Using QGC for mission planning for ultra light plane

QGroundControl Using QGroundControl
1

Hi All!

I am not a total newbie to QGC since using its derivative on my Yuneec H520 but new challenges made me to ask more experienced users for advice.

This year I am planning to map large area of the forest for environment monitoring purpose using Parrot Sequoia camera. Due to size of the area and limited access to certain parts of it, it would be reasonable to employ bigger bird than any drone to run the missions. There is an option to use ultra light plane for this purpose, so my question is whether it would be possible to modify QGC to allow plan the mission and later display flightpathts without having actual drone to send signals to the app?

From the input perspective I’d need only GPS data feed the to software, but since there would be no need for battery capacity information, telemetry etc. I’d like to ask whether it is possible at all? Can the app ignore most of the feeds and run anyways?

Thanks in advance for your voice!

2

If you build something that talks mavlink to QGC then theoretically yes.

3

Thanks Don.

Going further into the subject, can You tell me how far it would be possible to carve out the range of inputs fed to the application to run it at all? I tried to imagine what would be required to perform such mission and in fact (from the electronic hardware perspective) I’d need only tablet that will be attached somewhere to display the flight paths and plan the mission based on altitude, speed and sensor lenses specification. Would it be possible to use tablet GPS chip instead of one linked to Pixhawk?

4

You would be better off creating a Survey in QGC. Then export it to KML and the import it into Google Earth. Run Google Earth on a tablet and use that for flying.