Use Pixracer and GPS as a stand alone position measurement device

ArduPlane Plane 4.4
1

I fly RC planes at a flying field that is surrounded by trees and other unforgiving terrain. I fly over the open area of the field most of the time, but know that I must fly past the tree line during certain maneuvers and during longer landing approaches.

I want to use the FC/GPS as a stand-alone device to record the GPS position, but not to control the plane in any way. I would temporarily install the FC/GPS in the cabin of my regular RC plane for the GPS recording flight test.

Is there a simple way to set up the Pixracer and GPS to record the position during the flight? I do not need to convey telemetry remotely in real time to a ground station.

Can the FC be configured to just “turn on” GPS recording when powered up?

After the flight I would download the logs from the FC and review the GPS data on Mission Planner.

Thanks,

Paul

2

That’s easy. You only have to set LOG_DISARMED to 1, then logging starts after connecting to a battery. Setting GPS_GNSS_MODE to 71 may be useful to have more sats.

3

Thank Joerg,

I tried it and it works, but I realized that it only logs the dataflash logs, and not the telemetry logs. Makes sense since it is not conveying telemetry.

I want the telemetry GPS data so I can see the airplane’s position on the Mission Planner map.

Thanks again,

Paul

4

Try viewing the dataflash log with “UAV LogViewer”.
It will show you the flight path in 3D and it has many other useful capabilities:
https://ardupilot.org/planner/docs/common-uavlogviewer.html?highlight=log+viewer

5

Thank you Mark, Paul