Telemetry Data from LemonRX DSMX/DSM2 module

Evening all - just posting a quick question after playing around with a LemonRx Telemetry module.

To give you the background, I ordered the telemetry module to get some helpful information from my nitro powered helicopters - namely (and in order of importance to me)

Engine Temperature (for assisting with engine tuning while airborne)
Battery Voltage
Altitude

The telemetry module will bind to my Devo 12s running 4.0.1, and provide data, although I can only get:

Battery Voltage
fades/signal loss (which the Lemon unit doesn't provide)
temperature

Altitude stays permanently 'red' with a reading of 0 meters.

My main question is I can only view temperature by heading into the telemetry page of the radio - if I edit the main page to show telemetry data, I only get the choice of Volts1, Volts2, Fades/Holds/Loss, RPM, and nothing else.

is there a simple way to firstly get Temp displayed on the main page?

Is there a way to get altitude to work at all?

Thanks in advance.

You need to go to the main page config page and then set a box to display the temperature. Select your icon model or whatever you do to get to mixers, then go left to get to the main page config. If none of the purple boxes say "None" on the config, click the plus, select "Small-box" or "Big-box" and "Add" to add a box. Then use the X & Y scroll boxes at the top to position it where you want it. Once you have a "None" box, you can click on it and then click the wrench to set what it displays. Just scroll the one that says "None" to "TelemT".

There DSM telemetry code is being worked on even now. Not sure when a build will be available. I'm not sure if that will fix the other issues, but it'll probably make it more likely to get you there.

Hi, I'm the developer working on telemetry.

You can download the latest DSM Telemetry from here:
bitbucket.org/Indigo1/deviation/downloads

What I am providing above are these versions:
www.deviationtx.com/repository/Deviation...ases/Nightly-Builds/
...with the latest telemetry support added on.

Altitude should now working. "Temp EGT" and many other extended telemetry values are not yet displayed on Telemetry monitor screen, but they can be added to main screen (via main page config). However, GPS type values (eg, altitude, speed) currently can not be added to main screen.

Regards,
Indigo

Hi Indigo, Hi mwm - please forgive my absence on this thread, I hadn't subscribed to it, and thought no-one had replied!

Great to hear that work is ongoing regarding the telemetry - I'm a little ahead of myself ordering the module I suspect!

I'll have a play with the files you have provided Indigo, thanks for the links.

@ mwm, I've deleted a box to make room for the new box as you outlined, but without much luck. In version 4.0.1 i'm just seeing:

FadesA
FadesB
FadesL
FadesR
Loss
Holds
TelemV1 (battery pack voltage pulled from the current meter)
TelemV2 (Voltage to telemetry module from BEC)
TelemRPM (shows 0, but i'm not interested vurrently in that)

I'll get a nightly in there and see what happens.

Thanks guys!

I could have sworn i was getting temperature telemetry data the last time I tried the DSM telemetry. That was with 4.0.1, not the nightlies. I've since converted that 'copter to FrSky, so don't have anything set up to test with. Nothing running 4.0.1 any more, either.

Since Indigo1 has been working with it recently, maybe he can tell you whether or not you should be getting telemetry data. If he says yes, I'll set up a test rig and see what happens.

Evening gents, i've had a bit of a play with the nightly indigo linked to - it's certainly more functional than 4.0.1!

I've given as many systems as I can think of a quick test, and have found a couple of oddities:

I can display altitude and temperature on my model screen, which is great news - I can also get voltage, but V1 is playing up - it appears to be displaying both the BEC voltage then the battery voltage, almost constantly flicking between the two (see screenshot)



I have a feeling that there are two of each voltage at the moment within the menu, but I could be wrong?

See below, I've found V2 now reads 0v




The Altitude/long/lat/speed are red, which I understand is down to my lack of a GPS module - would there be a way of labelling the GPS sourced info as such, so it doesn't get confused with the data from my moduile, barometer etc?

Thanks for your feedback.

Without it I wouldn't know there were issues, and I was loosing interest and thinking of moving onto something else.

You were right, 2 voltage readings were being saved to same variable. That is now fixed.

And the 32768 value in fades I hope is fixed too.
Please try latest and report back.

Hi indigo, thanks for that, I'm at work until 6 uk time but I'll have a play as soon as I'm back home, and report back!

I know this is a little off topic, but I've Been reading a lot about the binding behaviours of DSMX and more than 7 channel receivers, which could go some way to explaining an odd behaviour I'm having when binding lemonRx 10 channel receivers with the telemetry module plugged in alongside my devo 12S- if I bind it as per the instructions, telemetry works and I get control, until I remove the bind plug and unplug- then on next startup, (with no bind plug!) the receivers go into bind mode again!

Doesn't happen with any of my orange kit, or the 6-7 channel Lemon receivers. Should I be binding with telemetry off, then enabling after the fact?

Shot the worlds most boring video to show what was going on to Lemon, they're looking into it, but here's the link:

Hi all - this ones for you Indigo!

I've updated the Firmware to your version for testing, and have some interesting results - not sure if they're completely to do with the gear i'm using or not, but wanted to give you the findings!

The binding issue is still very much present with the 10 channel receivers, but I'll work on that one at some other time - I've tried DSM2/X, as well as binding with Telemetry on/off, but with odd results - with telemetry on in DSMX the receiver turns off all its lights, then starts to sporadically blip the servos while ignoring the transmitter. Rebinding with Telemetry off seems to sort it.

the Firmware I downloaded this evening also has a bit of an odd issue with the 'binding in progress' dialog box - it appears, then hangs on the counter saying 0 seconds, without the chime either.

I have also had the binding process take place without the dialog box appearing at all! Is there anything in your changes that could have caused that?

Here's a video showing the binding dialog box and its disappearing ways?

I also checked the telemetry - the battery voltages now read correctly in both boxes, and all other variables seem to work as expected, temperature, altitude etc.

This is the unit bound to a 10 channel unit - Volt2 must be the internal voltage monitor in the unit, Volt1 only pulls information from the external current sensor as in the second image?





Finally - all the information I require in the right place! I take it within Deviation currently there isn't a way to label the boxes in the GUI without some major rework? Just would add a layer of polish if it can be done.

I'm looking forward to the pull request for this on the team nightlies!

Kernowmcrae, can you try binding the 10-channel Rx's with 7 channels? There's a known issue with the Blade/Eflite Rx's built into their small RTF & BNF aircraft if you bind them with more than 7 channels. My 350QX1 when bound with 8 channels on the Tx will chatter the ESCs even before it's initialized.

I'm wondering if this issue may be related to that.

Hi there, it's 1:20am here but had to have a fiddle!

I've tried to bind both 10 channel receivers with the same result- perfect bind until I unplug the power and bind plug. i also checked for a glitchy bind when binding with telemetry enabled in dsmx and 7 channels, and the problems identical- twitching servos, some driven past their limits, and random flashes from the satellite, receiver and telemetry red LEDs. No sign of a green (data downlink) LED though. Hope this helps!

One really odd thing- I left the receiver powered having rebound without the telemetry module, and my throttle hold switch wasn't working- I kept trying and fiddling with settings, and after a minute or so, the receiver made the "bound" chime, and my throttle hold started working on its own! All through this, the radio had solid red lights on the rx and satellite, and all channels on the sticks responded fine... Odd!

Thanks for your feedback. I think adding labels to telemetry items on main screen would be possible, I'll try to do it in next version.

I have just uploaded another update

- Added proper labels to Volt1 & Volt2
- Labels are now right justified.
- As a test, I have changed binding packet so that it will now bind as if telemetry is off.

That 32768 value is now treated as 'no data', however it's most likely to be negative zero. I would like to see some other value for FrameLosses or Holds. Please try lowering tx power to minimal setting and moving away (if needed) to get a value other than 32768 or 0. With aircraft on ground and no throttle it should be quiet safe. However you will crash if you try to fly away with tx power too low, so make sure you return tx power to normal setting when your done testing.

Hi indigo, I think that no data section is actually a quirk of the lemonRx telemetry module, I remember reading it doesn't report certain fades info somewhere.

What does fades/holds refer to, and why a/b?

I think A, B, L, R are different antennas (some are internal). FadesA would be loss of signal on antenna A. FrameLosses occur when there is loss of signal on all antennas. Too many frame losses within a short period results in a Hold, where receiver holds last inputs or goes into fail-safe until it's able to rebind. You can cause a hold to occur by switching off tx, when you switch on tx again you should see holds value increased by 1.

aha - ok, makes sense now. I've just had an email from LemonRx and their product chaps, turns out they've replicated the fault I was experiencing with the bind not staying bound with my 10 channels, and will be sending me another unit which has rectified the problem - no word about what the problem was however.

I'll try getting the frame losses to fluctuate, and the holds, and report back. Intrigued to see the labels, and will report back.

I feel another boring video coming on!

Hi guys, good evening. I've had a quiet moment to flash the firmware, and can report back that the labels being moved to the right looks a lot neater!

The persistent 'binding in progress, please wait' message is still very much present - as I mentioned before, it can sit for over a minute at '0 seconds remaining - that can't be right!

I've bound with telemetry enabled, and no glitchy servos or random flashes from the rx.

I've also dropped the signal strength for you indigo, and have got varying values in the fades box - ranging from 100 (which is at full signal) to 0, to 65532 when I had barely any control. It also turned red at one point, with a value of 0 displayed.

Unfortunately I don't have a genuine Spektrum Telemetry module to test the fades B/L/R etc, but through testing none of the values other than FadesA changed.

One final thing, Am I right in saying the battery labels are the wrong way round? Volts1 (labelled Rxv) appears to draw from the current sensor, and Volts2 draws from the voltage provided to the Reciever?

I apologise in advance if I've given you them the wrong way round before!

Kernowmcrae wrote: Unfortunately I don't have a genuine Spektrum Telemetry module to test the fades B/L/R etc, but through testing none of the values other than FadesA changed.

I've got Spektrum telemetry modules, but no Spektrum receivers. I can test if you think it would help, but the radio signal data originates in the Rx, not the telemetry module. Any chance I can get a repo/branch to pull into my build?

Just updated!
bitbucket.org/Indigo1/deviation/downloads

Yes, repo/branch accesible from above link. I committed my current work in progress as 'Temp' (last commit is only temporary).

-Fixed labels RxV & Bat wrong way around.
-Value 32768 from lemonRx telemetry replaced with zero.