Herelink - Button Mapping - Sorry, I don't get it

Hi,

as a guy coming from DJI stuff, I was really happy to see that there is some professional alternative to DJI Lightbridge and A3.

We already use the channel expansion kit on LB2 … The buttons and switches work, but the usability is a pain in the a**.

By switching to Pixhawk / Arducopter i promised myself to have less technical limitations, so I bought the Herelink and the Cube Orange.

After the basic setup, I came to the button configuration …

I am using a Alexmos Gimbal Controller and a Sony RX 100 and a PWM to Multiport Adapter (GentWire)
So I need one channel for zoom and one for video and image capture.

  • Tilt gimbal: At first, I set up the Dial to tilt my Gimbal. That worked fine.

  • Zoom: I would like to use a button combination (lets say “hold A button and move dial” to zoom in and out). hmm… no such options
    Then as a workaround I wanted to use two buttons on the same rc channel to zoom in and out (hm, doesn’t work either, because I just want to give a very short impulse while pressing the buttons and I cant map 2 buttons to the same RC out).

  • Taking Photo: I finally managed to use the upper right trigger button, to take a photo (but no such options such as “double click” to make the camera start recording …

  • Flight Mode Switch: And last but not least: how to switch flight modes, with just a single button?


Anybody here use Herelink commercially?
How did you guys work out these problems?

best regards,
Chris

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Ok on the gimbal in Solex you can program a button to short and long press to change the Gimbal control output.

So for instance when standard it’s on Servo output 6 then long press A it would go to Servo 7, then short press A back to Servo 6, this could be used for two or more gimbal functions.

With regards to mode selection this must only be done via Mavlink command. You can in Solex set two on a button and map RTL to the home button as well. This was you get three. You can program more.

There will also be a load of Sbus options coming shortly however these must not be used for mode selection.

Hey Christian ,
I need your help , I’m using RX100 but not able to trigger the photo , as you have mention that you managed to do that with uper right trigger button , can you please share me the changes that you made .

Hi Shivam,
you can basically follow this tutorial:

regards
Chris

@MadRC, i need ur assisstance.
I didnot update my herelink as i would like to know the following before updating my herelink:

  1. Can we use qgc to control the gimbal using a combination of scroll wheel and button i.e. for example: A button with 2 short press and one long press generating different output pwm values) can be used with scroll wheel to control 3 x functions like tilt, pan and zoom? (I have been using external board with herelink-old firmware for this purpose till now).
  2. If not, how will this be possible with qgc in latest firmware? Will we have excess to pwm value so that i may use external hardware to control my gimbal.
  3. If i use A short press having two pwms with scroll wheel, i can have two control functions (like pan and tilt). Can i use one more button like B short press with scroll wheel to achieve one more function (like zoom)
  4. The settings applied in solex for button mapping will automatically be the same for qgc? (In case mapping is not available in qgc, we may map functions in solex and later on use it in qgc).
    @philip, till now, camera gimbal control has been one of the primary concern. In addition, the small screen size with poor sunlight visibility are the two main shortcomings particularly for surveillance based drones. (I blv the button mapping will be resolved but screen related issues will be there till design changes are not applied). We have also been waiting for herelink modular version i.e. Tx and Rx modules in order to be able to be used with out own RC and tablet.

What parameters to be set in herelink for button mapping to trigger camera with upper right button?

I’m just working I’ll answer this all shortly.

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Thanks , I’m waiting

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Please see below

1. Can we use qgc to control the gimbal using a combination of scroll wheel and button i.e. for example: A button with 2 short press and one long press generating different output pwm values) can be used with scroll wheel to control 3 x functions like tilt, pan and zoom? (I have been using external board with herelink-old firmware for this purpose till now).

In the new update the system works as follow, all sbus output is controlled via the Herleink settings app, there are entirely independent of the apps.

Solex TX has options for mapping the Servo outputs on your controller on short and long press as well as momentary.

QGC only has mode options at this time.

Mapping in Solex and QCG are again entirely independent to each app.

As for controlling the gimbal via sbus you can not change the wheel output channel via a button, you can assign long ans short presses for a button and output and have momentary action with a short press.

You can not have a long and short press momentary action on the same button.

2. If not, how will this be possible with qgc in latest firmware? Will we have excess to pwm value so that i may use external hardware to control my gimbal.

Not in QGC at this time. You can in Solex.

3. If i use A short press having two pwms with scroll wheel, i can have two control functions (like pan and tilt). Can i use one more button like B short press with scroll wheel to achieve one more function (like zoom)

In Solex you can program a button to change the wheel servo output channel allowing you to do something like Pitch and Zoom but this is not assigned to Sbus and you would beed to map the gimbals to the FC servo outputs

4. The settings applied in solex for button mapping will automatically be the same for qgc? (In case mapping is not available in qgc, we may map functions in solex and later on use it in qgc).
@philip, till now, camera gimbal control has been one of the primary concern. In addition, the small screen size with poor sunlight visibility are the two main shortcomings particularly for surveillance based drones. (I blv the button mapping will be resolved but screen related issues will be there till design changes are not applied). We have also been waiting for herelink modular version i.e. Tx and Rx modules in order to be able to be used with out own RC and tablet.

No Solex and QGC are totally separate for their button options, Sbus programming via Herelink settings is global.

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@MadRC,
Hi, Thaaaaanks for ur reply.
After mapping s-bus in herelink, how can we use aux channels to control servo/gimbal through buttons/scroll wheel. We would be using QGC as our main app and i could not find clearly how to map buttons/scroll wheel for aux channels of pixhawk cube?
Regards
Yasir Khizar

Hi @MadRC, @philip, @Julien , @Alvin
We have updated the herelink firmware to the latest firmware as per instructions given in https://docs.cubepilot.org/user-guides/herelink/herelink-user-guides. We have following observation regarding Button Mapping and Wheel Configuration.

  1. Button Mapping
    The settings carried out in herelink is forwarded to ardupilot and cannot be override. For example, if A short press is set to Toggle with default values 1100 and active value as 1900 on Channel 6 of sbus 1, the same value is forwarded by arducopter no matter whether their pwm values are modified in Solex Tx app. Pics below depict this issue



    The outputs of autopilots on respective channel(s) i.e. 6 are verified through arduino board and are found to be the same as that of herelink settings and not as of solex Tx App

  2. Wheel Configuration
    The override wheel configuration settings for channel mapping is not being override in Solex Tx App. Forexample: Wheel is set to channel 8 of S-bus 1 in herelink settings. Now in Solex Tx App, we mapped button C to configure wheel settings on channel 10 but the herelink settings are not being override. The details are mentioned in Pics:



It is very clear that Wheel channel does not change on respective button clicks. Can you please identify/tell whether there is something else required for override operation.

You can not override Sbus outputs with Solex TX.

The Herelink Settings App controls the PWM values of the output channel on the Sbus RC output.

Solex Controls Aux outputs on your Autopilot and is not related to the Sbus in any way.

They are two entirely different things.

So for instance to change the channel output of the Gimbal wheel you need to fully configure That in Solex TX as such.

Set the wheel to Aux 7 for instance with a range of 1000-2000 pwm.

On your Autopilot leave servo 7 Ie motor 7 as is default.

Then configure Solex to change the that Aux output from 7 to 8.

With Solex TX you need to configure it to use the Aux outputs on your controller. For instance Aux 8 is Motor 8. Aux 9 in Solex is Aux 1 on the Cube.

While you can have the Sbus config doing one thing and Solex doing another you can not have Solex overriding an RC channel or you can not assign an RC channel and Servo to the same motor output.

@MadRC, thanks for ur reply.
Please tell about following.

  1. With Aux 7 (i.e. Servo 7) set to motor 7, what should be the function set to Aux 8 to change the channel output of gimbal wheel? Should it be some RCin i.e. the button showing RC channel (for example RCin_8)?
  2. What should be set for servo9 (in cube autopilot) if we need to operate the third function thru wheel?
  3. The solex app will operate well for quad or hex but not for octocopters (as servos 5-8 will be occupied by motors 5-8). However may work for us as we are currently using quad…
    Awaiting reply…

Regards
Yasir Khizar

You can use the Aux channels for Octo

So Servo 1-8 is Solex is Channels 1-8 on your controller.

Aux 1 on your controller is Servo 9 in Solex TX and so on,
Aux 2 = Servo 10 ect

To configure your gimbal to have Pitch and Yaw for instance as follows

In Solex configure the wheel to to 9 ie Aux 1 and that would be your pitch
Then configure a button to change wheel to 10 and that would be Aux 2 where you would have Yaw connected.

In Mission Plannner you should not need to assign a function as they are assigned to Aux outputs as standard but check.

I can post some screen shots later if you struggling

I am indeed very thankful for ur help. Since, we r in a hurry to hook up our quad and be in air, it wud be very helpful if u provide the screenshots.
Regards
Yasir Khizar

@MadRC,
Here are the list of functions that can be assigned to Servo.
Screenshot_2020-06-21-12-29-40-205_com.android.chrome


We have tried RCIN_ and RCPassthru functions to use wheel configured for buttons (2 channels) but none of them work for us. The default values on servo channels 9-14 (i.e. Aux 1-6 on controller) are disabled by default. Thus, we need to assign some function and there is no Aux function we can see in the list. We are not using Servos 1-8 i.e. Main out 1-8 of the controller for controlling our gimbal. I hope u can guide us better in this way…
Regards
Yasir Khizar

You leave them assigned to nothing ie disabled as that is the servo outputs.

So simply just assign the output in Solex and leave the channel In Ardupilot as default.

@MadRC, hi
Today i checked the wheel function assigned to servo buttons by disabling servo functions i.e. setting the default value as 0. The outcome was that none of gimbal function i.e. tilt, pan and zoom function worked. By enabling servos and assigning RC inputs to Aux servos of controller works but without wheel function dictating the buttons (assigned for pan/zoom) as explained in videos.
I would like to mention that the biggest problem in doing so is that even if it gets done in solex, it will not be working for QGC. The settings applied to solex and not applicable to QGC is not at all acceptable. I hope such problems will be resolved soon and will be covered in future releases. The designers (@philip) of herelink shud be thinking to resolve such issues.
Regards
Yasir Khizar

herelink and QGC are independent, pick one, and set it up

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How to setup a three axis gimbal with the herelink and pixhawk cube orange ? Please explain me the whole setup as I am confused along with the wiring and programming. My requirement is to use solex tx app in herelink and use the wheel of the herelink ground unit to control the pitch, yaw and roll of the camera.

Please explain me how to do it step by step or if you have a manual or user guide, then please send me the link. Like by short pressing button A, I want the pitch of the gimbal to be controlled by the wheel of the herelink ground unit. Then short pressing the B, I want to control the yaw axis of the gimbal by using the wheel of the herelink ground unit. At last I want to use the C ( short press ) button for the control of the roll axis of the gimbal through the wheel of the herelink ground unit. I mean that the same wheel should be used to control the three axis of the gimbal. Please explain me step by step the wiring and software setup process. @MadRC @philip Please help me with it.

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