cmavnode

MAVLink forwarding node written in C++

This program can forward packets between an arbitrary number of MAVLink connections. Supports UDP, and Serial.

Mavlink routing is done transparently. (cmavnode will not inject any packets) cmavnode treats each link equally unless specified otherwise, and does not differentiate between an autopilot and a groundstation.

Installing

• Clone the repository

• Update Git submodules

     git submodule update --init
  

• Install dependencies

     Ubuntu 14.04: sudo apt-get install libboost-all-dev cmake libconfig++ libreadline-dev
     Ubuntu 16.04: sudo apt-get install libboost-all-dev cmake libconfig++-dev libreadline-dev
     Debian Stretch: sudo apt-get install libboost-all-dev cmake libconfig++-dev libreadline-dev
  

• Build cmavnode

     mkdir build && cd build
     cmake ..
     make
     sudo make install
  

Usage

./cmavnode -f <pathtoconfigfile>

cmavnode is configured by a config file. This config file specifies the links you want (socket or serial) and allows you to dictate routing rules. Please see examples to see how this works.

Use -i to get an interactive shell, type help into the shell to list commands.

Config File

cmavnode uses a config file which defines the links it should create. Each link has several options, some of which are optional.

A link is defined by the following syntax

    [linkname]
        option1=.....
        option2=.....

Serial Port

This is the minimum configuration needed for a serial port

    [linkname]
        type=serial
        port=/dev/ttyUSB0
        baud=57600

By default hardware flow control (RTS,CTS) is disabled, to enable it use:

    flow_control=true

UDP

UDP can operate in different ways.

Fully Specified

The first simple way is to specify all the connection information, as follows.

    [linkname]
        type=socket
        targetip=127.0.0.1
        targetport=14553
        localport=14550

UDP Server

Specify only the localport. Cmavnode will lock onto the first endpoint that sends to it.

    [linkname]
        type=socket
        localport=14550

UDP Client

Specify only targetip and targetport, and the local port will be asigned by the kernel. If you don't specify target ip it will default to "localhost".

    [linkname]
        type=socket
        targetip=192.168.1.1
        targetport=14550

UDP Broadcast

Will broadcast to a specified broadcast address using a specified port. You can choose to bind on a specific ip rather than 0.0.0.0, this will only affect whether you receive from all interfaces. By default the link will broadcast to every device, until a device responds, then the link will stop broadcasting and turn into a normal udp socket with the device. (Like mavproxy does with udpbcast option) If you want to keep broadcasting and support connections to multiple devices, set bcastlock to false.

    [linkname]
        type=udpbcast
        bcastip=192.168.0.255
        bcastport=14553
        bcastlock=false #optional, default true
        bindip=192.168.0.30 #optional, default 0.0.0.0

Optional Flags

The following flags can be applied to any type of link and are optional

    sim_enable=true #enables simulation options
    sim_packet_loss=25 #simulates packet loss of 25% on this link (incoming and outgoing)
    output_only_from=1,2,3 #only sends packets from sysID's 1, 2, and 3 on this link
    reject_repeat_packets=true #enables detection and removal of duplicate packets from different links
    sik_radio=true #enable this to be able to see radio stats (rssi, noise etc) on the console interface
    sleep=true #dont output to this link unless packets have been recently received (reduce wasted traffic on LTE/Satcomm)
    filter=DROP:HEARTBEART #exclusive ouput message filter, dont output heartbeat packets on this link
    filter=ACCEPT:HEARTBEAT,GLOBAL_POSITION_INT #inclusive output message filter, only output heartbeat and global position int messages on this link

Licence

Cmavnode is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Cmavnode is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with Cmavnode. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.