Methodic configurator won't connect via TCP (RFDesign TXMod)

ArduCopter Copter 4.6
1

I am using the methodic configurator and I am up to test flights. Given the difficulty of physically accessing the cube orange USB port on my drone and the number of test flights I am hoping to do I would like to have the configurator work via telemetry.

Mission planner connects reliably via UDP and TCP using a RFDesign TXMOD unit with zero issues (Yappu on the TX16S has problems with this setup, but mission planner works well).

When I try to connect via the configurator using the same TXMOD IP and port (i.e. tcp:192.168.4.1:23 ) it fails with “No MAVLink heartbeat received, connection failed”. I have made sure that mission planner is closed and I have also tried running configurator as the first application on boot (before mission planner has ever been started) just in case there is some conflict.

What I have noticed is that once I’ve tried connnecting with the configurator, mission planner won’t connect until I close the mission planner, so it does appear to be doing something…

Any tips?

Thanks!

2

The ArduPilot Methodic Configurator uses pymavlink to establish connection to the vehicle.
Either I’m using the pymavlink API incorrectly or this is a pymavlink bug.

Either way please report it here: Sign in to GitHub · GitHub

3

Try using UDP 14550
I’m not sure how you do that in Methodic Configurator, but you can test with MissionPlanner to see if it’s working.

4

@xfacta you do that either in the command line:

ardupilot_methodic_configurator --device tcp:192.168.4.1:23

or on the GUI on the flight controller connection combobox:

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2 Likes
5

I can succesffully connect with both UDP and TCP with mission planner and neither works with the configurator. I will file a bug report once I’ve triple checked everything!

Thanks!

6

Is this solved? Same; aditionally I can connect with MP with this connection list:
udp://localhost:14592

Trying from command line:

C:\Program Files (x86)\ardupilot_methodic_configurator>ardupilot_methodic_configurator --device udp:127.0.0.1:14592
...
2025-06-05 11:45:31,037 - INFO - tcp:127.0.0.1:5760 - tcp:127.0.0.1:5760
2025-06-05 11:45:31,038 - INFO - udp:127.0.0.1:14550 - udp:127.0.0.1:14550
2025-06-05 11:45:31,042 - INFO - Will connect to udp:127.0.0.1:14592
2025-06-05 11:45:36,053 - ERROR - No MAVLink heartbeat received, connection failed.

with this window (forever):

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Similar situation on other laptop, with Python installed with chocolatey, and manually added pymavlink.

(USB connection succeeds).

7

Can you try on a linux PC? I think this is a windows issue.

8

Ubuntu 22.04.

$ ardupilot_methodic_configurator --device udp:127.0.0.1:14592
...
2025-06-05 19:13:13,332 - INFO - Running version: 1.4.8 (git hash: )
2025-06-05 19:13:13,742 - INFO - Already running latest version.
2025-06-05 19:13:13,771 - INFO - Available connection ports are:
2025-06-05 19:13:13,771 - INFO - /dev/ttyS0 - ttyS0
2025-06-05 19:13:13,771 - INFO - /dev/ttyACM0 - VRC 2040 CDC HID - TinyUSB Serial
2025-06-05 19:13:13,771 - INFO - tcp:127.0.0.1:5760 - tcp:127.0.0.1:5760
2025-06-05 19:13:13,771 - INFO - udp:127.0.0.1:14550 - udp:127.0.0.1:14550
2025-06-05 19:13:13,772 - INFO - Will connect to udp:127.0.0.1:14592
Se está abriendo en una sesión de navegador existente.
2025-06-05 19:13:18,777 - ERROR - No MAVLink heartbeat received, connection failed.

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QGC connects on UDP 14592:

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9

Then please open a github issue describing the issue and linking to this conversation.

10

Perhaps: I tried on Ubuntu using udp:0.0.0.0:14592 and it worked (why in depth?), but same error on Windows.

11

See ardupilot_methodic_configurator\backend_flightcontroller.py file. That is the only file that uses that.

12

As said above, I have a Python installation on Windows based on chocolatey. So I first installed necessary modules so that:
mavproxy.py --master=udp:0.0.0.0:14592
succeeds, and after that:
ardupilot_methodic_configurator --device udp:0.0.0.0:14592
connected beautifully, loaded parameters, etc.

In may case: pymavlink mavproxy prompt_toolkit wxPython matplotlib