Crazyflie & transmitter with multimodule

Discussions and questions about the Crazyflie Nano Quadcopter
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matejkarasek
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Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2019 11:50 am

Crazyflie & transmitter with multimodule

Post by matejkarasek »

Ever wondered what is the easiest way to fly your Crazyflie (or a Bolt-powered drone) with a dedicated transmitter?
It is actually working pretty much out of the box if you have a transmitter running OpenTX, which has an inbuilt 4-in1 multimodule (e.g. Jumper T-lite JP4-in-1), or which supports an external multimodule (e.g. Taranis X-Lite with an IRangeX IRX4 LITE 4-1 external module).

This functionality might have been around for quite a while, but I couldn't find any documentation and only found this now...
And since multimodule transmitters are now available for favorable prices, this could be interesting for others as well.

I tested this on my Jumper T-lite JP4-in-1, but it should also work on other devices:

1) Update the OpenTX and multimodule firmware to the latest version. Even on a new and recent device you might need to flash the multimodule to get it working.
I used AETR channel mapping, which worked out of the box. It might be you can also get it working with a different mapping if you prefer...
For the T-Lite follow e.g. these instructions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m2xVgjjQXk

2) In OpenTX on the transmitter, create a new model and use the following settings:
Internal RF (if you have an external module, then use External RF)
Mode: MULTI
Type: CFlie

3) Power down the transmitter for now (this step might not be necessary, but will not break things either...)

4) Power up your Crazyflie or Bolt

5) Power up the transmitter and activate the newly created model. The transmitter should go to auto-bind ("tweet sound") and, once binded, the yellow LED indicating communication on the crazyflie should start gradually lighting up and down. That means you are done!

Flying seems to work well, however, for now no telemetry is being received.
Connecting to the crazyfle from the CFclient and getting telemetry there while flying works well.

To enable the telemetry, the CFlie model would need to be updated in the multimodule, some attempts made are commented out:
https://github.com/pascallanger/DIY-Mul ... f24l01.ino

Edited:
Ok, I rushed a bit, connecting to CF client is possible, but flying not (there seems to be a conflict between the commands from the transmitter and the CF client). In any case, this is still very nice for manual flying, and telemetry can certainly be added in DIY-Multiprotocol-TX-Module...
tobias
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Re: Crazyflie & transmitter with multimodule

Post by tobias »

Thanks for sharing this! I know Sean Kelly did a lot of the work around this a long time ago and nice that it is still working.

I think the outer control methods (e.g. CPPM) has priority so the CF can't be controlled from the cfclient and an external transmitter at the same time.
matejkarasek
Beginner
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2019 11:50 am

Re: Crazyflie & transmitter with multimodule

Post by matejkarasek »

Just an update on this.
The Cflie protocol has been removed from the pre-compiled multi module firmware in version 1.3.3.0:
https://github.com/pascallanger/DIY-Mul ... g/v1.3.3.0

So either use an earlier version, or you have to compile the multimodule firmware yourself to include also Cflie...

Or, we need to be more active such that the Cflie returns to the default firmware? :)
We could start by enabling the telemetry...
https://github.com/pascallanger/DIY-Mul ... 1.ino#L667
kristoffer
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Re: Crazyflie & transmitter with multimodule

Post by kristoffer »

Thanks for sharing!
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