comment on your experience with interference betweeb the datalink and wifi?

EspenA: Did changing your wifi channel help?
Thanks.