New to the forum and hoping someone can give me some first hand info on the Herelink system. Up until this point the primary service provided by my company has been survey and mapping. When a video downlink was needed for real estate work or the like I would just dig out my old phantom 3 pro and make it work. However this year I will be expanding into the inspection sector and I am building a new system for this purpose. MY questions are several;
Is the Herelink reliable enough to provide the rc/data/video link it promises out to 8-10km?
Is the beta 2 hardware different from the original version? (i.e. more rollers or buttons)
Can the gimbal be reliably controlled through the herelink transmitter?
Does the transmitter have an HDMI OUT port for feeding video to a larger monitor?
I have gone through all the documentation I can find on the system and those are the only questions I cant seem to fine the answer too.
I realize this probably encompasses multiple topics and I apologize for that but time is of the essence at the moment and I need to make a decision on my downlink options. Right now I use Frsky R9M module for RC and 433mhz telem radios for data. Like I said this will be my first modular HD downlink system so if anyone has any other suggestions any info would be greatly appreciated.
The system is still officially in beta so you need to take that into account for any mission critical systems.
From a hardware point of view there is no changes to the end user hardware from the initial batches to current. I believe then here were some changes internally for assembly or just tidying up the design of the wheel however it was nothing that resulted in the user having any changes.
There’d is no HDMI output on the system however you can cast to mission planner and other software via USB, WiFi ect. You could use a USB to HDMI adapter on the last firmware however I can not confirm that’s still working on the new release as it’s not an official feature and i have not tested it.
Gimbal can be controlled via the wheel on Sbus 5 or via Mavlink, the new update allows you to assign the wheel to outputs on the Servo and Aux channels on the Cube and even swap them with a button. You can also control Mavlink. Really this is as much down to what your Gimbal is capable of.
Range wises the system is capable of 16KM plus as I have personally tested it to that range, however as with all things with radio there are limits. It’s rated at 20km max.
I will say however 10KM is a LONG way and I have yet to see any other system reliably behave at those ranges. That’s even at the limit we have seen from others on the RTF drones.
As for reliability I will say this, Herelink is being developed and currently is not finished, they are still improving this and the recent update was a big jump for many reasons and as always with that there can be some issues. I have been lucky to be able to test many digital FPV systems for both FPV and normal and most of them have some quirks.
Herelink is the most featured system I have used next to the RTF stuff. It’s not perfect and it is still work in progress but it’s got a massive amount of potential.
Wow, Thank you so much man that is more info than I have been able to find in a month. If you have tested multiple HD downlinks I would love to pick your brain on a few things. Im just at work right now but when i get home il post a few questions I had about a few other systems… I really appreciate you taking the time to answer in such detail man, it is extremely helpfulf.
No issues. As this is a manufacture specific group I won’t discuss others here as it’s unfair on the the group or the team.
What I will say is this. In all cases digital has some behaviour people are not always used too at the edge of signal.
Camera compatibly is far more complex as it’s as much down to how the camera manufacture has implemented their HDMI output for instance I get this across multiple makes.
Overall there Herelink in my experience is once of the better systems period especially based on price. It’s not perfect but no product is.
Ya, so as i understand it the Herelink air module has an HDMI input but some DSLR and mapping cameras output an analog video signal through their HDMI output. The gopro for example puts out a true HDMI but my old Canon Rebel t5i puts out analog video even though it uses a mini hdmi output. The camera I have in mind is specifically for inspection and puts out a true 1080/60 HDMI signal which the manufacturer assures me will work with the Herelink system. I dont really need live feed from my mapping camera so Im not too worried about the compatibility on that end.
10km realistically will be the absolute edge of my operation zone but I have a VTOL project on the go mostly as a hobby thing but it will be outfitted for search and rescue and animal identification and Id like to be able to put a herelink air module on it at some point and pitch it for pipeline and powerline inspection down the road.
Anyways I think I have a pretty good idea of the limitations of the systems and once again thank you so much for the help man. Are you the same Mads Tech from youtube? Is there somewhere I can support your content?
Is it advisable to update eventhough I’m happy with the previous firmware? I’m missing some features (Button mapping in QGC as in Solex, direct boot into QGC) and might prefere the previous version until these futures are realized. Are there security concerns which make it necessary to update?
I went with the Herelink system for a commercial drone build and while it has amazing potential, there are also some serious issues and I am starting to panic a little bit. My herelink will connect to wifi networks (5g) but is unable to load any maps from any provider. It will not even allow me to import offline maps downloaded from QGC on PC… I have found several topics related to this but no acceptable solutions. Is there ANY way you can think of to get the map system working?
We have a brand new system and so far we have run into the following issues;
-Maps not loading when imported from PC QGC
-QGC app stops working instantly whenever trying trying to download elevation data
-QGC drops connection randomly, although the RC link stays active
Video drops out within seconds of the craft taking off, every single time. Antennas are mounted in a down ward V shape as suggested and we have great connectivity through entire buildings when the craft is on the ground.
I am not looking for solutions in this thread but as an experienced operator I can say with 100% confidence that this is not even remotely close to being ready for commercial operations. I would not dare use this system on a craft that I was putting my name behind and I would not be able to recommend this to anyone but development teams and even then it would come with serious caveats. If anyone has come to this forum looking for information on the system like I did, please read this and save yourself the frustration and heartbreak of realizing you wasted the better part of a grand during a global pandemic.
I know I was the person who posted the router the issue solution on the other thread. We are using the most recent firmware. We use solex for inspection and QGC for mapping. The video drops out in both. I always make sure there is only one ground station app running, so its not a conflicting software thing.
I can get maps when I do a manual connection to a 5G hotspot but thats about it.
Even with the map issue solved the video issue and the apps crashing randomly are big enough issues to make this unusable in a commercial setting. If I am doing a tower inspection and my video drops every time I leave the ground then I am wasting peoples time and doing damage to my own reputation.
Don’t get me wrong the system looks fantastic on paper but the number of bugs simply make it unusable at this time.
Your video issues have to be local to your copter, as you can see for your self there are not posts upon posts of people who have this same issue.
I would be starting with the power system for the Air unit and camera and looking at grounding issues.
Then look at your HDMI cable and try another making sure is a properly shielded cable.
After that it’s Noise from your propulsion system affecting the HDMI specifically and then I would look at cable routing and again ground paths.
There is something killing the HDMI feed on that craft and your going to need to investigate it. Sorry but when your building craft there is always going to be things like that where issues and compatibly need to be worked though.
On the app crashing I have not had a single crash since the latest update however if your getting it regularly please post the logs so Kelly and the devs can look at what’s going on. It is possible what’s killing the HDMI is also driving the crashes as well though.
It is certainly not not normal behaviour and no one I have seen posted before.