Hi I am researching more on using Ardupilot on the QGround Control Application. I would like to know if the application is similar to the Mission Planner Application? In the sense where I can review my dataflash logs without having the drone connected like in Mission Planner? Will the parameters reflected in Mission Planner also reflect in QGround Control too? Are all the parameters in the logs the same as the logs in Mission Planner ? Can I simulate flights in QGround Control like how I am able to in Mission Planner?
MP and QGC will both connect to the drone. Both will allow you to control the drone. Both will let you plan missions. Arguably QGC is easier to plan missions in, but MP will give you more options, so that one will depend on what you want to do.
QGC does not let you view data flash logs. I think you can download them in QGC, but I use MP or Mavproxy for that (or pull the SD card).
Parameters are stored in the drone, so both applications will let you view and edit the parameters. The two programs display them differently, but it’s the same data.
QGC does not have the sim function that MP has.
Hi Allister,
Thank you for getting back to me on this. When you say MP and QGC will both connect to the drone, is it possible that I can have both applications running at the same time and use any one of them as a redundancy?
Is it possible that my remote unit can run on QGC but I can use MP as my GCS on my laptop?
QGC does not let you view data flash logs. Does it only take telemetry logs?
Your help will be great.
Yes and no. I should clarify that you can use either MP or QGC to connect to the drone at any time. You don’t have to decide on one or the other. For example, on Windows or Linux computers I tend to use MP, but on my MacBook I use QGC. Same drones, just what computer am I using that day.
If you want to run both at the same time that’s going to complicate the issue because most systems wont allow multiple applications to share a com port like that.
You would need to look at using telemetry forwarding through MavProxy. Telemetry Forwarding — MAVProxy documentation
Or you can also forward from MP. Mission Planner Advanced Tools — Mission Planner documentation In this case, MP would connect to the drone, then you could forward the MavLink data to QGC on the same computer.
I have experimented with forwarding. It works, but it takes a while to setup. And it can be finicky.
What kind of remote are you talking about? HereLink will run QGC, and then you can connect through the wifi link in the remote to any other device and use the software of your choice.
I can’t speak to what QGC does with telemetry logs. I always try to use logs off the drone (.bin)
Thank you for the clarification, okay that makes sense that complication will set in with both applications running at the same time on the laptop. I will be using the Herelink remote unit. So you are saying that with Herelink running QGC on my Herelink remote unit, I can still use MP on my laptop?
Yes. You’ll connect the laptop to the wifi link created by the herelink remote and then you can run MP or QGC or MavProxy on your laptop. I’ve used it on a drone at work. I didn’t do the initial configuration on it, but I did setup the wifi. It’s pretty straight forward. I’ll dig around and see if I can find the links for the setup.