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iPad Ground Control Station

Posted by Claudio Natoli on August 2, 2012 at 6:09am

Just wanted to share some progress on an iPad Ground Control Station app I've been putting together for a little while. Here's a quick introduction:



As the video shows, the (non-jailbroken) iPad is hooked up to a Digi XTend radio modem via a RedPark iPad-Serial cable and a RS232 Shifter, with the radio modem powered off a UBEC. It communicates with the APM via MAVLink just like the regular APM Mission Planner.

Have also used the iPad-Serial cable with a XBee and XBee Explorer Serial board with my other UAVs, which makes for a simpler hook-up.

Just a personal project at this stage, particularly as use of the RedPark cable limits the redistribution options available (i.e. not permitted on the App Store at present), but have a laundry list of features I'm hoping to add over time, and we'll see what happens on the device interface front - would like to make the app accessible to all if there's sufficient interest.

Thanks for reading - looking forward to any comments you might have!

Tags: control, ground, ipad, station
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Comments

  • Claudio Natoli February 11, 2015 at 6:12pm

    For anyone else following Fighting Walrus news, new post from Byran here: http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/idronelink-ios-groundstation

  • Claudio Natoli February 11, 2015 at 6:11pm

    Hi Amit, apologies for the delay...

    Good starting point would be in the CommController code, and trace out how the communication with the Fighting Walrus Radio is performed. If you have an Apple dev account, you don't need my OK - fork the code and go on right ahead!

  • Amit Ganjoo January 31, 2015 at 4:05pm

    Thanks Claudio

    Can you at a high level advise what all changes to the code would be needed. Would you be OK if someone else added this support?

    Thanks

  • Claudio Natoli January 31, 2015 at 3:30pm

    Hello Amit. It would be certainly be technically possible (unclear what Apple's position would be, although I wouldn't evisage a problem), however at this time only the Fighting Walrus radio is actually supported.

  • Amit Ganjoo January 29, 2015 at 6:31am

    @Claudio Would it be possible to use the iDroneCntrl without Fighting Walrus radio. I have a link with my drone over cellular and would like to use my ipad with LTE access

    I downloaded the client on my iphone but did not see an option to connect without the radio

    Thanks

  • Claudio Natoli December 23, 2014 at 5:20pm

    For anyone still following this thread...

    iDroneCtrl has been released to the app store!

    It requires a Fighting Walrus iDroneLink radio. Open source contributions to the app welcomed on github.

  • Claudio Natoli October 3, 2014 at 7:38pm

    Hi guys, thanks for the continued interest.

    The plans for the initial app are for Fighting Walrus integration only.

    Been a long time in the making, but I can attest that the hardware is coming... I've been provided with a prototype (which I understand is identical to the production version, minus a few tweaks) which is what I use for dev/flying now (when I can find the time for either!)

  • UAS_Pilot September 22, 2014 at 1:57pm

    Plus one on the Bluetooth bridge capabilities. 

    Thanks

    Great work.....

  • Haygood September 13, 2014 at 9:15pm
    This is still a very exciting topic. Will the FightingWalrus mechanical bits be required, or is there a possibility to use something like the Bluetooth bridge by event 38 so the iPad or iPhone doesn't have to have anything attached to it?

    http://www.event38.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=BTB
  • Claudio Natoli May 26, 2014 at 4:51am

    Hi Nils. Not in v1, but the aim is for feature parity with the Mission Planner.

This reply was deleted.