OPLink Coordinator Question
« on: July 04, 2016, 10:15:45 pm »
I have two OPLink Minis that I'd like to use simultaneously, one for the GCS on my laptop and one for the new Android APP for an "at-a-glance" display.  I've previously set this up with two laptops using the air-side (Revo on-board) OPLink as the coordinator if I recall correctly.  So the question is two-fold:

1.  What is the recommended side to use as a coordinator (both in normal 1:1 operation as well as 1:2)?
2.  What drawbacks would there be to using the air-side as the coordinator if this is non-standard?

Your input would be greatly appreciated.  The Android app looks very promising, but I'm awaiting an OTG cable to hook it up.

Thanks,

Highspeed

hwh

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Re: OPLink Coordinator Question
« Reply #1 on: July 04, 2016, 11:21:41 pm »
...1.  What is the recommended side to use as a coordinator (both in normal 1:1 operation as well as 1:2)?...
The GCS end is always the recommended coordinator. 1:1 operation is all that is officially supported, I don't know if 1:2 will work or not.  Since it's a two way protocol I suspect if it works at all there will be problems.

...2.  What drawbacks would there be to using the air-side as the coordinator if this is non-standard?...
As long as you're using a separate radio to control the aircraft and not sending the control signals through the oplinks it doesn't make much difference.  If you're sending the control signals through the oplink I'm told failsafe may not work properly. There is an advantage if you're using an OSD.  With the normal setup of slave in the air if the oplinks lose connection all telemetry stops, including the telemetry to the OSD.  With the coordinator in the air the OSD telemetry continues.  This only affects you if your control radio and fpv transmitter have a longer range than the oplinks and you fly out of the oplink range.

The normal configuration for GCS and android at the same time is to hook a bluetooth module to the GCS oplink and connect android to the bluetooth.

Re: OPLink Coordinator Question
« Reply #2 on: July 04, 2016, 11:56:05 pm »
Thanks, hwh.  It's only for telemetry to monitor the systems.  Configuration would be from the laptop.  I'll play with it and see as I really don't want to have another component (bluetooth) module in my heli.  I'll fully test things on the bench before flying to make sure nothing interferes with the operation of the heli itself.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Highspeed

Re: OPLink Coordinator Question
« Reply #3 on: July 05, 2016, 11:06:58 pm »
I recall that there are a couple cases where the flight side may make a better coordinator.  I guess they are the same case though.  If you are going to fly out a long way and may loose the telemetry link (or you want two GCS's to receive the telemetry?) using flight side coordinator will keep the data flowing.  This is especially important if you piggyback your OSD off of serial telemetry.  OSD will stop updating if GCS is coordinator and you fly out of telemetry range.

The one where you really need to have the GCS as coordinator is when using OpLink for PPM control?