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ArduPilot Ground Control Station ready for public beta testing

Posted by automatik on May 12, 2010 at 9:30pm

LabVIEW based ArduPilot Ground Control Station ( GCS) is ready for public beta test.

GCS wiki: See wiki for installation and configuration instructions (read through it, or at least watch video )

Requirements:

- Windows OS
- LabVIEW run time engine 9.0
- Google Earth ( if you already have it you don't have to re-install it. Google Earth version prior to 5.1 ( newest) should be fine)

- Ground Control Station application (zip file) - Updated May 16, 2010 !

Optional: Code for GCS can be found here ( you will need LabVIEW 8.6 or higher)

New Features of ArduPilot GCS :

Data logging
kml logging
voice synthesis
(UI has been redesigned, code architecture has been changed, etc.)

Short introduction video explaining how to start and stop GCS:

http://vimeo.com/11772440

more comprehensive GCS video ( worth watching ! ) is here:

http://vimeo.com/11608873

control, gcs, ground, station

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Comments

automatik May 17, 2010 at 9:29am

Hi Peter,

data file includes only navigation and attitude data - in ArduPilot firmware those two sets of data are prefixed with !!! and +++ .

Hmm, multiple times I ran GCS and AP for almost an hour without a glitch... Based on all other things you mentioned, I think something else might be amiss .
As Chris mentioned, which AP version are you using? Was your AP battery properly charged ( I saw same thing you mentioned with flightswitch position only when my on-board battery was dangerously low , i.e. almost discharged )
3D Robotics

Chris Anderson May 17, 2010 at 7:38am

Peter, what AP are you using? I used this yesterday with ArduPilot 2.6 and everything was working fine.
Peter Seddon May 17, 2010 at 7:21am

I am having the following probelms with Beta2:
1. Everyhting is connected and I can see data coming through to the top of the debug window and the data seeme to be valid.
2. The data file that is produced does not include all the data that I saw and seesm to stop after a period of time.
3. Whilst GE starts it does not seem to be connected to the GCS as it stays at position 0Long, 0Lat although I can see correct lat and long data in the debug valid data.
4. I get no messages as to the flightswtich position although again I can see the data go by in the debug window.

I am using a dell Laptop and Win 7.

Any suggestions
ps It did work once correctly for a short period
Developer

Dario Lindo Andres May 16, 2010 at 6:48pm

The video (sorry):

http://vimeo.com/11794002

Dario.
Developer

Dario Lindo Andres May 16, 2010 at 6:47pm

Hi guys,
This afternoon I tried to run the GCS. You can see the result in this video:

My netbook (Aspire One) has a 1024x600 resolution so I can not view all the parameters. Please resize for me!! :) Other question....I live near the mountains and the field altitude is high. You can see in video that the altitude counter finish in 200 meter...I think that this counter shows the altitude refer to ground,is it right? How can I do for view the relative altitude instead of absolute?

Thanks for this nice work Automatik.

Regards,
Dario
Rana May 16, 2010 at 6:45pm

Automatik, it was silly mistake at my end, otherwise it is perfect;
Gerber May 16, 2010 at 6:22pm

Grand Automatik,

Congratulations her GCS was wonderful and the delay is resolved.
You the man!
automatik May 16, 2010 at 5:13pm

Hi leonardo,
glad to hear it !

Here is the video showing data responsiveness of GCS - i.e no latency...you can see interaction with thrmopiles, throttle, mode switch... Beta 2 code was used in the video
Leonardo Lisboa May 16, 2010 at 4:37pm

Hi Automatik,

I did another test today (now a flying test) and everything worked perfectly. Congratulations for the great job.

Cheers,
Leonardo
Taylor Cox May 16, 2010 at 10:38am

Automatik...the fly to speed setting is under the navigation tab :)