Software Installation

Installing the system is fairly straight forward. You need to start with a Raspberry-PI board that is up and running with ssh connection. Different versions of software can be found here

If you will connect a camera you need the “Video” package. If you are running 64 bit Bullseye - download this version , otherwise use the latest legacy version.

Steps

Make sure you have a Raspberry-PI board with Raspberry PI OS Lite (Legacy) installed on it, or you can enable legacy camera support on Bullseye-64. This is important to have access to camera if you choose to run Camera Module. In case of using Bullseye-64 then enable Legacy Camera using raspi-config.

Tip

If you are running Bullseye, use raspi-config to enable “Legacy Camera support”.

Open Drone-Engage WebSite and select “Download Application” .

login to your raspberry-pi board using the following commands:

ssh pi@raspberry_pi_ip_address

mkdir tmp
cd tmp
wget <FilePath>
unzip <File.zip>
chmod +x ./install_droneengage.sh

Now you need to start the installation process.

chmod +x ./install_droneengage.sh
./install_droneengage.sh

The above command will extract folder drone_engage that contains two applications. de_comm that is responsible for communicating with Drone Engage server via Internet, and de_mavlink that is responsible for communicating with your flight controller “FC” board. It will also ensure that these applications will be autorun so whenever you power up the board these applications will start.

Configuring Apps

During installation, the install script will allow to you edit mandatory fields. You can still config files easily using a text editor.

You can update your account in file ./drone_engage/de_comm/config.module.json you need to enter your email & Access Code. You may also name your vehicle.

nano ./drone_engage/de_comm/config.module.json

Update your connection to Flight Controller in file ./drone_engage/de_mavlink/config.module.json. You can choose a UDP connection to your board if you are using a Linux FCB such as OBAL or you can use serial connection using TX&RX pins.

for more information about this file de_comm config.module.json Configuration File

nano ./drone_engage/de_mavlink/config.module.json

for more information about this file de_mavlink Configuration File

Ready-Image

You can download a ready image on RPI-WZero2. It contains all modules included camera modules. PLease check this Drone Engage RPI-WZero2 Ready Image