Convert Solo Link system to RubyFPV

[TrippleBravo]

So I have a project I am wanting to do with a 3DR Solo. Call me stupid or insane, but with some basic research I have done over the past week while debating on picking up 2 3dr Solo's locally, I have found that the Solo Link system is essentially doing what the RubyFPV guys are doing, just with older hardware. As I come from FPV drones, I have been interested in using the RubyFPV system as an HD link for making cinematic videos, but have yet to bite the bullet to make a drone to support the use of the project.

ideally, I am wanting to try and get it to work with as little modification as possible, save for maybe reprogramming the STM32 in the controller to talk to RubyFPV better, however with any luck, if RubyFPV doesn't want to play nice with the pcie wifi cards, it won't be too hard to upgrade to a supported USB based wifi card RubyFPV expects.

And if all else fails, based on current documentation, it doesn't look to hard to replace the IMX6 modules with a Radxa 3W on the controller side, a RPI Zero 2 on the drone side, an hdmi to csi adapter, and the pair of RTL8812AU modules with 5.8ghz antennas.

Any input is greatly appreciated

 

[jonbrotherton]

So I have a project I am wanting to do with a 3DR Solo. Call me stupid or insane, but with some basic research I have done over the past week while debating on picking up 2 3dr Solo's locally, I have found that the Solo Link system is essentially doing what the RubyFPV guys are doing, just with older hardware. As I come from FPV drones, I have been interested in using the RubyFPV system as an HD link for making cinematic videos, but have yet to bite the bullet to make a drone to support the use of the project.

ideally, I am wanting to try and get it to work with as little modification as possible, save for maybe reprogramming the STM32 in the controller to talk to RubyFPV better, however with any luck, if RubyFPV doesn't want to play nice with the pcie wifi cards, it won't be too hard to upgrade to a supported USB based wifi card RubyFPV expects.

And if all else fails, based on current documentation, it doesn't look to hard to replace the IMX6 modules with a Radxa 3W on the controller side, a RPI Zero 2 on the drone side, an hdmi to csi adapter, and the pair of RTL8812AU modules with 5.8ghz antennas.

Any input is greatly appreciated

I'm in! I thought about this too but don't have enough time and expertise to dedicate to it. I'm using OpenIPC APFPV on several of my other vehicles now and I see the similarities. I don't believe the imx6 is going to be compatible but it still works well as is anyway, haha. Using a radxa seems to be the way to go, and even WifiLink or Sphere Link on the vehicle would do video and RC.

 

[TrippleBravo]

I'm in! I thought about this too but don't have enough time and expertise to dedicate to it. I'm using OpenIPC APFPV on several of my other vehicles now and I see the similarities. I don't believe the imx6 is going to be compatible but it still works well as is anyway, haha. Using a radxa seems to be the way to go, and even WifiLink or Sphere Link on the vehicle would do video and RC.

For sure, according to the datasheet on the imx6 it has about the same performance as a RPI 3B with 2gb of ram, the hardest part will be getting the drivers and kernel to boot on the imx6, but hopefully I will be able to boot and work with the PCIe wifi cards, and if not, soldering some usb connections to a supported wifi card will be easy. Once the video link is working, I am going to try and get the 3dr controller to communicate to the drone for full control like it was from factory, or at the very least to control the camera gymbal.

With any luck it is hopefully going to be a manual reprogramming of the stm32 in the controller, then just a case of swapping the sd cards for one's with Ruby installed, even if I have to upload a custom image for the imx6 to my github that can be used with the updates released by the ruby fpv devs.

Once I get my 2 3dr drones next week I will start playing around with it once I have converted them both to opensolo and start playing around with them I will keep this thread updated as much as I can

 

[jonbrotherton]

For sure, according to the datasheet on the imx6 it has about the same performance as a RPI 3B with 2gb of ram, the hardest part will be getting the drivers and kernel to boot on the imx6, but hopefully I will be able to boot and work with the PCIe wifi cards, and if not, soldering some usb connections to a supported wifi card will be easy. Once the video link is working, I am going to try and get the 3dr controller to communicate to the drone for full control like it was from factory, or at the very least to control the camera gymbal.

With any luck it is hopefully going to be a manual reprogramming of the stm32 in the controller, then just a case of swapping the sd cards for one's with Ruby installed, even if I have to upload a custom image for the imx6 to my github that can be used with the updates released by the ruby fpv devs.

Once I get my 2 3dr drones next week I will start playing around with it once I have converted them both to opensolo and start playing around with them I will keep this thread updated as much as I can

Sounds like the right track! The devs tell me drivers would be the main issue. It would be nice to have a new use for the Solo hardware.

 

[TrippleBravo]

Sounds like the right track! The devs tell me drivers would be the main issue. It would be nice to have a new use for the Solo hardware.

indeed, That is my main idea foe the project, to try and make the imx6 hardware still useful rather than just replacing it all with Radxa's or Raspberry pis to do what the hardware is clearly capable of at least a little bit considering the original use of the hardware, that and it will hopefully save me some cash at the same time lol

 

[TrippleBravo]

Just created a github repo outlining my goals I have planned, along with a roadmap that should make things easier to keep straight
GitHub - Blackbeard25/3dr-Solo-Ruby-FPV: This is a log of my adventure converting the SOLO link used in the 3dr solo drones to being used with RubyFPV over the old method that leveraged 3DR's own software which was updated by the OpenSolo Project

 

[clackey]

This is approved by admin...

 

[TrippleBravo]

Finally got my pair of 3dr Solos, both have been upgraded to OpenSolo 4 with Copter 4.6.0 and fly great. Now that the hardware is confirmed working, time to do the hard part, which is figure out how to get debian installed on the IMX6