qgroundcontrol VS PX4-Autopilot

For Disco you're in luck, there are some really decent ardupilot-based projects out there[1]. Plus, unlike the Bebop camera which is inaccessible via the shell (you can only use the Parrot SDK), the Disco camera can be commanded to stream/record with a few simple commands, and even bound to controller inputs.

A caveat with the controller: it needs to have custom firmware[2] to get it communicating with ardupilot, and to get the firmware onto the controller you need telnet/adb into it via SkyController→usb→ethernet→usb→Laptop adaptor(s).

For a ground control system (GCS), there's three to choose from: Mission Planner, APM Planner, and QGroundControl[3] (ignore the rest, use this one).

For configuring the drone, mission planner is pretty good... but you can also just use MavProxy[4] which is a fantastic commandline program that all the GCSes use in some way, and can even be installed in Termux/Android.

1: https://github.com/uavpal/disco4g/

2: https://github.com/ArduPilot/dema-rc/

3: https://github.com/mavlink/qgroundcontrol

4: https://github.com/ArduPilot/MAVProxy

I expect you’re running into this issue, although it’s also possible you’re using a QGroundControl version that’s poorly set up to work with ArduSub (or your particular ArduSub version). If you’re not already it’s likely best to use the software version(s) recommended by Blue Robotics.

> Are UML diagrams used effectively in the dev industry?

Are they effective? I say they are when correctly used. For example last year I used plant UML to draw a sequence diagram to demonstrate some threading/mutex problems. [1]

I've also used draw.io to draw similar problems. [2]

I would say that tbqh using UML (or maybe just plant UML) is the "better" solution because it can be embedded in code and re-rendered as needed. But draw.io is _much_ easier to use!

I will also say that UML diagrams aren't well taught nor do most devs even know to reach for the tool.

[1]: https://github.com/mavlink/qgroundcontrol/pull/9595

[2]: https://github.com/airmap/qgroundcontrol/pull/6

They are widely used in narrow circles :)

Two of (arguably the best) open source RC aircraft flight controllers (ArduPilot and PX4) are using extended Kalman filters in their state estimators (essentially sensor fusion that provides attitude/position estimate):

https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/tree/master/libraries...

https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/blob/main/src/modules/e...

I'm not that familiar with cleanflight/betaflight/inav scene to know what the FPV racer flight controllers use.

Actually, even the General Aviation pilots who actually manually manage their own load-shedding during a mission would quite like automated power distribution and management systems... and if you felt like taking on that sort of work as a hobby project to cut your teeth, I bet the guys at the (open-source) PX4 project would bite your hand off...

As a flight pilot engineer you have to find a sweet spot and balance logging too much and too little. Writing logs to an SD card has huge costs that come with it, that's why you don't want to log too much. Logging too little and you can't debug issues later on properly.

PX4 also has lots of "topics" logged at around 1/10, e.g. hover thrust estimate every 100ms:

https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/blob/main/src/modules/l...

Okay, but nowadays most people talk about “Pixhawk” as an open-standard hardware platform and PX4 as the software. The source code is at https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot and they call themselves “PX4 Autopilot Software”.

As an example, PX4 is a popular open source drone autopilot software: https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot

I am working as a Remote Embedded Software developer for quite a while now and there is no obstacle in Remote work. If I am missing anything, parts are arriving in under the week. That said, I never had a better work-life balance in the last 10 years. Anyone who said Embedded is not possible to do remotely just check any open source flight controller project (in my case PX4).