Developer

Hello everyone,

I'm starting a new project branch for the ArduPilot, and I hope it will thrive. For an experiment run the DroidPlannerv0.1b.apk file on an Android Tablet (needs android v4) . Here it's a mere screenshot:
3689498250?profile=original

I know this it's not the first phone/tablet GCS to show up on this community (for example Bart copter-gcs, this closed-source copy, the Apple GCS by  Zachary), but I'm thinking in a different approach. This is what I want to do:

  1. Develop a GCS for android devices, mainly to setup missions before flights.
  2. And to analyze logs on the field afterward flights.
  3. Increase the App to add in flight telemetry.
  4. And PID adjustment controls.
  5. Keep supporting the system.
  6. Make this easy to use and functional, so that you won't need to turn on a computer to fly.

Some great things are helping on this project:

  • Google Maps Android API v2 - Which makes using Google maps in android applications more easily, and a lot faster. I also should point out that there is a nice cache function that makes it work offline (to some extent of course). But there is also the option of using a custom source of imagery.
  • Cheap Android Tablets with USB host capability's.

Screenshots:

Before getting into how I think this should evolve let me show to you what I have already done. Bellow is a screenshot of the home screen where the mission planning is made. On the left there is a list of waypoints altitudes, on the center a map with the home position. On the top left a menu to change the screen and on the right some commands relative to this screen.

3689498163?profile=original

On the next picture there are show some of the actions on the menu, and more waypoints where added (with a different altitude). Using the "open file" action to open a real flight get's us back to the first picture in the post. (Files are loaded from a folder named waypoints on the sdcard, you can copy files generated with mission planner to this folder)

3689498289?profile=original

Edit: I added one more screen to the DroidPlanner App, is the Ground Control Point (GCP) screen. It's function is aid in the positioning of control points on the field for photogrammetry applications.

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.

Here is a screenshot of the GCP screen with a KMZ file just loaded.

3689498312?profile=original

And this is after some GCP have been placed on the field and have been marked;

3689498180?profile=original

How it think it should evolve:

The part I'm procrastinating is the communication interface (mainly because Bart has made it already). I want to implement first a wifi-UDP communication system redirected by some main GCS, this way the development will be easier (the USB port will be free for the programmer) and a nice mobile GCS will be left behind. Next the USB-serial-Xbee communication, I have some working demos to receive data from the serial port but these need more study.

How to develop:

First get a clone from my branch "DroidPlanner_Stable" at this link. Next download the ADT Bundle for the google SDK and eclipse. Download and import the Google Play library into Eclipse as explained here. Now you should be able to import the DroidPlanner project/compile/ and run on a android device (needs Android v4).

Edit: About the USB connection to 3DR radios, some tablets have USB host capabilities and the drivers needed to communicate to a FTDI CDC IC.This means the device can supply power via USB and Acess USB devices, for me all it takes is an USB microB to USB type A cable (like the one in the picture).

otg_cable_640x360.jpg

To decrease the doubts about this here is a screenshot of my tablet connected to an APM1 board accessing the APM terminal. I used a terminal app called "Android USB Serial Monitor".

3689498329?profile=original

As I pointed out at the start there is this fileDroidPlannerv0.1b.apk, that can be run on a android v4 phone or tablet.

Edit: I only have one Chinese 7 inch Tablet, so I don't know how it will behave on other devices but it's worth a try. Some has run the App on a Nexus7. I had some doubts because of the API key need to access Google maps data was a debug one.

About android v2.x.x devices:

Edit: There seams to be a lot of questions about v2 android devices, these will not be supported. At least not on the initial releases. Because with android 2.X there would be some problems with the Google Maps API v2, and the communication drivers (since USB host mode is supported only on version>v3 devices). I know it would be great to support everyone but that is a lot of work. I think at least for the start just focus on android 3.1 or higher. this way we can use the latest version of the maps API and have USB support.

And an android v4 Tablet is very cheap now, and that's what I think should be targeted.

Any questions or suggestions post bellow. Any problems downloading or compiling the source contact me with a message on this post.

Thanks.

--

Arthur Benemann

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Comments

  • @Muhammad: I use the 3DR radio with my Nexus 7 and the only time I had an issue was when I (mistakenly) tried to connect the devices with a regular USB cable instead of an OTG cable.  

  • Hi guys, anyone have any experience using a Nexus P6 with the 3DR radio, i am already in developer mode but still cannot connect

    Thank you for any and all help.

    Best regards,

  • hello:

            

  • Developer

    @Zidlov: A better place to ask this kind of questions is our support forum: http://ardupilot.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=15

    We have the requirements explained at the wiki page: https://github.com/DroidPlanner/droidplanner/wiki/Compatible-Device...

    And for a quick test could you try to run this beta version, take note of any warnings that my appear. Also search your device file-system (by connecting it via USB to a Desktop) in the "/DroidPlanner/LogCat/" folder, and copy the latest TXT file in there. Create a post on the forum with this info and we may be able to give better support.

  • Does anyone know what are the requirements for Droidplanner to run on an Android phone (apart from the obvious usb-otg capability).

    Tried to run Droidplanner on a CM10 ROM without success. The app just force closes. So I figured it wants to have g$$gle maps, which I installed. Didn't help. So I reluctantly installed the whole g$$gle apps suite including play services but that didn't help either. App just keeps force closing.

    Would really like to use Droidplanner again and it would be great if I wouldn't have to keep the whole g$$gle stuff around for that, but if I had to, I would.

    Just whatever I try, it doesn't seem to work. So is there a resource available which shows which apps or services exactly does Droidplanner need to be installed? Would be very helpful because usually I assume an app is self-sustaining and if it depends on other apps, the developer would at least mention it.

    Thanks!

  • I can't seem to get DroidPlanner to arm my APM 2.6 -- almost acts like DP isn't waiting long enough for the APM to respond.  Any ideas?

  • @Arthur Proposal has been added to the issues list as requested. Thank you for your feedback!

  • Developer

    @Jan Please add your issue here: https://github.com/arthurbenemann/droidplanner/issues ,  and we will try to implement it.

    Nice box by the way.

  • @Arthur
    I don't know if it has been asked before but now that bluetooth connection is available would it be possible to also select the bluetooth device from the list of available devices?
    The reason why I ask is that I had a couple of bluetooth devices paired to my smartphone but I was not able to select the right one being my 3DR-bluetooth bridge.

    After I removed some and the 3DR-bridge was the top one left I was able to connect.

    Thank you.

    3692896851?profile=originalRegards

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