Time to Upgrade Your Video/Data Link Module

01 Give me a reason to change

• The size and weight burden of traditional image transmission modules are often bundled with the ground control station, and even require an additional battery box, which makes the UAV "heavy" and reduces battery life.

• Lack of interface and compatibility
  There are few serial ports and Ethernet interfaces, and often only TCP or UDP single modes can be selected, which cannot meet the simultaneous access of multiple devices and multiple protocols.

• Single networking method
  Relying on one-to-one AP/STA connection, the signal is seriously attenuated when encountering barriers such as walls and floors, making it impossible to transmit stably across obstacles.

• Limited coverage and prone to dead spots
  The theoretical nominal length is several hundred meters, but in actual use, there are constant "blind spots" across multiple walls and corners of corridors, and it is often necessary to constantly add points and adjust angles.

• Insufficient battery life and power management
  Ground control stations generally require an external large-capacity power supply and cannot solve battery life concerns through a single-machine integrated design.

02 Why change to LQ

LQ supports MESH networking and is specially designed for mobile robots

LQ is a 2.4G frequency band image and data integrated transmission module specially designed for robot communication. It is divided into two parts: mobile terminal and base station terminal. It has high bandwidth, low latency and long-distance transmission capabilities. The product is available in two versions: LQ-3 supports point-to-point (star networking) communication and is suitable for one-to-one transmission scenarios; LQ-Mesh supports multi-node ad hoc networks, which can automatically optimize links in complex or dynamic environments to ensure stable communication.

03 Let’s talk about LQ in detail

Compact size and light weight

The functions of the base station and the mobile terminal are exactly the same, and the mobile terminal does not have a built-in lithium battery. If the module volume requirements are high, mobile terminals and mobile terminal networking can be used.

Powerful performance, long communication distance

The maximum transmission bandwidth is 40Mbps, and the ground-to-air communication distance can easily exceed 3km in AP/STA mode.Can reach more than 5km in Mesh mode. Supports IEEE 802.11n WLAN protocol to ensure stable and efficient data transmission.

Various networking methods

Based on the different networking structure characteristics of wireless communication, AT/STA networking has low data delay and high bandwidth, and Mesh networking is flexible and simple to use. Users can enable different modes on the aircraft to cope with complex scenarios according to network characteristics.

It supports point-to-point, point-to-multipoint, multi-point-to-multipoint automatic relay and multi-hop, and can be interconnected with other self-organizing network equipment. It can be widely used in UAVs, unmanned ships, robot self-organizing network individual soldiers, etc.

Rich interface

LQ maintains its compactness while also implementing rich interfaces and instructions. The air unit has 3 serial ports, and serial port 3 supports sbus. 2 100Mbps Ethernet ports, 2 SMA antenna ports. The TX and RX of each serial port, as well as each Ethernet port, have independent LED data indicators, and these indicators are stacked on the same side, making it more convenient for users to view.

Efficient configuration management

The web page centrally displays device IP, ID and status history, serial port parameters are configured uniformly, and networking is controlled on one page.

Built-in battery at base station

Integrated charge and discharge management, physical shutdown can be achieved with the touch of a button, and the Type-C interface supports a maximum charging current of 5V/3A. 4 LED indicators provide dynamic indication of battery power, and can be turned on and used while charging.

04

Are there any relevant tests?

Indoor 1700㎡ full coverage

Test site: Indoor office space with an area of ​​approximately 1700 m2
Test equipment:

• 1 air unit with camera (collecting video data)

• 1 ground terminal with computer (receiving video data and link data)

• Several LQ-Mesh nodes in the middle (with batteries)

Test preparation:

• Measurement of the farthest direct connection distance
  Place two nodes at the maximum distance until they cannot communicate directly, and record the distance.

• Adjust the camera encoding parameters, and the video uses 1080P 25fps main stream.

• Node height: All equipment should be arranged at a height of 1.3 m as much as possible to simulate conventional indoor installation conditions.

Test method: Taking advantage of the environment where the remote end cannot be directly connected, the collected video (1080P 25fps main stream) is transmitted to the ground end through mesh node transfer, and the video status and link related information are presented through the computer.

Test conclusion:

An indoor office space with an area of ​​about 1,700 m can use 2 (1 computer ground end, 1 camera air end) + 6 (intermediate Mesh nodes) method for initial coverage. One of the nodes is placed outside the platform on the second floor. Hold the camera sky unit and walk around every position or range in the space to observe the bandwidth, delay, and streaming of the video received by the computer. Finally, full-range Mesh network coverage was achieved, and clear streaming was measured at about 200 meters outdoors (at some of the same distances, there may be lags, which are suspected to be related to the environment).

outdoor test

Verify the video streaming effect of Mesh networking under long-distance outdoor ground conditions of 1.6km. Arrange 6 Mesh devices on the ground. Set the IP address of the Mesh device connected to the ground control station to 11 and the aircraft IP to 10.

Open the video streaming software and bandwidth monitoring window of the ground control station, observe the smoothness of the video, and the real-time bandwidth data as shown in the figure below.