Herelink Ethernet Camera Routing Isuue. Cannot Ping Camera from Laptop, but can ping from Controller!

HereLink
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Hi,

I have a Siyi A8 Mini connected to the Ethernet port of my Herelink v1.1.

My previous Herelink’s airunit was destroyed by a Siyi A8, and I learned the hard way that Siyi cameras destroy the Herelink’s Ethernet PHY.

So, as per the SB_7, with my new Herelink and a new Siyi A8, I used 100nF isolation capacitors in series between the Siyi cam and Herelink Ethernet Port wires.

The herelink is powered by a 9V BEC, and the Siyi A8 is powered by a 14V BEC. I hope the isolation capacitors prevent my Herelink’s Ethernet port.

Here is an overview of my system setup:

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On powering up the system, I get the camera stream on my Herelink controller on the Siyi FPV app, and I can also control the camera movements via on-screen finger slides.

I can also get the RTSP video on Herelink’s QGC from address: rtsp://192.168.144.25:8554/main.264

(Although the video on QGC is very very choppy and takes about 2-3 seconds to update a frame, but that’s a topic for another discussion.)

So Ethernet is working fine!

Now I connected my laptop to Herelink’s Hotspot and did some ping experiments. The results are as follows:

> I **can ping 192.168.43.1** (Herelink GU WiFi AP).
> I **can ping 192.168.144.11** (Herelink GU Drone Network Side).
> I **can ping 192.168.144.10** (Herelink AU).
> I **CANNOT PING 192.168.144.25** (Siyi A8 Mini).

I cannot ping the camera from my laptop.

Next, I installed the “Ping Tools” app on my Herelink Controller and tested the pings. To my surprise, I can ping the camera from the Herelink Controller without any issue, but I can’t ping the camera from the laptop connected to Herelink’s Hotspot.

I even tried pinging the camera with adb on the Herelink Controller, and it was working fine.

So, it means that the Herelink Controller can communicate with the Ethernet camera, but it is NOT routing it through the Hotspot.

Here is a summary of my ping experiments:

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Any idea what I could be missing?

@Michael_Oborne @philip @Gary_Mortimer @iampete @Tim_Archer @khancyr

Please help.

Thanks,
Divyanshu

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Not sure myself about the camera. I do know for a raspberry pi attached to a Ethernet switch with the Herelink I just need to setup some routing rules on it and the ground station. The commands below are what I use and they work for me. Try it and see but not sure if you can set a route like I do on the companion computer the same way on the siyi camera.

  • GCS/Laptop needs a static route to 192.168.144.0/24 via 192.168.43.1
    • To do this, assuming your GCS is a Windows PC, open a command prompt as administrator and run route add 192.168.144.0 mask 255.255.255.0 192.168.43.1
    • To make the route persistent across reboots, run it with the -p flag: route -p add 192.168.144.0 mask 255.255.255.0 192.168.43.1
  • Companion computer needs a static route for 192.168.43.0/24 via 192.168.144.11
    • To do this temporarily, run the command: sudo ip route add 192.168.43.0/24 via 192.168.144.11
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Hi @Tim_Archer,

Thank you for your reply.
I tried the following command on my PC, but still not able to ping camera from PC:
route add 192.168.144.0 mask 255.255.255.0 192.168.43.1

Can you please help with this?

Thanks,
Divyanshu

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Hi @Gary_Mortimer,

Thank you for your response.
I tried the steps shown in the video, but I still cannot ping the camera from PC.

Since I am able to ping the camera from Herelink Controller, I am pretty sure that it is just a small routing issue on the Hotspot and/or PC that I am unable to resolve.

All this Ethernet and routing is new to me, and I’m unable to resolve it on my own.

Can you please take some time and provide me with some detailed steps to resolve this?

Thanks,
Divyanshu

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I am not part of CubePilot. Please don’t spam ramdom people for your issues. Thanks.

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Just tagged you because you provided information regarding a very similar issue with Herelink on the Ardupilot discussion blog.

Sorry if you don’t like it.

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What @Tim_Archer said
Reason
The hotspot device is on a different IP range to the camera. So routing must occur.
The siyi needs to route via the hand controller, ie 192.168.144.11

The laptop, assuming no other default gateway will auto route via the hand controller on the 192.168.44.1

What id say is happening is your traffic makes to the camera, but the return traffic goes In a black hole

1 Like
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Hi @Michael_Oborne

Thank you for your reply.

I tried using @Tim_Archer route command on my laptop (route add 192.168.144.0 mask 255.255.255.0 192.168.43.1) (Connected to Herelink’s Hotspot), and it showed that the route is active, but I’m still unable to ping the camera from the laptop.

I understand that since the “hotspot device is on a different IP range to the camera”, hence routing is necessary, but how to make it work?

Is my original assumption correct:

The Herelink’s Air unit (192.168.144.10) is also on a different IP range to the hotspot device (192.168.43.1), so how am I able to ping it from the laptop? How is its routing working? Is the Herelink Controller routing the air unit to the hotspot, but not the camera?

Please help.

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The default gateway needs to be set on the siyi. The laptop should need nothing changed

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Hi @Michael_Oborne

Thanks for your response.
On my Siyi, the current default gateway is set to 192.168.144.1

What should I set it to?

Thanks,
Divyanshu

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192.168.144.11

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Hi @Michael_Oborne,

Thank you for your help.
After setting your recommended gateway on Siyi, I am able to ping the camera from my laptop.

Thanks again!
Divyanshu

2 Likes
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Hello. My name is Ken Flucas. I understand this is an old discussion that I am replying to but I hope you can and are willing to help me. I have a 700mm quad upgrade/build on hold because I want to upgrade my camera from a gopro 4 to a camera with zoom AND night vision capabilities. I have the Herelink v1.1 and Cubepilot Orange cube. I am considering the SIYI ZR10 or A8 Mini. To my understanding, the ZR10 only has video out via ethernet and the Herelink’s ethernet port does not support video in. If I am wrong please correct me and let me know how to make that work. Were you able to get the A8 mini to work flawlessly and without any latency? Any and all the info you can provide about the Herelink and SIYI A8 Mini would be helpful. May I ask, why you were trying to ping the camera from your laptop? Is that something I need to be prepared for with my build? How did the A8 mini destroy your 1st Herelink air unit and how can I avoid that same issue? Are there any other cameras you can suggest that is directly compatible with the Herelink system and has zoom AND night vision capabilities with a dedicated HDMI video out? Please help. Thank you!

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Hi @KFlucas937,

The Herelink supports Ethernet video input, and that’s the whole point of having an Ethernet port on the air unit.

You can have an RTSP video stream on the Herelink’s QGC when you connect an Ethernet camera.

With Siyi, you have to be careful because if you connect the Siyi camera directly to Herelink’s air unit using Ethernet, it will damage the air unit’s Ethernet PHY. You can use series capacitors, just as I did, to isolate the camera from the air unit, and it will work fine.
Cubepilot officially warns about this here:

I was trying to make a custom software on my laptop to talk to the camera, and that’s why I needed to ping it from laptop. You might not need it at all.

Regarding video latency with Ethernet, the siyi FPV app on herelink works well, but has limited features. You can use the latest QGC for herelink (4.4.5 currently), and it should work fine.

Hope I have answered all your questions.

Thanks,
Divyanshu

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This is why i suggest using ethernet to spi adaptor to route gimbal video directly through flight controller

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how did you change the gateway? I have been trying to do the same but can’t figure it out. I tried the SIYI Assistant app as well. I have connected a8 mini to my laptop via ethernet and am trying to access the live video from the camera connected to Herelink Air Unit’s ethernet port to my laptop via herelink’s hotspot, does that work by changing the gateway or do I have to use the HDMI port for the stream?

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I changed the gateway using the Siyi Assistant app, and it worked fine.

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You can change the gateway by connecting your laptop to the camera through the USB-C port and power on the camera. When it detects the camera, the app should light up the green light on the bottom left of the app window.