Adding the virtual joysticks to the android app

[Mark718real]

Hello everyone, I am new at this. But I would like to add an opportunity to control the drone through the joysticks. Can I do it through the MAVSDK Java? And could someone tell the guideline of how should I implement it? What data should I work with?

[julianoes]

You can already do this for offboard mode.

However, if you want to use virtual sticks with a joystick (like it is possible with QGC) we need to add a plugin which sends MANUAL_CONTROL.

These are the steps to implement this:

1. Add the required API to https://github.com/mavlink/MAVSDK-Proto
2. Implement the C++ MAVLink part.
3. Use the auto-generation to generate this functionality for other languages such as Java.

Some of these things are quite new, so the the docs are a bit sparse. If you're interested we can try to guide you and try to write the docs as we go.

[JonasVautherin]

What Julian says ^.

If you are interested in adding the MANUAL_CONTROL message, I would see that in a plugin dedicated to the remote controller (maybe rc.proto?).

[Kutbip]

Hello everyone, I am exploring mavsdk with android. I want to control the drone with Joysticks. The flow of the application should be like this: Joysticks and RC transmitter connected with an Android device using USB. That sends commands to FMU to control the drone. Here, I have 2 questions:

1. How do I connect or detect multiple drones with USB transmission.
2. Do mavsdk supports different commands (like left, right, up, down) to control drones using Joysticks.

@JonasVautherin @julianoes

[JonasVautherin]

MAVSDK now has a manual_control plugin, that would do what you want. I think it is available in MAVSDK-Java (otherwise we would just need to update the generated code). Did you try it already?

[Kutbip]

I have tried to explore in MAVSDK-Java but didn't find the manual control. I can use system.getAction().land().subscribe(); (takeoff, return to launch). @JonasVautherin

[JonasVautherin]

So you're saying that you don't have system.getManualControl()? Are you on the latest version? :thinking:

[Kutbip]

So you're saying that you don't have system.getManualControl()? Are you on the latest version? 🤔

I am using 'io.mavsdk:mavsdk:0.5.1' and 'io.mavsdk:mavsdk-server:0.5.0' @JonasVautherin

How to connect multiple drones? to connect multiple drones is like to connect with multiple mavlink servers? I can create multiple drones from the QGroundControl app which I want to detect & connect the multiple drones using mavsdk.

[JonasVautherin]

Oh right, it is there, but not in the System helper yet. I need to change that. In the meantime, you can instantiate it separately. For instance:

    System drone = new System();
    ManualControl manualControl = new ManualControl();

Then you can use manualControl just like if it was drone.getManualControl(). Two notes:

• This is temporary, when I release 0.6.0, you'll be able to use drone.getManualControl() like for all other plugins.
• If you create your System with other arguments (e.g. new System(host, port)), you should use the same ones when you create the ManualControl plugin (i.e. new ManualControl(host, port)).

I hope this helps.

[JonasVautherin]

@Kutbip: I released 0.6.0, it will take a few hours before it is available on MavenCentral. I would be glad if you could try it and let me know if it works :pray:.

With this new version, drone.getManualControl() should just work.

[Kutbip]

@Kutbip: I released 0.6.0, it will take a few hours before it is available on MavenCentral. I would be glad if you could try it and let me know if it works 🙏.

With this new version, drone.getManualControl() should just work.

Great.. Now I can access system.getManualControl() Thanks @JonasVautherin

[JonasVautherin]

Awesome!