G-OSD II

lobstermash

Propaganda machine
Mentor
OSD choice is difficult. Balancing budget with functionality is pretty difficult. When I first looked at OSDs, HK had double the number of options to what it has now. I remember thinking I wanted to get the most basic and cheapest osd with GPS and home direction, and looked at v1 of the G-OSD. I was immediately put off by the lack of a return home arrow. Why would you have GPS coordinates with a home arrow?!?

A couple of weeks ago I got a pair of Fatshark Predators, and after the first FPV flight, I knew I'd need an OSD to help me find home and monitor battery. I jumped back on to HK, BevRC and ReadymadeRC to have a look at what was out there. BevRC and ReadymadeRC had the NOVA, but really it's out of my budget for now. I know, RTH will save planes, but I'm good at judging how far to push things (touch wood). I also noticed that HK's range has shrunk by about 50%, and the G-OSD was up to version II.

Wanting to find out if this version was better, I chucked it into Google and started reading through the RCG thread on it. Turns out someone's programmed some firmware to make this thing useful! I've heard that somewhere before... I only flashed my 9x a couple of months ago, and it's both easy and wonderful! Hopefully cl-OSD will do the job of transforming this ugly duckling into a beautiful butterfly.

Well, my G-OSD II arrived today. I cut off the heat shrink from the main board and pulled out my AVR programmer. Oops, I used up the last of my solder on my cp antennas!!!

Anyhow, here's how to solder the AVR programmer on to the board for re-flashing:
Here's the board:
IMG129.jpg

Wire 1 (MOSI, the red one) connects to the left-most pad (let's call it 1).
Wire 9 (MISO) connects to pad 2
Wire 7 (SCK) connects to pad 3
Wire 5 (RST) connects to pad 4
Wire 10 (GND) connects to pad 5
Wire 2 (VTG) connects to pad 6

From there, you need to get the EEP and HEX files from here and run your programmer!

I look forward to doing it soon...
 

treadd

Uber N00b
Good luck lobstersmash! If you can get a RTH function from this, I would be VERY interested in how to do that. I've been thinking about getting another FPV plane into the air, but I'm resisting plopping down another $120 for a NOVA if this can be tweaked to do the same thing for under $50!
 

bmsweb

Site Moderator
Will be interested to see how you go with this as it could be a good option for my Mini Skywalker.
 

lobstermash

Propaganda machine
Mentor
I pinched some solder off a mate, but in spite of being very careful I've managed to break off the #1 solder pad (5V power input). I think the glue came unstuck (I didn't think I overheated it, but the proof is in the broken solder pad :( ) and the slight pressure of the wire broke the connection to the board...

I'm wondering if anyone knows if I can just power up the board as normal and reflash...? Going through the logic, it's hard to see why I couldn't, but thought I should check. Flashing will have to wait for tonight.

Just to clarify, this firmware give the home arrow/direction to home, not return to home. I don't think the little chip would have enough memory on it to program RTH... Though I might pitch that to the RCG experts for it to use the FMA copilot to RTH...
 

lobstermash

Propaganda machine
Mentor
Well, I've screwed the pooch... I powered the OSD and it was working just fine with the programmer. I flashed the .eep file on there, but when I tried to do the .hex, the OSD board died and it refused to put anything on there. Now it won't power up. There goes $40... *flush*
 

lobstermash

Propaganda machine
Mentor
I tried connecting it up anyway, but no luck. Interestingly I was able to flash the processor anyway after a couple of goes. Instead of using winavr, I used eXtreme burner AVR. Once I selected the correct chip, it had no worries writing on there. My only (and it's a biggie) issue is that my board won't power up and inject its magic into the video feed...
 

lobstermash

Propaganda machine
Mentor
Before I give up, I'm told it may just be that the new firmware isn't correctly installed. Hopefully I can recover it.

UPDATE: I gave it another go re-flashing it. The LED tells me that it's all working now, but I'll have to hook it up to confirm...
 
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lobstermash

Propaganda machine
Mentor
And she lives!!! Proof:

IMG130.jpg

I haven't calibrated the voltage yet (it was running off a fairly full 2s in the pic). The online instruction manual is pretty hard to follow, so I might do a 'cl-osd for dummies' article...
 

glydr

How many letters do we ge
Yes, some rain in Canberra here today as evidenced by the washing hung inside.

Mrs Glydr recognises the green washing hanger.

Good to see the OSD up and running. I might even be convinced to have a look next time only to see the little arrow letting me know where I am.

:)
 

lobstermash

Propaganda machine
Mentor
You'll be having a fly! You can't be a LOSer forever!!!

Yeah, love how bright Dan's red jocks come up in the camera!

It's bound to be extremely wet and/or windy this weekend, as I've also got my HD wing camera up and running with a 16GB microSD.
 

lobstermash

Propaganda machine
Mentor
I've got it all wired up and working. I put the GPS module near the window, and after about 2-3 minutes got 6 satellites. Should be less than a minute outside. I set home position using the little button on the OSD and calibrated the voltage. Too easy.

Now I have to lay it out in the plane and we're good to go. I've possibly got my FrSky combo arriving today (left HK on Monday), so I'm holding off rigging it all up with the 9x rx. It'll be nice to have RSSI to keep an eye on.

Also, for those wondering, this OSD doesn't have a current sensor unless you get one separate. I'm probably not going to bother, as voltage should give me enough of an indication of battery use, and in addition to hardware I'd need to find the programming for it and reflash again.
 

rslegge

Junior Member
Operations Manual for G-OSD on HK Mini OSD System w/GPS Module - PRODUCT ID: 0740002

I have created an Operations Manual for G-OSD on HK - Mini OSD System w/GPS Module - PRODUCT ID: 074000204
 

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