ArduDeck - open-source cross-platform GCS

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I wanted to share something I’ve been building for a while now. ArduDeck is an open-source ground control station for ArduPilot vehicles , built from scratch with Electron , React and
TypeScript. It runs on Windows , Mac and Linux from the same codebase. The main motivation was having a GCS that runs natively on Mac and Linux without Wine or VMs , with a modern UI.

This project exists because of ArduPilot and the incredible work that goes into Mission Planner , QGroundControl and the whole ecosystem. ArduDeck builds on top of all that , not against
it. The parameter metadata comes straight from the ArduPilot autotest servers , the protocols are standard MAVLink v2 , and the goal is to give people another option , not to replace what
already works.

So what does it do right now :

  • Full MAVLink v2 support with real-time telemetry (attitude , GPS , battery , VFR HUD)
  • Parameter management with metadata pulled from ArduPilot servers , including descriptions , ranges and validation
  • Mission planning with terrain-aware altitude using the Open-Meteo elevation API
  • Firmware flashing with multi-protocol board detection and STM32 DFU support
  • MSP protocol support for iNav and Betaflight boards as well
  • OSD font simulation , CLI terminal , calibration wizards , and dockable telemetry panels
  • Talks to Pixhawk-compatible boards over USB serial

Im testing mainly on a SpeedyBee F405-Wing running ArduPlane , so thats where things are most stable right now.

Its still early days. There are rough edges , missing features , and probably bugs i havent found yet. Thats exactly why im posting here. Im looking for testers , feedback , and people who
want to poke at it and tell me what breaks or what they want to see next.

The whole thing is open source and MIT licensed.

GitHub : https://github.com/rubenCodeforges/ardudeck

Here are a few screenshots of the current state :

mission_planning
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msp_modes_advanced
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msp_pid_tuning
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settings_vehicle_profiles
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If you give it a try , id love to hear your thoughts. What works , what doesnt , what features youd want prioritized. Feedbacks welcome in any format , cheers :slight_smile:

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Will do so! Thanks for sharing your work with us!

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Wow thank you for the response , i was not expecting that some one will reply :smiley:

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I’ll write down my personal points and add them to this post as i find them.

  • Baudrate should be higher if you might add MavFTP with LOG Download (1,5mbaud)
  • MissionPlanning needs to be accessible without connecting a vehicle
  • I’ve shared your post in a local german community and one member would like to test it on a Intel Mac, is it possible to share a build for this platform too? As some Mac Users still make good use of their Intel Macs in their Hobby workshops.
  • to be continued
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Hey thank you for your feedback , btw im from Hamburg :smiley:

Baudrate - doable , ive made it lower because i was seeing some BSODs on win.
MissionPlanner - agree, however i need to take a closer look at it , i did not spend much attention on it , was concentrated on params and settings.

Re intel , currently there are complications building for intel , however you always can clone and run it locally wihtout the packaged version. But i agree there are lots of intel macs still out there , i will think about it. Will post an update today , maybe a build …

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Lovely, just two hours away from me. I am at the north sea (Jade bay area).

I’ll report back to my colleagues at fpv-treff that you probably accept feedback in german too :melting_face:

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I do in deed , in fact i do in 4 languages :smiley:

Btw ive repurposed one of my discord server for ardudeck so they welcome to join and have almost realtime responses.

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all fine, you should focus on one topic after another. This is a big project for one dev.

MissionPlanning is probably only relevant for a minority of users. Guess less than 10% of Ardupilot users and less than 1% of INAV users.

Regarding path planning algorithms (if this might be relevant at some time) i’ve seen a very interesting demo from University Bremen mathematics and their commercial “spin off?” topas.tech at the DroneDays2025 in Hatten. They didn’t have an UI for this so this might be an idea to reach out for them with the goal to integrate it into ArduDesk.

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ive released a new version with fixes for your comments.
Re the demo from Unversity Bremen , do you have any links ?

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Sadly no but a business card. I’ve sent out a mail and waiting someone from their project team to reply.

Took this picture at the fair:

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They used MissionPlanner for visualisation as their software is only a command line based tool.

Will update you once i have any further information.

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Great , because in terms of development , i dont feel any limitations as of now.

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Great work there !
Would you mind if I put this as a blog post to make it bit more visible ? I think it would interest many people !

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Oh absolutely , feel free , its opensource after all

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Just checked my ESP32 based FC (Rover), works fine and I will follow.
Greetings to the north

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Another person from Germany… :wink: .Greetings to the waterkant.

I played around with ArduDeck a bit last night after it was posted on fpv-treff.de from @YupsUAV.

First, I had an FC with INAV connected, and then after that, an FC with Arduplane. The first thing I noticed was that it takes quite a while to load a good 1,400 parameters. Apparently, MavFTP wasn’t used for this?

Otherwise, I like the GUI and the development tools (Electron, React, Node.js).

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I had some ideas on esp32 based fcs and support for those , i even got in contact with a guy who writes custo firmware for esp32. Thank you for following up !

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Hey yeh , Hamburg :slight_smile: But now im enjoying the shores of Montenegro ))))
I will be honest , i was lacking ardupilot capable boards when i started , i had only apm2.5 and i spend my whole new year vacation building the core.

But now with you guys and some new supplies i got , i think this app has a chance to win your hearts :wink:

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I don’t think so, pretty much all Ardupilot drones I used spent more time in AUTO than in any other mode, outside of initial setup and tuning. Including missions done take off toi landing in automatic modes with no pilot intervention.

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I would 2nd that.

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Yup, I’m going to echo the same. Other modes are more fun, but Auto pays the bills.

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