Campaign Over!

Introducing the MAVBoard!

The MAVBoard is a way to share a single MAVLink telemetry connection (the telemetry port on a 3D Robotics APM 2.X, for example) among multiple devices, such as OSDs, telemetry radios, telemetry converters or other add-on boards. Until now, the solution has been to create custom soldered cable harnesses which are difficult to make and not as flexible, since only one device can be connected to the "Tx" pin of the MAVLink connection.

The MAVBoard makes connecting several MAVLink devices a breeze. It is very easy to choose which device can access the "Tx" pin of the MAVLink connection by a simple jumper. Now your OSD, two-way telemetry radio AND FrSky telemetry can all run at the same time without the wiring being a nightmare!

The Pro model also includes on onboard Arduino compatible ATMega328P chip which is also connected to the MAVLink hub that performs protocol translation on the MAVLink stream and output the translated signal to a dedicated set of pins. There is existing code (based on JDrone's jD_IOBoard_FrSkyMAVLink code) today that can translate MAVLink into the FrSky hub protocol so you can the FrSky FLD-02 and see useful telemetry values right on your RC transmitter!

If FrSky had their way, we would all end up with a second altimeter, GPS, voltage monitor, etc on our UAVs with one of their "hubs" connected to the FrSky Rx telemetry port. Most flight controllers, and especially MAVLink based autopilots, already have all these sensors! The MAVBoard's goal is to utilize all those existing sensors in our autopilots and provide a telemetry stream to our RC transmitters.

Work is also in progress to support the new SmartPort protocol uses by the FrSky Taranis radio. OpenLRSng support is also possible with some basic hardware mods to your OpenLRSng Tx module. This will allow telemetry data to show up directly on the Taranis LCD screen without having to attach an external LCD.

This is an Open Source Hardware project! All the schematics and board design files will all be released open source.

Current Status

I started this project about 9 months ago (original announcement: http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/sneak-peak-at-mavboard-progress ) with the early prototyping and beta testing to prove the idea. The initial boards used through-hole parts, except for the AVR chip.

I was able to prove the board worked, and get the jD_IOBoard MAVLink to FrSky translation code to work, but knew I needed to go smaller, which meant SMD soldering.

I hand soldered a batch of all SMD-component boards and gave them out to friends to beta test. I have also been flying these boards on all my multi-rotors for the last few months. Results were good, and also made some changes to incorporate feedback, such as having two separate models, one that was just the hub with jumpers and a different model with the AVR chip which included a few more pins broken out.

The result is two boards that are ready for a production run: the MAVBoard Lite and MAVBoard Pro.

MAVBoard Lite

The MAVBoard Lite is a basic board that allows a single MAVLink "IN" connection to be split into 3 "OUT" ports, where a jumper can be used to select which of the 3 OUT connections has its Tx pin connected to the inbound MAVLink connection (such as for a two-way telemetry radio).

MAVBoard Pro

The MAVBoard pro is the 4th round of iterations on the original concept of integrating an AVR chip and a jumpered hub all into one board, with the primary motivation being telemetry conversion applications. The original target was to support FrSky hub protocol translation, as originally written by jDrones for their jD-IOBoard. Later, some members from the DIYDrones community forked their project to fix bugs and cleanup the codebase.

Recently, work has been done to convert the MAVLink protocol to the new FrSky SmartPort protocol, which is used by the new and popular Taranis radio. My plan is to port that code to the AVR platform so it will function on the MAVBoard Pro. Once I get my hands on the very heavily in demand Taranis radio, the port should go quickly.

The indiegogo Campaign

The boards have all been designed, prototyped, tested, redesigned and tested again. Now in order to lower the cost for everyone, I need to do a high volume board run, order components in quantities larger than single units, and work with an assembly house to pick-and-place/reflow all the components. 

The money I raise from this campaign will be used to create a large batch, lowering the cost for all.

At the end of this campaign, I expect to need 30 - 45 days to have the boards made, stuffed, tested and shipped. All boards will come with the SMD components soldered on. You will need to solder the pin headers yourself.

During the campaign and while the boards are being made, I will be working on the following:

• Detailed installation instructions, such as documenting the various protocol translation firmware, how to flash firmware and wiring diagrams.
• Porting the MAVLink to SmartPort Taranis code to the MAVBoard Pro.
• Creating am open source repository for schematics, board design files and firmware.

Bonus For MAVBoard Pro Backers!

All backers of the MAVBoard Pro board type will also receive a FREE PWM to Analog RSSI conversion kit. This tiny board can convert PWM-based RSSI signals (such as those produced by the RSSI ports on FrSky Rx modules) into an analog signal. This is very useful if your flight controller only understands analog RSSI, such as the APM 2.x.

It's a simple but very useful board that connects easily. For APM 2.x, simply connect the PWM side to the RSSI port on your receiver, and the other to an analog port on the APM, and enable RSSI in the mission planner!

You can also place an additional order for this board directly if you want just it, or are only interested in the MAVBoard Lite.

Boards In Action

My hexacopter, with an MinimOSD, 3DR telemetry and FrSky telemetry connected to the MAVBoard Pro:

My quadcopter with a MinimOSD and FrSky telemetry:

When using with the FrSky conversion firmware, here are some example views of what sort of telemetry data you will see on the FLD-02.

GPS and accelerometer data:

APM temperature and GPS sat count:

Battery voltage:

Who Am I?

My name is Mike Machado, and I have been a professional software engineer working with embedded linux, Internet systems, SaaS platforms and enterprise software for the last 15 years. I am also an entrepreneur, avid maker, UAV enthusiast, and have been part of the DIYDrones community for 5+ years. 

I started out with a blimpduino, moved on to the Easy Star and then become fascinated with multirotors, of which I have built at least 6 over the last couple of years. 

I was on a team who did well at the first multi-rotor challenge in San Diego, CA in 2013 and I also competed in the 2013 SparkFun AVC with a quadcopter (which unfortunately had lots of GPS and other interference issues that day).