Communications problem between Ardupilot and Computer

[vivitern]

The Issue and Project:

I have been at a standstill with my autopilot because I cannot communicate with it using my high powered transmitter: the Ubiquity Rocket M5. But the whole communications issue is not as simple as breaking it down to just one component, it succeeds through various sections for various reasons as I will discuss in the section below. But before I go any further, this is the end goal and current setup for by project:

1. Ardupilot with custom software (communications via serial)
2. Arduino Ethernet to convert Serial to Ethernet [static: 192.168.2.30]
3. On-Plane Switch
4. Ubiquity Rocket, this is in the plane as the "router/access point" [static: 192.168.2.1]
5. Ubiquity Rocket, this is on the ground ad the "bridge/station" [static: 192.168.2.21]
6. Laptop with custom user interface [static: 192.168.2.10]

The packets are sent on port 8888 via UDP. The ground reads the packets via python piped as xml via CherryPy to a webpage on the same computer. The plane also contains a network camera attached to the on-board switch (3). It has an IP of 192.168.2.20.

My Trials:

What happens with everything plugged in appropriately:

• The network camera provides a live stream
• I can ping the arduino ethernet module
• I send packets to the ardupilot, but no response

Ok, I then thought that I broke something somewhere. So I skipped the wireless link and plugged my laptop connection directly into the switch (skipping connections 4 & 5):

• Everything works appropriately

I was baffled, I have never had anything bad happen between my ubiquity rockets. So after a while I figured out a way to test the connection. I disconnected my autopilot from the Arduino ethernet to hook up USB cable （http://www.kynix.com/Detail/21723/AU-Y1002-A-R.html）to my computer and opened up serail monitor to verify the packets.

• Packets get sent though and display serial monitor just fine
• I opened up a testing program on my computer to read packets for port 8888. I sent some packets from the Arduino Ethernet to my computer and they worked just fine.

I am flush out of ideas at this point. If you have an idea you would like to test, let me know and I will post the results.