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Autopilot + COM freq. over BT to RS232


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john123
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Hi Sean I would be interested in your spare BT758 not sure how to contact you privately with address details and get info to pay you
SeanKx
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Just another thought for radio frequencies via bluetooth. Could we have 121.500 always listed and colour coded in the available frequencies list when flying? Most modern handhelds have a dedicated 121.5 button and if Skydemon
could list it too it may be useful for someone?


Sean Kx
Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite
Android 13
Skydemon latest version always

john123
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Hi Sean I would be interested in your spare BT758
SeanKx
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john123 - 2/23/2025 10:19:04 PM
Hi Sean I would be interested in your spare BT758


Hi John,
Still have it - ping me a message on here and we can sort?


Sean Kx
Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite
Android 13
Skydemon latest version always

Ben
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Well, I installed the beautiful SDLink on to the back of my KRT2 and it left me with an instant grin as a tap on SD resulted in a frequency and station name appearing on the radio display before I'd even taken my finger off the screen!!!
Very happy.  A lovely time, space, and wire-saving product.

Next step was to take a feed from the existing RS232 line out of the back of the original connector, and hook it up to my autopilot, a TruTrak Digiflight II.  This was not so easy!  Wires to be cut, spliced etc, all behind a panel.

And it doesn't want to play.  The AP keeps reporting "NO GPS".  The baud rate is 9600 (fixed by the KRT2 spec).  Also tried 4800 too, still doesn't like it.  So I delved deeper and  pluged in a serial port adapter in to my laptop, hit up terminal, and attempted to capture the output to see what was being sent through.  To run this test, I set SD to only send autopilot messages, just in case the A/P was throwing out the radio frequency messages.

All I get is:

$GPGLL,5230.8752,N
$GPBOD,94.6,T,94.5
$GPBWC,151315,5240
$GPVTG,243.9,T,243
$GPXTE,A,A,9.99,L,
$GPAPB,A,A,9.99,L,
$GPRMB,A,9.99,L,EG
$GPGGA,151325,5230
$GPGSA,A,3,,,,,,,,

The first sentance is definately not to spec.  Should start with the date, let alone be missing everything after the latitute!
Can anyone shed any light on this?

Petertel
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Petertel - 2/20/2025 1:39:06 PM
Hello, first I introduce myself since it is my first intervention in this forum. My name is Pedro, I am from Spain, I have an ultralight plane and I like to fly and program my own instruments for my plane.

I am building the Bluetooth adapter to be able to send the autopilot information from Skydemon to an old TRUTRAK DIGIFLIGHT II autopilot but it is not capable of recognizing the NMEA sentences that the Skydemon sends it.

I have been analyzing the NMEA sentences that the Garmin GPSMAP 296 GPS sends and they are like this:

$GPRMC,111231,A,4041.3941,N,00036.84755,W,0.0,227.3,190225,0.8,W,D*11
$GPRMB,A,0.00,R,,EDNT,4859.7560,N,01053.0926,E,656.923,44.7,,V,D*41
$GPRMC,111232,A,4041.3941,N,00036.84755,W,0.0,227.3,190225,0.8,W,D*12
$GPRMB,A,0.00,R,,EDNT,4859.7560,N,01053.0926,E,656.923,44.7,,V,D*41
$GPRMC,111233,A,4041.3941,N,00036.84755,W,0.0,227.3,190225,0.8,W,D*13
$GPRMB,A,0.00,R,,EDNT,4859.7560,N,01053.0926,E,656.923,44.7,,V,D*41

However, the NMEA sentences that Skydemon currently throws are like this:

$GPRMC,111343,A,41$GPRMB,A,0.76,R,OR$GPRMC,111344,A,41$GPRMB,A,0.76,R,OR$GPRMC,111345,A,41$GPRMB,A,0.76,R,OR$GPRMC,111346,A,41$GPRMB,A,0.76,R

That is, the NMEA frames of the Skydemon are missing all the information fields and also do not end with CR+LF (0x0D + 0x0A) so the TRUTRAK autopilot is not able to interpret the NMEA sentences correctly.

Could you please check and correct it.

PD.-
Thank you very much Tim for having implemented the new Bluetooth functions, it is something that has been needed for a long time to be able to use Skydemon as the main route planning source.

  Hello, in my previous post I forgot to say that the tests were done with an HM-10 bluetooth module, just in case it was the problem with the module, I just bought the following adapter on Amazon: DSD TECH HM-18, since I have seen that there are colleagues who have bought it and it is working well.
As soon as it arrives and I do the tests, I will inform you of the results.

Tim Dawson
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Petertel and Ben, SkyDemon is sending full sentences but clearly they are being truncated somewhere. Are you on Android or iOS?

Petertel I look forward to hearing the results of your test. It's possible there is a MTU related problem where everything we send after the first X characters is simply being discarded.

Michael Hoffmann
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Tim Dawson - 2/24/2025 11:49:45 AM
Petertel and Ben, SkyDemon is sending full sentences but clearly they are being truncated somewhere. Are you on Android or iOS?

Petertel I look forward to hearing the results of your test. It's possible there is a MTU related problem where everything we send after the first X characters is simply being discarded.

Dear community, I started a test with 3 HM-10 modules from different brands to send autopilot data on an Android Lenovo M11 tab and an iPad Pro, with interesting results. These are the BLE-Modules:


The modules look the same at first glance, but there are subtle differences. To be clear, all of these modules work
to set the radio frequencies in SkyDemon without any problems.

But now to the result of the output of the autopilot data via these modules. I've always used the same scenario: start the simulation (which brings us close to Tim's HQ) and then a direct-to  "Watchford Farm".

1.) DSD-TECH Modul with iPad (looks good!)


1.) DSD-TECH Modul with Android  (truncated !)


3.) MLT-BT08 with iPad (different sentences but look good)


4.) MLT-BT08 with Android (nearly the same)


5.) BT05 with iPad (truncated no CR LF)


6.) BT05 with Android (truncaded)



That's surprising, isn't it?
SkyDemon versions used: The Lenovo M11 runs 4.0.2.0 and on the iPad and iPhone it's 4.0.4.405.
Regards
Michael


Petertel
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Tim Dawson - 2/24/2025 11:49:45 AM
Petertel and Ben, SkyDemon is sending full sentences but clearly they are being truncated somewhere. Are you on Android or iOS?

Petertel I look forward to hearing the results of your test. It's possible there is a MTU related problem where everything we send after the first X characters is simply being discarded.

  Hello, I am using a Samsung Galaxy S20 mobile with Android 13 but I have also tried with 2 older Android tablets and the results are the same.
     I have been finding out that the MTU of the CC2541 bluetooth modules that are used by the HM-10 is 20 bytes, but the datasheet clearly indicates that the data packet that can be sent is larger and the module is responsible for packetizing and sending all the data on its own, so this should not be the problem. And the truncated data is exactly 18 bytes in all error frames.

  Additionally, I have tried using an app like nRF to send a data packet much larger than 20 bytes to the HM-10, and it receives all the data perfectly.

   And finally, with the tests that Michael has been able to do with various HM-10 models and Android and iPad, it is very curious how the MLT-08 works well with Android and iPad.

  Michael, can you look at what Bluetooth chip have each of the 3 modules you have tested have?. It is possible that the problem is there.

Regards, Peter.


Michael Hoffmann
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Petertel - 2/25/2025 10:42:17 AM
Tim Dawson - 2/24/2025 11:49:45 AM
Petertel and Ben, SkyDemon is sending full sentences but clearly they are being truncated somewhere. Are you on Android or iOS?

Petertel I look forward to hearing the results of your test. It's possible there is a MTU related problem where everything we send after the first X characters is simply being discarded.

  Hello, I am using a Samsung Galaxy S20 mobile with Android 13 but I have also tried with 2 older Android tablets and the results are the same.
     I have been finding out that the MTU of the CC2541 bluetooth modules that are used by the HM-10 is 20 bytes, but the datasheet clearly indicates that the data packet that can be sent is larger and the module is responsible for packetizing and sending all the data on its own, so this should not be the problem. And the truncated data is exactly 18 bytes in all error frames.

  Additionally, I have tried using an app like nRF to send a data packet much larger than 20 bytes to the HM-10, and it receives all the data perfectly.

   And finally, with the tests that Michael has been able to do with various HM-10 models and Android and iPad, it is very curious how the MLT-08 works well with Android and iPad.

  Michael, can you look at what Bluetooth chip have each of the 3 modules you have tested have?. It is possible that the problem is there.

Regards, Peter.


Hi Peter, all 3 BLE clones use (or claim to use) a TI CC2541.




But the firmware versions are different:






I tried sending longer data packets with the DSD TECH app on iPhone, it worked without any problems with all modules. Maybe there's something wrong with the BLE stack in SkyDemon. The different behavior between the Android and iOS versions also suggests this. 
Just a guess. Maybe Tim has an idea.

Regards
Michael

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