User Guide: FrSKY S.PORT telemetry

Note: this S.Port module applies to "D16" mode telemetry. If you are using D8 mode (i.e. Sensor Hub) then see this article for the Sensor Hu module. Different receivers either use D8 or D16 mode, so make sure you check what your receiver uses. E.g. D4R-SB uses D16.

FrSKY S.PORT telemetry module enables your board to send UAVO data to any FrSky receiver equipped by SmartPort.

Get the module working

1. Make hardware connection between receiver S.PORT and FC. It differs flight controller to flight controller depending on used MCU. STM32F3 based controllers (like Sparky) can be connected directly. It means S.PORT signal wire should be directly connected to the flight controller UART Tx pin. For other controllers, you'll need following inverting circuit:

 2. Map used UART to FrSKY SPort Telemetry in Board settings. 3. Enable FrSky S.PORT telemetry module in Modules settings. 4. Restart flight controller.

1. For Sparky simply connect the TX pin from the flight controller to the telemetry pin.

Data sent by module

Following table is overview of all data sent by the module. OpenTx Name is equal to caption you will see on your OpenTX radio (e.g. Taranis) telemetry page.

OpenTX Name	Description
Hdg	True heading.
Alt	Altitude relative to home location.
VSpd	Vertical speed.
Cell	Battery voltage divided by cell count. You have to have Battery module enabled and propperly configured.
Cells	Battery voltage.
Curr	Battery current.
Cnsp	Consumed battery power in mAhs. This is not sent by module, but calculated by OpenTX itself by integrating Curr.
T1	Baro sensor temperature.
T2	GPS status. Leftmost digit encodes GPS state as follow: 0 - No GPS 1 - No fix 2 - 2D fix 3 - 3D fix 4 - 3D fix and home location is set Rightmost digits encodes number of satellites in use. Example: Value 411 means GPS has 3D fix, home location is set and 11 satellites are in use.
Fuel	Battery capacity remaining in percents.
Dist	Distance from home. This is not sent by this module, but calculated by OpenTX itself by subtracting current GPS coordinates from the first valid coordinates received.
AccX	Accelerometer X axis.
AccY	Accelerometer Y axis.
AccZ	Accelerometer Z axis.
Lat	GPS lattitude.
Lon	GPS longitude.
GAlt	GPS altitude. Please note OpenTX subtracting offset from this which is equal to GAlt firstly received. This is true for displaying, but not true for logging where un-altered MSL value is logged.
Spd	Horizontal ground speed.
GPSTime	GPS time and date.
ASpd	True airspeed. You have to have Airspeed module enabled and propperly configured to make it work
RPM	This value is currently used to provide feedback about FC arming state and flight mode. Leftmost digit encodes arm state as follow: 0 - Disarmd 1 - Armed Rightmost digits encodes flight mode number. To make it work propperly, you have to set propeller blade count to 1 in OpenTX settings.

Compatibility

Flight controllers

Board	Supported	External inverter needed
Colibri	No	-
CC/CC3D	No	-
DiscoveryF4	No	-
FlyingF3	Yes	No
FlyingF4	Yes	Yes
Quanton	Yes	Yes
Revo	Yes	Yes
Sparky	Yes	No

OpenTx

Successfuly tested with version 2.0.8. Some older versions had some bugs regarding telemetry.

FrSKy receivers

All receivers with SmartPort should be supported. I've tested this only with X8R though.

More sensors on one S.PORT

SmartPort is enginered as bus, so theoretically it's possible to connect more sensors to it parallel with your TauLabs FC. In practice I doubt it will work, because this module basically utilize almost all defined telemetry values. It also means there is also no point in doing such thing.