ESP8266 as NAV telemetry device

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stronnag
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ESP8266 as NAV telemetry device

Post by stronnag »

I've been using mw-nav (2.3,2.4) with mwp as the mission planner / logger using bluetooth and 3DR for a while now, and as an experiment, decided to try using an ESP8266 WiFi - serial device as an alternative (to improve range v BT and latency / bandwidth v. 3DR).

The ESP8266 (wifi <=> serial) is less ergonomic, requiring a 3.3v source at least 200ma (e.g. Pololu D24V3F3) and a 3.3/5v logic level shifter. The ESP8266 also needs to be flashed with the beckdac transparent bridge firmware, and mwp at least can use TCP directly <tcp://mwp-wifi:23> to communicate with it. In the field I have an old Edimax access point powered off a 12v LiPo cabled into the laptop (as I thought this would give better performance than using either the ESP8266 or the laptop (actually an ARM Chromebook running Arch Linux) as an AP. For other mission planners / loggers, I guess one could use two ESP8266 back to back and FDTI into the laptop, or use something like tcp2com on legacy OS.

In the sole test to date, out to c. 120m range, I get slightly better update rates, and fewer missed packets with the ESP8266 compared to 3DR. In the screenshots, compare the WP6 - WP7 leg; the data density is better with the ESP8266. However, I'm not convinced that one test is a valid experiment.

On that basis, so far it seems like a reasonable solution (latency / bandwidth / range) for this sort of moderate range activity, but I'm not sure that I'll forgo
the convenience of 3DR and not having to lug an AP into the field for a little better performance.

I did not experience any 2.4GHz contention issues for non-WP flying and I'd be interested to learn of any other experiences of ESP8266 v. 3DR for data logging.

Logging with 3DR
Logging with 3DR

Logging with ESP8266
Logging with ESP8266

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ezio
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Post by ezio »


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stronnag
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Re: ESP8266 as NAV telemetry device

Post by stronnag »

Cool. Great tutorial.

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Leo
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Re: ESP8266 as NAV telemetry device

Post by Leo »

I've just ordered some modules from china and look forward to trying this out.

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Leo
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Re: ESP8266 as NAV telemetry device

Post by Leo »

Guys, I'm at a point of frustration. I have a ESP8266Esp-01 module and I was able to flash it with ESP8266EX SDK 0.9.5. AT commands work, no problem.

So now I'm trying to flash the Transparent Bridge FW. Two bin files are provided "0x00000.bin" and "0x40000.bin". After the flash process is done I get the green check. Also no errors.
As soon as I reset the board the blue led turns on and stays that way all the while send characters over the serial line.
I've flashed it device several times and always get the same results. What is going on?

Update 1:
I got it to flash correctly :) When using "ESP8266Flasher.exe" with the bin files "0x00000.bin" and "0x40000.bin" you have to flash them separately and not in one session!

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