Copter 4.0.3 Geofence and MAVLINK 1.0/2.0 Compatibility

ArduCopter Copter 4.0
1

Can anyone clarify why the Polygon & Altitude geofence in AC 4.0.3 requires MAVLINK 2.0? link below (note near bottom of page).

https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-polygon_fence.html

I have a datalink that is developed around Mavlink 1.0 and would like to know if there is any issues if I continue to use it rather than 2.0.

Thanks!

2

There is a long-standing protocol used to transfer waypoints from GCS to
autopilot and vice-versa.

A mavlink2 extension to several messages allow that same protocol to be
used to transfer rally and fences.

Without the extensions these can’t be transfered.

Sorry, I think you’ll need to move to mavlink2 if you want the full
flexibility of the polyfence support.

Note that you can upload a single polygon inclusion fence using some
older mavlink1 protocols - we still support those in master for the time
being.

Yours,

3

@peterbarker, I appreciate your support on this!

My application only requires a simple inclusion fence with a return point. Requirement for a poly fence would be similar to what was available for AC 3.5.5, and MP 1.3.49.

Could you elaborate more on the limitations of a polyfence under mavlink1 and/or point me in the direction of where I can find such documentation?

You’ve been a great help already. Thank you for your assistance on this.

Cheers!
Ben

4

My application only requires a simple inclusion fence with a return point. Requirement for a poly fence would be similar to what was available for AC
3.5.5, and MP 1.3.49.

Could you elaborate more on the limitations of a polyfence under mavlink1 and/or point me in the direction of where I can find such documentation?

You should still be able to upload to ArduPilot a single polygon fence
using the old “fencepoint” protocol as you describe - from AC3.5.5 for
example. It converts it to a single “new-style” polygon fence as the
functionality is near-enough to a subset.

That being said, I do not know how MissionPlanner copes with this - not a
GCS I use day-to-day. I do know that MAVProxy continues to use the old
fencepoint protocol and has no issue uploading one of those.

Ben

Peter