Radiolink AT9 as a platform for Deviation?

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19 Apr 2016 00:09 #46771 by dc59

anasm2010 wrote: hello
i hope more people will be interested and will help on the deviation of the at9.

In my side im working in a mod to control the H8mini quadcopter using a NRF24L01 over the trainer port. I will share when I end B)


Is it similar to Goebish's project ?
github.com/goebish/nrf24_multipro

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19 Apr 2016 03:17 #46776 by PhracturedBlue
Replied by PhracturedBlue on topic Radiolink AT9 as a platform for Deviation?
I just ordered an AT9. I think we'll need to do something interesting since apparently it only has a tiny EEPROM. But it does have a 512k onboard flash with 2k page size, which means we could very likely fit a small devofs filesystem on the MCU (maybe up to 256k). that would be plenty for anything except for icons.

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20 Apr 2016 06:28 #46843 by bianchifan
Replied by bianchifan on topic Radiolink AT9 as a platform for Deviation?
May someone tell a few words about the gimbal quality?
I.E. detailed pics of the mechanics?

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20 Apr 2016 07:24 #46847 by vlad_vy
Replied by vlad_vy on topic Radiolink AT9 as a platform for Deviation?
Not the best quality, it has bearing on one side only, second side mounted on pot shaft.

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20 Apr 2016 14:29 #46874 by PhracturedBlue
Replied by PhracturedBlue on topic Radiolink AT9 as a platform for Deviation?
Thanks to victzh, here is the hardware connectivity for the AT9:
www.deviationtx.com/wiki/hardware/radiolink_at9

The AT10 should be following soon. The FCC was nice enough to provide a schematic for it too:
www.deviationtx.com/wiki/hardware/radiolink_at10

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20 Apr 2016 15:12 #46878 by victzh
Replied by victzh on topic Radiolink AT9 as a platform for Deviation?
Re gimbal quality. I don't know about importance of bearings on both sides, maybe it enhances durability - too early to tell. But I compared the perception of gimals travel on Radiolink AT9, Devo 7E, Devo 10, Devo 12, and Futaba T10J. Futaba is the worst - the throttle ratchet is too strong and "ratchety" :-) . Maybe I need to relax it a bit. AT9 gimbal movement is smooth, springs are slightly stronger than 7E but weaker than Devo 10.

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21 Apr 2016 09:20 - 21 Apr 2016 09:22 #46928 by bianchifan
Replied by bianchifan on topic Radiolink AT9 as a platform for Deviation?

vlad_vy wrote: Not the best quality, it has bearing on one side only, second side mounted on pot shaft.

Thx for your answer, do you think Devo7/10 are the better choice?



I'm not in the theme, I built a TX with a cheap Banggood-Walkera, ther were no gimbals but wabbles.
Lot of work to make them run - for a while, maybe.

Originally I liked to grab infos on the AT10 I found on RCGroups.
Some people tell, it's a Futaba clone (I dod not knows what's that..Futaba.
I never saw a Futaba, Graupner e.t.c
Some people like Taranis-Gimbals, others vote them for crap.
But I fear, they are used too highly expensive stuff of several thousand $s.

I'm just looking for a nice housing with precise and reliable gimbals.
Attachments:
Last edit: 21 Apr 2016 09:22 by bianchifan. Reason: pic inserted

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21 Apr 2016 10:44 - 21 Apr 2016 10:46 #46929 by vlad_vy
Last edit: 21 Apr 2016 10:46 by vlad_vy.

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23 Apr 2016 22:58 #47079 by PhracturedBlue
Replied by PhracturedBlue on topic Radiolink AT9 as a platform for Deviation?
I got my AT9 today and installed the test firmware that victzh put together on it right away. We can draw to the screen now, and usually that is the hardest part of porting Deviation. Then again, this transmitter has a different button configuration than the Devos do, and that could make it much more difficult since we assume 6 buttons and only actually have 5 (equivalent) buttons to use. Before I do anything else, I need to get a reliable programmer though. The Radiolink firmware upload software is terrible.

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24 Apr 2016 01:57 #47080 by PhracturedBlue
Replied by PhracturedBlue on topic Radiolink AT9 as a platform for Deviation?
Small update:
I figured out that the problem with uploading to the Radiolink using 'dfu-util' is that the flash has a 2k page size, but the bootloader only supports a 1k transfer-size. dfu-util does an erase/write for each transfer, which means we erase the page we just wrote every other time. The fix is to do an erase pass first, and then follow it up with a write pass. I've modified my dfu_util to do this, but I'll need to update deviation_upload to support this as well to make it easy for others to use. In the interim, the radiolink software is (barely) usable.

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25 Apr 2016 02:55 #47132 by dc59
Hi PB & Victzh,

It seems AT9 would be deviated! but what's your plan about RF module?
will you test it with stock RF module(ZigBee ?) + RadioLink protocol or replace the RF module with another one for test?

Thanks!

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25 Apr 2016 03:23 #47134 by PhracturedBlue
Replied by PhracturedBlue on topic Radiolink AT9 as a platform for Deviation?
I expect it'll wait for a 4-in-1/UniversalTx module. We may enable the stock protocol at some point, but the main benefit for Deviation would be supporting the current protocols.

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25 Apr 2016 03:39 #47135 by dc59
Thanks PB! :cheer:
I think I will get one AT9. :lol:

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25 Apr 2016 03:43 #47136 by victzh
Replied by victzh on topic Radiolink AT9 as a platform for Deviation?
The stock protocol has also a problem - it's implemented in the radio module. Even if you trace SPI communication between MCU and the module you'll see the top level commands, not the specifics of the radio traffic. So you can't replace the module (there are many other chips supporting modulation of ZigBee on low level), you need to use the original one. That's unfortunate - things happen and currently there is no replacement for it.
So it's better not to pretend now that we can handle native protocol but to replace it altogether.

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25 Apr 2016 03:57 #47138 by dc59
Thanks Victzh !! Got it. :)

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25 Apr 2016 05:48 #47139 by victzh
Replied by victzh on topic Radiolink AT9 as a platform for Deviation?
I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's quite hard and low in priority.

We're still to decide how to handle miserable amount of EEPROM this TX has - either to allocate 256K of flash (it has MCU beefy in flash - 512K - which we can't use for firmware, but it can change any time - they can realize they don't need it either and stop putting such processors in future models), or add SPI flash to the module this TX needs anyways.

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01 May 2016 01:34 #47523 by HappyHarry
Replied by HappyHarry on topic Radiolink AT9 as a platform for Deviation?
is there more than one version of the at9? as I've seen photo's of one's with a multicolored screen and also ones with a monochrome screen. also how big is this size wise? devo 10 or 7e sized? as it looks small in some of the pics I've seen

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01 May 2016 02:15 #47524 by PhracturedBlue
Replied by PhracturedBlue on topic Radiolink AT9 as a platform for Deviation?
The AT9 is almost exactly the same size as a Devo10.
They all have a 320x24016bit screen. I think the firmware is only setup to support 16 colors though (I'm not really sure, I haven't actually tested the stock firmware).

I think the AT10 is basically identical to the AT9 with the exception of the cursor lever and extra dial. I am not sure yet what to do with the interface on this one. we only have the equivalent of 5 buttons (Exit, Mode, Dial Press, Dial Left, Dial Right) and The entire interface is designed for 6 buttons.

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01 May 2016 20:30 #47567 by PhracturedBlue
Replied by PhracturedBlue on topic Radiolink AT9 as a platform for Deviation?
I've converted our test software for the AT9 to work as a proper target for deviation. I can now build Deviation for the AT9. It doesn't actually work because I haven't figured out what to do with the filesystem, but I have verified that I can read from all of the analog inputs.

Because the AT9 has limited space for a filesystem, I don't think we'll get the full benefit of the 320x240 screen. My current plan is to build a reduced-color gui (probably just 16-color icons/buttons) to start with. Then we're thinking that we can add some SPI flash to a 4-in-1 module to give us proper file-system support with full color icons and full font support. if I can get that working, I should have a basic demo running pretty soon.

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02 May 2016 02:50 #47575 by victzh
Replied by victzh on topic Radiolink AT9 as a platform for Deviation?
Hurray! I'm finishing up the module with the discrete logic and ordering it to have at least something to experiment with. We can decide on how exactly to build this module later, working prototype will take sometime to build anyway - OSHPark is not overnight :-)

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