Setting up 3DR telemetry for your APM2.5

[benchmark]

A series of 4 videos, get your favorite beverage and a comfortable stool   

3DR radio telemetry 1 of 4

3DR radio telemetry 2 of 4

3DR radio telemetry 3 of 4

3DR radio telemetry 4 of 4

I hope it proves useful to somebody.

[Gaza07]

Excellent videos Benchmark 

[Calomile]

Really informative post, cheers pal!

On a side note, where can I find one of those plates that you have your FC mounted to?

[benchmark]

Thanks guys.

Really informative post, cheers pal!

On a side note, where can I find one of those plates that you have your FC mounted to?

It was a chance find on ebay. i do not know who makes them or where they are originally from.

[optiplex]

any idea, why the grouind and remote stopped binding after i tried to load the settings like in the 3rd vid ?

thx

EDIT: ok problem solved
          seems when i saved config the min and max freq values wasnt the same so the 2 units couldnt bind, so i changed in the         base unit to 414000 both min and max and they are binded again

[Calomile]

Thanks again for your post, was a really big help setting up my APM. Solved quite a few headaches! 

[firey1]

got a 433 unit from HK

plug n play worked straight out of the box

[HowDoIfly]

I have this kit from rctimer but it';s not working beyond a couple of meters. The ground station is swamped with noise to the point comms slows down, stalls and eventually disconnects.

Looking over many threads, most blame the USB bus which operates around the same frequency and the ground station not filtering this noise. Others blame mismatched antennas.

Solutions suggested include USB cables and extentions and even powered hubs but they didn';t work for me. Others suggest buying good antennas but that';s a cost risk I don';t want to take right now.

Likewise, I';m told to buy and use a second air module as the ground station.

Does anyone have any deep undestanding of this problem and a definitive fix, preferably for litte cash please?

[coastersteve]

The Antenna';s for sure. Peter King and myself have been doing a good bit of research in to 433MHz telemetry and earlier this week we managed 5km which we were very pleased about. At the max distance we still had 20-30% signal strength.

What you need is 4 bits of solid copper wire 16.4 CM in length. I used the earth core from some twin and earth.

Solder one piece to the inner of the SMA connector and one to the outer and bend out at 45 degree';s in to a V shape. Repeat for the other end and test. If you don';t fancy soldering direct to the SMA connector you can hack apart the antenna';s that come with the radio';s and solder to the inner and outer of the coax.

If you want a good range then get the radio up away from the PC on a pole.

First flight was 2.5km away

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHqex4iYHik#ws

Second was the 5km one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq9FCEf7O7g#ws

I hope this helps.

[HowDoIfly]

Hi Steve,

Thank you for this response. That';s a nice cheap test I think I can manage.

[HowDoIfly]

Woohoo, cheers Steve.

With GSC indoors (transmitting through front door, wall and/or front window and the occasional tree  ) I maidened my new build in the same spot where rctimer antenna';s would drop connection.

With your recommended DIY 16.4cm soldered jobbies, am getting 96% signal.

Co-incidentally, rctimer replied today with a counter-offer to send replacement antenna';s. I told them where to stick em.

[Hands0n]

Any chance of a picture of the "new" antenna?

Sent from my C6603 using Tapatalk 4

[HowDoIfly]

Had to take this in a rush so if there';s any specific detail missing you wanted to see, let me know

[Hands0n]

Thanks very much. I see what you';ve done.  Makes one wonder why they bother with the rubber ducks at all. Begging for trouble.

[motofox]

looks as though you have created a dipole which is what i use on my dragonlink, if so i think its reccommended to have the ground straight down and the signal straight up.

[SeamusOD]

What is better in regard to 3dr antenna location on the quad, further from GPS or receiver 2.4 aerials

[Beaver2206]

I bought one off of ebay a while ago.  Pumped hours into trying to get it to work.  Countless drivers, converters and fiddling.  Got the air station to connect to the mission planner, though the ground station just would not talk to the PC.  All of the light on both units suggested they were talking, though the GS just would not connect.  Shame.  I still have it, may put everyone through my troubles and try and get it working one day...