- Wed Apr 15, 2020 8:34 pm
#86568
Hi Friends! My apologies, because I'm sure someone has asked for help with a similar application here. I've done a lot of searching, and just can't figure out where to get started with the hardware I have. So, assuming I have minimal knowledge about networking, programming, terminal, etc. could someone point me in the right direction on how to get this simple project working? I'm quick to learn, so you don't need to spell it out, maybe just links to helpful articles would be enough.
So here's the project - I'm building a drone and I want to receive telemetry data on my iPhone. The way this works is - I can configure the flight controller MCU on the drone to send telemetry packets (in MavLink protocol) over a serial UART. So I can wire the Rx output from the flight controller to the Tx input on the ESP8266, and the Tx to the Rx. The flight controller also provides 3.3V output, so I hook that up and ground. Wiring is easy!
On my iPhone, I have an app called Alta QGroundControl, which is capable of reading a telemetry data stream in Mavlink protocol and displaying it. It asks for "Host Address" (default 0.0.0.0) and "TCP Port" (default 5760) if I select TCP as the link type. If I select UDP, it asks for "Listening Port" (default 14550) and "Target Hosts", which I believe is greyed out. Once I configure one of these setups, I can hit "connect" and it should start displaying the data. I assume before that, I need to connect my iPhone to the WiFi network established by the ESP8266 acting in access point mode?
Now, how do I get my ESP8266 to relay that serial data over TCP or UDP, assuming it doesn't do so by default? I have two models of ESP8266:
-DIYmall ESP-01S which looks pretty stripped down
-MakerFocus ESP8266 w/CP2102 which is pretty full featured and even has a USB port
Which should I use? I'm assuming I'll need to flash the ESP chip at some point, do these flash in different ways, like do I need an Arduino to flash the DIYMall one and not the MakerFocus one? Or do I just need the Arduino IDE and a USB cable that breaks out to the pin headers?
Appreciate some guidance here
So here's the project - I'm building a drone and I want to receive telemetry data on my iPhone. The way this works is - I can configure the flight controller MCU on the drone to send telemetry packets (in MavLink protocol) over a serial UART. So I can wire the Rx output from the flight controller to the Tx input on the ESP8266, and the Tx to the Rx. The flight controller also provides 3.3V output, so I hook that up and ground. Wiring is easy!
On my iPhone, I have an app called Alta QGroundControl, which is capable of reading a telemetry data stream in Mavlink protocol and displaying it. It asks for "Host Address" (default 0.0.0.0) and "TCP Port" (default 5760) if I select TCP as the link type. If I select UDP, it asks for "Listening Port" (default 14550) and "Target Hosts", which I believe is greyed out. Once I configure one of these setups, I can hit "connect" and it should start displaying the data. I assume before that, I need to connect my iPhone to the WiFi network established by the ESP8266 acting in access point mode?
Now, how do I get my ESP8266 to relay that serial data over TCP or UDP, assuming it doesn't do so by default? I have two models of ESP8266:
-DIYmall ESP-01S which looks pretty stripped down
-MakerFocus ESP8266 w/CP2102 which is pretty full featured and even has a USB port
Which should I use? I'm assuming I'll need to flash the ESP chip at some point, do these flash in different ways, like do I need an Arduino to flash the DIYMall one and not the MakerFocus one? Or do I just need the Arduino IDE and a USB cable that breaks out to the pin headers?
Appreciate some guidance here
