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Introduction to Andropilot

Andropilot is an open source android based ground control system (GCS).  

Before posting questions in this group, please check the excellent wiki manual maintained Peter Meister.  If you find missing bits in the manual, please ask here and then update the wiki based on what you learn.  Together we will keep this manual complete and up-to-date.

For most users the required hardware is:

  • An Android phone or tablet (preferably tablet) with USB 'host mode' support.  Most newer devices have this but you should check (and then update) our compatibility list.
  • Operating system 4.0 or later (all supported versions of android should be equivalent now, except for direct connection of APMs.  Direct APM connection will be slow for androids before version 4.2)
  • A USB host mode adapter.  Probably something like this.
  • A supported autopilot (please update this wiki page as you test new devices)
  • A telemetry link (the 3dr 915/400MHz radios are recommended - they seem to work better than the xbee radios for this application)

Feature list:

  • Super clean user interface
  • Rock solid
  • GamePad support - you can use this for basic vehicle control, with no need for a RC transmitter/receiver.
  • Built in touchscreen joystick overlay with haptic feedback.
  • Direct control & monitoring of ArduPlane/Copter with no PC required. Just a $5 USB adapter cable and your Android tablet or phone (Android 3.1 or later). No rooting or hardware mods required.
  • Bluetooth to serial adapter support - useful for phones that don't support USB host mode.
  • Warnings about high levels of solar radiation (GPS outage inducing)
  • Map view
  • Parameter editing (with parameter documentation)
  • Waypoint editing (including setting waypoint type/parameters etc...)
  • Shares your flights via www.droneshare.com (G+, Facebook, Google Earth).
  • Follow-me mode to have the vehicle follow you
  • Lead-it mode to steer/move vehicle by turning your body and tilting the tablet
  • Vehicle mode display & control (AUTO, STABILIZE, etc...)
  • Speech output (for mode, altitude and battery alerts)
  • Capture tlog files to sdcard
  • Direct connect to USB on the APM
  • RC channel 'raw' view
  • 3DR telemetry module support
  • Warnings for low battery, low rssi, or low GPS sat count
  • Fully android 'native' (Scala backend talks directly to the USB device and renders the frontend)
  • UDP link (either as a client or a server)
  • TCP link (as a client)
  • Special support for the Archos GamePad
  • Monitor your vehicle through an optional Pebble smart watch.

Current release You can download from the Google play store.  

(See the discussions below for particular releases - releases are just too frequent to keep updating this header text)

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Comments

  • Developer
    Kevin Hester August 14, 2013 at 10:39am

    Hi Titeuf, the link to the manual is at the top of this page. https://github.com/geeksville/arduleader/wiki

    geeksville/arduleader
    An android ground controller (and other things) for Mavlink/Arduplane - geeksville/arduleader
  • GIREESH NARAYANAN NAIR August 14, 2013 at 8:46am

    I need a help,

    I am new in Ardupilot Group

    I developed a quad copter using Ardupilot1.4 board and flying reasonably well. This week after doing some structural modification I reprogrammed the board with latest APM software 1.2.67 version, accelerometer calibration, radio calibration all gone fine, but now I am unable to arm the board(no change in Rx/Tx combination) can anybody help me?

  • titeuf007 August 14, 2013 at 3:21am

    does it have a manual to know how to use andropilot?

  • titeuf007 August 14, 2013 at 3:13am

    thanks kevin

  • Developer
    Kevin Hester August 13, 2013 at 12:06pm

    @Titeuf.  It already has it.  The map always shows the last known location of the vehicle, and there is a menu option for "Navigate to vehicle" which will launch google nav to lead you to the last known position.

  • titeuf007 August 13, 2013 at 11:56am

    does it possible to have a gps tracker on andropilot?

    if we crash our multi it will be easier to find it

  • Dennis Megarry August 13, 2013 at 6:58am

    FYI:  I tried this on my ACER A500 with a RFD900 radio, it worked without any configuration..   :)  Love the RFD900 radio!

  • titeuf007 July 8, 2013 at 4:47pm

    it will be great if we could tune pid..

    it s real painful to use a computer to do the job

  • Developer
    Kevin Hester July 8, 2013 at 10:21am

    sure thing, I'll fix it this week. 

  • Giovanni Esposito July 8, 2013 at 4:22am

    Hi Kevin, I have found a bug in Andropilot: when it receives the flightplan from the APM, it deletes the DO_DIGICAM_CONTROL commands. So, when I have to make a missiont that use the auto triggering function I can't use Andropilot.

    Please, can you fix this?

    Thanks!

This reply was deleted.

Forum

Andropilot says Looking for Vehicle -- same radio works fine in Mission Planner

My last working configuration was APM 2.6 with Xbee 2.4 GHz radios. This worked great in both Andropilot and Mission Planner. I swapped out the Xbee radios for 3DR 915 MHz radios. The new radios work fine in Mission Planner. I can read location, telemetry, everything I'd expect.HOWEVER, the new 915 MHz ground radio using the same OTG cable on my Android get stuck "Looking for Vehicle". It moves from "Looking for radio" to "Looking for vehicle" when I plug the new radio into my Android USB port.…

Read more…
Started by Ryan
5 Replies

GPS time from Andropilot

I have been using andropilot for a while now and like it as it seems to work for us, well done!For the current job that I am doing, I need to synchronise my MAPIR camera clock with the APM GPS clock before each mission, is there a way to see what the GPS time is from Andropilot? I can't seem to find that information anywhere?Secondly, why am I seeing tlog jpg images in the logs folder? Is that something new?

Read more…
Started by Quentin Mayberry
0 Replies

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