ArduPilot on Disco¶

Installing ArduPilot on Disco can be done by following their documentation. Here we deviate a little bit, particularly to use our toolchain that allows doesn't require ArduPilot to be statically built, which allows using libiio to read the sonar and us of Parrot's telemetry module to integrate with the camera.

Build ArduPilot¶

Use the same toolchain used for dema-rc, see previous chapter. Assuming that the toolchain is setup, you already cloned ArduPilot's repo and fetched submodules:

$ ./waf configure --board disco
$ ./waf plane

Connect to Disco¶

Double click the pitot-button on Disco to enable incoming connections.

You have 2 options to connect to Disco: either via WiFi or via USB (using rndis, i.e. it will create an ethernet link over USB):

Method	Command
WiFi	`adb connect 192.168.42.1:9050`
USB	`adb connect 192.168.43.1:9050`

If you choose USB, make sure to activate it first: double press the power button.

Copy some additional libraries:¶

$ adb shell mkdir -p /data/ftp/internal_000/ardupilot/lib
$ adb push \
    /opt/arm-buildroot-linux-gnueabihf_sdk-buildroot/arm-buildroot-linux-gnueabihf/sysroot/usr/lib/libserialport.so.0 \
    /data/ftp/internal_000/ardupilot/lib/libserialport.so.0
$ adb push \
    /opt/arm-buildroot-linux-gnueabihf_sdk-buildroot/arm-buildroot-linux-gnueabihf/sysroot/usr/lib/libiio.so.0 \
    /data/ftp/internal_000/ardupilot/lib/libiio.so.0

Copy arduplane¶

$ adb push build/disco/bin/arduplane /data/ftp/internal_000/ardupilot/arduplane

Default parameters¶

To make it easier for first setup, copy pre-configured parameters from ArduPilot's repo:

$ adb push Parrot_Disco.param /data/ftp/internal_000/ardupilot/disco.parm

Another option is to simply load them from your preferred GCS.

Manually check if ArduPilot can be executed¶

Before automating the startup, make sure to run it once on the terminal to check if everything is working:

$ adb shell
$ kk
$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/data/ftp/internal_000/ardupilot/lib \
    /data/ftp/internal_000/ardupilot/arduplane  \
        -A udpin:0.0.0.0:14550 \
        -B /dev/ttyPA1 \
        -C udp:192.168.43.255:14550:bcast

This should start ArduPilot (so you will hear the buzzer) and telemetry will be sent via both USB and WiFi. Now you should be able to start your GCS and communicate with the drone, go through calibration procedures, etc.

Configuring QGC for Disco¶

Start QGC, enter application settings and comm links. Click "add" , configure Name as "Disco" , type as UDP, check "Automatically connect on Start" Let listening port be 14550, under Target hosts, click "Add" , enter 192.168.53.1 Click OK Go to "general" , scroll down to "video" section. Set "video source" to "UDP h.264 video stream" Set "UDP port" to "8888"

Starting ArduPlane and connecting to GCS.¶

Switch on Disco and SC2 On SC2, click the settings button, expect LED flashing blue, then go solid blue. Click the pitot tube three times, see it flash blue/red and play the ArduPilot boot sound. You should now see the servos move on RC input and attitude changes. Start QGC on a computer and connect SC2 to the computer using ethernet adapter and ethernet cable. (The ethernet interface of the computer should be configured for DHCP.)

Start the preconfigured QGC, telemetry will autoconnect (you should see voltage/attitude) Press button "B" on SC2 to toggle streaming, you should now the video stream.

Automatically start ArduPilot¶

Although possible, it's not provided a way in this documentation to start only arduplane in Disco. Otherwise switching back and forth becomes troublesome and error prone. So we keep boot sequences as they are and provide a way to switch to ardupilot.

On Disco, edit this file: /usr/bin/apm-plane-disco.sh and change:

- exec ${rw_apm} $@
+ exec LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/data/ftp/internal_000/ardupilot/lib ${rw_apm} $@

Press the power button 3 times rapidly. This will switch from the stock flight stack to ArduPilot.