Telegram Controlled Drone #4 : Integration and Testing

Hi,

Impressed this works given the risk/chance of delay via the app and protocol, but was curious, what is the M5module doing? Couldn't it be removed, and send UDP directly from the laptop? Or some other reason it was used?

Hi shabaz, a very interesting question.

Let me explain

For testing, we are using the DJI Tello drone which is the only drone available to us.

It can only be controlled by connecting to the soft AP provided by the drone itself and it uses this connection to accept commands via UDP port 8889.

As quoted in the integration section of the above blog post, if the laptop/m5module is directly connected to this AP, we will lose internet access and thus the ability to access the Telegram API calls.

So as a workaround, we use the laptop to access the Telegram API and forward the commands to m5module (via serial) which then connects to the Tello drone WiFi to control it.

Either the laptop or m5module could have been completely removed if the Tello allowed connection to a custom AP such as our home WiFi.

We had researched this possibility a lot before pinning it down to use the laptop-m5module setup.

https://tellopilots.com/threads/is-it-posible-to-change-wifi-network-somehow.220/

There are indeed some suggestions in the above forum to use a 'WiFi router with 2 bridged wifi virtual interfaces' which is confusing. Anyways, no one seems to have had a positive result so far using any techniques.

Please let us know if you have a workaround in your thoughts

Jiss

Hi shabaz, a very interesting question.

Let me explain

For testing, we are using the DJI Tello drone which is the only drone available to us.

It can only be controlled by connecting to the soft AP provided by the drone itself and it uses this connection to accept commands via UDP port 8889.

As quoted in the integration section of the above blog post, if the laptop/m5module is directly connected to this AP, we will lose internet access and thus the ability to access the Telegram API calls.

So as a workaround, we use the laptop to access the Telegram API and forward the commands to m5module (via serial) which then connects to the Tello drone WiFi to control it.

Either the laptop or m5module could have been completely removed if the Tello allowed connection to a custom AP such as our home WiFi.

We had researched this possibility a lot before pinning it down to use the laptop-m5module setup.

https://tellopilots.com/threads/is-it-posible-to-change-wifi-network-somehow.220/

There are indeed some suggestions in the above forum to use a 'WiFi router with 2 bridged wifi virtual interfaces' which is confusing. Anyways, no one seems to have had a positive result so far using any techniques.

Please let us know if you have a workaround in your thoughts

Jiss

Adding to this, in the 5th blog Telegram Controlled Drone #5 : Conclusion and Future Scope, we have already discussed our future plans to make the middleware redundant and thereby removing it completely.

Also if we use a different drone such as the DIY/hobby ones which gives us more flexibility in the communication methods, this middleware(s) could be removed pretty easily.

This is a sure try for a future case though, once we get our hands-on with such a drone.