Complete Setup Guide
This guide will walk you through all the steps to make a complete working system from bare components. A complete system means:
- A controller, which you will use to controll your UAVs (planes, drones, cars, etc) and to receive live video feed from your UAV;
- An UAV (plane, drone, car, etc) that will pair (over radio) automatically with the controller and will transmit live video feed to controller;
There are two major parts of the setup, to make a working system: software and hardware. Both are covered by this setup guide.
Use this guide as reference for your progress. Start with the first step and walk your way up to the end, when you will have a working Ruby system.
Let's start with the software part as it's very easy to do:
Software Setup Guide:
1
Procure two SD cards, 8Gb minimium size. Be aware that some cheap, large capacity (64-128Gb) SD cards might not work or have poor performance;
2
Go to Downloads section, download the lastest Ruby software image and flash it to the two SD cards using a flashing software (i.e. Balena Etcher);
That's all on the software side of things. Have those two SD cards handy when you finish the hardware setup.
Ruby software comes preconfigured automatically, you do not have to change anything to have a working, functional system. All is automatically detected by the software and your controller will automatically pair with your first UAV (drone, plane, car, etc).
Hardware Setup Guide:
This will be split in two parts, one for the controller (which you use to see the live HD video stream, telemetry data, send commands to the UAV, etc) and one for the UAV (drone, plane, car, etc);
Some steps are similar, but for clarity of the setup, it's easier to do those two parts separately.
Controller Setup Guide:
1
Procure the required hardware components for the controller: a Raspberry Pi, a HDMI display, a radio interface. Go to Hardware section to see all supported hardware components you can choose from;
2
The user interface on the controller can be accessed in three ways: using a USB keyboard, using a rotary encoder, or using 4 push buttons for navigation (Menu, Back, Up, Down). The recommended method is using 4 push buttons. If so, you need to buy any type of push buttons. Otherways, just skip this step;
3
Procure a BEC or a buck converter in order to convert/lower your battery voltage to the 5V required by Pi and radio cards. The BEC should be able to provide at least 2 amps of current;
4
Connect two power wires from your BEC to the Raspberry Pi 5V power supply pins; A reference with all the possible wiring configurations on the controller can be consulted on the Hardware Wiring section;
5
If you choose to have push buttons for menu navigation, wire the 4 buttons as detailed in the Buttons Wiring section; Otherways you can skip this step;
6
Connect the radio card to one of the USB ports on the Raspberry Pi;
7
Connect your HDMI display to the Raspberry Pi using a HDMI cable. Depending on your type of HDMI display, you might need to provide power to the display too (check your HDMI display manual for intructions on how to power it up);
8
Double check all the connections, especially the fact that the Raspberry Pi is powered by a 5 volts supply;
9
Insert one of the SD cards (you just flashed with Ruby) into the Raspberry Pi SD card slot;
10
Power up everything. You now have a running controller.
The first time the controller starts, after a fresh installation, it can take longer than usual to boot up (about 30 seconds as opposed to about 10 seconds) and you will see a lot of information on the screen. Let it do it's thing and, at the end, you will see on the screen a message saying: "Looking for default drone...". That means the controller is working fine and now, after a fresh install of the software, it's just waiting for the first UAV (drone, plane, car) to apear on the airwaves.
For now, there nothing more to do on the controller. It is ready to be used.
UAV (drone, plane, car)/Vehicle Setup Guide:
1
Procure the required hardware components for a vehicle: a Raspberry Pi, a radio interface and a camera (one of the supported Raspberry Pi cameras or a HDMI camera and a HDMI adapter). Go to Hardware section to see all supported hardware components you can choose from;
2
Procure a BEC or a buck converter in order to convert/lower your battery voltage to the 5V required by Pi and radio cards. The BEC should be able to provide at least 2 amps of current;
3
Connect two power wires from your BEC to the Raspberry Pi 5V power supply pins; A reference with all the possible wiring configurations on the vehicle can be consulted on the Hardware Wiring section;
4
Connect the radio card to one of the USB ports on the Raspberry Pi;
5
Connect the camera to the Raspberry Pi;
6
Double check all the connections, especially the fact that the Raspberry Pi is powered by a 5 volts supply;
7
Insert the other SD card (you just flashed with Ruby) into the Raspberry Pi SD card slot;
8
Power up everything. You now have a running vehicle.
The first time the vehicle starts, after a fresh installation, it can take longer than usual to boot up(about 30 seconds as opposed to about 10 seconds). Let it do it's thing and, at the end, the Raspberry Pi built in led should flash once every second. That means the vehicle is working fine and now.
By default, on first run, after flashing the software on controller and vehicle, Ruby will automatically pair the controller with the vehicle, and you should see the live video feed right away on the controller.
Read the Manual to get familiarized with Ruby functionalities or to see how to configure the more advanced features.
If you encounter any issue, read the Troubleshooting guide.
Ruby supports a series of additional optional components that can be connected to the system to enhance it's functionality. Those include things like:
- Joysticks, gamepads, RC transmitters for the remote control functionality;
- Current sensors for measuring realtime current consumption;
- OLED displays to be used as auxiliary displays to show relevant system data;
- Additional radio modules for using different frequency bands;
- PCs or laptops for using mission planning software;
- Phones and tablets to be used as secondary displays for the live video stream;
If you have your basic system up and running, you can start learning the system and it's capabilities and start adding the additional components as needed. Read the sections below to see how you can do that:
Manual / User Guide
How to setup the telemetry stream
How to setup the remote control link
How to setup a phone/tablet/PC as an additional video display