Edgeflyer Posted December 30, 2023 Share Posted December 30, 2023 Does anyone have experience of the FRsky GPS device ? Is it useful for position altitude and speed data? I have GPS modules for linking to flight controllers. Cana generic gps module be connected to the FRsky smart port and act as a telemetry sensor? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Skilbeck Posted December 30, 2023 Share Posted December 30, 2023 A generic one would only work if it could speak Frsky, but you could link one to an Arduino board and program that to interface with the Frsky system. Don't know about the Frsky unit but one of These would. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Fairgrieve Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 I use the FrSky version extensively. Speed and position seem to be fairly accurate. A screenshot showing some data from my Freewing Vulcan. Many years ago I manged to import the data and show a flight plan on Google earth. Can not for the life of me remember how I did it. If any one knows please tell me. There is also this as an alternative. Bit on the pricy side though. SM-Modellbau I like them. I also have telemetry set up to call out speed, height etc etc on a button on my X20 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dickw Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 6 hours ago, Kevin Fairgrieve said: .................................. Many years ago I managed to import the data and show a flight plan on Google earth. Can not for the life of me remember how I did it. If any one knows please tell me. ........................................ Is DataExplorer any use? https://www.nongnu.org/dataexplorer/ It's a free app, and I know it works well with a number of brands of telemetry/logged data. It seems to have an Open-Tx option, but not sure if that applies to the latest FrSky telemetry data. Perhaps worth a look? As well as displaying the data graphically I can also use it to download GPS data into Google Earth to show a flight. There are various versions for PC or smartphone. Dick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Fairgrieve Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 37 minutes ago, Dickw said: Is DataExplorer any use? https://www.nongnu.org/dataexplorer/ It's a free app, and I know it works well with a number of brands of telemetry/logged data. It seems to have an Open-Tx option, but not sure if that applies to the latest FrSky telemetry data. Perhaps worth a look? As well as displaying the data graphically I can also use it to download GPS data into Google Earth to show a flight. There are various versions for PC or smartphone. Dick Nope, it was way easier than that. No additional software involved, other than Companion and Google earth. At least that is how I remember it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PDB Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 13 minutes ago, Kevin Fairgrieve said: Nope, it was way easier than that. No additional software involved, other than Companion and Google earth. At least that is how I remember it! http://open-txu.org/home/special-interests/telemetry/setting-up-google-earth-companion/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Fairgrieve Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 7 minutes ago, PDB said: http://open-txu.org/home/special-interests/telemetry/setting-up-google-earth-companion/ That could be it. I will take a look see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caveman Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 I have an FrSky GPS sensor V2 which I used a fair amount in the mid 2010s. I can't remember when it, or what, went wrong, but following an OpenTX update it would no longer link to Google Earth and the format of the data recorded in the SD log file was garbled. Therefore I haven't used it recently. However, having read the thread above I decided to have a play with it this evening. I connected it to a receiver, waited until the red led changed from quick flashing to slow flashing - indicating a satisfactory GPS position was fixed - and recorded a 4 minute log. I copied the log file onto my computer and accessed it with OpenTx Companion. Much to my surprise it opened Google Earth, read the data and opened a display of the recorded position. That's when things didn't go so well! I was indicated to be somewhere in/on the North Sea - not so good. However, the latitude was correct, but the longitude was not. The problem is that I live around 0.5 deg. west of the Greenwich meridian and Google Earth takes 0.5 as being East. The answer in the short term, in order to display the correct position, is to change the longitude data to read -0.5 deg. then all is well. I did this using a spreadsheet, but it's not a quick and simple task. However it does at least show that it works, more or less. The problem is that if you fly across the meridian then this won't work. There may be a simple configuration, either in OpenTX or in Google Earth, which would fix this, but I don't know. GDB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Fairgrieve Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 11 hours ago, Caveman said: I have an FrSky GPS sensor V2 which I used a fair amount in the mid 2010s. I can't remember when it, or what, went wrong, but following an OpenTX update it would no longer link to Google Earth and the format of the data recorded in the SD log file was garbled. Therefore I haven't used it recently. However, having read the thread above I decided to have a play with it this evening. I connected it to a receiver, waited until the red led changed from quick flashing to slow flashing - indicating a satisfactory GPS position was fixed - and recorded a 4 minute log. I copied the log file onto my computer and accessed it with OpenTx Companion. Much to my surprise it opened Google Earth, read the data and opened a display of the recorded position. That's when things didn't go so well! I was indicated to be somewhere in/on the North Sea - not so good. However, the latitude was correct, but the longitude was not. The problem is that I live around 0.5 deg. west of the Greenwich meridian and Google Earth takes 0.5 as being East. The answer in the short term, in order to display the correct position, is to change the longitude data to read -0.5 deg. then all is well. I did this using a spreadsheet, but it's not a quick and simple task. However it does at least show that it works, more or less. The problem is that if you fly across the meridian then this won't work. There may be a simple configuration, either in OpenTX or in Google Earth, which would fix this, but I don't know. GDB Interesting. I just did something similar. Loaded an "old" log file and it went straight to Google Earth. Tried to do the same with a "newer" log file and there appears to be a number of changes in the way the GPS is read. So I get the following error. Note on the left hand side we now have two fields called Latitude and Longitude. Using the old file. Clearly marked GPS. This one imports into Google Earth no problem. I shall investigate a bit more. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caveman Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 (edited) Hi Kevin, I've been delving a little deeper. My oldest file Whizz Kid Sept 2015 has 2 columns labelled Lat & Long which Google Earth doesn't recognise. If I create a new column labelled GPS and place in it the lat and long info separated by a space then Google can recognise it and will display correctly. But, it doesn't appear to recognise the Alt data so doesn't display the flight path correctly. The Alt appears to be in metres and the Speed in knots. None of the logs created before June 2016 will work - they did originally. I must have updated my OpenTx version sometime in early 2016 because all files from June 2016 to December 2017 now display correctly, as this one. However from September 2016 the altitude changed to ft and speed to mph - I must have changed something! Note the format of the lat and long. Longitude annotated W and latitude N The same flight in Google Earth I didn't use the GPS again until December 2018. The log file appears to be corrupted. See the next photo. The GPS and date fields seem to have been mixed together somehow. Although the Alt and Speed etc are OK it's no good for Google! GPS then not used until my test last evening where everything works OK, except that the longitude is incorrect as reported above. Also the alt is now in metres and speed in knots again. I think I must have again updated my tx between December 2017 and December 2023. Also a new column has appeared in the log file labelled 'F010' - I've no idea what it is!! Note this a static test, the GPS was sitting on my window sill - variation in altitude must be down to signal quality, or lack of it 🙂 NB This is the altered log to change the longitude from E to W be inserting a minus sign. Any suggestions? GDB Edited January 1 by Caveman Additional text Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Fairgrieve Posted January 2 Share Posted January 2 I had a thought at work today!!! Maybe it has something to do with the way the GPS is configured in the "radio setup screen" this on my Taranis X9D running the latest EdgeTX. Can not remember the last time I played with the X9D. Sure seems antiquated. No touch screen etc etc. Been sat now for 20 minutes waiting for the sensor to pick up even one solitary satellite. Currently I think it may have to do with the Coordinate format DMS/NMEA Storm Henk is battering my location at the moment and cloud cover is 10/10. Not ideal for our budget level GPS to work under. I will try again tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caveman Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 Kevin, I had another go at this today. On the sensors page of the Taranis the lat and long are read from the GPS sensor and displayed as xxxxN yyyyyW, which is correct for my location. But, when written to the log it is stored as xxxxx yyyyyy, the N & W being dropped, and therefore becomes xxxxx yyyyy which is N & E. Hence the the longitude is displayed by Google Earth as N & E and I'm shown as being in the North Sea. This under OpenTX 2.2.1 I previously under OpenTX 2.1 (?) the data was logged as xxxxxN yyyyyyW and all worked well, so I can only think that something has been altered in the OpenTX upgrade. At the end of the day it really doesn't matter to me, all I have to do is amend the longitude to a negative value and it displays correctly. It may be that if I upgraded to OpenTX 2.2.4 it may be that it's been fixed but I can't face the hassle of upgrading 🙂 GDB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Fairgrieve Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 Been doing some tests myself!! Managed to connect to many satellites. Did a quick test with GPS set to DMS I now have a GPS column. And the trace puts it exactly over my house!! All tests conducted using a Taranis X9D running Edge TX 2.9.2 I shall investigate further. Kev Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 (edited) Looks like a nose diving duck to me Kev, or is that what DMS stands for (Duck My Street). Edited January 3 by Ron Gray Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave parnham Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 showing my age but Kevin......... The Saint Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edgeflyer Posted January 5 Author Share Posted January 5 I have a similar confusion with a GPS module connected to a elrs receiver with pwm converter. The converter has a UART connection to a GPS sensor and provides data to my tx via telemetry. It fixes 10 satellites quickly but consistently reports the location wrongly. It is about 0.3 degrees out both for N/S and E/W. Additionally the E/W figure is positive when it should be negative. So I am also in the North Sea. I have tried this with 2 different satellite GPS sensors and get the same results . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edgeflyer Posted January 5 Author Share Posted January 5 I tested the M10 module using ublox ucenter2 with a usb dongle connection to the pc. Within a minute it found 21 satellites and gave the location exactly correctly. So why when using elrs telemetry is it so consistently wrong and is there a workaround? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyinFlynn Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 18 hours ago, Edgeflyer said: I tested the M10 module using ublox ucenter2 with a usb dongle connection to the pc. Within a minute it found 21 satellites and gave the location exactly correctly. So why when using elrs telemetry is it so consistently wrong and is there a workaround? Wrong datum perhaps? 🤷♂️ https://www.maptools.com/tutorials/map_datum I realise this is written for our American cousins but the principle is the same for the UK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edgeflyer Posted January 6 Author Share Posted January 6 I created a log file from the GPS telemetry on my tx and on examination the GPS locations were exactly correct. However the live telemetry data on the tx screen is always 0.3deg out and I'm easy of Greenwich when I should be west Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Fairgrieve Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 Flying today with the express intention of checking out GPS. I will try with my Taranis and my Tandem X20 to see if there are any differences. I think most of my logs that do not have that GPS line are from the Tandem X20 and ETHOS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 I now realise this is just my mistake. The telemetry screen is reporting location in degrees and minutes whereas the log shows decimal data. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caveman Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 Yes Phil, that's the problem I think. The data taken from the GPS sensor and displayed on the screen (of my Taranis) is longitude W, latitude N, but when transferred to the log it's written as a decimal degrees, but the longitude should have a negative value for W, but it's logged with as a positive (E) value. Hence I'm shown as being out in the North Sea!! I can't find any way to resolve it. GDB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 My log shows negative values for the easterly. You can copy them into Google maps and get the correct position to locate a lost model Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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