UAVcast. Software for Companion Computer based UAV`s

Sinamics

UAVcast-Pro is now available Read More

PLEASE BE AWARE THAT ANY INFORMATION YOU MAY FIND IN THIS POST MAY BE INACCURATE, MISLEADING.
PLEASE USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Installation

sudo apt-get install git -y
sudo git clone https://github.com/UAVmatrix/UAVcast.git 
cd UAVcast/install 
sudo ./install.sh web

Open UAVcast in your favorite web browser and start casting.

What do you need
Mostly all Autopilots using Mavlink protocol are supported:

APM 2.x
APM 3.x
Pixhawk
~~Navio+~~ Not yet supported
~~Navio2~~ Not yet Supported

NOTE! DJI systems ( like Naza or A2 etc. are not supported )
APM based Flight controllers such as Ardupilot and Px4 pro firmware are compatible.

Raspberry Companion Computer:

Model Pi2
Model Pi3
Model Pi0w

Modem for cellular connection (3g/4g) or Wi-fi router

Supported Cellular Modems

Hi-link USB modem (Integrated connection software)
Regular USB dial-in modem (See link above for supported devices)
Any router that allow to connect Raspberry and Computer Ground station at the same
time ( this option does not support long rage LTE/3G connections )

Typical Connection with RPI

If powering via USB, do not connect the +5V pin as shown (still connect common ground).

image raspberrypi-pixhawk-wiring1.jpeg

Quick installation quide

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18vWmoIFS5I9n-0g5OxtR5Sl7bYDRDBh0/view?usp=sharing

Sincerely
Bernt Christian

Sinamics

I created a script package to simplify the installation and running of various programs.

Sinamics first version of UAVcast

Sinamics

mocart
I just commit my changes to github,
Try to install as describred in first post Sinamics

sudo apt-get install git 
sudo git clone https://github.com/UAVmatrix/UAVcast.git 
cd UAVcast/install 
sudo ./install.sh

Sinamics

Update v0.3.0

UAVcast is now updated with ser2net. See first post Sinamics for installation details.
I would like to get feedback on RPI3 installation as i dont have one at the moment.

Sinamics

Due to many of my articles are outdated, I will just make a build list for those who want to build a cell controlled Drone in shortest time. I will try to keep it clean and informative.

Vehicle

**RPI ** 0/1/2/3/4 with UAVcast-Pro Sinamics
**Extra Power ** source for RPI. I’m using 5A 5V Bec. Sinamics
**USB camera **. Preferably PiCam
**USB cell modem **. See UAVcast supported modems Huawei E3372H has worked perfectly for many people.

Ground Control

Laptop or Android device tested by mocart for capturing video and telemetry
USB Gamepad as controller. See the layout Sinamics
**USB modem ** (Video and telemetry port to be opened. Default 14550 and 5000)

Tools

**Port checker **. ~~Verifiy that your port is open Sinamics~~ Now Inlcuded in **UAVcast **
Mission Planner
QGroundControl

This is based on my experince though, i encourage you to comment and suggest changes to the current list. My intensjon is to keep the first post fluid and updated with the most recent knowledge.

I will update more later, its a start at least. 🚀

Members Showcase

vibmad 5.5 kms total, max dist from home 1.8 km

Sinamics

I would like to get some feedback if anyone has installed and tried UAVcast.
I’m going to add a more in depth usage explanation, but in the meantime any users opinion would be great.
If anyone want or has any suggestion to additional packages to be included, just give me a shout and i will do my best to include those as well.

Cheers.

crow

I received my rpi2 last weekend and started playing with it, I didn't realize you had just released the UAVCast image or I would have used it. I started setting things up manually from the instructions in your blog, just taking baby steps. That's OK, doing everything myself lets me get a better understanding of Raspbian anyway, I have very little prior experience with any kind of ux operating system.

Thanks to your tutorial I did manage to get gstreamer working over my home network, temporarily using a Runcam v1 in webcam mode. Tried to get a wifi dongle installed but eventually figured out that the Panda PAU05 I was trying to use is broken, neither the pi nor my laptop can read the USB descriptor from it.

Baby steps... I have a Logitech C615 webcam ($25 on ebay) , a TTL-Ethernet converter, and a replacement wifi dongle on the way. Will be using it with an APM 2.5.2 clone. Once I get everything working over my home wifi I'll get a Verizon Jetpack and a prepaid data plan. Maybe once I get all the parts I should just start over and give your image a try.

Sinamics

Hi Crow.

Too bad about your wifi dongle, really hope the new one is working better. I`ve been using Edimax wifi dongle for a while without any issues.

Did you test Runcam v1 in conjunction with gstreamer? Were you satisfied with the quality?

Just a tip; You could also just run the installation scripts instead of downloading the complete image, basically the same thing.

git clone https://github.com/UAVmatrix/UAVcast.git

Then simply run

cd Install/ ./Install.sh

Then edit the /DroneConfig.cfg and start the script using

 sudo /home/pi/UAVcast/./DroneStart.sh

I never tried the C615, so please give us an update on the result.

crow

The Runcam always has a little lag even when viewing over a normal fpv 5.8g radio link, I would estimate the lag over my home lan (with the rpi wired, and my laptop connected to the same router by wifi) was about 0.3 to 0.5 seconds. I'm curious to see how the Logitech webcam will compare.

From what I've researched on the Logitech C615, it is also capable of 1080p, much of the differences vs the C920 that it has are not relevant for our purposes such as audio quality and facial recognition. The biggest difference is that the C615 is only capable of 15fps vs the C920's 30 fps, which again I expect shouldn't be an issue for streaming over a cellular link. Generally $20-$30 cheaper than the C920, we'll see how it does.

Thanks again for all the information you provide, I will try the install script and let you know how it goes.

mark_vanhaze

I ran the install script on a fresh image of Wheezy and the final output is as follows:

The following NEW packages will be installed:

  gir1.2-gstreamer-1.0 gstreamer1.0-doc gstreamer1.0-libav-dbg
  gstreamer1.0-omx-dbg gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad-dbg
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad-doc gstreamer1.0-plugins-base-apps
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-base-dbg gstreamer1.0-plugins-base-doc
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-good-dbg gstreamer1.0-plugins-good-doc
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly-dbg
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly-doc gstreamer1.0-pulseaudio gstreamer1.0-tools
  libelfg0 libglib2.0-bin libglib2.0-dev libglib2.0-doc libgstreamer1.0-0-dbg
  libgstreamer1.0-dev libpcre3-dev libpcrecpp0
0 upgraded, 24 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 37.2 MB of archives.
After this operation, 104 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Abort.
pi@wheezycam ~/Install-Script $ libtool: link: ( cd ".libs" && rm -f "libjson-c.la" && ln -s "../libjson-c.la" "libjson-c.la" )
-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('
pi@wheezycam ~/Install-Script $ make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/pi/packages/json-c-0.12'
-bash: make[2]:: command not found
pi@wheezycam ~/Install-Script $ Making all in tests
-bash: Making: command not found
pi@wheezycam ~/Install-Script $ make[2]: Entering directory '/home/pi/packages/json-c-0.12/tests'
-bash: make[2]:: command not found
pi@wheezycam ~/Install-Script $ make[2]: Nothing to be done for 'all'.
-bash: make[2]:: command not found
pi@wheezycam ~/Install-Script $ make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/pi/packages/json-c-0.12/tests'
-bash: make[2]:: command not found
pi@wheezycam ~/Install-Script $ make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/pi/packages/json-c-0.12'
-bash: make[1]:: command not found

It stops there but if you press "enter" the script continues.

Sinamics

Seems like a permission issue.
Make sure you are super user when executing the script.

To log in as super user, type;

sudo su

Also try to set write permission to Install folder.

chmod 755 Install/

Sinamics

Update

I discovered a bug when using local address, e.g 192.168.x.xxx to the GCS_adress instead of DNS name. I have corrected this and updated GitHub with latest.

Chuckster1

Crow.
I also tried the Logitech C615. For my drone, I'm only using 720P video, which by the way, is a great picture (and more manageable for my cellular data plan). I'm actually using the C920 for 1 very good reason... C920 has onboard H.264 compression that requires no wait time.
I'm pretty sure my current G-streamer script wont even work with the C615. Please keep us updated on your baby steps. :-)

Sinamics

If anyone experience 404 errors, Change the apt source to use another server than used by default.

 nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Im using the UK server.

deb http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/archive.raspbian.org/archive/raspbian wheezy main contrib non-free rpi

crow

Posted by Chuckster1 C920 has onboard H.264 compression that requires no wait time. I'm pretty sure my current G-streamer script wont even work with the C615

By "no wait time" you're meaning you don't have to put a sleep command in the script? Otherwise the C615 worked OK?

Chuckster1

No. The C615 won't work because I'm using h264, which is native to the C920. The sleep time in my Raspberry PI is so G-streamer doesn't start up too early, regardless of which camera I'm using.

Sinamics

UPDATE 14.02.2016

Seems like RaspberryPi.org has removed the Wheezy image, so i created a new image based on the Jessie Lite. I also compressed the disk partition down to 2.9GB img file size. (1.2GB zipped)

Buildt on Jessie Lite

Linux raspberrypi 4.1.17-v7+ #838 SMP Tue Feb 9 13:15:09 GMT 2016 armv7l GNU/Linux

First post is updated accordingly.

Sinamics

UPDATE 15.02.2016
Merged the Install script into UAVcast repo. Just to simplify the install progress.
Download and install the attached Jessie img file in first post, or install complete package using

git clone https://github.com/UAVmatrix/UAVcast.git
cd UAVcast/Install
./Install.sh

Tommy_D

installed your UAVcast image today, no problem with installing. but I have quite some steps to take to get this working on my hexCopter.

I used the " sudo nano /home/pi/UAVcast/DroneConfig.cfg " command, otherwise I was not allowed to change the script.

the pi now gives me this back when I use the "sudo /home/pi/UAVcast/./DroneStart.sh " command.

no crontab for root
Ethernet ip is 192.168.0.12
Seems like RPI is connected to Internet, all ok.
UDP_redirect script started
Could`t start gStreamer

what does the first line mean?

I do have a Logitec C270 Cam. do you think I can use it with your script?

best regards Thomas

Sinamics

Hi Tommy.

Thank you, i will update first post to include full path to DroneConfig.sh
Just ignore the "no crontab message". I will remove that message in the next release.
I have never tried C270, but i guess it should work. Just change the "picam" to "C920"

#Options; picam, C920
CameraType="C920"

If it still wont work, check if video0 exsist in folder dev/

crow

Just a note on experience with the Logitech C615. I went ahead and bought a C920 to compare to the C615. To get the C615 to work, I replaced the C920 function in UAVcast/scripts/camera.sh with this one, mostly from one of the earlier samples Bernt provided:

function C920 {
gst-launch-1.0 -v rtpbin name=rtpbin v4l2src device=/dev/video0 !\
        video/x-raw,width=$WIDTH,height=$HEIGHT,framerate=30/1 ! queue ! \
        omxh264enc target-bitrate=500000 control-rate=1 ! \
        "video/x-h264,profile=main" ! h264parse ! \
        queue max-size-bytes=10000000 ! \
        rtph264pay pt=96 config-interval=1 ! \
        rtpbin.send_rtp_sink_0 rtpbin.send_rtp_src_0 ! \
        udpsink port=$UDP_PORT host=$GCS_adress ts-offset=0 \
        name=vrtpsink rtpbin.send_rtcp_src_0 ! \
        rtpbin.recv_rtcp_sink_0
}

This stream will work with either the C615 or the C920, and using this one the RPI2 (with the max_usb_current=1 setting) will even power both a wifi dongle and the camera without having to provide external power to the USB devices. However at higher resolution settings gstreamer's processor utilization on the RPI2 will exceed 50%, as the h.264 encoding is being done by the RPI2. The C920 does produce a noticably better image than the C615 at the same resolution setting.

Using Bernt's standard C920 function in camera.sh does not work with the C615, and with the C920 plugged in and doing its own h.264 encoding it needs more power, the RPI2 cannot provide enough power on its on for both the camera and the wifi dongle.

Sinamics

Thank you crow for the complementary report.
So the C615 does not have its own H264 encoding? I think we should create two functions C920 & C615 and add this option to the DroneConfig.cfg file.
How about the latency between those two cameras, any difference?

BTW, thank you for the "max_usb_current " tip, i did`t know about it.
Is that parameter located in the /boot/config.txt ?

crow

Yes, I think another function for non-h.264 encoding cameras would be great, I'll bet it would probably work with a lot of other webcams too.

I didn't measure latency precisely but just to the eye I could not detect any difference between the two cameras, or with the C920 between the two different streaming methods.

Right, max_usb_current=1 goes in /boot/config.txt. It works only on the pi2 and the B+ models. It causes a second resistor to the USB bus to connect in parallel with the first one, allowing 1.2A to the USB instead of the default 600ma. Of course your power supply will need to be capable of supplying the extra power, it should be rated at least 2 amps to benefit from this. That's the reason they don't make this configuration the default - so you only change it if you have a sufficient power supply.

If you find that your config.txt loses the changes you made to it after you reboot, like mine did, you will need to remove the SD card from the pi and insert it into your PC to make the modification.

This is the "v4l2-ctl --list-formats " response for the C615:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ v4l2-ctl --list-formats
ioctl: VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT
        Index       : 0
        Type        : Video Capture
        Pixel Format: 'YUYV'
        Name        : YUV 4:2:2 (YUYV)

        Index       : 1
        Type        : Video Capture
        Pixel Format: 'MJPG' (compressed)
        Name        : MJPEG

vs the C920:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ v4l2-ctl --list-formats
ioctl: VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT
        Index       : 0
        Type        : Video Capture
        Pixel Format: 'YUYV'
        Name        : YUV 4:2:2 (YUYV)

        Index       : 1
        Type        : Video Capture
        Pixel Format: 'H264' (compressed)
        Name        : H.264

        Index       : 2
        Type        : Video Capture
        Pixel Format: 'MJPG' (compressed)
        Name        : MJPEG