| name | tello-wake |
| description | Connect to the Tello drone fast and keep it awake so it doesn't idle-power-off. Use whenever the user wants to connect to the Tello, "wake" the drone, keep it from turning off, hold a session open while tinkering, or get the link ready before running a flight/camera script. Knows the dual-NIC network setup and the VPN/ping gotcha specific to this machine. |
Tello: fast connect + keep awake
The Tello powers itself off after a few minutes idle (and auto-lands after 15 s
of silence in flight). keepalive.py holds an SDK session open and pings it
every ~8 s so it stays ready.
1. Network model (do NOT trust ping — a VPN fakes it)
This machine connects the Tello on Wi-Fi en0 while keeping internet on a
wired adapter en5, so you don't lose the internet. The flight unit's AP is
TELLO-E95548. keepalive.py now auto-rejoins that SSID via
networksetup whenever macOS roams en0 back to home Wi-Fi, so you normally
don't touch the Wi-Fi menu at all.
Quick sanity check if needed:
echo "en0=$(ipconfig getifaddr en0) en5=$(ipconfig getifaddr en5)"
en0 should be 192.168.10.x (Tello AP); en5 a 192.168.1.x (wired internet).- Reachability = a bound-8889
command handshake returning ok, NOT ping
(Tailscale/utun0 answers 192.168.10.1 even with no drone connected).
2. Run keepalive (in the background so it holds while you work)
python /Users/DZUMAS02/Developer/tello-drone/keepalive.py
It force-joins the Tello AP if needed, connects fast, then prints
awake — battery NN% every ~8 s and stays glued (auto-rejoin on roam, full
reconnect on link loss). Flags: --interval <sec> (default 8), --quiet,
--ssid <name> (default TELLO-E95548; pass empty to disable auto-rejoin).
3. It owns port 8889 while running
Only one process can hold the command port. Before running drone.py,
stop keepalive (it keeps the drone awake via
its own commands). Restart keepalive afterwards for idle periods.
Facts about this unit
- Standard Tello on SDK 1.3-era firmware (NOT EDU):
sdk?, sn?,
hardware?, motoron/motoroff all return "unknown command".
- A brand-new Tello must be activated once in the official Tello app before
the SDK works — until then the command port replies in binary (
0xcc) and
ignores command.
- Video decode: use a sync-priority FFMPEG config (large
probesize /
analyzeduration, no nobuffer) or the decoder floods "non-existing PPS 0".
