Drone communication

krutenko.vlad · Jan 5, 2020

I don't own a Yuneec drone myself, but I have some questions for the owners, since neither official website, nor user manual (for Typhoon H at least), nor [email protected] seem to have an answer.
How does the the drone communicate with the controller? In user manual, I've read that they transmit video on 5.8 GHz frequency. Are all the other signals transmitted on the same frequency? What technology do they use? Is it just basic Wi-Fi or is it some proprietary modification like Lightbridge? In the first case, who is the access point, the drone or the controller? Is there WEP/WPA/WPA2 or any other protection to this network? In the second case, does it have a name like already mentioned Lightbridge? Maybe it can even support both of these cases like Mavic Pro?
I know that Yuneec has multiple models and maybe the answer to these questions can vary for different models, but I'll be thankful for info on any of the models.

claudius62 · Jan 5, 2020

The question was already asked last week. Search the forum.
5.8 telemetry and video
2.4 radio-controller
Owner protected wifi
(H520 / H+ / H3)

DoomMeister · Jan 5, 2020

I had telemetry even with the camera off of the aircraft (while the camera was being repaired for a defective sensor. This tells me that the telemetry is transmitted over the 2.4 GHz Radio Control using Zigbee transceivers (with failsafe over 5.8 GHz WiFi if camera is mounted).

The WiFi is WPA2 protected, but the password is fixed and not configurable by the user (H520 may allow user to change password).

Lightbridge is a DJI licensed technology and is not incorporated in Yuneec products. The video signal on my TH Pro became garbled at around 1800 feet using the omnidirectional antenna. I still had video at 2600 feet using the patch antenna and did not go farther as that was my VLOS limit that day. Both flights were conducted in a fairly highly saturated WiFi zone over open ground and good line of sight at an altitude of 125 feet to maintain visual contact.

krutenko.vlad · Jan 5, 2020

DoomMeister said:
I had telemetry even with the camera off of the aircraft (while the camera was being repaired for a defective sensor. This tells me that the telemetry is transmitted over the 2.4 GHz Radio Control using Zigbee transceivers (with failsafe over 5.8 GHz WiFi if camera is mounted).

The WiFi is WPA2 protected, but the password is fixed and not configurable by the user (H520 may allow user to change password).

Lightbridge is a DJI licensed technology and is not incorporated in Yuneec products. The video signal on my TH Pro became garbled at around 1800 feet using the omnidirectional antenna. I still had video at 2600 feet using the patch antenna and did not go farther as that was my VLOS limit that day. Both flights were conducted in a fairly highly saturated WiFi zone over open ground and good line of sight at an altitude of 125 feet to maintain visual contact.

Thanks for the info!
I guess the WPA2 password is unique for each device, since it is not configurable?

DoomMeister · Jan 5, 2020

krutenko.vlad said:
Thanks for the info!
I guess the WPA2 password is unique for each device, since it is not configurable?

The password is the same but each device has its own SSID. Since the range is limited it is not likely anyone will connect and would only get a rather poor 720p video feed.

The control signal can only come through the Zigbee transceivers (even with the 5.8GHz WiFi redundancy) so aircraft control is unique to the bound controller. In other words, no one can connect to the camera and usurp control of the aircraft.

h-elsner · Jan 5, 2020

For the WiFi part the cam is the hotspot and any device can connect to it. SSID is the number of the cam and password is 1234567890.

The password can be changed when a SD card is in the cam. The file "wireless.conf" in the directory /MISC contains the password. This file can be edited by a text editor and you can change the password and rebind the cam. The new password is only valid when this SD card is in.

wireless.conf:
#####configuration file ##########################################
# WPA Passphrase (8 ~ 63 characters)
AP_PASSWD=1234567890

Technical details for the 2.4GHz ZigBee RC connection can be found here:

FCC ID 2ACS5-SR24 Radio Controller Receiver by Yuneec Technology Co., Limited

FCC ID application submitted by Yuneec Technology Co., Limited for Radio Controller Receiver for FCC ID 2ACS5-SR24. Approved Frequencies, User Manuals, Photos, and Wireless Reports.

fccid.io

br HE

DoomMeister · Jan 5, 2020

Thanks for the password info again @h-elsner. Once I saw again here, I remembered you posting that in the past. It is great seeing the banter between you, @Pöllö , and @dylanfm in a couple of the other threads. I may get into some of that when I have to go rogue.