Rpanion-Server 0.12.0 has been released, with a far easier install method, support for Ethernet flight controllers and PPP connections.
Rpanion-Server is an Open-Source software package designed to facilitate the management of companion computers (such as a Raspberry Pi or NVIDIA Jetson) on an ArduPilot-powered vehicle. It provides functions like MAVLink telemetry distribution, video streaming and network management, NTRIP streaming, flight log management, PPP connection management, and automatic flight log cloud uploads. It is designed to be simple and light-weight, and can be run on fairly low-end platforms.
This release includes the following major changes:
Support for Ethernet flight controllers
Support for PPP connections to flight controller
Usage of deb packaging for single-command install, instead of having to download the run the source code directly
More standardisation of GUI controls
Support for RTSP (IP) cameras
Large optimisations in video streaming, giving far lower latency (compared to previous versions).
Comprehensive documentation is available here, with pre-built disk images and deb packages on the Releases page.
The source code for Rpanion-Server is available on GitHub, where bug reports and Pull Requests are welcome.
This sounds really great! I’m definitely going to give it a try.
Does the PPP connection to the flight controller potentially mean that the RPI is taking the place of the BoxBlox DroneNet or CubeNode ETH? E.g. it acts as a serial<->ethernet adapter?
Hi @stephendade . I am trying to install the Rpanion server 0.12 image on a Raspberry pi 5, but I notice that the green LED is not solid and the rpanion wifi network does not appear. Do you have any recommendations or advice for installing it on a Rasp pi 5?
update: Solved. The issue was with my Rasp pi 5. I reset it to the factory settings, and it now works well with Rpanion server 0.12.
Last weekend I tested the setup using a CSI camera. Today I tried switching to an IP gimbal. Could you please suggest the recommended way to assign and configure the IP address for the IP gimbal?
I am using ZeroTier, however I cannot enter the network ID as shown in rpanion-server version 0.11. In my current setup, it shows Installed: No and Active: No, as in the screenshot below.
If the IP camera outputs a RTSP camera stream - on the “Video streaming” page you will need to select “RTSP” streaming mode and then input the URL to the camera stream.
Currently, I have a Viewpro gimbal connected to a Raspberry Pi 5 via Ethernet.
Viewpro gimbal IP: 192.168.144.119
Raspberry Pi 5 Ethernet IP: 192.168.144.100
My laptop is connected to the Raspberry Pi 5 via Wi-Fi.
With Viewlink, video can be viewed normally (the GUI software provided by Viewpro for viewing video from the gimbal) at rtsp://192.168.144.119:554/main.264
With Rpanion-server, I have also entered this RTSP URL into the Video Streaming tab (as shown in the images below), but the video does not open or display in VLC.
Could you please review the setup based on the screenshots and let me know if I am missing any steps or if there is something configured incorrectly?
However, when I do not use the wifi connection and instead connect via ZeroTier, I can no longer ping 192.168.144.119.
I am not very familiar with IP networking, so I am having some difficulty setting up the IP configuration correctly.These are the IP settings of the raspberry pi 5 that I am currently using.
I’m suspect there’s some issue with the Viewpro stream not being compatible with gstreamer on the RasPi. I’ve tested with a generic IP camera and it works fine.
Unfortunately I’ve not got a Viewpro camera for testing. I suspect there’s a setting somewhere in the Viewpro for a more compatible network stream … just may take some trial-and-error to figure it out.
