Welcome to Ruby
Ruby is a complete solution (hardware and software) for robust end to end digital radio links, designed specifically for controlling and managing UAVs/drones/planes/cars and other remote vehicles.
Flying over mountains, 20km away:
Here you will find all the info you need and step by step guides on how to build a complete digital radio link to be used for remote controlling vehicles (planes, drones, cars, UAVs), for sending/receiving data, telemetry and for live HD video. The system is built using hardware components available on the market. All you need is the software from the downloads section and the minimal set of components listed in the hardware section.
Features highlights:
- Mutiple, rendundant radio links on 433/868/915 Mhz and 2.4/5.8 Ghz bands:
Multiple redundant radio links in different bands (433Mhz, 868/915Mhz, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5 and 5.8Ghz) can be used simultaneously between vehicles, ground control stations and relays for better resilience, link quality and range; - Relaying:
Mobile (vehicles) and/or fixed relay nodes can be inserted in the system for longer range and penetration beyond line of sight; - Encryption:
The radio links can be encrypted end to end so that only authorized components can decode the radio data; - Live video, telemetry, remote control, auxiliary & custom data streams:
By default Ruby supports all the required data capabilities for UAVs (video, telemetry, control and user defined data streams). - Rich user interface/control interface;
- SDKs for third party development of new features:
There are public SDKs available so that 3rd parties can add custom functionalities and capabilities to Ruby system.
Being a digital link, end to end, gives you advantages over regular analog RF links, like: noise free video feed, ability to send data too (like telemetry and other custom data), error correction, data reliability, have more configurable parameters as it relates to the end to end video link, not just frequency and band; but also parameters like resolution, framerate, resilience and so on; and also enables some exotic scenarios like 3D video, camera switching and so on pretty much out of the box.
Ruby also has these other capabilities right out of the box:
- Bidirectional radio link for better video streaming quality; Video quality is adjusted based on radio conditions;
- Video Recording;
- Long range radio link: the range of the radio link is (based on setup) between 2 km to 40km (maximum tested so far);
- Low end to end latency of the video feed (as low as 80ms); Latency of telemetry and remote control is even lower, less than 10ms
- Bind multiple models (just like a regular remote control) and switch between them, live;
- Real time control of the vehicle and telemetry data;
- Spectator mode: allows others to be just spectators, watching the live video feed.
- Software update of the vehicles over the radio link;
- Multiple OSD layouts;
- Detailed info on link quality and video decoding stats;
- Multiple camera profiles, live switching between them for different flight conditions;
- Bidirectional telemetry and custom data feeds. For telemetry, MAVLink and LTM are supported, other protocols are still in progress;
- A comprehensive list of settings and parameters, all can be changed on the fly using the OSD and menu;
Here is how the user interface and video display looks like on the controller:
What video range to expect:
- On 2.4Ghz, using 200mW of power: about 2-3 km range (solid full HD video); Range is shorter if you are in a city area with a lot of WiFi traffic;
- On 5.8Ghz, using 400mw of power: about 3.5-4 km range (solid full HD video); People regularly fly to 7-8 Km out on omnidirectional antennas only with solid link (see resources section for examples);
People have done tens of kilometers distance flights using Ruby, maximum reported range so far is 40 km;
* The telemetry/data/remote controll range is usually greater than the video range. Video streams are the ones that need the highest data throughput hence the lower limit of video range.