Navigator - RC Transmitter Set Up

Hi there,

I am currently setting up a couple of BlueBoats for testing of custom control algorithms. I would like to add RC communication as a backup if anything goes wrong.

I successfully connected the RC receiver and enabled RC comms:
RC_OPTIONS enables RC Inputs
SERIAL1_PROTOCOL set to RCIN

At this point, in QGC, I detect the Radio transmitter and I see all channels moving according to my transmitter set up.

My problem is: As soon as I map Throttle and Roll to two RC Channels (by default 3 and 1 resp.) using RCMAP_THROTTLE and RCMAP_ROLL parameters, these two channels get ignored.

It is probably a question of setting the right parameters up, but I can’t find a functioning set of params.

Then, what is the correct parameter set up to enable throttle and roll control with RC ? Are there failsafes to disable ?

Cheers,
Loïck

Hi,

have you pass this problem?
Do you have a joystick connected at the same time? If so maybe QGC priorize the joystick over the RC?
I am looking to do the same and remove the joystick.
What is your experience with this? Are you happy with the setup? Adding the RC open up a range of possibility that are not available in ardurover at the moment, usings relays among other…

Hi Charles,

I fixed it with a parameter reset. After I set everythint up again the receiver was correctly perceived by the Navigator board and all channels worked.

If you do the same set up as I did, you may experience some glitching in the actuators (thrusters and/or servos) as I did. I believe the board was switching from the different RC sources periodically wich led to actuators glitching. I fixed that by turning the third bit of RC_OPTION Off (“Ignore reveiver failsafe bit” or something like that) .

I’m pretty happy with the set up now that it works. I have :

  • The RC receiver plugged in the SBUS port of the Navigator board with a transmitter
  • My ROS nodes writting on the RC_override topic of the mavros node. I added a custom manual mode in ROS using the joy node.

Then, when the ROS nodes are running I use the Joystick and when they don’t I switch to the RC transmitter.
With this set up my ROS nodes are perceived similarly to RC inputs by the Navigator board so I can controo servos or relays. Just make sure to map the RC channels accordingly.

The only hiccup is that the range of the RC is limited (the transmitter starts bipping around 50m and looses connection at maybe 100m). I don’t know yet if it is because the antennas of the receiver are inside the hatch or if it is due to the proximity with the WiFi modem. I’ll look for a fix and ask around in the lab to see if we can find a solution.

Cheers,
Loïck