openXvario development

[rainer]

Guess you need a bluetooth programmable oXv

[Rob Thomson]

Lol... Would be nice.

But doubt I could squeeze any more in the model!

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[BubbaNel]

... But the MS5611 sensor chips are rare (found only Drotek.fr up to now, about 10 EUR/each) - anybody found a better source?

Regards,
Henning

I found the MS5611-01BA03 chips at servoflo.com for $10.88 USD for qty=1-9

- Bob -

[RightRudder]

Question for Rainer:

If I already have a FAS-100 amp sensor connected to the serial input of my Rx, can I just hook the output of the oXv to the serial in on the FAS-100?

(please say yes)

Joe

[rainer]

The FAS-100 has the Data-IN and Data -OUT ports which are not real RS232 ports.
Then there is a RS232 port (Inverted) which connects to the telemetry enabled receiver. This is the only RS232 port on the FAS100. I don't think that they are using the RX pin for anything though. There is one guy on RC-Groups that managed to read the new 2 pin interface, but i didn't have time to work on that again.
So I assume that currently there is no RS232 IN on the FAS100.
I have it on my wish list though. i want to be able to read/write from/to the DATA-In/Out ports of the new generation FRSky sensors. that way we could interconnect with all the other available devices from FRsky.
In case the FAS-100 WOULD be able to take the serial output from the oXv you would have to disable one of the defines on the oXv to stop it from sending that ID that the FAS100 is using on its own ( voltage)

Rainer

[rainer]

2<>2
the Pin 2 we use for the PWM signal relates to the digital pin 2.
The cell voltages relate to the analog input pins, so 2 => A2 on the arduino

[RightRudder]

So as I see it there are two alternatives. The FAS-100 has three ports. As you said one rs-232 which is meant to connect to an Rx, and a 2 wire in and a 2 wire out which uses hub protocol. Either the oxv could talk to the 2 wire in or the FAS-100 could talk to the oxv and thern it could talk to the Rx. Which would make more sense?

I guess this should be a topic for the development thread?

Joe

[rainer]

So as I see it there are two alternatives. The FAS-100 has three ports. As you said one rs-232 which is meant to connect to an Rx, and a 2 wire in and a 2 wire out which uses hub protocol. Either the oxv could talk to the 2 wire in or the FAS-100 could talk to the oxv and thern it could talk to the Rx. Which would make more sense?

I guess the 2 pin hub protocol is more important to implement as this is the default for the next generation sensors from frsky. i could imagine that they might drop the regular RS232 ports on upcoming receivers.
Ideally IN&OUT, with a priority on IN. Someone on RCGroups has allready managed to read the data, so there is progress visible.

[RightRudder]

On thinking about it I see one advantage to having the oxv as the last in the chain which talks directly to the rx. Then you can send packets at the rate you choose. The FAS-100 datasheet notes that the data rate is ~1hz.

[rainer]

On thinking about it I see one advantage to having the oxv as the last in the chain which talks directly to the rx. Then you can send packets at the rate you choose. The FAS-100 datasheet notes that the data rate is ~1hz.

i didn't double check the 1hz information, but that sounds a bit strange. the FAS100 produces voltage and ampere packets and these are inside of frame 1 which is being transmitted every 100ms. The example sensor being connected to the data in port is the lipo cell monitor, which as well is being transmitted in frame1. so what excatly is that 1hz refering to?

[Kilrah]

I guess the 2 pin hub protocol is more important to implement as this is the default for the next generation sensors from frsky.

Actually none of those 2 interfaces (rs232 and unidirectional optocoupled) will be maintained. The new gear will use the new "smart port" (an rs232 level UART with RX and TX multiplexed on one line).

So the future would be this. But as this will only come with the upcoming gear, you'll have to also implement one of the "old" systems if you want any current users to be able to use the vario.

The easiest might be to use rs232 between the FAS100 and receiver, as firstly there's no guarantee the FAS100 will forward anything it receives on the data in connection (could be only the official frsky IDs), and secondly it would be simpler to support both generations of sensors in one (probably just a jumper could be used to turn the rs232 port into something smart port compatible).

Sent via mobile

[RightRudder]

Well I am guessing that it means that even though the Rx sends down the frame to the tx every 100ms the FAS-100 only sends to the hub new data every 1 sec. It is right in the technichal specs but is says exactly "Update Rate: ≥1Hz" So what does that mean "≥" ??

J

[RightRudder]

The easiest might be to use rs232 between the FAS100 and receiver, as firstly there's no guarantee the FAS100 will forward anything it receives on the data in connection (could be only the official frsky IDs), and secondly it would be simpler to support both generations of sensors in one (probably just a jumper could be used to turn the rs232 port into something smart port compatible).

So the oXv would need another inverted serial routine to take in the packets from FAS-100 and add them into the frame it sends to the rx?

[rainer]

the serial lib i'm using should be able to handle more than one serial lines, so that should be ok. we could even use the existing instance, as we are currently only sending and not yet recieving anything on the port

[Kilrah]

Yes you should simply use the same UART's RX line that's now unused.

Ideally the hardware would include the facility to then link the 2 to be compatible with the smart port system. Specs should be made public in a while.

[RightRudder]

Ok I can confirm that the data coming out of the FAS telem port is only once per second. I see it on oscilloscope. I am having trouble actually getting the FAS telemetry working properly with my 9x. I have details on a FAS thread, but for sure the packets are only ~ 1hz rate.

[rainer]

I see something different here. i just hooked my fas100 up to the RS232 port of a D8R-II. Then i connected the battery connector on just one side to an adjustable voltage source.
I get the voltage reading in the Vfas field without any problems. if i change the voltage, i directly get an update in the Vfas field at a much higher rate then 1hz. maybe it needs a change in the data in order to send data faster?
so the >=1hz might mean. 1hz without data change, and more thant that if the data is changing.

[RightRudder]

Interesting. I just looked at the idle data without changing any actual voltage. I have been experimenting sending data from a terminal program to the D8R-II+ using the hub protocol from the datasheet. I can change the values easy enough on the 9x display. The current seems to behave as the datasheet says; 16 bit unsigned little endian, but the voltage part behaves a little weirdly. Anyways I have confirmed that my telemetry input on the D8R is not broken and the telemetry out of the FAS-100 is not broken so why am I not getting proper data coming through !! I bet it is something really dumb, but for the life of me I can't see it.

[Kilrah]

Hmm I don't think you can move posts outside of this section, no? I'll do it

[RightRudder]

Sorry this got off topic over here. I don't know how (or if I can) but some of these posts could be moved over to this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=1075&p=43107#p43107

[rainer]

Thx Kilrah... already tried a couple of times.... Doesn't work for me

[ReSt]

I have another question for Rainer

I have a telemetry link, independent from Frsky gear ( 'modems' APC200) and a FrSky Sensor Hub FSH-01 where I can connect my GPS module.
Now I would like to connect the xVario to the vario port of the hub. But I don't know what interface is used and what protocol is running between the FrSky vario and the Sensor hub.

Do you know or have any information about what protocol is used and could that be implemented into the xVario ?

I assume it could be I2C as both signal lines of the port, unwired, deliver a voltage of about 3.2 volt, that, with a pulldown resistor of 1 k goes down to <0.6 volt. So both could be inputs with a pullup resistor.

Reinhard

[Kilrah]

The Vario plug expects direct connection of a BMP085 pressure sensor. The hub reads pressure and calculates altitude itself, so I doubt you could make anything useful with the oxv there. At most you could emulate a BMP085 and return pressure data that has better filtering to the hub, but you'd only get altitude (no vertical speed) and with the limited 1m resolution the hub provides so even trying to do vertical speed calculation on the radio would be very marginal.

[MikeB]

I thought the hub V2 improves on the 1m resoultion.

Mike.

[ReSt]

That's a pitty.

I was hoping that the hub would only read the data and package them into the protocol, so that the GPS and the vario data would be packaged into one stream.

Thanks for this information.

Reinhard

[ReSt]

Another thought:
Attach the GPS to the xvario

As it is obviously not simple to emulate the BMP085, how about using another (software) serial (or the hardware UArt) of the xvario to read the data (9600 Bd) that is coming from the GPS module and mix the data to the records that will be output ? And only use that data that is the best of both ?
(I know, there exists the TinyGPS library, but due to my lack of C++ knowledge, I'm not able to use it without help.)

Reinhard

[rainer]

Thats actually the next thing i want to work on. A serial (RS232) input for the oXv where the FrSky compatible packets will be parsed, filtered if needed and resend to the transmitter via the standard output.
That could be used to connect e.g. a sensor hub with its sensors, a FAS-100 or similar or any other compatible device to the oXv.

[ReSt]

That's a pretty good idea.
Can you keep in mind, that I, for my application, would need a non inverted RS232 output.

I'm waiting for the sensor to arrive, hopefully in the next days. Will gladly test your coming versions. I have the Hub and GPS and some resistors simulating the temperatures and the voltage input of the hub.

Reinhard

[rainer]

That's a pretty good idea.
Can you keep in mind, that I, for my application, would need a non inverted RS232 output.

I'm waiting for the sensor to arrive, hopefully in the next days. Will gladly test your coming versions. I have the Hub and GPS and some resistors simulating the temperatures and the voltage input of the hub.

Reinhard

The serial lib i am using is optionally doing the signal invertion, so it should be a change of only one initialization parameter if you need a "normal" rs232 intf.

[DHDSP]

While waiting for my MS5611 barometric sensors to arrive (my mini arduinos arrived in less than a week), I have been planning my new Lunak to use the oxv in. As I will be needing more than 8 channels, I will be needing an s.bus receiver. Is, or will the the ovx be compatible with the new "smart port" ?