One Radio to Rule Them All: ELRS & MAVLink, Simplified

Strapping a second radio to your drone just for telemetry feels a bit… agricultural, doesn't it? It doubles the hardware, the wiring, and the potential points of failure. As it turns out, you can ditch that ancient Sik radio and run both your RC control and Mission Planner telemetry over a single, elegant ELRS link. You just have to convince it to play nice.

The problem is that MAVLink demands a symmetrical conversation, and a standard ELRS receiver whispers back at a fraction of your transmitter's power. This imbalance is a deal-breaker. The solution, as demonstrated by the venerable Joshua Bardwell, is to flash a high-power transmitter module as a receiver. This gives you a robust, symmetrical 1W link in both directions, which is exactly what MAVLink needs to stop complaining.

Of course, it’s not quite magic. You’ll need a passing familiarity with a soldering iron, ArduPilot's parameter list, and the ELRS LUA script. The payoff is a beautifully clean setup where your laptop connects directly to your radio's Wi-Fi—no extra dongles required. There are some trade-offs, like a bit of telemetry lag and your aux channels acting like simple switches, but it's a small price for such a streamlined system.

If you're ready to declutter your build and embrace a single-radio future, all the technical steps and parameter tweaks are laid out in our full-length guide. Give it a read.