Do any of you with more experience have any comments about the possibility of using Valves announced Steam Deck as a Mission Planner computer?
The Steam Deck is likely overkill for computational requirements of Mission Planner but the built in joysticks and buttons sure seem like they would be useful as input devices.
Dave2D and other tech YouTubers sure seem impressed with the specs of these devices.
I’m new to ArduPilot and I haven’t actually used Mission Planner to monitor an airborne vehicle yet. I may be missing some important information, but from what I’ve learned the Steam Deck seems like a great tool for UAV control.
My main concern about using the Steam Deck as a ground control station is the small screen size. The Steam Deck can drive external monitors but adding an extra monitor would negate much of the appeal of using the device.
Again, I’m curious what those of you with more experience have to say on this topic.
The only thing I would say that if Windows just recognizes this as a regular joystick then there will be a good amount of lag going from Windows --> Mission Planner --> Radio --> Aircraft. I have run joystick control via MP over 900MHz and it is a good second of delay or so.
But yeah - pair the guy with an external radio and it looks like a solid offering.
It seems to be on the MP/Telemetry end. There are some things you can do to improve latency like run down the rates of other info (open up the data stream) and out the radio in low latency mode. I haven’t played around with it lately - but I might give it a go and see if I can get it to a manageable latency. Definitely won’t be anywhere near RC update rates - but I’ll give it my best.
In case any of you are curious about this device, Linus of LTT was able to use one for a bit. I still think it looks like an interesting option for a ground station device.
I’m thinking of using it in a ground station kind of like this cool one. I’d use the Steam Deck instead of the Raspberry Pi. My tentative plan is to use a similar style of case to hold a battery, keyboard and largish monitor.
Years ago I used a microcontroller to interface a PlayStation 2 controller with a touchscreen and radio module.
I’m really hopeful the Steam Deck an be used as a controller for UAVs and other robotic contraptions. I’m really glad they are not locking the system down with proprietary software.
This thing is intersting.
I wonder if you could incorporate a 5.8ghz USB video receiver and maybe a telemetry enabled transmitter of some sort in a 3d printed case on the back.
I have a couple 5.8ghz USB receivers, they provide Video to the PC direct over USB.
The one Item I am not sure about is the transmitter system with telemetry. Not sure what device does that.
I notice that there is a docking unit for it. I imagine you could leverage the docking port for a Video receiver and TX unit. Something to watch for I think.
Couldn’t you use a normal Mavlink radio with USB?
As you say, they plan to make a docking unit but even without a docking unit a relatively high speed USB hub should allow multiple devices to be used at once.
I suspect that you could.
Like you say a USB hub and away you go. My thinking is more along the lines of an RFD900. IT has great range and performance while providing you will control and telemetry.
But basically its a USB Mavlink radio.
Years ago we had a drone fully set up with mission planner , rfd 900 connected to a Dell rugged with a Playstation type controller as joystick controller
There was definitely a lag but gimbal control and flight modes we programmed into the controller…
I believe some latency was the controller and rfd radio both pass through usb… I believe missionplanner will recognize the joy stick controls and steam deck has usb 3c to connect the rfd900x…
Also there is some info on Qground station and steam deck worth reading…
For video we have been using insights fpv…this uses a ground receiver that transmits video to wifi and displays in Q ground station or stand alone windows app
I opted for anti glare (most expensive)…
I understand struggles whether with gaming or other things…hopefully it will prove positive to work with it toward improving your uav
Im building a controller for a ardurover - lawnmower. Steamdeck looks like a nice mash of PC and RC controller (with a bit of work). I do rc PPMSUM and wifi telemetry over RFD900x’s no problem, so looking for a nice small Mission planner unit with at least 1 joystick. Has anyone got the steamdeck running mission planner - and useful in the field ??
pic for effect, i dont have one… does MP run on SteamOS etc ??
Steam OS is just Linux made to look pretty and run on a gaming tablet. No reason that Mission Planner wouldn’t run on it via the same methods that work for other Linux platforms.
But…that sounds like a nightmare to me. Nearly everyone runs into trouble trying to make it work on Linux, and running it on niche hardware sounds like a recipe for frustration.
It would certainly work without issue on something like a Surface Pro under Windows 10 or 11.
