Hello and sorry for perhaps being a bit noob in the area :D.
I’m considering buying the navio2 for use in my DIY drone project. However, I’m having some trouble understanding the documentation around certain topics.
I want to control my drone entirely over UDP with mavlink. I can probably figure out how to generate the mavlink packets with an sdk, but how can I configure the navio2 to receive navlink packets and send telemetry over UDP without a radio tranceiver? Is it even possible?
I also saw mentions about MAVProxy in the documentation, but I’m not entirely sure about how it fits into the bigger picture – is it supposed to run on the drone or GCS, what is its purpose etc.
If the UDP control is difficult to achieve, is it possible to control the navio2 locally with an SDK of some kind? In that case I could implement the transport myself.
It’s possible to connect Navio2 to GCS via UDP. However, for a UDP connection, both your devices (Navio2 and GCS) should be in the same network. The Wi-Fi link range isn’t that long to control the drone via UDP during the flight. That’s why most users work with telemetry radio.
MAVProxy is a command-line ground control station. You can use it instead of Mission Planner or QGroundControl, which are the most popular GCS with user-interface.
If a radio isn’t the option for you, you can try to configure the connection via TCP if you install 3G/LTE modem with static IP on a drone. However, in my opinion, telemetry radio is the most reliable connection type.
Drone making is an interesting but difficult sphere. Don’t hesitate to ask any questions!
Yes, either in the same wifi network or some port-forwarding setup or proxy. I’m not primarily interested in the wifi, my end goal is lte / 4g (it’s cheap and widely available where I live). My only second thoughts are about needing to get the drone connected in the field without too much equipment, so I’ll definitely keep the telemetry radio option in mind.
Would something like this work as the radio adapter? AFAIK the navio2 has a UART port.
EDIT: I also assume that there is some way to communicate with the navio2 shield directly from the RPi with MAVlink over serial?
At first glance, it looks like a regular telemetry radio. So, it should work. Please let me know if I’m missing something.
It seems I don’t quite understand your goal. Since Navio2 is a HAT for Raspberry Pi, they are communicating via a 40-pin gpio port. There is no need to connect them additionally. Could you elaborate on what you would like to do?
