Control Navio with Raspberry Pi wifi

Navio / Edge Getting started
1

Hi Emlid community

I just begin to interest myself into a drone construction!
After looking the different feature of Navio+ I think it’s the best solution for me.
But i just want to be sure of one things: I want to turn my Raspberry Pi into a wireless router and I want to control the Navio card with the Wifi of the Raspberry Pi. It’s possible?

Sorry for my English!

Best regards.

2

Yes but here are some points to consider:

  1. There could be extra latency between the control movement and the reaction, compared to a RC transmitter/receiver. Don’t use such a setup for racing or low/proximity flight.
  2. If you already have a radio transmitter, the cost of a basic receiver with CPPM pass-through is insignificant and very useful at least for takeoff, landing and backup use. The new ones are also very small and light.
  3. You need GCS failsafe set so it will not fly off if you lose the WiFi signal, and set to a height higher than anything you plan to fly around.
  4. The joystick support in Mission Planner is more advanced, so maybe you should use that as your GCS.
  5. If you use standard WiFi equipment the range will be limited, more than a RC transmitter. You should get a high gain antenna for the ground station and a decent USB dongle (with necessary drivers) for the drone.
  6. The USB ports don’t provide enough power for most newer WiFi dongles by default. There is a config.txt option to increase the power on the RasPi but you may also need to wire-in a separate supply (some people even put a USB hub on board). See: http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/27708/is-setting-max-usb-current-1-to-give-more-power-to-usb-devices-a-bad-idea
  7. If you don’t use WiFi for control (install an RC receiver) then it could still be a viable alternative to the 3DR radio for GCS telemetry and instructions.
3 Likes
3

Thank you for your quick answer! I take into account your advice but I have to control the drone with wifi.

And I have another question: Have the navio+ the capacity to control a drone with 8 ESC ?

Regards

4

There are 13 PWM outputs on Navio so 8 ESCs are no problem :wink: I presume the configuration you are using is supported by APM, e.g. octocopter or X8/octaquad. http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/connect-escs-and-motors/