I recently purchased a DJI Phantom 4. I would like to know if I can connect a Raspberry Pi to the DJI Phantom 4 using the USB port. I am trying to find a way to communicate the Phantom 4 and the Rasperry pi (make them talk to each other) for a school project.  I looked at the Onboard SDK and Data Transparent Transmission but I think this is only a M100 feature.

Any help or idea of how to interface the two devices will be appreciated.

No, there is no way to communicate with the P4 through the USB port, and you are quite correct, the SDK is only capable of controlling the aircraft via the RC unit.

Sounds like an interesting project, how school has changed, my school project was a wooden box with a light in it

There are some flight controller kits available for the raspberry pi , strip out the phantom guts and build your own controller. Just an idea.

What do you want the pi to do?

Keep us posted, hacking Phantoms really interests me.

Matt-and-Riley Posted at 2016-10-13 19:05
Sounds like an interesting project, how school has changed, my school project was a wooden box with  ...

My senior design project is a RFID Cattle inventory system. The system will pretty much count the number of cows and search for missing cows using a UAV. We managed to interface a RFID reader and the pi using Linux. Now I was hoping to find a way the Phantom can read data from the pi.
For example, if we are looking for a cow, the system will tag the GPS coordinate using the reader and the pi will tell the Phantom that the reading is done and proceed to return to "home base".
I guess my options are to dissect the phantom 4 or buying a M100

When it comes to SDK, you may want to talk to the Developer team directly at dev@dji.com. They have their own forum as well, with would have other users that may be trying to do the same thing as you.

http://forum.dev.dji.com/en

I was chatting to a friend and he thinks the SDK is the key to talking to the Phantom, if your Pi can talk to a phone app, the app can instruct the phantom.

I managed to run the example SDK app in a few hours and I have very little phone app experience.

DJI-Jamie Posted at 2016-10-14 12:37
When it comes to SDK, you may want to talk to the Developer team directly at . They have their own f ...

Yeah. I talked to them and they said that the Phantom cannot talk to the Pi through the USB port. I guess I am out of luck unless I buy a M100

Bryan3 Posted at 2016-10-16 11:01
Yeah. I talked to them and they said that the Phantom cannot talk to the Pi through the USB port.  ...

I am puzzled how you plan to read the RFID tage, unless you plan landing on the cow's back. They only have a range of a few inches.

Matt-and-Riley Posted at 2016-10-16 06:23
I was chatting to a friend and he thinks the SDK is the key to talking to the Phantom, if your Pi ca ...

You can use the Onboard SDK to talk to your drone. Sadly the Onboard SDK is only for the Matrice 100 and they are way to expensive for me.

Geebax Posted at 2016-10-16 08:11
I am puzzled how you plan to read the RFID tage, unless you plan landing on the cow's back. They on ...

We are using a USB pro RFID Reader from Thing Magic. We designed a 6 dBi linear polarized external antenna that read tags up to a distance of 20 feet (6.1 m). It works with linux so we already managed to interface the reader and the pi. We just need the Phantom-pi communication but I don't think its possible.
The pi weighs only 45g and the Phantom flies well with up to 1.3 Kg

I wish you all the best with your project, all we ever did at school was with a slide rule

stephen_carney@ Posted at 2016-10-16 08:32
I wish you all the best with your project, all we ever did at school was with a slide rule

Thanks for your support

Bryan3 Posted at 2016-10-16 11:29
We are using a USB pro RFID Reader from Thing Magic. We designed a 6 dBi linear polarized external ...

OK, very good.

Bryan3 Posted at 2016-10-13 07:18
My senior design project is a RFID Cattle inventory system. The system will pretty much count the number of cows and search for missing cows using a UAV. We managed to interface a RFID reader and the pi using Linux. Now I was hoping to find a way the Phantom can read data from the pi.
For example, if we are looking for a cow, the system will tag the GPS coordinate using the reader and the pi will tell the Phantom that the reading is done and proceed to return to "home base".
I guess my options are to dissect the phantom 4 or buying a M100

I'm very much interested on this. I have a Mavic Pro and a raspberry pi 4 (1gb).

djiuser_7lkQ6eQCBiq6 Posted at 10-27 05:41
I'm very much interested on this. I have a Mavic Pro and a raspberry pi 4 (1gb).

Well come on in, to the forum. ;-)



RedHotPoker

djiuser_7lkQ6eQCBiq6 Posted at 10-27 05:41
I'm very much interested on this. I have a Mavic Pro and a raspberry pi 4 (1gb).

You do realize this is a 3 year old thread and the OP may have moved on long ago?

Bryan3 Posted at 2016-10-15 16:29
We are using a USB pro RFID Reader from Thing Magic. We designed a 6 dBi linear polarized external antenna that read tags up to a distance of 20 feet (6.1 m). It works with linux so we already managed to interface the reader and the pi. We just need the Phantom-pi communication but I don't think its possible.
The pi weighs only 45g and the Phantom flies well with up to 1.3 Kg

This might sound silly, but what about painting a large QR code on the cows back and use the camera instead of an RFID.