emlid / qgroundcontrol

Cross-platform ground control station for drones (Android, iOS, Mac OS, Linux, Windows)

QGroundControl Ground Control Station

Open Source Micro Air Vehicle Ground Control Station

The license terms are set in the COPYING.md file.

• Project: http://qgroundcontrol.com
• Files: http://github.com/mavlink/qgroundcontrol
• Credits: http://qgroundcontrol.org/credits

Obtaining source code

Source code for QGroundControl is kept on GitHub: https://github.com/mavlink/qgroundcontrol .

git clone --recursive https://github.com/mavlink/qgroundcontrol.git

Each time you pull new source to your repository you should run git submodule update to get the latest submodules as well. Since QGroundControl uses submodules, using the zip file for source download will not work. You must use git.

User Manual

See the manual.

Supported Builds

Native Builds

QGroundControl builds are supported for OSX, Linux, Windows, iOS and Android. QGroundControl uses Qt as its cross-platform support library and uses QtCreator as its default build environment.

OS	Requirements	with Edge Exts
OSX	OSX 10.7 or higher, 64 bit, clang compiler (IMPORTANT: XCode 8 requires a workaround described below)	tested
Ubuntu	64 bit, gcc-5 or higher	tested
Windows	Vista or higher, 32 bit, Visual Studio 2015 compiler	tested
iOS	8.0 and higher	not tested
Andoroid	Jelly Bean (4.1) and higher. Standard QGC is built against ndk version 19.	not tested

Install QT

You need to install Qt as described below instead of using pre-built packages from say, a Linux distribution, because QGroundControl needs access to private Qt headers.

• Download the Qt installer
• Make sure to install Qt version 5.9.3 and following frameworks:
  • QtRemoteObjects
  • QtScript
  • QtSpeech
  • QtNetworkAuth

• For Ubuntu: Set the downloaded file to executable using: chmod +x. Install to default location for use with ./qgroundcontrol-start.sh. If you install Qt to a non-default location you will need to modify qgroundcontrol-start.sh in order to run downloaded builds.
• For Windows: Make sure to install VS 2015 32 bit package.

Install additional packages

OS	Packages
Ubuntu	sudo apt-get install espeak libespeak-dev libudev-dev libsdl2-dev libblkid-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev liblzma-dev
OSX	brew install xz libusb

Windows

1. USB Driver to connect to Pixhawk/PX4Flow/3DR Radio

2. Download liblzma: extract it into the C:\liblzma directory

   • To link against liblzma.dll, you need to create an import library first. You need the lib command from MSVC and liblzma.def from C:\liblzma\doc. Here is command:

     lib /def:liblzma.def /out:liblzma.lib /machine:ix86

   • move liblzma.lib into the C:\liblzma\bin_i686

3. Download libusb: extract it into the C:\libusb directory

Building using Qt Creator

• Launch Qt Creator and open the qgroundcontrol.pro project.

• Select the appropriate kit for your needs:

  OS	Kit
  OSX	Desktop Qt 5.9.3 clang 64 bit
  Ubuntu	Desktop Qt 5.9.3 GCC bit
  Windows	Desktop Qt 5.9.3 MSVC2015 32bit

Note: iOS builds must be built using xCode, see doc. Use Qt Creator to generate the XCode project (Run Qmake from the context menu).

Vagrant

A Vagrantfile is provided to build QGroundControl using the Vagrant system. This will produce a native Linux build which can be run in the Vagrant Virtual Machine or on the host machine if it is compatible.

• Download Vagrant
• Install Vagrant
• From the root directory of the QGroundControl repository run "vagrant up"
• To use the graphical environment run "vagrant reload"

Additional build notes for all supported OS

• Warnings as Errors: Specifying CONFIG+=WarningsAsErrorsOn will turn all warnings into errors which breaks the build. If you are working on a pull request you plan to submit to github for consideration, you should always run with this setting turned on, since it is required for all pull requests. NOTE: Putting this line into a file called "user_config.pri" in the top-level directory (same directory as qgroundcontrol.pro) will set this flag on all builds without interfering with the GIT history.
• Parallel builds: For non Windows builds, you can use the '-j#' option to run parellel builds.
• Location of built files: Individual build file results can be found in the build_debug or build_release directories. The built executable can be found in the debug or release directory.
• If you get this error when running qgroundcontrol: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6: version 'GLIBCXX_3.4.20' not found. You need to either update to the latest gcc, or install the latest libstdc++.6 using: sudo apt-get install libstdc++6.

Additional functionality

QGroundControl has functionality that is dependent on the operating system and libraries installed by the user. The following sections describe these features, their dependencies, and how to disable/alter them during the build process. These features can be forcibly enabled/disabled by specifying additional values to qmake.

Opal-RT's RT-LAB simulator

Integration with Opal-RT's RT-LAB simulator can be enabled on Windows by installing RT-LAB 7.2.4. This allows vehicles to be simulated in RT-LAB and communicate directly with QGC on the same computer as if the UAS was actually deployed. This support is enabled by default once the requisite RT-LAB software is installed. Disabling this can be done by adding DEFINES+=DISABLE_RTLAB to qmake.

XBee support

QGroundControl can talk to XBee wireless devices using their proprietary protocol directly on Windows and Linux platforms. This support is not necessary if you're not using XBee devices or aren't using their proprietary protocol. On Windows, the necessary dependencies are included in this repository and no additional steps are required. For Linux, change to the libs/thirdParty/libxbee folder and run make;sudo make install to install libxbee on your system (uninstalling can be done with a sudo make uninstall). qmake will automatically detect the library on Linux, so no other work is necessary.

To disable XBee support you may add DEFINES+=DISABLE_XBEE to qmake.

Video Streaming

Check the Video Streaming directory for further instructions.