Serial Port Quantity

[XiangHong]

Hi

I’m currently using the Navigator Flight Controller for underwater equipment development, but the number of serial ports available on the development board is not sufficient for all of our sensors. I’d like to ask if there are any related expansion products or methods to add more serial ports.

Thanks.

[EliotBR (Eliot)]

Hi @XiangHong,

The Navigator’s serial ports are from the underlying raspberry pi. They can’t be directly expanded, but it’s possible to make links to some alternatives:

@BlueOS documentation - Autopilot Firmware

Systems with a Navigator flight controller also have the option to configure serial-compatible ports from the onboard computer (including USB ports) as serial ports accessible to the autopilot.

That said, depending on the hardware you’re using, you may also wish to consider multi-bus protocols like I²C, so multiple peripherals can share a connection to a single port.