QGroundControl Integration for ArduPilotMega - Setup Guide - Blogs

This is a quick how-to to get going with ArduPilotMega QGroundControl Integration. Note that this is a work in progress and that the gains/ waypoints sent to the apm are not currently setting the values in the autopilot. I'll be working today to hook these up. I could really use help debugging and coding though so I've posted this to get everyone else up to speed.

Get ArduPilotMega mavlink branch: svn checkout http://ardupilot-mega.googlecode.com/svn/ArduPilotMega/branches/mavlink "pathtosketchbook"/ArduPilotMega
Get Arducopter libraries: svn checkout http://arducopter.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/libraries "pathtosketchbook"/libraries
Get Mavlink: git clone https://github.com/pixhawk/mavlink.git "pathtosketchbook"/libraries/mavlink
Get QGroundControl: http://qgroundcontrol.org/downloads or build from source: git clone https://github.com/pixhawk/qgroundcontrol.git "base directory"/qgroundcontrol, if you build from source you will need to copy "pathtosketchbook"/libraries/mavlink to "base directory" or create a symbolic link
Set sketchbook path for arduino to "pathtosketchbook", then restart arduino IDE.
Create an APM_Config.h file as seen below.
Compile and upload code to board.
Start QGroundControl, select network, add link, set to comm port (/dev/ttyUSB* on linux, COM* on windows) and then set the baud rate to 115200 (if using GCS_PORT 3)

Here is some documentation:

http://qgroundcontrol.org/users/start

http://pixhawk.ethz.ch/wiki/mavlink/

APM_Config.h file:

#define DEBUG_SUBSYSTEM 0

#define FLIGHT_MODE_CHANNEL 8

#define FLIGHT_MODE_1 AUTO

#define FLIGHT_MODE_2 RTL

#define FLIGHT_MODE_3 FLY_BY_WIRE_A

#define FLIGHT_MODE_4 FLY_BY_WIRE_B

#define FLIGHT_MODE_5 STABILIZE

#define FLIGHT_MODE_6 MANUAL

#define GCS_PROTOCOL GCS_PROTOCOL_MAVLINK

#define ENABLE_HIL ENABLED

#define GCS_PORT 3

#define GPS_PROTOCOL GPS_PROTOCOL_IMU

#define AIRSPEED_CRUISE 25

#define THROTTLE_FAILSAFE ENABLED

#define AIRSPEED_SENSOR ENABLED

You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!

Join diydrones

Comments

Developer

James Goppert December 3, 2010 at 12:23am

The development team is pushing hard to have a new stable release soon. There have been some great flights on the beta branch but there are still a few kinks to work out.
Developer

James Goppert December 3, 2010 at 12:22am

Sounds Great! I work exclusively on linux so you should be all set for HIL. I use the oooark scicoslab toolbox to talk mavlink to APM over Serial0 and then talk to qgroundcontrol on Serial3. http://oooark.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb-index.cgi
Paul Drews December 2, 2010 at 11:17pm

Awesome, thanks. I will keep an eye on the trunk. I just got my APM board a few days ago, and am developing under linux so I have no HIL. I will stay out of the main branch until I get a few flights under my belt. However, I hope to eventually help with development.

Any chance another stable APM release will be coming out any time soon?
Developer

James Goppert December 2, 2010 at 10:08pm

The mavlink dev branch is the one in sync with the apm trunk. (git clone "mavlinkurl" -b dev) I have hil running right now with in flight gains etc. I'm debugging some issues with the imu and flight modes as we speak. I wouldn't fly apm trunk until you can get a good hil run going. Hopefully I"ll have that working for me tonight though. It was previously working but we made some eeprom changes.
Paul Drews December 2, 2010 at 9:12pm

Has anyone been maintaining the mavlink branch? I just tried to grab and build it using these instruction, but it seems to be out of date compared to the latest ArduCopter libraries. I did notice that the APM trunk has some mavlink code in it, so I am going to try to build it next. Is the APM trunk stable enough to try to fly with? I would really like to have qgroundcontrol(mainly in-flight gain tuning), but it is a beast getting all this stuff to build.
Abishek Hariharan November 20, 2010 at 11:26am

Baud rate 115200== gibberish
Baud Rate 38400== CLI messages sometimes
Abishek Hariharan November 20, 2010 at 11:22am

Changed to GPS_PROTOCOL_HIL , the code compiled and loaded .
I got the latest libraries ,and mavlink files just this morning .

My APM doesn't seem to be sending any sensor data to qGCS, the serial link happens , and i get the ArdupilotMega CLI messages sometimes , other times just gibberish .

Tha APM_Config.h is just as above .

Im trying all of this on a Mac (10.6.5 ) , is that why it isnt working ?
Developer

James Goppert November 20, 2010 at 9:25am

Try switching from GPS_PROTOCOL_IMU to GPS_PROTOCOL_HIL and make sure your libraries are up to date and you have the latest version of the mavlink branch.
Abishek Hariharan November 20, 2010 at 8:19am

hey when i compile the code i get :

ArduPilotMega.cpp: In function 'void fast_loop()':
ArduPilotMega:518: error: 'class AP_GPS_HIL' has no member named 'airspeed'
ArduPilotMega:527: error: 'class AP_GPS_HIL' has no member named 'roll_sensor'
ArduPilotMega:528: error: 'class AP_GPS_HIL' has no member named 'pitch_sensor'

i do not get this error when i use the regular ArdupilotMega code (non ArduCopter).
Developer

James Goppert November 18, 2010 at 2:10pm

If you write the mavlink protocol bridge for UDB then it will work.

of 4

This reply was deleted.