Telemetry needed for using a gamepad?

Navio / Edge Hardware
1

Hello,

I would like to control my drone using a gamepad, and I read this article :
http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/flying-with-a-joystickgamepad-instead-of-rc-controller/#what_you_will_need

It says telemetry is needed for flying with a gamepad.
Is it absolutely needed to work ? What it is used for ?

Thank you

2

You need to imagine that as a RC radio uses the RC receiver to communicate with the servos/controller board, the gamepad would need something to make that link as well and there’s telemetry. :grinning:

3

I thought telemetry systems were only unidirectional : information sent from drone to ground station. Actually telemetry systems are capable of sending information, but also receiving orders from gamepad + ground station ?

Do you think it is possible to easily use wifi or LTE instead of telemetry, with mission planner ?

Thank you

4

telemetry can be two-way communications. You can use serial communications over radios, USB WiFi and even USB 3G/4G modems. Many users have had success using network connections with gamepads for control but there will be more latency than using traditional RC radios.

Check out the following links for more info.

http://uavmatrix.com/Blog/38

Robert

5

Hi @deltasight
I can assure you that LTE works flawlessly to stream telemetry packages or even video to ground control station,
You can control your drone with Gamepad or any USB controller you want.

I am always using LTE for my planes and copters. I find it more convenient to use than any other regular Telemetry radios such as 433Mhz.

6

Hello everybody,

Thank you for your replies, I begin to understand APM logics step by step. I come from the allroad buggy world so I have to learn a lot.

I received my drone kit yesterday, Navio RPi was ready for a little while. Unfortunately my 2,4Ghz receiver doesn’t do PPM so I’m waiting for receiving a new one.

I saw several videos on Youtube with Logitech gamepads connected to ground stations. So I bought a gamepad today, but joysticks calibration seems buggy and sometimes doesn’t work.

I do not fully understand your point arrato, your are not satisfied with wifi but on the other hand you obtained a range of 5km with your advanced setup, which is astonishing. That’s even more than high-end 2,4Ghz receivers. So latency is the big problem that makes remote control impossible ?

I’m impatient to get my drone flying :smile: