Beginner here… I found the following in parameter documentation:
BRD_SAFETYENABLE: Enable use of safety arming switch
This controls the default state of the safety switch at startup. When set to 1 the safety switch will start in the safe state (flashing) at boot. When set to zero the safety switch will start in the unsafe state (solid) at startup. Note that if a safety switch is fitted the user can still control the safety state after startup using the switch. The safety state can also be controlled in software using a MAVLink message.
I think I understand most of this, but I would like to use Mission Planner to accomplish what is stated in the last line: “The safety state can also be controlled in software using a MAVLink message.”
But for the life of me I cannot figure out how to do this… I even thought maybe I could figure out a way to manually send a MAVlink message from MissionPlanner but I have no idea how to do this either. I googled and looked at the terminal tab, but when I hit connect in there all I got was a bunch of gobldey gook characters.
Any guidance would be much appreciated. Thank in advance!
I don’t think Mission Planner has implemented a way to change the state of the safety switch. I think MAVProxy (a more developer focused GCS) probably has. It will involve sending some sort of mavlink message but I’m not sure which one.
Our developer wiki has some information on adding support to ArduPilot for new mavlink messages but this is not really what you want because ArduPilot (the flight code) already supports the message (whatever it is).
So I installed MAVproxy and was able to manually issue the MAVlink command “arm safety[on/off]” to accomplish this. It’s interesting that Mission Planner does not allow for a way to do this… perhaps this should be a feature request or add-on for it? I would love to have it as an option in the Actions tab-any idea if this is something I can add myself?
And thanks for the reply-it was useful to know that Mission Planner does not have this capability but that MAVproxy probably does.
If you can manage to figure out how to make the change and then do a PR to mission planner there’s a decent chance that Michael Oborne would accept it. I can’t promise that of course, it’s his choice but he might. If not a button, then perhaps it could be added to that drop-down on the top-left of the actions tab. Surely that would be acceptable because it doesn’t get in the way.