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It's time to upgrade from the NRF24L01!  (Not sponsored by Hobbyking)

This video is early for Patrons, it goes out publicly next Tuesday 24th Jan.

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DSM Transmitter - PREVIEW VERSION

I’ve built quite a lot of remote controls for projects in the past, and this is because I want to have custom controls for whatever I build. There are mostly quite a few joysticks and buttons on them for various functions of the machine I want to control. It’s been really useful to send a custom data set for all the controls, but I’ve still not found a radio device that’s super reliable. I started using Bluetooth devices like the HC-05 modules, but I found that these sometimes randomly disconnected. Since then I’ve been using the NRF24L01 modules which is what’s in my openDog remotes. These are ok but range is limited and sometimes they drop data. There is a long range version of these which I used when I worked with Mark Rober on his Autostrike Bowling Ball project. I found that we could get the radio to reach the length of a 60ft bowling alley, but it worked best with one long range version as the receiver, and a standard module for transmitting. That was pretty random though and I ended up swapping a few modules out before it worked. I also built a WiFi remote with a Raspberry Pi in it to control ROS based robots. That involves either having some sort of WiFi base unit nearby for both the remote and robot to connect to, or making an ad-hoc network between the two. Then we’re also at the mercy of an TCP or UDP connection. I can’t find any other specific modules that would work reliably with an Arduino so I can build a custom remote or that I can shove arbitrary into. Having a reliable low-latency connection is really important. But when was the last time you heard that someone crashed their drone because the remote disconnected? Hardly every or never right!? Surely there’s a reliable radio solution here. You can support me on Patreon, join my Discord, or buy my Merchandise: *************************** Discord: https://discord.com/invite/fc6MedG7eW Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/xrobots Merchandise: https://teespring.com/stores/james-bruton *************************** Other socials: *************************** Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xrobotsuk Twitter: https://twitter.com/xrobotsuk Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/xrobotsuk/ *************************** Affiliate links - I will get some money of you use them to sign up or buy something: *************************** 10% off at https://www.3dfuel.com/ - use code XROBOTS at the cart screen. Music for your YouTube videos: http://share.epidemicsound.com/xrobots *************************** CAD and Code for my projects: https://github.com/XRobots Huge thanks to my Patrons, without whom my standard of living would drastically decline. Like, inside out-Farm Foods bag decline. Plus a very special shoutout to Lulzbot, Inc who keep me in LulzBot 3D printers and support me via Patreon. HARDWARE/SOFTWARE Below you can also find a lot of the typical tools, equipment and supplies used in my projects: Filament from: https://www.3dfuel.com/ Lulzbot 3D Printers: http://bit.ly/2Sj6nil Bearings from: https://simplybearings.co.uk/ Lincoln Electric Welder: https://bit.ly/2Rqhqos CNC Router: https://bit.ly/2QdsNjt Ryobi Tools: http://bit.ly/2RhArcD Axminster Micro Lathe: http://bit.ly/2Sj6eeN 3D Printer Filament: http://bit.ly/2PdcdUu Soldering Iron: http://bit.ly/2DrNWDR Vectric CNC Software: http://bit.ly/2zxpZqv

Comments

Anonymous

Thanks for sharing, this is perfect timing as I just experienced a crash with my custom-built drone due to unreliable wifi connection, haha. Do you also have supplier links for the switches and buttons used in your controller?

Anonymous

I concur esp-now allows you to send a signal 500m (100,000 sq m. ) my latest project is using it.

Anonymous

It’s real-time 250 bytes per packet. I’ve sent out to three packets without noticing a difference. I’ve had one brown out but that was my fault for pushing the limits. After removing the brown out protection. It works great!! (Almost like magic -you don’t want to trust it - but it’s great.) expressif has some good videos on it as well.

Steve Martin

This is timely. I've resorted to use a Taranis X-Lite Pro running OpenTX for my projects. It has the advantage of reducing channels due to effectively being able to run code on the transmitter to aggregate switches / momentary buttons. However, I'm limited to 10 channels as, even though the receivers support 20 I can't interface that with an Arduino as that requires SBUS decoding which isn't trivial and beyond my coding ability. SO this may just be the answer :)

XRobots

I believe there is a library for SBUS but it's inverted serial so you need a small circuit before the serial pin that will turn it upside down.

Thomas Messerschmidt

I can see a use of this for moving my humanoid robots around. And perhaps later on using a mocap suit to fully animate them. Thanks for pouring in the research time. 😄 Just one question, when did you start dealing in dollars instead of pounds? You are in England, right?

Kai Laborenz

I am thinking of building a remote with "unlimited" channels for a while. I think it is not necessary to send 10 or 20 channels _at once_ because you can't change them at the same time with your two hands, right? So why not sending only the values of channels when they are changing?

XRobots

I switched the currency to USD because most of my audience is in the US.

XRobots

Yes so you could use one channel as an identifier and the next channel as the value, and then the receiver knows which channel to update based on the identifier. That would be worth some experimentation.

Pixelbro99

Exactly what I’ve been looking for!

Polydeukes

Hi James, you probably could also have a look at using to ESP32 microcontrollers with the ESP-NOW protocol. They allow low latency transmission of 250bytes of digital data. There is also great Arduino support and a lot of different ESP32 boards are available for cheap. If you use one where an external antenna can be plugged in, it should give you a comparable range to your build.

Maggie McFee

The best Bruton videos are the ones that make me spend money. This one now included. :) I'm pleased to say it wasn't a lot of money.

XRobots

I meant to look into that at some point. I was just really happy to find a DSM solution for now which will also be interesting to anyone who knows about R/C kit.