DroidPlanner 2.3.3 is out on Google Play Store. This release shouldn’t change much for the average user (just a couple of bug fixes), but it’s a huge improvement for developers.

The changes include (here is the full change log):

• Support for Hybrid mode.

• Logs upload to DroneShare (opt in)

• Miscellaneous improvements on mission planning code.

• A couple of bugfixes, for example making mode changes work with Hexacopters (and all other copter configurations)

• Decoupling of drone-specific code from Android UI code

The last item means that all the code relating to the drone and mission state is in a separate library, and can be reused in other GCS applications (it could even be used as the base for a PC/MAC application).

About the first image:

The flight was planned with the new version of DroidPlanner and executed with an Iris. Some pre-planning was also needed to find out the correct path to take, and places to add delay waypoints.

The entire flight was made just using DP2, but with a safety pilot ready to take action. Here is the result:

Links:

Download here.

You can get support here.

Donate here.

Find some Frequently Asked Questions here.

And see the source here. 

For Sparkfun full post go to : https://www.sparkfun.com/news/1461

On the first release of Droidplanner I introduced a tool to help with the placement of Ground Control Points (visual markers placed on the field for aerial photogrammetry purposes). But on DroidPlanner 2 this tool has been removed, because it didn't really matched the idea of the rest of the application.

So for those how missed the tool (I'm sure not many), I forked the old DroidPlanner code into this new app leaving only the GCP related code. The same license applies (GPLv3) as in the old code, any any patches are welcome (but I don't think there will be much activity). 

The operation is simple:

1. Load a KMZ or KML file from Google Earth with Placemarks where the control points should be.
2. Lockup your location at the blue dot.
3. Go to a GCP location at a Red dot
4. Drop a GCP marker on the ground
5. Click on the red dot of the GCP to turn it blue, to show that that place has been marked.
6. If there are more red GCP then go back to step 2.

To use your own KML or KMZ file you must save them into your Android device storage, under the folder "/DroidPlanner/GCP/". The files can be created with Google earth, using just standard markers. As an alternative you can try to open a kml/kmz inside android (for example in a email attachment) and chose to use Survey GCP to open that file. (Note: there is a bug in the Nexus 7 where it doesn't load the file correctly from email attachments).

You can download it here.

And get the source here.

If you feel like donating to support the development go here.

Today marks one year from the first public release of DroidPlanner (on March 20, 2013), so I thought would be nice to share some statistics.

The image above shows the number of active devices on which the application is currently installed.

And this is the distribution of installs by country:

The newer release, with big redesign of the User Interface, has also been well received. Here are stat's from yesterday:

But the main statistic for me is the number of people that have contributed to the code, which is now at 26 contributors ( about six are active currently).

The first time the project was posted for the public is here, at middle January 2013 (development started about a month earlier). And the first TODO list is in progress:

• Develop a GCS for android devices, mainly to setup missions before flights. - DONE
• And to analyze logs on the field afterward flights. - We have logs, but no analysis yet
• Increase the App to add in flight telemetry. - DONE
• And PID adjustment controls. - Partially, but we have a dedicated PID screen in the works.
• Keep supporting the system. - That's up and running
• Make this easy to use and functional, so that you won't need to turn on a computer to fly. - DONE

Thanks for everyone that made this possible.

And just as a reminder:

Download v2 here and donate here.

It is our pleasure to announce the first public release of DroidPlanner 2.0 on the Google Play Store.  It represents a complete rethinking of the way users interact with autonomous aircraft.  

The goal was to simplify workflows, provide more glanceable information and increase overall reliability for the most common user interactions. The biggest changes are as follows:

• Completely redesigned graphical user interface

• Mission editing including survey

• Quick actions including Land and Loiter

• In-app RC Radio Configuration

• Phone-specific layout

• Improved Guided Mode

• Dialog for Bluetooth device selection

In DroidPlanner 2.0 you’ll find two primary screens for interaction: Telemetry and Planning.  From the telemetry screen you can quickly assess overall aircraft health and what it is doing.  You can also enter Guided mode at your current altitude with a long press--give it a try!  Other quick actions from the Telemetry screen include Land, Home (RTL), and Loiter.

The Planning screen has been redesigned to allow users to quickly make and manage simple missions while at home or in the field.  Takeoff, Waypoint, Land, and Survey are currently supported, with more mission construction elements coming soon.

You’ll find some features left out from the original DroidPlanner.  They will be added back in soon after thorough testing.  Notably, plane support, more mission items, improvements to Follow-Me, and more support for in-flight tuning are around the corner.

Special thanks to all the devs, including Azrin, Rob, Fredia, Paku, David, and Jason.

Download here.

You can get support here.

Donate here.

Find some Frequently Asked Questions here.

And see the source here.

Updating DroidPlanner (v1.2.0).

Well, what can I say about these releases: That I have just done a fraction of the work?

I must especially thanks Azrin and bob01 for their incredible contributions, in fact most of what I did is merging their pull requests and resolving the merge conflicts. And that has become this step in the life of the app.

On the side you can see a small bar chart of the how many commit's each developer has done on the last month (from left to right: me, Azrin, Bob01, Jason, Brad and Brandon ), for more info like that go to this link. 

The update

The new version has the following updates ( v1.2.0 over v1.0.0):

Droidplanner v1.2.0

• Planning: renamed column header - #348
• Planning: Markers - additional UI + zooming fixes, distance while dragging marker - #324
• Planning: Markers, Mission - distance from prev waypoint in mission planner w/ live update while dragging - #327
• Planning: Fixed the area function -#358
• Parameters: fix for name column size, progress indicator -#328
• Parameters: sort by parameter name on opening parameter file - #335
• Parameters: Use APM parameter metadata if available when editing parameters - #344
• Parameters: Help display w/ description, units, valid range & accepted values where available - #345
• FlightScreen: Draggable guide-point - #347
• MapType: Made map fragments responsive to map type change, made map type more accessible -#336
• Waypoints: Fix the Waypoint parameters - #337
• Waypoints: Fixed the overlap text in the waypoint editor - #339

Droidplanner v1.1.0

• Support for the new telemetry module from 3DR (FT231)

Droidplanner v1.0.2

• Fixing the waypoint numbering issue when planning a survey and reordering via the waypoint editor
• Live update flight path and distanceView while dragging
• Added RAW_SENSORS and RC_CHANNELS to preferences for compatibility w/ other MAVLink hardware on vehicle

Droidplanner v1.0.1

• Moving the arm/disarm button to the overflow menu for safety reasons
• Fixing problems with the Do_Jump and Set_Home waypoint dialogs
• Reduce the chance of unintentionally deleting waypoints while scrolling

Now just to show up what some of the above means here is a more graphical explanation:

Mission Planning

There have been a lot of little improvements to the waypoint editor (our planning screen), which make it very informative about the mission you are planning. As you can see on the first picture of the post the editor listing now has info like the distance between the last waypoint, and also renders a lot better in smaller screens.

On the map fragment each waypoint now shows it's programmed height. And when dragging the waypoint the distance from the previous waypoint is show on that small dialog over the waypoint.

On the planning screen the area of the surveyed polygon is now reported. If someone could confirm that our polygon area measurement function is working properly I would appreciate.

Parameters

Over to the parameters screen, now we have a way to know the progress when downloading parameters.

Parameters descriptions are now displayed, and the values are checked against default min/max values. Also users having trouble when entering fractional values shouldn't have that problem anymore.

If you click over a parameter now an extended description  is show. And for parameters with a set of values (like board orientation) you can also edit the parameter by selecting thought a list (no need to remember if the value 3 means the board mounted in an inverted position or sideways).

Map Type

Different map styles have been available from the beginning, but they where hard to access (Settings->Advanced->Map Type). Now we just made that a lot easier, just select from the menu and you are good to go.

Also for those who don't know DroidPlanner offers offline-maps, but you have to provide your own map (here is a guide on how to download a map and use it). It's a very valuable feature when you are on the field without an internet connection.

More info

For more information I suggest the DroidPlanner Wiki page. And if you just want to know how to connect your APM board, or what android device you can use just follow the links. 

And as always if you want to help consider making a donation via paypal, or by buying this app .

If you want to help even more, consider joining the development team, or reporting a issue/bug/improvement on GitHub.

DroidPlanner is now installed on 5000 devices!

Here is from where everyone is coming from (top 5):

An interesting info is that half of you are using older versions of the app. Consider updating to the newest version (v1.1.0) to get some cool feature and bug fixes. To update just go to the app link, or enable automatic updates on your android device.

If you have questions about anything please ask them at the DroidPlanner forum instead of the comments below, so others will be able to find them later.

And as always, if you want to help consider making a donation via paypal, or by buying this app. If you want to help even more, consider joining the development team, or reporting a issue/bug/improvement on GitHub.

And an especial thanks to azrin, bob01 and jason4short for their huge help in the development on this last month.

DroidPlanner has reached a milestone  (v1.0.0). For me at least, it can now be used as the only GCS when you are flying. Since this is why I started working on it I think we have reached the objective, and in the way I found a lot of nice people willing to help.

The update

If you follow the alpha versions you know we added a lot of good stuff to it. The new version has the following updates, probably the bold ones matter the most to you ( v1.0.0 over 0.14.2):

Droidplanner v1.0.0

• No new changes to the code-base, just setting a milestone

Droidplanner v0.16.0

• Bluetooth Support
• Fixing layout problems with the Survey window

Droidplanner v0.15.0

• New Waypoint Editor
• New Survey Interface
• Support for Physical Joysticks
• Chinese Translation
• Code Re-factoring
• Minor fixes (please consult GIT history)

Bluetooth

Since many users have requested Bluetooth support I loaned a Android Device with Bluetooth, and implemented the support (my tablet doesn't have it, that's why it took so long). 

I tested it with a RN-42 Bluetooth module bridged with a 3DR telemetry board with success. To use the feature just pair your device using android settings, and select Bluetooth in the DroidPlanner settings menu.

For more help go to the wiki at the following link:
https://github.com/arthurbenemann/droidplanner/wiki/How-to-connect

Waypoint Editor

The new waypoint editor which is much easier to use, and support's almost every kind of waypoint. To use it just click on a waypoint on the map or list to open a dialog where you can change the waypoint settings.

We have gone to the trouble of doing a customized dialog for almost every waypoint kind, making it really easy to setup the parameters.

Interactive Survey planning

Now it's interactive, you can select your survey parameters and it will dynamically update the grid. Also a nice new feature is the option of showing the camera footprints on the ground.

More info

For more information I suggest the DroidPlanner Wiki page. And if you just want to know how to connect your APM board, or what android device you can use just follow the links. 

If you have questions about anything please ask them at the DroidPlanner forum, where others will be able to find them later.

And as always if you want to help consider making a donation via paypal, or by buying this app. If you want to help even more, consider joining the development team, or reporting a issue/bug/improvement on GitHub.

Thanks to everyone helping with the development (Just remembering a few of you: Aaron, Azrin, Brandon, Foxkid, J-DeMarco, Simon, Rob G )!

As usual I'm doing another post, since DroidPlanner is now installed on 4000 devices!

 I share these post because I think you guys like it ( I check this data daily ), if someone doesn't like it then comment below.

Here is from where everyone is coming from (top 5):

For more information I suggest the DroidPlanner Wiki page. If you want to help consider donating for the project by joining the development team, reporting a issue/bug/improvement on GitHub or making a donation on the following link:

Paypal Donation for DroidPlanner

Thanks for everyone that is helping with the project.

Updating DroidPlanner (v0.14.2). This one will be nice for everyone doing survey/mapping missions.

The update

The new version has the following updates ( v0.14.2 over v0.12.3):

Droidplanner v0.14.2

• Fixing the problem of working with big polygons

Droidplanner v0.14.1

• Fixing a small bug in the Survey Dialog

Droidplanner v0.14.0

• Drag-and-Drop waypoint editing
• Slide to remove waypoit
• Click to edit waypoint
• Adding a lot more info to the Survey Dialog

Droidplanner v0.13.1

• Fixing layout problem in Survey Dialog in smaller screens

Droidplanner v0.13.0

• Survey dialog in mission planning

Now let me go to the two big improvements individually.

Survey Dialog

As I stated on the start this is a nice feature for everyone working with surveys. I would like to thanks Brandon for helping with the development of this feature.

There is a new dialog in the polygon mode into the planning screen. It was designed to help users generate survey missions, by calculating survey parameters using camera specs.

You can add your own camera by creating an XML file with it's specifications. If there is feedback I can do a wiki about it on GitHub, but for now here is some info.

Waypoint Editor

The best way to understand this is just giving it a test run. Here are the main points:

• Drag-and-Drop waypoint editing (to re-sort your mission)
• Slide to remove waypoint
• Click to edit waypoint

More info

For more information I suggest the DroidPlanner Wiki page. And if you just want to know how to connect your APM board, or what android device you can use just follow the links. 

And as always if you want to help consider making a donation via paypal, or by buying this app (via the app google takes a 30% cut).

If you want to help even more, consider joining the development team, or reporting a issue/bug/improvement on GitHub.

Another major update of DroidPlanner (v0.12.3). The nice feature this time is the touch-path-planning.

The update

The new version has the following updates ( v0.12.3 over v0.11.4):

Droidplanner v0.12.3

• Hungarian translation
• Fix waypoint numbering issue
• Fix problem with the chart screen in non-English versions

Droidplanner v0.12.2

• New way of creating missions and polygons

Droidplanner v0.12.1b

• Removing debug info that passed trough on the last release

Droidplanner v0.12.1

• UDP support
• Better layout on the preference screen
• Fix the MAVLink library

Droidplanner v0.12.0

• Add suport for direct USB connection
• Fix Chinese translation

The video shows how to use the new path planning feature. The other nice thing is now if you don't have a telemetry board you can do a direct connection with a usb cable, to program your APM on the field.

More info

For more information I suggest the DroidPlanner Wiki page. And if you just want to know how to connect your APM board, or what android device you can use just follow the links. 

And as always if you want to help consider making a donation via paypal, or by buying this app (via the app google takes a 30% cut).

If you want to help even more, consider joining the development team, or reporting a issue/bug/improvement on GitHub.

DroidPlanner is now installed on 3000 devices, it's great to see so many people using it.

And here is from where everyone is coming from:

For more information I suggest the DroidPlanner Wiki page. If you want to help consider donating for the project by joining the development team, reporting a issue/bug/improvement on GitHub or making a donation on the following link:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=UZ86RT2A5RXBL

Also I would like to thanks everyone that started developing besides me, in the last month there has been codding activity by 8 authors.

It has been a long time since the last version, but an update (0.11.4) is on Google Play. The wider period between releases is just because we started to do alpha releases. This way the updates are bigger, but more stable. So let's see what is new!

The update

Its a big update, so what I think is most meaningful is in bold. The new version has the following updates ( v0.11.4 over v0.9.1):

Droidplanner v0.11.4

• Compatible with ArduRover
• Dynamicaly allocated on-screen joysticks

Droidplanner v0.11.3

• Preferences for the RC screen (Mode1/Mode2, Inverted Channel, QuickButtons)

Droidplanner v0.11.2

• Improving the Chart Screen
• Chinese Translation

Droidplanner v0.11.1

• Changing the start screen back to Flight Data

Droidplanner v0.11.0

• New Chart screen
• HUD code clean-up
• Activity's clean-up
• All markers are using the markerManager
• Colorful markers in the planning screen

Droidplanner v0.10.3

• Improved Record-Me mode (with a bug fix)
• Now all the data on a Mission item is used
• Better handling of the markers on GCP and Planning screens

Droidplanner v0.10.2

• Better swipe implementation on RC screen
• Bug fix on the RC screen
• Code Re-factoring

Droidplanner v0.10.1

• Fix in Offline maps
• New RC screen in portrait mode

Droidplanner v0.10.0

• More advanced waypoint editor

Droidplanner v0.9.3

• Fix problem in the build process

Droidplanner v0.9.2

• Big code refactoring
• Nicer RC screen
• French Translation
• Updating to the new Google Maps API
• Orientation lock when connected

Compatible with ArduRover

Support for ArduRover has been included. It show a nice icon and all the ArduRover modes. ( Thanks Tridge for helping me to setup the SILT simulator).

Dynamically allocated on-screen joysticks

This one is the result of a discussion on the dev-forum of diydrones about the On-screen joysticks. Now the joysticks are positioned under your finger when you press on the screen, the blue circle shows when the RC control will be saturated. This makes it easier to fly with the RC screen without having to think too much where your fingers are. Feedback on this feature is very important since this is something that can be change a lot between users.

Thanks John Wiseman for the link you pushed to the dev-forum.

Preferences for the RC screen (Mode1/Mode2, Inverted Channel, QuickButtons)

This one is just a complement for people that like to fly in Mode1 RC controllers, or for anyone who wants to invert the joysticks direction. As you can see in the picture above also quick flight mode buttons have been added to the RC screen, they are also configurable via the settings menu.

New Chart screen

A screen where you can plot some variables of your autopilot.

Better swipe implementation on RC screen

Just switch your device to portrait orientation in the RC screen. What you will get is a screen where you can use the RC sticks on the lower bottom, and have a HUD/map on the top. To switch between map and HUD just swipe the screen on the top, note that when you are on the map you have to swipe from the corner (it is this way so you can still do your normal gestures in the map, like panning, rotating and zooming).

More advanced waypoint editor

There has been an improvement in the planning screen. Now we have a new waypoint editor, it support other types of waypoints (although we haven't figured a good way to add the parameters in the UI, feel free to help). We hope to improve this a lot so it's very easy to create missions when you are in the field.

More info

For more information I suggest the DroidPlanner Wiki page. And if you just want to know how to connect your APM board, or what android device you can use just follow the links. 

And as always if you want to help consider donating for the project by buying this app, joining the development team, or reporting a issue/bug/improvement on GitHub.

I noted some confusion about what is MAVLink, so I decided to create a new Wikipedia page for it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAVLink

Please correct or add any information you think maybe incorrect.

If you want to help out in the development of DroidPlanner, consider joining our alpha testers group. You will get both the latest features and bugs.

To receive the alpha updates join the Google+ community and sign-in on this link. After signing you will start receiving updates for the latest releases though Google Play. The alphas have the latest features we develop, but they are not thoroughly tested so there may be bugs. If you find any issue just report on the community or on our GitHub issue tracker.

Here is a small resume of how these releases relate to the code on GitHub. Take a look here for a second. There are tree major branches:

• stable - This is the version that everyone gets on Google Play
• alpha - If you sign-in to the testers group you will receive this one
• master - This is the current state of the code, it contain the latest code (it's prone to crash, because here is where new features get integrated)

All the other branches are stuff we are working on, and when they are working we merge them back in the master. So master almost only have merges, and a minimum amount of code is developed there.

If you like DroidPlanner but don't care for any of this, and just want a working app, please consider doing a small donation to support the time spend in developing this app.

The new app (v0.9.1) is on Google Play. One nice new feature is the Record-Me.

The update

The new version has the following updates ( v0.9.1 over v0.9.0):

• Record-Me mode

• Nicer Icons

• Portuguese Translation

• Improvements to the HUD

• Change the default alt. to 50m

• Option to select diferent baud rates

• Option to keep the screen at full brightness

• Fix a bug with the Volume Control

• Fix bug in the RC Override screen

Record-Me

This is an interesting feature, you record a path and make you UAV follow it (J-DeMarco). I'll describe how it works:

1. Enable GPS on your Android Device
2. Go to the planning screen
3. Click on RECORD
4. Walk around (it will record a waypoint every 2s)
5. Hit RECORD again, it should say "file saved"

Now you have just created a file with the path you just walked, if you want load up the file and push it to your ArduPilot board and make your drone fly it. The image at the top of the post was made using this mode by taking a ride around my neighborhood.

How was it done

One nice thing with this version is that it is all done on top of the community work, I just did some review, re-factoring to keep-up the code base clean, testing, and merging. Here are some stats on the work we did from the last version:

6 authors have pushed 45 commits to all branches, excluding merges. On master, 24 files have changed and there have been 864 additions and 339 deletions. For more info go here.

For more information I suggest the DroidPlanner Wiki page. And as always if you want to help consider donating for the project by buying this app, joining the development team, or reporting a issue/bug/improvement on GitHub.

Another update on DroidPlanner, now it has nicer HUD. The new app (v0.9.0) is on Google Play.

The new version has the following updates ( v0.9.0 over v0.8.0):

• New HUD
• Removing old Terminal screen
• APM level calibration using a menu button.
• Ability to read/save parameters from/to a .param file.
• Russian language available
• Greek language available
• Latvian language available
• German language available
• Fixed some bugs
• Improvements to the code structure

I would like to thanks everyone that is getting involved with the project, developing, donating and reporting bugs. Here is a list of the developers. I have made a small video of the project history (using gource), here it is (run in 720p to see the people/folders names):

For more information I suggest the DroidPlanner Wiki page. And as always if you want to help consider donating for the project by buying this app, joining the development team, or reporting a issue/bug/improvement on GitHub.

DroidPlanner now has 1000 users, I thought that would be nice to share.

And a small distribution chart by country:

What has started as a graduation project has now become a useful app, thank you guys. (And thanks for the $80 in donations :)

Here is a video of Droidplanner + SmartAP flying a quad-copter without the use of a RC transmitter, video made by user  Kirill.

The flight  is made by using only a tablet, and I think that is impressive. The hardware used was a SmartAP, which handles all the hard work like landing. The UI is a tablet running Droidplanner (which is also compatible with Ardupilot).

If you want more info just post a comment, or go to the above links.

Another update on DroidPlanner, now it has a parameter screen. The new app (v0.8.0) will be on Google Play shortly.

The new version has the following updates ( v0.8.0 over v0.7.5):

• Parameter screen, with the ability to read/write/save parameters from an ArduPilot board

• Camera screen, virtual sticks to control a camera gimbal

• Follow-me mode

• Better handling of the MAVLink connection, which means les crashes and a more continue experience through the app.

• Map type selection

Use all the new features with caution, since they haven't been totally tested (that means no complaining to me if you break anything). Now let me give some advice on how to use the new features.

Parameter screen

This is the screen in the image above. Just connect to your drone and hit refresh, it will load all the parameters. If you change some parameter it will turn red, meaning that it's different from what is on the drone. Pressing Write will send only the modified parameter to the drone.

A good use for this screen (besides tweaking your configurations on the field) is to just load the parameters and hit save when you will start your day on the field. That will generate a configuration file that you can use for backup.

Camera screen

This screen is just like the RC override, but it's designed to control a camera gimbal. Channels 6 to 8 are overridden in this way:

Joystick - RC Chnnel - Camera Output
Right Tilt - CH6 - Camera Tilt
Right Pan - CH7 - Camera Roll
Left Pan - CH8 - Camera Pan

A possible configuration of your ArduPilot is showed on the next image.

It will not work with a plane since it overrides CH8 (which is the mode channel on ArduPlane).

Follow-me mode

This is just a beta test of this mode, it's disabled by default so if you want to try it go to your settings menu. To use it make sure you have GPS enabled and set your default altitude correctly, to enable go to "Follow" on the Flight Data screen menu.

Be very careful!

More info

For more information I suggest the DroidPlanner Wiki page ( for info on how to connect, what device to use, how to develop ...). Or older posts on DiyDrones. For an alternative way to install the app download it here: DroidPlanner_v0.8.0.apk (but is better if you download from google Play).

As always if you want to help consider donating for the project by buying this app, joining the development team, or reporting a issue/bug/improvement on GitHub.

Your feedback is very important.