ExpressLRS
PIC32 hardware compatibility
I have a bunch of crossfire receivers and I recently bought the Jumper T18 with 5in1 transmitter. It would be absolutely awesome to use the Crossfire receivers with the 300mW transmitter in the T18.
It's not only for the range but most of all for the ease of use. The transmitter comes with a connector for the 868/915 antenna which can be fitted with a proper dipole antenna which should drastically improve the range (as if the 30km wouldn't be enough :D)
But seriously, not having to install the Crossfire transmitter in the JR bay and still being able to use the crossfire receivers with ELRS would be a huge advantage and give the hardware a whole new purpose. Sure, those receivers aren't the cheapest ones but if one already has them buying the RXs from HappyModel just isn't justified.
Not to mention this would be the ultimate disruptor on the RC link market where the proprietary hardware is beaten by OpenSource software.
And if need be I can donate some hardware (receivers) for the purpose of implementing this.
Changed the title to pic32 hardware compatibility, we can always tweak this back to PIC32 900mhz hardware if we want to separate the issue but for now, I think we can just include this in one large PR.
What happened to the PR? I know @brandonrc was very busy but the PR was closed with no comments.
Maybe it auto closed because of no activity.
:/
Going to flash some hardware this weekend :) so let's see how that goes.
I know it has been awhile but I am making progress on this.
For anyone that want's to know, should I keep my TBS hardware and wait to flash ELRS on it?
My recommendation is to sell all your TBS hardware while you still can. Then take that money and buy ELRS hardware.
While I do think it is possible to get ELRS running on pic32 gear, you will need an expensive `pickit3` and we do not have a bootloader yet so you will have to reflash it everytime with the pickit... :(
Still at the fubarino mini dev setup...
https://github.com/brandonrc/expresslrs/tree/pr-pic32
@brandonrc Do you think it makes sense to invest time into making ELRS work on Crossfire hardware in the light of what you said about it needing pickit3? Maybe it'd be just best to relay on ELRS-specific hardware?
@brandonrc Do you think it makes sense to invest time into making ELRS work on Crossfire hardware in the light of what you said about it needing pickit3? Maybe it'd be just best to relay on ELRS-specific hardware?
PickKit3 is available for more than ST-link v2 but not a ton more - so it's a realistic cost proposition for users wanting to convert many crossfire or tracer RXs. eLRS already supports Ghost and Siyi which both need ST-Link flashing. If @brandonrc can demonstrate the possibility of PIC32 working then eLRS may be able to attract more developers with PIC experience to the project.
Going to close this.
There is no plans from any developers to add or support pic32.
Main reason, we rely heavily on platformio which has libraries that are supported outside of ELRS. Pic32 lacks the support compared to ESP/STM and will be unmaintainable.
Second reason, we want to focus our time on hardware that is made for ELRS. Lots have changed in 2 years and the need to use non-elrs hardware is fading fast.