468 Members
Join Us!

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)

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

Join diydrones

Comments are closed.

Comments

  • Thanks for this app Kevin.  It is really solid and straight forward.

    I am having trouble importing WP files into the system.  Keep getting an incompatible format thing.  It appears the wpt format is simply a re-extension of the Mavlink TXT waypoint file.   It seemed fitting to take my flightplans, (in txt) and change the extension.  But Andropilot says it's incompatible.  It opens in MP, and In APM planner, (Now that Bill removed the extra space after each line).

    Since your WP file SAVE routine also adds this extra space, I was wondering if that was it... since this is what was preventing an externally edited WP file (txt based) from opening in APM planner 2.0.

    In any case, we want to use Andropilot to execute WP missions created in another Mavlink planner and are hitting the wall.  I'm hoping it's just an erroneous character or something. 

    Thoughts?

  • Developer

    yes it should be fine.

  • Is Pixhawk FW 3.1.5 (last release) compatible with Andropilot 2.1.08 (current release)?

    If not ... what Beta revisions should I be using for testing? Thank You.

  • hello all, today i was wanting to try out follow Me on APM 2.6 FW 3.1.5 Arducopter. the last time i tried it was when my firmware was in 3.0.1 APM 2.6 and had an unexpected crash.

    Today i launch my Quad, put it into Loiter, then switched to the Tablet, clicked Follow Me, nothing happened. it used to switch to guided mode, but now it doesnt seem to do that?

    i switched to guided mode on the tablet, and the quad came to rest on the ground before flipping over (Largely tripped up by grass).

    is this not compatible with FW 3.1.5 APM 2.6?

    i am using a Nexus 7 Tablet with what i think is the most current version of AndroPIlot? please advise and thank you

  • Just tried using AndroPilot today for the first time, worked perfectly on a Google Nexus 10 I purchased just for this purpose (can't find anything for iPad)

    Thanks to the developer I won't have to cart a laptop to the club.

    Nigel

  • Hi all, after configuring to send my data to Droneshare I saw nothing there. Are there any logs I can look at to determine what the cause is? Also, besides clicking on the share to Droneshare, is there anything else I need to setup?

    Can I force upload the logs?

  • Hi Quentin
    Sounds like a failsafe setting.
  • hi all

    i have this tablet :

    http://www.dx.com/p/icoo-d70proii-7-capacitive-screen-android-4-1-1...

    when connecting to OTG a mouse / usb flash drive and such they all work fine.

    when connecting the 3DR modem and starting the andropilot tool i get "looking for radio" .. on my nexus 5 phone it works fine.

    is there a fix to istall to use it ? ... i would like to very much.

    android is 4.1.1

    thanks.

  • Initial setup screen? Can't say I know what you mean. I've had Andropilot on my Note2 for over a year now.
    Perhaps you could try resetting your phone's settings. In 'application manager' go to settings-> Reset app preferences. I assume you've turned BT off.
    If DP is working, your OTG should be fine. I've gone through 3 of them now. Cheap OTGs don't like to be out below -20°C.
    Is it for sure still looking for a BT connection?
  • I tried that it says it's looking for the radio.  Droidplanner has no problem seeing it so I am not sure what I need to do to get AndroPilot to recognize it.

    Is there anyway to get a fresh install? I tried a uninstall/clear cache/clear memory, trying to get that intial setup screen, but no luck

This reply was deleted.

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…
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…
0 Replies