arthur.benemann commented on arthur.benemann's blog post DroidPlanner - Ground Control Station for Android devices

Hello everyone,

I'm starting a new project branch for the ArduPilot, and I hope it will?thrive. For an experiment run the DroidPlanner.apk?file on an Android Tablet (needs android v4) . Here it's a mere screenshot:

I know this it's not the first phone/tablet GCS to show up on this?community (for?example?Bart copter-gcs, this closed-source copy, the Apple GCS by ?Zachary), but I'm thinking in a?different?approach. This is what I want to do:

1. Develop a GCS for android devices, mainly to setup missions before flights.
2. And to analyze logs on the field?afterward flights.
3. Increase the App to add in flight telemetry.
4. And PID adjustment controls.
5. Keep?supporting?the system.
6. Make this easy to use and functional, so that you won't need to turn on a computer to fly.

Some great things are helping on this project:

• Google Maps Android API v2?- Which makes using Google maps in android?applications?more?easily, and a lot faster. I also should point out that there is a nice cache function that makes it work offline (to some extent of course). But there is also the option of using a custom source of imagery.
• Cheap Android Tablets with USB host?capability's.

Screenshots:

Before getting into how I think this should evolve let me show to you what I have?already?done. Bellow is a screenshot of the home screen where the mission planning is made. On the left there is a list of waypoints altitudes, on the center a map with the home position. On the top left a menu to change the screen and on the right some commands relative to this screen.

On the next picture there are show some of the actions on the menu, and more waypoints where added (with a?different?altitude). Using the "open file" action to open a real flight get's us back to the first picture in the post. (Files are loaded from a folder named waypoints on the sdcard, you can copy files generated with mission planner to this folder)

The part I'm procrastinating is the communication interface (mainly because Bart has made it already). I want to implement first a wifi-UDP?communication?system redirected?by some main GCS, this way the development will be?easier?(the USB port will be free for the programmer) and a nice mobile GCS will be left behind. Next the USB-serial-Xbee communication, I have some working demos to receive data from the serial port but these need more?study.

How to develop:

First get a clone from my branch "DroidPlanner_Stable" at?this link. Next download the?ADT Bundle?for the google SDK and eclipse. Download and import the Google Play library into Eclipse as explained?here. Now you should be able to import the DroidPlanner project/compile/ and run on a android device (needs Android v4).

Edit:?About the USB connection to 3DR radios, some tablets have USB host capabilities and the drivers needed to?communicate?to a FTDI CDC?IC.This means the device can supply power via USB and Acess USB devices, for me all it takes is an USB microB to USB type A cable (like the one in the picture).

To decrease the doubts about this here is a screenshot of my tablet connected to an APM1 board?accessing?the APM terminal. I used a terminal app called "Android USB Serial Monitor".

As I pointed out at the start there is this file:DroidPlanner.apk, that can be run on a android v4 phone or tablet.

Edit:?I only have one?Chinese?7 inch Tablet, so I don't know how it will behave on other devices but it's worth a try. Some has run the App on a Nexus7. I?had?some doubts because of the API key need to?access?Google maps data was a debug one.

Any questions or?suggestions?post bellow.

Thanks.

--

Arthur Benemann

Source: http://diydrones.com/xn/detail/705844%3AComment%3A1089885?xg_source=activity

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