Connect Herelink with Parrot Disco SBUS

HereLink
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A great experience! But it is not good idea to put many things onto Parrot Disco. With stock firmware of Parrot Disco, can herelink control disco via wifi (no need air unit?). If it can, the solution given is improve herelink antennas to higher gain ones, so you can get longer range with stock disco, using Freeflight pro app with full video streaming and telemetries!

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A bit more detailed info about this “mod”.
There are 2 possible options (in theory) to use Herelink with Parrot Disco:

  1. Using Herelink 5Ghz wifi connection to get CHUCK video and telemetry downstream on Freeflight app installed on Herelink + using Herelink Air unit SBUS out connected to CHUCK SBUS in for pushing Herelink joysticks/buttons events to Disco via Herelink 2.4Ghz telemetry link. 5ghz capable Freeflight app device is needed in order to enable 5Ghz wifi band on Disco (modern iPad should work) - as original Skycontroller2 has no support for that band. Here is instructional video for that: BEBOP 2 - 5GHz | Setup | Network - YouTube
  2. Using Herelink ethernet passthrough feature to get CHUCK telemetry/video downstream over Herelink 2.4Ghz link (similar to Disco 4G mod) + using Herelink Air unit SBUS out connected to CHUCK SBUS in for pushing Herelink joysticks/buttons events to Disco via Herelink 2.4Ghz telemetry link. However this would require some network related modifications also on Herelink remote unit (a bit complicated to achieve atm).

Option1 sort-of works as proof-of-concept - althou needs polishing. 5Ghz wifi range with Herelink is not probably the greatest - althou @Canarias-Stock has claimed 2-3km range with this - which sounds better than original 2.4Ghz with Skycontroller2.

Option2 is purely “in-theory” atm.

It all starts with installing Parrot Freeflight app on Herelink controller - here are the instructions:

# you need to enable Android Developer options and USB debug on Herelink (by clicking on build number 7 times and later enabling USB debug mode in Developer options)
# connect USB cable and you need ADB tools on the computer
# download Parrot Freeflight app with accompanied OBB file on the computer
https://apkplz.net/download-app/com.parrot.freeflight3
# unzip it
# install it via adb
adb install com.parrot.freeflight3_527_apkplz.net/com.parrot.freeflight3.apk
# got to adb shell
adb shell
# create required directory
mkdir -p /storage/self/primary/Android/obb/com.parrot.freeflight3
# exit adb shell
exit
# upload OBB file
adb push com.parrot.freeflight3_527_apkplz.net/Android/obb/com.parrot.freeflight3/main.50206202.com.parrot.freeflight3.obb /storage/self/primary/Android/obb/com.parrot.freeflight3/

# if you need to remove Freeflight app later - just do the following
adb uninstall com.parrot.freeflight3

Known problems with Freeflight app on Herelink:

  • Maps won’t work - as it would require Google Services installed
  • Can’t enable Flightplanning feature - as it would require Google Services installed

Known problems with Herelink SBUS and CHUCK:

  • Disco has issue with Herelink SBUS out (wrong serial speed maybe?). This seems to fix it (execute on CHUCK via telnet session - resets/rescans sbus uart/tty maybe?):
    stty raw < /dev/ttyPA2
  • SBUS commands wont move servos - unless 2 things are done:
  1. Channel 5 RC value is 1900 (selecting manual mode - for testing)
  2. Must exit FreeFlightPro app SBUS button mapping screen - otherwise servo outputs wont be activated!