Finally Cracked, Bought A 3DR (clone) Telemetry Unit

[Hands0n]

I do believe that I have spent quite long enough with Windows 7, Dell D630 and its flaky Bluetooth that steadfastly refuses to connect to a MavLink board (Crius AIOP or APM 2.5) using one of those cheap bluetooth adapters.  They could not be any simpler to configure and set up, yet Microsoft, Dell or both have taken it to an entirely new level of technological incompetence.  A simple COMx port refuses to communicate across. 

For me to give up there is something very wrong with the technology - I';ve been working with BT since the day it became available. Definitely no noob or rookie to the technology. BIOS update, Windows 7 drivers, you name it, I';ve been through the lot. And from the forums I am not alone - there are many kindred spirits who simply cannot get the BT/MavLink working under Windows 7 and even 8.

So, enough is enough and I have stumped up the readies for what everyone told me I should  ::) and ordered a Single TTL 3DRobotics 3DR Radio Telemetry Kit 433Mhz for APM APM2 APM2.5.  It costs £32.99 plus £1.50 delivery from a UK seller http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121163216812?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649 - I could not do the wait a month for it to arrive from China, seemingly the only other sellers of this stuff! Really?

I hope this works as well as everyone says it does. I';ve a great need to not be constantly connecting via the USB while setting up the APM 2.5 and ironing out some significant wrinkles.

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[Marty McFly]

they do make life very easy the 433 telementry moduals,you wont regret,Marty, :scotland:

[icedfusion]

I find that the 3DR tx/tx combo works very well with APM - as you would expect.
However, I find that the BT modules seem to work much better on openpilot and the multiwii - I have played around with the settings of both and the BT module just seems to be ';faster'; although it does not have the range.

Since at the moment, I only use the serial connections for tuning when at the field and not for any  ground control info, I am not that bothered.

One thing that puzzles me about what you say is that for the APM, the 3DR tx/rx have mavlink built into the modules, whereas I am guessing the BT module does not. I had to disable this for them to work with multiwii/openpilot.
I would assume that for the BT to work with APM you would have to enable mavlink somehow?

ice.

[Hands0n]

Well I';d say no.  The BT module knows nothing about the protocols that are sent across it. All it is doing is providing an airpath for serial data exchange between two devices (a COMx port).  It is then up to Mission Planner and the APM to use whatever protocol between them.

With regard to the 3DR - I don';t know enough about them yet, but chances are that what you';ve observed is that they are in some way doing something with MavLink protocol.

The problem I';ve seen with BT on Windows 7/64bit is that it simply does not work with these simple BT/TTL devices.  I tested the laptop';s BT out with my mobile phone, tethering to it using BT instead of the usual WiFi and it worked absolutely fine.   So there is something odd going on for sure, but I (and very many others) have not been able to figure it out.

[Hands0n]

Well the telemetry kit turned up today and I spent about an hour getting it all set up properly. 

I had a bit of a fiddle with the TXD/RXD cables - then realised that I had the telemetry port on the APM set for 115,200bps instead of the 57,600bps that it needs to be set for telemetry modules.  So I had to un-reverse the change I';d made.  After which the Mission Planner hooked up with the APM perfectly.

Android
In Google Play Store there is an app called DroidPlanner which I had loaded up on to my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 a while back. I have the requisite USB adapter cable that allows a phone';s microUSB to be capable of having regular USB devices plugged in.  I also installed DroidPlanner on my Nexus 7 (a 7" screen is going to be easier to see) But there is a caveat, the Nexus 7 doesn';t have a GSM radio and so needs to tether to a smartphone or MiFi dongle to be able to load up the Google maps.

It was impressive having the APM 2.5 wirelessly communicating its telemetry with the laptop, Note 2 or Nexus 7.  Also, it all worked pretty much out of the box, adapter cable issues notwithstanding. 

Whats next?
Next up is to get this kit out into the field and start tidying up the PIDs, optimise them as much as possible.  Then try out my first Auto (waypoint) mission with the APM.  But before I do that I';m going to do much reading about the how to, particularly how to jump out of Auto should it do something silly, such as try to fly off to Timbuctoo.