MSP OSD

ArduPilot supports the MSP OSD protocol which allows displaying flight data on the DJI goggles, much like with external MAVLink OSDs or the internal integrated analog OSD in many flight controllers. It can also be used with external OSDs , such as the MWOSD, if its configured for MSP telemetry, as is used with iNav or Betaflight.

DJI V1 FPV Goggles

../_images/msp_dji_fpv_goggles.jpeg

DJI Goggles RE

../_images/msp_dji_goggles_re.jpeg

Features

  • ArduPilot currently supports many, but not all, of the OSD panel items as noted in the section below.

  • Changing display units other than metric and imperial are not currently supported.

  • Multiple screens and remote switching of those screens is not supported.

  • Warning levels for RSSI, Voltage, etc. currently not supported

Configuration

To enable MSP OSD, set the following parameters (example below is using SERIAL port 2 as the port to attach to the DJI Air unit using both TX and RX lines):

  • OSD_TYPE = 3 (only required to obtain statistics information panels). Can be set to 1 if autopilot has integrated analog OSD to use that feature in addition to the MSP OSD feature for DJI goggles.

  • SERIAL2_PROTOCOL = 33

  • MSP_OPTIONS = 0 (polling mode)

Note

DJI OSD must be enabled: in SETTINGS->DISPLAY->CUSTOM OSD menu of goggles

OSD Panel Items

OSD Parameter

Notes

OSDn_ALTITUDE

Home relative altitude

OSDn_ARMING

Arming status, hidden when armed otherwise showing DISARMED

OSDn_ASPEED

Please refer to OSDn_GSPEED for more info on enabling airspeed display

OSDn_BAT_VOLT

First battery voltage

OSDn_BATTBAR

First battery remaining percentage rendered as a bar based on declared capacity and consumed mAh

OSDn_BATUSED

First battery consumed mAh

OSDn_CELLVOLT

First battery average cell voltage, if automatic cell detection fails please override with MSP_OSD_NCELLS

OSDn_CLK

Realtime clock (requires GPX fix)

OSDn_CRSSHAIR

Artificial horizon is not supported so crosshair is often kept hidden

OSDn_CURRENT

First battery current

OSDn_ESCTEMP

On DJI V1/V2 Goggles this will report the highest ESC temperature

OSDn_FLTMODE

DJI hardware does not support ArduPilot’s flight modes! This item will generally be blank and only show !FS! while in failsafe!

OSDn_GPSLAT

GPS Latitude in decimal format

OSDn_GPSLONG

GPS Longitude in decimal format

OSDn_GSPEED

This item shows ground speed unless OSDn_ASPEED_EN = 1 in which case it will show true airspeed if an airspeed sensor is present or estimated airspeed otherwise. The position on screen is set by OSDn_GSPEED_X and OSDn_GSPEED_Y regardless of the value of OSDn_ASPEED_EN

OSDn_HEADING

Not supported by DJI V1/V2 Goggles

OSDn_HOMEDIR

Rotating arrow pointing to home

OSDn_HOMEDIST

Distance from home

OSDn_HORIZON

Not supported by DJI V1/V2 Goggles

OSDn_MESSAGE

This will display status text messages as rolling text. Status text messages will be hidden after a couple seconds and the panel will show the current flightmode. If OSDn_WIND_EN is set to 1, this item also displays wind info next to the current flight mode as a rotating arrow and speed.

OSDn_PITCH

Pitch angle

OSDn_POWER

Instant power calculated as voltage * current

OSDn_ROLL

Roll angle

OSDn_RSSI

Rssi as configured in RSSI_TYPE: RSSI Type

OSDn_SATS

On DJI V1/V2 Goggles when there’s no fix it will report 14 sats, this is a known DJI bug

OSDn_SIDEBARS

Not supported by DJI V1/V2 Goggles

OSDn_VSPEED

Vertical speed

OSDn_WIND

Please refer to OSDn_MESSAGE for wind speed and direction rendering

OSD Panel Item Configuration

Each OSD panel item uses a set of three variables to be set:

  • OSDn_<ITEM>_EN - activates the respective panel item on screen “n” when set to 1.

  • OSDn_<ITEM>_X and OSDn_<ITEM>_Y set the horizontal and vertical position of the item, starting with X = 0 and Y = 0 in the upper left corner of your screen.

Note

ArduPilot calculates a sensor-less airspeed estimate that is used if no sensor is present or fails. ARSPD_TYPE must be set to zero in order to display this value as the airspeed item, if no sensor is present.

Testing OSD with SITL

OSD functionality can be tested and panel items adjusted without autopilot or video hardware using the Software In The Loop (SITL) simulator setup. Follow those SITL-Instructions to setup a simulation environment. Run the simulator on current source code using --osdmsp option to build the OSD code into the simulator. For example, for a plane simulation:

sim_vehicle.py -v ArduPlane --console --osdmsp

A graphical DJI style MSP OSD simulation in a separate window will be opened with the other simulation windows using a typical set of OSD panel parameters, located at libraries/AP_MSP/Tools/osdtest.parm . Then the OSD elements can be customized by their parameters using the MSP OSD emulation program to visualize the OSD.

Note

You could also use these parameters to initially setup the MSP OSD configuration for use with goggles, but you may have to change the SERIALx_PROTOCOL parameter to match the actual serial port that you will be using.

Note

The emulation does not support multiple screens or units other than metric

../_images/msp_osd_python.png

By changing the OSD panel items’ parameters, a live update on their placement can be seen in this emulator.

Using Mission Planner to Configure the Layout

Mission Planner(MP) has a tab in its CONFIG menu to configure the on-board OSD many autopilots integrate. This same configuration tab can be used to configure the OSD panels. In fact, you can do that while the SITL program and MSP OSD emulation window are active by connecting Mission Planner running on the same computer, or networked computer, to MAVProxy, using this command in MAVProxy:

output add <ip address of box running Mission Planner>:14550

Note

if MP is running on the same PC, the ip address would be 127.0.0.1 (local host address)

Video