Linux Transmitters
The first thing I would recommend for people to
do is to look at alternative radio systems past the
standard R/C transmitters you see at a hobby
shop, such as Futaba and Spektrum. Now, these
are great transmitters; if you want plug-and-play,
basic functions, these will be the ones you should
have.
However, if you want to get into some advanced
channel mixing, telemetry, and a system that is
easily programmed via your computer, you need
to be looking into radios such as FrSky, Jumper,
and RadioMaster. These don’t have to cost more
than your standard hobby store radios either. You
can get a decent 8-channel radio for $120 like the
Jumper T-Pro. Or go all out and buy something
like the FrSky Horus X12S worth $600 or more for
all the bells and whistles.
Open Source Firmware
All of these transmitters run on open source
Linux-based operating systems. One is OpenTX
(www.open-tx.org) and the other is EdgeTX
(edgetx.org), a fork of OpenTX that’s mainly used
for developing new features. Both are very similar
and capable.
Why would you want one of these systems?
Let’s start with an example of how to implement
it to get the movements you want from a
Mecanum robot platform. Mecanum is a type
of wheel system used for creating unique and
fluid movements that standard wheels cannot.
It’s made up of several small rollers that are
arranged at an angle on the wheel (Figure
A
).
When, for example, you spin the left-side
wheels in a counter-rotating direction to the
right side (Figure
B
), the robot can move
sideways! A combination of sideways movement
and forward will move it diagonally, or you can
do your standard skid steer movements like a
tracked vehicle (Figures
C
and
D
). Basically,
a Mecanum-wheel drive can move in many
different directions at once! This makes for a
robot that can move in unique ways. To mix the
channels on a standard transmitter to achieve
this movement is possible — but honestly it’s
a huge pain. I like the path of least resistance.
And that path took me to OpenTX and EdgeTX
software running on the radios mentioned above.
OpenTX offers advanced features and
capabilities to help you get the most out of your
radio-controlled model. Effectively, it’s a Linux
system in a transmitter. You can program it to
do most of what you’d need from a robot. This
can make it so you no longer need an Arduino
onboard your robot at all. You can offload all
that work to the transmitter and do all the
programming there.
These radio systems come with a computer
R/C PROPS OpenTX Transmitters
A
B C D
32 makezine.com
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