MFD Crossbow antenna tracker via ELRS ESPNOW? Here's how
Here's a quick guide on how to setup ESPNOW to integrate MFD Crossbow mini with ELRS. It will require some hardware that you may or may not have in your stash, just check out the details in the link below. But basically, you will need to have a backpack capable transmitter module and a backpack capable receiver (recommended is an esp32 based Rx) for this setup. This receiver will act as a backpack receiver on the antenna tracker that communicates directly with the backpack of the ELRS tx module. Note that this is a backpack to backpack communication, it does not mess up with the RC link but rather a separate communication. On my setup, my elrs tx communicates with the elrs on the aircraft via crsf. That's totally fine, as I said, only the backpacks will communicate with each other, and they have their own link, ESPNOW, which uses mavlink on this case. However, you will need to have a single binding phrase for all. Should the backpack rx fail to bind automatically with the tx backpack, you may try forcing it to bind mode, then manually select bind on the ELRS lua.
You may notice that I used the Right Port on the antenna tracker for the ELRS receiver, this is user preference, you can choose Left or Right port on your setup. Just make sure to configure the port's baudrate and protocol accordingly. Also, ELRS receiver tx pin should be connected to the crossbow's Rx line
Based on our testing, Mavlink yields better tracking on the Crossbow Mini compared with CRSF where the tracker goes on hunting when packets drop. Check the latter part (1min and 36 sec) of this video • Walksnail FPV Tracker Ground Station
The system works with inav or ardu, as long as you can fetch telemetry data to the tx module it would work just fine. That's the first step, relaying the telemetry data to the backpack will come next.
Updating the MFD Crossbow Mini antenna tracker to 2.7A6
Based on our testing, it would give better results too if the tracker does not switch back to VLink when packets drop when not using analog fpv system. We suggest that the fw on the Crossbow Mini be updated to 2.7A6, you may download it here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KH9a...
Let's give credits to Wezley Varty and all the other ELRS devs and MFD devs who worked hard to make this happen. Also, credits to my fellows Shannon Baker and Keith Luneau for all their valuable help in testing this stuff. Cheers to all of us!
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MFD Crossbow tracker integration:
https://www.expresslrs.org/software/m...
MFD Crossbow Mini manual:
https://myflydream.com/u_file/miniCro...
MFD Crossbow manual:
https://myflydream.com/u_file/Crossbo...
MFD website:
https://myflydream.com/