WOW WOW WOW

[fpvsteve]

Who said it has not started yet? last I heard the main guy finally had the solo he needed. That was about a month ago. My understanding was there were only a couple small problems that he felt could be dealt with.

Besides you do know that Philip has been running solo on master for a while right?

Francisco is still busy with 3.4.2.
No work has been done yet to adopt master to Solo. You may check the git.

 

[Cyberblitz]

Not necessarily. In the codebase, there's also code for a cd rom. I don't think my Solo can accept a CD out of the box.

If anyone can find the name of the stock wifi card we can check and see if it does indeed support 5 Ghz.

Of course it does, its part of the Linux distro, as well as internet access, LAMP, Samba ect! Doesn't mean they need to be used though.

 

[fpvsteve]

What innovations specifically are you referring to on the recent FC software for AC3.4?

What people are excited about are being able to customize the OBC that allow Solo to do more advanced things that you can't with any other copter that's not running a separate computer onboard. Sure, you can slap a Raspberry Pi or BBB on something with a Pixhawk but then you have to go through the hassle of doing a lot of other integration, which there are images out there to help with this, and it's going to be more kludgey than what's already built right in to Solo. That's what is exciting for people. At some point, I'm sure we'll be able to update the Pixhawk as well but we can wait for that. We can modify other Pixhawk settings right now if needed anyway.

Some of the innovations in master compared to stock Solo:
- Lidar
- Precision Landing
- Terrain follow
- Boat mode
- Throw mode
- ADS-B
- Obstacle avoidance
- ...
and many more things - just read the change logs over the past releases.

And you don't need to modify the imx6 kernel to modify the Pixhawk settings. ;-)

 

[Dadawada]

Correct, but in highly congested wifi 2,4GHz area you can use 5,8GHz keeping in mind it's disadvantages ofcourse. Better link, better video feed, less possibility to lose signal etc....
I would like to see some wifi monitor on app and if 2,4GHz frequency is heavily used I could switch to 5,8..

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that control is being sent on 2.4 and video is being sent at 5.8. The power setting is more than likely adjusting the power of the Vtx from around 200mw...I'm guessing.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that control is being sent on 2.4 and video is being sent at 5.8. The power setting is more than likely adjusting the power of the Vtx from around 200mw...I'm guessing.

The limb broke. It does not do that. It's all on 2.4ghz.

 

[Dadawada]

Yep, I found the diagrams.

 

[Tamj]

Yep, I found the diagrams.

Not sure how the diagrams prove that...

The first one is the cpu chip used by the Solo and the second is just a general overview of how all the components connect.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

Once could infer by there being only a single WiFi connector on the diagram connected to the controller, phone/tablet, etc, that there is only a single WiFi network. That's an assumption, but a logical one. And it also happens to accurately reflect reality. 2.4Ghz only.

 

[Tom Jones]

i think the gimbal communication could be captured, as this is a simple serial port. sniffing at the port when solo is rotated in all 3 axis + tilt, the Mavlink commands can be interpreted.

my guess is 115 KBaud

I could be wrong, but I would assume the communication with the gimbal is PWM (pulse driven). I am new to the 3dr solo drone (just got a broken one I fixed), but I can put some time into this over the holiday to know for sure.

 

[Tom Jones]

Not necessarily. In the codebase, there's also code for a cd rom. I don't think my Solo can accept a CD out of the box.

If anyone can find the name of the stock wifi card we can check and see if it does indeed support 5 Ghz.

The stock card used by 3DR is a AR9582 5Hnd (500mw). Many people replace it with a 2HnD (800mw) version, which is a drop in replacement (same chipset). To further increase range, you can also change out the shockingly small 3db antenna(s) that is put on the stock unit. To do it, you simply buy a low cost 8db omni antenna, remove it from its housing, get a U.FL to RP-SMA adapter, and connect it to the pci-e board. With 800mw and a 8db antenna, you should get several miles range. This also assumes you do the same to the Controller. On the controller, however, it works best with a 10db paddle antenna.

 

[hackbard23]

I could be wrong, but I would assume the communication with the gimbal is PWM (pulse driven). I am new to the 3dr solo drone (just got a broken one I fixed), but I can put some time into this over the holiday to know for sure.

have a look at the overview Dadawada posted in post #26
this will give you a first impression of the Solo comms

also the wifi cards are power capped by linux kernel drivers & Solo firmware

 

[Rusty Jones]

have a look at the overview Dadawada posted in post #26
this will give you a first impression of the Solo comms

also the wifi cards are power capped by linux kernel drivers & Solo firmware

With the recent release of source code from 3DR, can those power limits be removed?

 

[truoccm]

So, if the replacement wifi cards improve the range without code changes, then I would think that the code to limit the power isn't functional. If it was then it would cap out the power with the new cards as well, right?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[hackbard23]

you can read tx power by cat /sys/kernel/debug/ieee80211/phy0/power

and there is definitely a software cap at 158mW as the regulatory domain byte is stored in Eprom on card

 

[fpvsteve]

So, if the replacement wifi cards improve the range without code changes, then I would think that the code to limit the power isn't functional. If it was then it would cap out the power with the new cards as well, right?

Agreed.
I measured a 5db difference between the EU settings and the US settings on EIRP output.
If the 158mW max output would be correct, EU power would be capped at 50mW while the legal limit is 100mW EIRP. Assuming that 3DR was trying to match the EU power limit, the max output of the stock Solo wifi is rather around 320mW.
Also, you can easily add high power wifi cards w/o any firmware mods.
So I would consider the settings in the kernel driver code as legacy.

 

[SteveReno]

Agreed.
I measured a 5db difference between the EU settings and the US settings on EIRP output.
If the 158mW max output would be correct, EU power would be capped at 50mW while the legal limit is 100mW EIRP. Assuming that 3DR was trying to match the EU power limit, the max output of the stock Solo wifi is rather around 320mW.
Also, you can easily add high power wifi cards w/o any firmware mods.
So I would consider the settings in the kernel driver code as legacy.

Cards 2HnD set to TX Power @ 28dBm=800mw Via several config files, would work, till reboot. Would like to test it.
Wondering if new open access give us the needed clearance to DB?

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

So I would consider the settings in the kernel driver code as legacy.

I recall at least two of the now former developers saying just that earlier in the year.

 

[cynfab]

kernel 3.10.17 is certainly legacy.
Work is progressing on building the newly released kernel sources:
Compiling additional drivers for Solo USB port
The "new" code compiles and soon it will be tested on a real Solo.
There is evidence that 3DR (or at least one of their kernel developers) was working on bringing a newer version of the kernel to Solo:
GitHub - 3drobotics/imx6-linux at imx_3.14.28_1.0.0_ga
Unfortunately s**** happened and the last commit was made on Dec 2015 by Allan Matthew:
Need additional enum ioctl for gstreamer 1.0 · 3drobotics/imx6-linux@111da3e · GitHub

who has yet to make another commit. Probably a casualty of the Dark Days in December at 3DR last year..;>((

Even 3.14.28 is legacy as the current kernel version is 4.9-rc6:
kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git - Linux kernel source tree
In fact, the latest from "freescale" --> NXP ---> now maybe Qualcomm is 4.1.???:
http://git.freescale.com/git/cgit.cgi/imx/linux-2.6-imx.git/log/?h=imx_4.1.y_brillo

The 3.14 kernel would allow the Solo to use gstreamer 1.0 vs gstreamer 0.10. resulting in a better video pipeline and newer and better vpu & gpu
integration:
Yocto/gstreamer – Gateworks
https://github.com/Freescale/gstreamer-imx

Finishing the 3.14 port is "on the list", but don't hold your breath...

 

[SteveReno]

kernel 3.10.17 is certainly legacy.
Work is progressing on building the newly released kernel sources:
Compiling additional drivers for Solo USB port
The "new" code compiles and soon it will be tested on a real Solo.
There is evidence that 3DR (or at least one of their kernel developers) was working on bringing a newer version of the kernel to Solo:
GitHub - 3drobotics/imx6-linux at imx_3.14.28_1.0.0_ga
Unfortunately s**** happened and the last commit was made on Dec 2015 by Allan Matthew:
Need additional enum ioctl for gstreamer 1.0 · 3drobotics/imx6-linux@111da3e · GitHub

who has yet to make another commit. Probably a casualty of the Dark Days in December at 3DR last year..;>((

Even 3.14.28 is legacy as the current kernel version is 4.9-rc6:
kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git - Linux kernel source tree
In fact, the latest from "freescale" --> NXP ---> now maybe Qualcomm is 4.1.???:
http://git.freescale.com/git/cgit.cgi/imx/linux-2.6-imx.git/log/?h=imx_4.1.y_brillo

The 3.14 kernel would allow the Solo to use gstreamer 1.0 vs gstreamer 0.10. resulting in a better video pipeline and newer and better vpu & gpu
integration:
Yocto/gstreamer – Gateworks
GitHub - Freescale/gstreamer-imx: GStreamer 1.0 plugins for i.MX platforms

Finishing the 3.14 port is "on the list", but don't hold your breath...

Thanks for filling in the blanks. We all appreciate the team or "xteam efforts. From what your saying is, to bring Solo UpTo par with latest & greatest it hard pressed...

 

[enem178]

Whats does this mean for someone who knows nothing about programming? With this recent release of codes is it possible for more downloadable apps to be created or will guys like myself have to dive into the system and reprogram it ourselves? Thx