Blogs

Hi ya'll. So we've been working away on the original proposal for a new much more flexible version of droneshare.  

Thanks to the help of many people (see below) this new beta is ready.  Features of this new version of droneshare and associated APIs include...

Features for pilots

• Live uploading of flights via Droidplanner and Andropilot (use the beta version of these applications - follow the links to find the correct google group and special download link).  If you enable live upload in your application settings and have an internet connection your flight can be tracked live on the global map (subject to your sharing preferences in droneshare).
• Delayed uploading of flights via Droidplanner, Andropilot (and Bill says it should soon be in APM Planner).  This is useful to let your phone/tablet upload flights the next time it has wifi access.
• Drag and drop tlog uploads via the web interface.
• You can (finally) set a password for your account.
• Selectable sharing preferences (private, public, etc...)
• Share buttons for G+ and Facebook if you wish to share a particular flight with friends.
• Google earth KMZ viewing
• Parameter file downloading
• TLOG downloading
• Thousands of flights from the 'old' droneshare implementation have been migrated to the new server.  If anyone is still running old versions of Andropilot those flights will be automatically migrated to the new server once a day.

Features for developers

• The new droneshare can be developed in 100% Javascript and can be hosted on any web server (all server side content is static).  The code is written to depend on as few external libraries as possible and to be easy to extend.  We welcome pull-requests and are happy to answer questions.  If want fork the Apache licensed code into some new application (new log viewers, remote control, etc...) that's fine also.
• A streaming API is supported for connecting to vehicles or ground control stations.  You only really need this API if you want to add live upload (and optional web based control) to your GCS.  This protocol is bidirectional, so the server (if granted permissions by the user) can send control directives to the vehicle.  If you are interested in using this feature, please contact us on our discussion group.
• A REST API is available for web applications (in fact, Droneshare uses only this API).  For this API it is probably best to read the getting started page.  If you've ever wanted to write a web application that can talk to your drone (or thousands of others), now's your chance. If you have questions, please contact our discussion group.
• A device side API can be used for vehicle control/monitoring from desktop or on vehicle applications.  It is probably best to start by working through our tutorial.

Getting started

• (Recommended) Download the beta of Droidplanner or Andropilot.  Go to settings in the application and pick a username and password.  You can later use this username to log into the website to set an (optional) email address and custom gravatar.  You can also adjust sharing preferences for any uploaded flights.
• If you'd rather just use the website you can create an account on the droneshare web page.    Then you can go to the "My Profile" in the upper right and create a vehicle and drag-and-drop tlog files.

Thanks

I'd like to extend the following special thanks - without their efforts this application would be not nearly as nice.

• Ramon Roche for lots of help making Droneshare work well
• Jason Short for lots of help making Droneshare look good (and it will get even better in the future)
• Arthur Benemann for his help adding support to Droidplanner
• The entire drones-discuss dev group for lots of good feedback/ideas
• 3D Robotics for supporting the development of this application

The future

Since this is the first release of this web application and associated client side code, the near future (the next two weeks?) we will be feverishly fixing any bugs you report.  Please be patient with us as we work through the github issues pile.  If is possible that during this initial period the server may be down occasionally.

If you find a problem, please create a new issue and we promise to look into it.  If you have ideas for this application, either create a new issue or contact us at our mailing list.  (Note: Parameter display and the data plot views are temporarily disabled, they will be re-enabled this week)

We have a bunch of really cool ideas for the future that we are working on just as quickly as we can, we'd love help.  Or if you'd rather just make your own application that uses these APIs or services, that is great also.  The main www.droneshare.com server will strive for stability, if you are a little more brave and want the latest features first you can instead use beta.droneshare.com.

Bonus screenshot