LibrePilot Forum

Development => Firmware General => Topic started by: chromvis on August 13, 2016, 08:14:42 pm

Title: PlayUAV OSD video switch support
Post by: chromvis on August 13, 2016, 08:14:42 pm
I tried PlayUAV OSD. It appears to be much better than minimOSD and its software supports CC3D/Revo although partially.
I tried different combinations of settings:
   1. Telemetry (on Revo) and CC3D/Revo on OSD
   2. Mavlink (on Revo) and MavLink on OSD
   3. Telemetry (on Revo) - Mavlink on OSD
   4. Mavlink (on Revo) - CC3D/Revo on OSD
The last two, just out of curiosity to complete all possible choices.
The only working setup is #1. It shows battery state, quad attitude. speed, location and that is it.
All other features does not work. OSD has two video inputs and allow video channel toggle using assigned RC channel state, it also has three panels and many other fully configurable possibilities.
It seems like it could not properly read all telemetry data or necessary telemetry data was not transmitted by firmware (I am using July 31st compilation of NEXT).

Question to developers. Is it possible to make it fully operational? Does it need software modification or it could be done by setting telemetry parameters transmission on System tab?
Parallel question.  Where can I read at leas short description of variables used in UAVObjectBrowser? 
Title: Re: PlayUAV OSD video switch support
Post by: nmborges on October 22, 2016, 07:29:26 pm
I have been trying to use minimOSD HW in different forms (micro, mini) with the recommended firmware (minOPOSD) but cannot keep the thing running for more than a few days. The minimOSD keeps failing after some light use.
This PlayUAV OSD looks a bit better but it seems that even in MAVLINK mode is not compatible with LibrePilot.

Has anyone used successfully PlayUAV OSD with the LP 16.09 RC ?

is there a good MAVLINK OSD that works well with LP that is not based on the minimosd HW ?
my latest attempt was a minimosd with mavlink firmware so I  would prefer avoiding minimosd HW.

thanks a lot !
Title: Re: PlayUAV OSD video switch support
Post by: jtrout19 on October 23, 2016, 01:11:15 am
I would love to see some other OSD support. That being said I do appreciate what you guys do and the fact you provide us with an awesome product for free! I just figured I would chime in and give my 2 cents. I wish I knew how to program really well. Would love to help develop!
Title: Re: PlayUAV OSD video switch support
Post by: hwh on October 23, 2016, 02:18:37 am
I would love to see some other OSD support. ...

We support the three main OSD protocols: our own UAVTalk, MSP, and MAVLink.  What other OSD were you thinking of?
Title: Re: PlayUAV OSD video switch support
Post by: hwh on October 23, 2016, 02:22:46 am
I have been trying to use minimOSD HW in different forms (micro, mini) with the recommended firmware (minOPOSD) but cannot keep the thing running for more than a few days. The minimOSD keeps failing after some light use.
...

The minimOSD boards almost never fail, if they're failing you probably have inadequate filtering on the power going to them and voltage spikes are killing them.
Title: Re: PlayUAV OSD video switch support
Post by: nmborges on October 23, 2016, 07:48:00 am

Is the MAVlink support in LP good enough to allow general compatibility with APM/PX OSDs ?

 I did use a minimOSD flashed for APM 2.6 (from BG) which recognized the MAVLink heartbeat from LP  but no meaningful data was shown. Flashing other firmware lead to a conclusion that something was wrong with my minimOSD since I could only get MWOSD to flash and work properly (overlaying no data like the original firmware).
Anyway I'm looking for an alternative before I just fallback to another minimOSD. This PlayUAV looks good but the first post in this thread does not report MAVLink compatibility and that is what I'm looking for.

Btw, my minimOSDs were installed in a fixed wing that never left the ground... 2 were PDBs with integrated minimOSDs (first models known for their poor quality) but after that I moved to separate PDB and minimOSD. I think I messed things with the Revo powered by the ESC BEC and all the video stuff powered by PDB (with LC filtering etc).  The OSD needs to get power and video from one side and serial data from the Revo.  This is something easy to fix by having the Revo powered by the PDB too but I still doubt about the minimOSD reliability.
Title: Re: PlayUAV OSD video switch support
Post by: jtrout19 on October 23, 2016, 09:52:36 am
I would love to see some other OSD support. ...

We support the three main OSD protocols: our own UAVTalk, MSP, and MAVLink.  What other OSD were you thinking of?

The only OSD I have seen used it the Minimosd. The look on screen is not that appealing to me. I would like to be able to change text size and a different HUD would be nice. What are other options other than Minimosd?
Title: Re: PlayUAV OSD video switch support
Post by: hwh on October 23, 2016, 08:14:57 pm
The firmware called "MWOSD" or "scarab-osd " at http://www.mwosd.com/ should work and runs on the same minimosd hardware.  It has nicer screens in my opinion.  It uses the MSP protocol available on the 16.09RC releases.  I think this one was used to test the MSP support in LP.  The 15.09 release only supports the minimosd running minOPosd firmware.

Most of the OSDs out there including embedded in PDB or FC boards are clones of the minimosd hardware and use the same firmware.  To a large extent the crudeness of the screen displays is because of the hardware limitations.  The minimosd also don't work well with higher resolution cameras.

There are a couple of other OSD hardware out there not based on minimosd, the playuav one mentioned above comes to mind but I've never seen one or tested it.
Title: Re: PlayUAV OSD video switch support
Post by: jtrout19 on October 24, 2016, 01:42:09 am
My main thing is I would like a better artificial horizon than what minimosd and the others you listed have. I would also like to be able to change color of the text. to like a Green would be nice
Title: Re: PlayUAV OSD video switch support
Post by: hwh on October 24, 2016, 03:33:39 am
I've never come across any that do color.  The chips used were originally designed to put overlays on security cameras, are relatively limited graphically, and don't support color. Because of the way NTSC and PAL handle color it's really hard to do color without a dedicated chip designed for it.  The chip industry decided that no one uses composite video anymore so they haven't made any new chips for OSD use. The one used for the minimosd (MAX7456) is old and technically obsolete.

Probably the cleanest looking one is the one built into the BrainFPV RE1 FC. https://www.brainfpv.com/re1/  and even it appears to be monochrome.  And it doesn't run LP, only dRonin and Betaflight.
Title: Re: PlayUAV OSD video switch support
Post by: jtrout19 on October 24, 2016, 04:44:04 am
Yeah i would rather stick with the LP. The eagle tree vector system has a full color osd.....i would switch for that honestly bit almost 300 bucks is a bit pricey. I am going to play with the charset and see if i cant make something a bit nicer for myself as far as text is concerned. Maybe i will dump 300 bucks come tax time for the vector system and try it out.

I am assuming here that if yoy were to take the video feed and feed it into a software. Video mixer for your osd and then send it to your goggles that there would be latency issues?
Title: Re: PlayUAV OSD video switch support
Post by: jtrout19 on October 24, 2016, 05:07:38 am
http://m.onsemi.com/product?part=LC74736PT

This chip does color so does this one

TMS320DM35x