Software installation

95 comments

  1. Venelin B. says:
    July 3, 2017 at 15:01

    I’m interested in whether you are planning in the near future to support radio modules in the 868MHz radio band.

    Thank you.

    Reply
  2. samir_munir says:
    May 17, 2017 at 02:35

    Thanks a lot for this lovely site. I have been studying your post very extensively.

    And I am at that point that I am getting ready to give ULRS a try. Actually my first LRS setup.

    I have this combo-kit from hobbyking:
    https://hobbyking.com/en_us/orangerx-openlrsng-915mhz-system-bt-tx-rx-combo.html

    an orange 1w 915 mhz TX with bluetooth that then connects flawlessly to my laptop running Mission planner etc.
    and
    one dedicated 500 mw RX that has on port that goes directly into my pixhawk fligt controler and the other port goes into the telemetry2 port.

    So my question is:
    1. Will ULRS 2.x work after flashing/instaling it on the 1w orange Tw module?
    or will I have to open the 500 mw dedicated receiver and figure out a way to hook up a FTDI cable and instal ULRS on the receiver too?

    samir

    Reply
  3. Gerbaum says:
    March 2, 2017 at 11:43

    Hi, short question.
    I think I can connect my Notebook with Mission Planner –> USB FTDI Adapter-> OrangeRX TX/RX pin Airgap Orange RX TX/RX pin –> Telem2 at Pixhawk.
    That conection is now made via Mavlink serial connection.
    I still fly the copter with seperate RC Controller 2,4 Ghz.

    But is it possible to control my copter at the same time with PPM?
    That would be my RC Controller Aurora 9 PPM pin –>Orange Rx PPM pin Airgap OrangeRX PPM pin –> Pixhawk PPM Sum in (RC port)

    tl;dr
    Will I have to decide between serial port at OrangeRX for Telemetrie and PPM port for controlling copter, or Can I use both at the same time.

    Thx

    Reply
  4. Mark Latham says:
    December 7, 2016 at 10:58

    Does version 2.33 support the new OrangeRX OpenLRSng with Bluetooth. https://hobbyking.com/en_us/orangerx-openlrsng-433mhz-tx-module-and-receiver-combo-w-bluetooth.html

    Reply
    • admin says:
      December 9, 2016 at 23:23

      I didn’t try these modules, if they have a different pinout than the standard OrangeRX modules then they aren’t supported yet.

      Reply
  5. Scott Adamson says:
    November 15, 2016 at 16:04

    I have an idea….

    I have been thinking how to send the serial data to an apm in an antenna tracker without usning a wired connection frothe module in the tx and I thought about the following possible solution.

    would it be possible to have 2 (or more) devices receiving the serial signal from the plane, one in the tx for telemetry. and another in an antenna tracker that only receives and does not transmit and a possible 3rd connected to a mwosd in a pair of fpv glasses. esentially 1 ground receiver for each ground function so no cable to the antenna tracker or bluetooth coneection is needed from the tx

    Reply
  6. Fernando P says:
    October 19, 2016 at 17:02

    Hi, thank very much for the information!!!the page is excelent!. I´m thinking to buy the WolfBox 1w module or the orange 1w, my tx is a flysky fs-i10 and don’t have for modules change but in rcgroups I see this: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2327457 . Doing that. Do you think this module can work with my tx flysky?.

    Pd: sorry for my bad english

    Thanks, From Argentina

    Reply
  7. admin says:
    October 13, 2016 at 20:45

    Not currently, but I’ll check that for a future release.

    Reply
  8. Venelin says:
    June 16, 2016 at 20:55

    Hello,
    I tried to find an option for diversity receiving by the receiver side. But I can not find such an option. As is well known the diversity receiver improves overall by three dB receiver’s sensitivity, when the antennas are properly located.
    Do you have plans to implement such a feature in the future development?

    Reply
    • admin says:
      June 16, 2016 at 22:47

      Yes, HopeRF (manufacturer of the RFM modules) is even talking about a 6 dB improvement, that would double the range. I’m working on it, in an implementation involving two modules talking to each other via I2C.

      Reply
  9. Vedant says:
    March 27, 2016 at 18:10

    Sir
    Will there be any issue if two persons are using the UltimateLRS System at the same time?
    Thanks

    Reply
  10. Doug says:
    March 1, 2016 at 20:31

    Does this work with the 2.4 GHz modules?… I am in North America

    Reply
    • admin says:
      April 26, 2016 at 22:33

      Unfortunately this is made for the RFM23BP modules, which are 433MHz modules. There are no exactly equivalent chip in the 2.4GHz band.

      Reply
  11. MONTILIEN says:
    February 9, 2016 at 20:15

    Hi,
    Congratulations for your very nice work…
    Is it possible to setup in the 868Mhz band?
    I have developped a 30dBm module in this band based on Flytron V2 receiver. I will post the pcb files as soon as all tests are OK..
    Best regards

    Reply
  12. bahadir says:
    December 29, 2015 at 15:28

    can i use ultimate lrs modded hk modules with arkbird or rvosd?

    Reply
    • admin says:
      December 30, 2015 at 11:42

      Hello, you can use it with any system that use a serial communication at 19200 bauds. If this baudrate is supported by rvosd or arkbird it will work.

      Reply
  13. Daniele says:
    December 24, 2015 at 11:14

    What bout connecting the ppm pin via 30 meters of ethernet cable to an orange module on the roof? I ve tried it just yesterday, it works, but i m not sure of its reliabilty. Is there anyone more expert than me that wants to share some suggestione?

    Reply
    • admin says:
      December 24, 2015 at 12:58

      It’s OK, especially with ethernet cable. If it’s too long you’ll notice some imprecision in the PPM or issues with the serial connection. I don’t know the exact maximum length, but as long as it works don’t worry 😉

      Reply
  14. Balázs Orbán says:
    December 16, 2015 at 21:03

    Recently I have flashed 2 OrangeRX 1W Futaba style modules with your software as RX and TX. It seems to me that the bind was successful, The TX is beeping probably proportional with RSSI, the leds are blinking on both module. I would like to test the telemetry with two FTDI modules using two separate serial terminal windows. The Baud rate was set to 19200 on both terminal windows, but I am receiving wrong data in both directions. Are there any special settings on Parity, Stop bits, Data bits other than default 8N1 setup or some handshake protocol is used?

    Reply
    • admin says:
      December 17, 2015 at 23:57

      Yes it’s possible to use it as a radio modem, but notice that the TX must be connected at 115200 bauds, and the RX must be connected at 19200 bauds. Of course be careful not to send data at more than 19200 bauds (even on the TX which is connected at 115200 bauds). But if using with two putty consoles for example, it can be used as a chat for testing.

      Reply
  15. shelly316 says:
    December 12, 2015 at 01:18

    Can You please make support for 100mw orangerx tx modules

    Reply
  16. Sette says:
    December 1, 2015 at 13:08

    I have manage to display the status rxrssi in Mission Planner, and it works great with the LC-filter, but has anyone manage to display the same rxrssi parameter in latest verison of Tower?

    Reply
  17. Alfonso says:
    October 7, 2015 at 19:38

    Thanks for the response!!

    I was thinking about making a small electrical box under my pan&tilt antenna. From this “box” i would pull out:

    1) USB cable to the computer
    2) PPM cable to a joystick (radio W/O module)

    and I was thinking about giving 3-5m of lenght to this cables to make a comfy installation. Before doing the bundles, i was wondering if anybody has done this with good results.

    Thanks again to the admin.

    Changing the subject, another idea that occurred to me that could be done with this project was trying to enable the MIMO capabilities that i think the original hardware is supposed to have, creating a diversity system. I think i readed something like this from the radio that orange use.

    Im talking w/o any knowledge about how complicated will be to achieve this.

    Reply
    • admin says:
      October 7, 2015 at 22:25

      Yes it’s a good idea to keep the module close to the antenna, and just have a PPM and USB cable going out. The officially supported USB max length is 5 meters and I’ve already used such a cable with good results. For the PPM, I don’t know exactly the limit, but a friend of mine was using about 3 meters without issues. Notice that it’s also possible to use Bluetooth as documented on the site.

      If I’m right the RFM23BP modules aren’t able to do MIMO, but the chip which is on the module is able to do diversity. However, the module RFM23BP connects the chip in a way that disallows the native diversity. However by having to OrangeRX modules it’s possible to make diversity by software, I’m working on this for a future release.

      Reply
      • Alfonso says:
        October 8, 2015 at 20:26

        you are right. I must have misread the MIMO capabilities of the module.

        Thanks again for the info!! i might do the cable 3M long for starting. i was thinking not to use Bluetooth in order to make it simpler, but it is a great idea though.

        Reply
  18. remote_syst3ms says:
    October 7, 2015 at 18:38

    Curious, About setting these up for serial link only. I do not fly.. I only am looking for a low cost full duplex wireless serial connection. Is there a TxRx passthrough that can be used to Transceive? I’m trying to have long range sensors on cameras, that commands can be sent to the cameras through the OrangeRX.

    Reply
  19. Alfonso says:
    September 15, 2015 at 00:41

    I was wondering, how long can be the ppm cable that goes from the radio modem to the controller?

    i wanted to make a confortable installation, but i dont know if the signal will reach with a 3 or 4 meters of cable.

    Did somebody try it?

    Amazing work!! i cant wait to have the system working.

    Reply
    • admin says:
      September 15, 2015 at 07:23

      Hi, there are 4 options :

      – I would recommend to mount the TX module close to the antenna, with a FTDI adapter, and run a long USB cable (+ a power cable or use a battery). From its specification USB can have a maximum length of 5 meters.

      – Several users are also using a long serial cable rather than USB cable, but I don’t know exactly their range. With real RS-232 (-12V / +12V) it would be easy to reach several tens of meters, but here the serial signal is only 0-5V. But for several meters there should be no issue.

      – Sending the PPM signal over a long wire should work too, but don’t forget that the pulses are sampled at 2MHz, so it can be sensitive to signal degradation and interferences.

      – Using a bluetooth module can also be an option ( http://www.itluxembourg.lu/site/using-ultimate-lrs-with-a-bluetooth-module/ ), it works well but it seems that the max range of the ULRS is reduced maybe because of interferences.

      Reply
      • csomyy says:
        September 16, 2015 at 20:30

        I think, Alfonso tries to separate the RC module from the RC transmitter because of some reasons. For example fixed antenna orientation issues. The long PPM cable leads me to this opinion.

        I tried a 2.4–>433 beacon station. 2.4G RC with PPM output. It worked well.
        So you can have your transmitter in your hands, can move freely, and can have the 433 TX module fixed on a pole or in the ground station.

        Reply
  20. omid says:
    August 31, 2015 at 12:28

    Hi, sorry if my question is’nt so related.
    I want to setup up this project. want to know what is your suggestion for long range video transmitter?

    Reply
    • admin says:
      August 31, 2015 at 13:17

      I’m using a simple 1.2GHz 800mW transmitter, can’t even remember where I bought it. You’ll find a lot of information about FPV video equipment on rcgroups.

      Reply
  21. NEVdD says:
    August 12, 2015 at 13:32

    Hi,

    I am designing long range/long autonomy drones and got quite disappointed by OpenLRSng gitsly branch because the telemetry link is extremely slow.

    A nice subscriber of my YouTube channel recommended me to try Ultimate LRS which looks very interesting!

    Thank you for your work (even though I didn’t test it yet), you detailed every step of the setup very clearly which is really nice! (and provided an updater to flash the Orange Rx system easily)
    Do your system support the serial transfer of the telemetry data to the remote control? (you know, this kind of thing http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=26953006&postcount=2802)

    Btw I am based in Belgium so if you want to share some projects or make a YouTube video about Ultimate LRS it’d be nice 🙂

    Reply
  22. JoeRockhead says:
    August 10, 2015 at 23:46

    I have a question about the Mission Planner version. I missed the step about installing version Mission Planner 1.3.15. I mistakenly installed the latest version 1.3.31 (ArduPlane version). Everything seems to work fine with the latest version. Is there any danger running the latest version of ArduPlane firmware? Thx

    Reply
  23. JoeRockhead says:
    July 29, 2015 at 04:54

    Greetings, Could you post the wiring from the Orange to the HobbyKing version of the flight controller (HKPilot 2.7)? Do you connect the Orange to the Telemetry port like the Pixhawk?

    thx!

    Reply
  24. Saku says:
    July 26, 2015 at 19:12

    Hi, Does anyone have experience using APM Planner 2.0 for MAC instead of the recommended Mission Planner 1.3.15? I’ve been using openlrsng for a while now, but after reading about this project decided today to order skyeye with relevant components to build an UltraLRS plane.

    Reply
  25. Khaled Homouda says:
    July 19, 2015 at 12:12

    Thank you , great job. Just want to clarify: the connection is working RC wise, but, the telemetry is not showing in the Taranis transmitter. The module is plugged in the taranis. shouldn’t it be? as you are explaining connecting the PPM, VCC, and Gnd, does this mean not plug the module?
    the voltage is showing in mission planner, but how do I make it show in the transmitter, and where does the RSSI modified cable with the cap and res attache to other than the rx? does it have to go to the OSD, or you mean it will go somewhere else? Thanks a lot

    Reply
    • admin says:
      July 19, 2015 at 14:30

      Hello, yes it’s simply plugged in the transmitter. This product is made to work with mission planner (or another ground station software), as you have it working. There’s no feature to display directly on the Taranis screen, but I think someone did a modified Taranis firmware that can read mavlink serial telemetry.

      Reply
    • NEVdD says:
      August 12, 2015 at 13:49

      As the admin mentioned, a great guy made that firmware for Taranis

      Please read the comments because the main article doesn’t explain everything.
      It is a shame that FrSky doesn’t let the OpenTx community to implement this feature officially for the Taranis, the firmware above is an old version of the Taranis firmware…

      Also you’ll have to modify your “Orange RX” TX module to feed the remote with the tx serial data from the telemetry link, this modification is shown here
      http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=26953006&postcount=2802

      Reply
  26. felekb says:
    July 7, 2015 at 11:59

    Will This firmware work with OrangeRC TX 100mw? I would like to keep the whole radio at 100mW for legal reasons.

    Reply
  27. Dillon says:
    July 5, 2015 at 14:03

    Can your firmware also be used on the regular Tx as Tx and Rx as Rx? I don’t have 2 Tx’s but I have a very unreliable link using stock openlrsng firmware.

    Reply
  28. Julius says:
    July 2, 2015 at 01:43

    Hey its me again,
    I just want to thank you and let know you that everythings works flawless now. Keep up the good work, I am looking forward to your next software release. Donation granted.

    Reply
  29. Arunas says:
    June 29, 2015 at 13:14

    Thank you , great job . Everything work perfect .

    Reply
  30. Piotr says:
    June 28, 2015 at 12:48

    Hi, it’s really fantastic project, thanks. I flashed Tx&Rx, then connected APM to PC. The RC link works perfectly. Now try to connect the Tx directly to PC via FTDI to check if telemetry is well transferred. Could you please attached the wiring of the Tx – FTDI – PC connection. It would help me and maybe other less experienced people. Thank you in advance and I’m waiting for the “frequency hopping version”.

    Reply
    • admin says:
      June 29, 2015 at 05:55

      Thanks, and it’s an excellent idea, I’m adding more details about the TX-FTDI-PC connection.

      Reply
  31. Lyn says:
    June 25, 2015 at 23:17

    This is a brilliant addition to APM. I have one question, you say you are developing “frequency hopping”. Would it also be possible to allow an option to use 458 MHz as this is a legal rc control frequency in the UK, 433MHz is not!

    Thanks

    Reply
    • admin says:
      June 26, 2015 at 13:49

      Thanks, yes the frequencies will be selectable within the full range allowed by the RFM23BP module.

      Reply
  32. Joseph Douce says:
    June 24, 2015 at 12:03

    The idea is to also use the laptop for fpv. Been experimenting with android phone as fpv camera over 3/4g to get away from fpv range limitations.

    Reply
  33. Joseph Douce says:
    June 24, 2015 at 03:59

    Great project… I’m wanting to to control my milticopter from mission planner via the joystick option. As is described on the 3dr website with the 3rd radios below. Im using a pixhawk. If I set up 2 OrangeRX TX 1W. As described above will this work? I control currently purely from mission planner. I have no rc controller.

    http://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-joystick.html

    Can I simply replace my 3dr radios with 2 x OrangeRX TX?

    Reply
  34. Oscar says:
    June 9, 2015 at 11:15

    Do you know if the current firware is compatible with original hawkeye (non dtf uhf)? I’ve heard the pcb si very close to flytron or orangeRX.
    Thanks for making mavlink telemetry possible with “openlrs” hardware

    Reply
    • admin says:
      June 10, 2015 at 05:43

      Thanks ! For now it’s compatible with boards having exactly the same wiring as the original 1W or 100mW Flytron, I don’t think the original hawkeye has the same wiring as Flytron. Next version will be compatible with those.

      Reply
  35. Julius says:
    June 8, 2015 at 19:34

    Hi,
    what a great project, thank you very much for this awesome LRS option.
    However i am stuck for a while now. Managed it to flash two 1 W Tx’s as RX and Tx, normal RC link also works quite good. However iam not able to connect my 1W TX to the mission planner (via FTDI). I think i have wired everything correct, still when trying to connect to the module i get the Message: ”No Mavlink hearthbeat recieved”. My FTDI seems to work, as it is blinking. Somehow my APM fails to send Telemtry over the RX to the TX. 1W RX is connected to channel 1 with PPM jumper in place. TX/RX pins of the 1W RX Serial Port are connected to the APM Telemtry Port, but here iam not sure to which pins one should connect exactly, since there are a lot and your Picture is diffecult to understand since there is no wirking diagram – only a pic with cables running into the Telemtry Port.

    Reply
    • admin says:
      June 10, 2015 at 05:45

      OK, First check that the baudrate in mission planner is set to 115200 bauds, and in APM to 19200 (19) bauds.

      Reply
      • Julius says:
        June 13, 2015 at 01:41

        It might be a dumb question of mine, but how does one check this? When connecting via usb the baud rate is 115200 Bauds. And according to your instructions i set Serial 1 Baud to 19200 Bauds. Where do i have to set those (57) Bauds?
        Thx

        Reply
        • admin says:
          June 14, 2015 at 14:43

          Sorry, I meant 19200 bauds (corrected in my answer above). You can’t connect the APM simultaneously via USB and via ULRS telemetry : it will automatically go to 115200 bauds as soon as a USB cable is plugged in.

          Reply
          • Julius says:
            June 15, 2015 at 11:02

            Allright i think i might forgot to make some hardware mods to the TX modules, like connecting the serial tx pin to the rf pin of the module connector – are those mod nessecarry for enabling telemtry on a Turnigy 9xr Pro? And which radio/firmware are you using?

          • admin says:
            June 18, 2015 at 14:38

            I’m using a Taranis, but you can use any RC TX which gives a PPM signal. It just requires to connect the PPM pin, the VCC and the GND. No other mods are required for basic operation.

  36. Tobias says:
    June 7, 2015 at 12:06

    Hi, this is a great project! Would your code also work on the Hawkeye DTFUHF gear? I have the taranis module and the 9ch receiver. I’ve been waiting for mavlink integration with openlrsng for soo long now and not much progress.. your code seems to be perfect! Somewhere you mention it needs no binding. How does it deal with multiple users at the same time? e.g. when flying with a friend?

    Reply
    • admin says:
      June 8, 2015 at 05:30

      Hi, I made this firmware because I wanted to fly long range with APM, the goal was to have something very reliable, using a bidirectional 1W link, and able to handle 19200 bauds for mavlink. So far a user took it to 40km, which is pretty good but not yet the limit. The next version will include the ability to select the channels, for now it’s a one-user system.

      DTF UHF compatibility will be included, for I’m waiting for a new DTF unit to ship.

      Reply
  37. Jean Joubert says:
    June 6, 2015 at 21:38

    I am trying to get RSSi to work, can you please give more detail on the capacitor to use and how to connect? Have seen various descriptions of doing this but most common a combination of a 4.7k resistor and 10uF capacitor? Presume I have to set the RSSI_RANGE Parameter to 3.3V.

    Thanks again for your work on this system, can’t believe how well this works after I have wasted so much time with OpenLRSNG!!

    Reply
    • admin says:
      June 8, 2015 at 05:25

      Hi, the PPM pin is already connected via a 1k resistor, so all that’s needed is a capacitor. 10 µF seems a good value, but even lower values should be OK. The capacitor must be connected between the PPM pin and the GND.

      Reply
  38. lvming says:
    June 5, 2015 at 04:56

    If I have two sets of three OrangeRX equipment to work with, how they do not interfere with each other, thank you.

    Reply
  39. Andrew Borntrager says:
    April 24, 2015 at 01:17

    Hi.

    I have 2 orange rx open LRS tx and flashed them with custom firmware. I have the jumper on my APM to activate serial PPM. Telemetry data is coming back fine. I have a regular Futaba rx (PWM) going to a PWM to PPM encoder. The PPM signal then goes to my APM. My apm is armed, and the servos go in a locked positon and stay. I did a radio calibration, and can clearly see my Futaba radio inputs on my Mission Planner screen move perfectly with my RC input movements on my radio. MP lets me switch from manual to RTL or any mode I want. The servos stay locked in place, despite changing to manual mode. The IT Luxembourg site shows the PPM signal from the Orange RX module, not a receiver. Could this be my problem, or is there any way to make this work, or a reason why my setup is not working?

    Reply
    • Andrew Borntrager says:
      May 3, 2015 at 23:17

      Hey thanks a lot! I got everything working fine except for rssi. When I hook it up to analog channel zero and make the rssi value show up on the screen, it always says zero. When I enable the airspeed sensor in MP, the airspeed value goes crazy(which I actually have rssi connected to, so I think MP is receiving at least raw data). Should this be 3v or 5v, and might I need any scaling? Thanks for the awesome setup. I’m combing this with cellular video via a Raspberry Pi.

      Reply
      • admin says:
        May 4, 2015 at 06:52

        Interesting setup with raspberry pi ! For the RSSI you’ve got to select the pin and activate the RSSI input pin (0, 1 or 13) with APM parameter RSSI_PIN, and select the range (3.3V or 5V) with parameter RSSI_RANGE.

        Reply
        • steve Sumner says:
          May 19, 2015 at 22:25

          When you setup the rssi cable, do you have to put in the capacitors like all the other diy rssi cables, or is it just a straight cable. Also when I flashed my 2 TX’s last night the one I flashed as TX just beeped and beeped after successful completion of the program, is that normal?
          And one more question I could not find anywhere what the connection between the TX Module and transmitter looks like? does it just plug in like normal or is there some other setup. BTW love your program, so much easier than openlrs. Thank u

          Reply
          • admin says:
            May 22, 2015 at 06:49

            Thanks, you’ve got to use a capacitor for RSSI, because Atmega can only output a PWM signal, which will be filtered/smoothed to an analog voltage by the capacitor.

            The TX will beep when the RX is off. Normally this is used to hear when a packet or the connection is lost.

            The TX module can simply be plugged in.

  40. Simon Edwards says:
    April 12, 2015 at 14:01

    Hi,

    Thank you very much for this fantastic work. I now have telemetry working between 2x1W 433 orangerx units and Bluetooth to my computer. Brilliant!

    Couple of questions:

    1. When bound, both units show red and blue lights constantly on. Is this normal?
    2. The setup works great with your firmware. As an experiment, I tried using openLRsng in Google Chrome and flashing “TX as RX” onto the APM TX but without luck. Do you have any ideas why this doesn’t work? No worries if not, just curious.

    I have emailed you a picture of my setup showing the lights mentioned in point 1.

    Thanks again!

    Si.

    Reply
    • admin says:
      April 14, 2015 at 09:35

      Hi, yes it’s normal that all the LEDs are ON. Regarding openlrsng I can’t help you as it’s not a firmware I created, the best is to ask in its forum.

      Reply
  41. Daniel says:
    March 29, 2015 at 05:31

    Hi,

    Instead a long serial or usb cable, it’s possible connect via a serial Bluetooth?

    Great project, congratulations and thanks for share!

    Reply

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