Rpanion-Server

Rpanion-Server is an Open Source software package for a companion computer (such as the Raspberry Pi) that provides a web-based interface for configuring the network, telemetry (MAVLink) routing and logging from a connected flight controller.

Rpanion-Server can be run on any Linux-based operating system with node.js installed.

It includes:

  • Flight Controller telemetry forwarding
  • Network control - configurable Wifi and Ethernet
  • Video streaming
  • Telemetry log management
  • NTRIP streaming to flight controller

Rpanion-server is currently in beta. Bugs can be reported on Github.

Installation

Rpanion-server can be installed either via a disk image or from source.

Disk images

Disk images are an easy way to get started with Rpanion-server. Simply download the required image file (below), write it to an SD card, insert it into your companion computer (ie Raspberry Pi) and power it on.

Use Balena Etcher to write the images to SD card.

The available images are listed below.

Version Platform Date Created Link
0.10 Raspberry Pi 2, 3, 4, Zero2 29/09/2023 https://github.com/stephendade/Rpanion-server/releases/download/v0.10.0/Rpanion-Server-0.10.0-RasPiOS.img.xz
0.9 Raspberry Pi 2, 3, 4, Zero2 11/12/2022 https://github.com/stephendade/Rpanion-server/releases/download/v0.9.0/Rpanion-Server-0.9.0-RasPiOS.img.xz
0.8 Raspberry Pi 2, 3, 4, Zero2 20/12/2021 https://github.com/stephendade/Rpanion-server/releases/download/v0.8.0/Rpanion-Server-0.8.0-RasPiOS.img.xz
0.8 Raspberry Pi Zero1 20/12/2021 https://github.com/stephendade/Rpanion-server/releases/download/v0.8.0/Rpanion-Server-0.8.0-PiZero1-RasPiOS.img.xz
0.7 Raspberry Pi 2, 3, 4 15/11/2020 https://github.com/stephendade/Rpanion-server/releases/download/v0.7.0/Rpanion-Server-0.7.0-RasPiOS.img.xz
0.7 Raspberry Pi Zero 15/11/2020 https://github.com/stephendade/Rpanion-server/releases/download/v0.7.0/Rpanion-Server-0.7.0-PiZero-RasPiOS.img.xz
0.6 Raspberry Pi 2, 3, 4 17/06/2020 https://github.com/stephendade/Rpanion-server/releases/download/v0.6.0/Rpanion-Server-0.6.0-RasPiOS.img.xz
0.6 Raspberry Pi Zero 17/06/2020 https://github.com/stephendade/Rpanion-server/releases/download/v0.6.0/Rpanion-Server-0.6.0-PiZero-RasPiOS.img.xz
0.5 Raspberry Pi 2, 3, 4 09/02/2020 https://github.com/stephendade/Rpanion-server/releases/download/v0.5.0/Rpanion-Server-0.5.0-Raspian.img.xz
0.5 Raspberry Pi Zero 24/02/2020 https://github.com/stephendade/Rpanion-server/releases/download/v0.5.0/Rpanion-Server-0.5.0-PiZero-Raspian.img.xz
0.4 Raspberry Pi 3-4 02/12/2019 https://github.com/stephendade/Rpanion-server/releases/download/v0.4.0/Rpanion-Server-0.4.0-Raspian.img.xz
From Version 0.9 onwards, a disk image for the Raspberry Pi Zero (1) is not supplied. Users are encouraged to migrate to the Zero (2).

A changelog is available on Github

Source

If you wish to install Rpanion-server from source on an existing system, visit the Rpanion-server repository on Github: https://github.com/stephendade/Rpanion-server for details.

Using

Rpanion-server can connect with and manage the following hardware and services:

  • Mavlink-based Flight Controller (via UART or USB)
  • Camera (Raspberry Pi camera or USB webcam)
  • Wifi/Ethernet (integrated or USB devices)
  • VPN connections (Wireshark and Zerotier)
  • NTrip clients
  • Automatic upload of flight logs to cloud location

Once running, Rpanion-server will broadcast a Wifi hotspot (2.4 GHz only) with the SSID rpanion and password rpanion123. Note in the case of the Raspberry Pi 2, a USB Wifi adaptor will be required.

When connected to the Wifi hotspot, the Rpanion-server GUI is available as a website on http://10.0.2.100:3000. This allows the user to configure hardware settings.

For any advanced configuration, the Raspberry Pi's SSH is active, with the username pi and password raspberry.

Web interface

Each version of Rpanion-server has a user manual for the web interface:

  • software/rpanion-server.txt
  • Last modified: 2023/10/02 11:30
  • by stephen