Parrot-Disco-Formation-flight

fly multiple Disco wings with skycontrollers and in formation

Parrot Disco over 4G/LTE (softmod)

About

Disco4G is a software modification (softmod) for the Parrot Disco drone.

My mod uses Disco4g and more specifically the Dailyknowmores's parachute mod fork (V1.2).

Community

Why ?

simply for fun and to try to fly several Disco(s) controlled by a "master one"

How does it work ?

Two scripts are added to the "parachute mod" in order :

spysc2.sh : to capture the Skycontroller2 buttons and sticks values and to send them to the ESP32 board.
pud2ESP32.sh to capture the .pud telemetry of the chuck and to send it to the ESP32 board
Then the ESP32 of the master Disco takes care to send these values to all the slave(s) Disco(s).

all the communications either use the regular SC2/Chuck Wifi of each Disco AND an ESP-Now communication Master/slave(s) is put in place to tranfer telemetry and sticks values to the slaves.

Finally, the ESP32 can take the control of the Disco by sending SBUS command to the servo plug.

This quite long and technical video tries to explain how things work !

Requirements

Hardware :

Parrot Disco
Parrot Skycontroller 2
ESP32 boards to put into each disco : https://www.espressif.com/en/products/modules/esp32

Software :

FreeFlight Pro App on tablet/phone (optionnal as you can fly without phone !)
LTE disco4g-parachute mod from THIS repo installed on every Disco
ESP32 software installed on each Disco
IMPORTANT : for ESP-Now to work togheter with the Wifi of the chuck the WiFi channels of the Master and the Slave(s) must be the same. Go to FreeFlightPro App into network settings. Select manual mode and choose the channel.

Installation

Unzip contents (the extraction process automatically creates a new folder "disco4g-parachute_1.2_mod_f2knpw"
Ensure Disco and Skycontroller 2 are on the latest Parrot firmware supported by Disco4G, if required you can up-/downgrade the firmware manually (see details for Disco here and Skycontroller 2 here).
Ensure there is sufficient storage available on the Disco. This softmod only requires 10 MB, however it will not work if 100% of the internal storage is used by videos. This can be checked in FreeFlight Pro.
Turn on your Disco
Ensure no device is plugged into Skycontroller 2 via USB cable.
Turn on Skycontroller 2 and wait until it's connected to the Disco via Wi-Fi (green LED).
Connect your PC's WiFi to the Disco (e.g. DISCO-123456).
Use an FTP tool (e.g. FileZilla) to upload the softmod to your Disco.
- Connect via FTP to 192.168.42.1 (no username/password required)
- You have to set the transfer type to Binary (not ASCII). In FileZilla under Edit → Settings... → Transfers → FTP: File Types → Default transfer type → change from Auto to Binary.
- Transfer the "disco4g-parachute_1.2_mod_f2knpw" folder to the "/internal_000" folder on the Disco.
On Disco firmware 1.7.0 and newer : Double press the Disco's power button to enable the telnet server.
Open a Command Prompt (Windows)/Terminal (macOS/Linux) and Copy/Paste the following commands manually (line by line) to install the softmod.

 telnet 192.168.42.1 
 mount -o remount,rw /
 mv /data/ftp/internal_000/disco4g-* /tmp/disco4g
 mv /tmp/disco4g/disco/logsc2.sh ./logsc2.sh
 mv /tmp/disco4g/disco/pud2ESP.sh ./pud2ESP.sh
 chmod +x /*.sh
 chmod +x /tmp/disco4g/*/*_install.sh
 /tmp/disco4g/disco/disco_install.sh
 /tmp/disco4g/skycontroller2/skycontroller2_install.sh

reboot
Turn off Skycontroller 2 manually

if everything is ok you should see something like this :

Now it's time to compile your ESP32 code. Open the ino file into the ESP32 directory

Configure your board:

#define WROOM32 //uncomment this line for WROOM32 board

//#define DISCO_IS_MASTER 	//uncomment if this Disco is the master (followMe)
							//comment if this Disco is a slave (will follow the Master)

//#define TEST_NOSLAVE  //test mode without slave disco (router  + MASTER + ESPNOW) (comment also DISCO_IS_MASTER)

//#define DEBUG_SPYSC2
//#define DEBUG_PUD2ESP
//#define DEBUG_ESPNOW

#define WATCHDOG_VALUE 6000000  //watchdog protection on SC2 sticks reception expressed in ms

#ifdef DISCO_IS_MASTER
const char* ssid     = "DISCO-JP";
const char* password = "";
#else
#ifdef TEST_NOSLAVE
const char* ssid     = "YOUR_SSID";
const char* password = "YOUR_PASSWORD";
#else
const char* ssid     = "DISCO-JP2";
const char* password = "";
#endif
#endif

in this example the board is running on Wroom module, is a Slave, its Disco SSID is DISCO-JP2
you can change the board from "Wroom32" using pin 13 for SBUS output to "Lolin32 lite" using pin 23
you can configure DISCO_IS_MASTER as Master or slave or "TEST_NOSLAVE" (simple data logger connected to YOUR_SSID)

How to fly (User Manual)

plug each ESP32 into each chuck. If you use a regular servo wire then beware at the polarities...

Red wire is 5V
white (or yellow) wire is SBus out pin
black wire is Gnd

For easy connection on WROOM32 module you may have to swap the red and black pins on the ESP32 side...

now, start up your disco master, start up its skycontroller. When everything is green, double press on the chuck button to enable telnet. Launch the Disco Master and take control of it (see below). Then, start up your disco slave, start up its skycontroller. When everything is green, double press on the chuck button to enable telnet. Launch the Disco slave and take control of it (see below).

For the moment do not fly with this mod... when pressing right trigger + A on the SkyController, the disco goes into fully manual mode. DO NOT FLY WITH MANUAL MODE to exit press right trigger or enter into loiter (left stick horizontal)

To capture telemetry, the disco must first take off in "autopilot mode". On ground, without propeller, press the button on the SC2, it will try to take off and quit 10s after... So you can press the button to take off. Immediatlely, go to manual mode (A + right trigger). Then the telemetry (of the master) will be sent to any slave

Currently I do mix master and slave sticks, on the slave, to demonstrate that the slave is controlled by its Skycontroller + the master's one !

  int tmpSticks[4];
  tmpSticks[ROLL] = sticks[ROLL] + tmDiscoMaster.stickRoll;
  tmpSticks[PITCH] = sticks[PITCH] + tmDiscoMaster.stickPitch;
  tmpSticks[THROTTLE] = sticks[THROTTLE] + tmDiscoMaster.stickThrottle;

Work in progress... Don't fly with this now !

[edit 210904] I have performed ESP-Now range tests between a master (flying) and a slave disco "on ground". The ESP32 are original ones with their pcb antenna. They are "packed" into the disco behind the batteries. Range is below the advertized 400m. I can safely reach 130m but not more without loss of packets. 130m is enough to test the formation flight ! Currently I have implemented some "failsafe" checks : if no telemetry comming from the master or no sticks cpatured from the slave, then I switch to Skycontroller2 mode on the slave. If not then I can go on flying with the "radio controlled assisted mode" on the slave.

Contact/Contribute

Special Thanks to

UAVPAL community : Join our UAVPAL Slack workspace (please do not use email for issues/troubleshooting help. Join our Slack community instead!)
Parachute mod Dailyknowmore : https://github.com/dailyknowmore

Disclaimer

This is still a VERY EXPERIMENTAL modification ! Mod and DON'T fly your Disco at YOUR OWN RISK!!!

wad45 / parrot-disco-formation-flight Goto Github PK