QGroundControl Autoconnect when on same network with VOXL SDK

Sam Kiley

We have the Qualcomm RB5 flight drone and when it had the RB5 SDK, we would connect to the drone automatically with qgroundcontrol when that qgc device was on the same network. After updating to VOXL SDK for other reasons, I have to either enter the qgc IP or connect via the qgc app in comm links. for my scenario, I cannot guarantee a static IP of the drone, even with staticip service, so I would like the rb5 SDK functionality with autoconnecting. Is this possible?

Thanks

tom

@Sam-Kiley Are you consistently changing ground stations where setting the qgc_ip field is constantly changing?

What network interface are you using for your connection? We should be able to come up with a way for you to get a static IP

Sam Kiley

I'll be using a private 5G network, and I can't do static IP's for my devices, sadly. Maybe I didn't understood what the RB5 SDK was doing, but I am curious how, in some of the docs, it says that qgc will find the device if its on the same network. Is there a broadcast mode I can be in, since my network will be secure?

Eric Katzfey

@Sam-Kiley When on public 3G / 4G / 5G networks we use a VPN and assign fixed addresses to each system component with our VPN configuration. You should be able to do a similar thing with your 5G private network. Does your private network have a connection to the Internet or is it self contained? I don't know anything about 5G private networks but I'd be surprised if it didn't have a way to assign the same IP address to a device on the network so that you effectively have a static IP. Earlier versions of the RB5 SDK set the MAV_BROADCAST parameter in PX4 to 1 and PX4 would then use the network broadcast address to send out it's initial messages. Any QGC instance running on the network will receive that broadcast and respond so that you get automatic connection. However, this can be problematic if there are more than one instance of QGC running since you may connect to an instance that you don't want. Also, some wireless networks do not support broadcast.