impload - iNav Mission Plan uploader

Introduction

impload is a cross-platform command line application to upload missions in a number of formats to an INAV flight controller. "Alien" formats may also be converted to MW-XML. Supported formats include:

• MW XML mission files (as used by mwp, inav configurator, ezgui, mission planner for inav)
• apmplanner / qgroundcontrol mission files (qgc plan mission and survey at least (QPC or JSON).
• GPX files (tracks, routes, waypoints)
• KML, KMZ files
• Plain, simple CSV files
• mwp JSON mission files]
• inav cli wp stanzas

Serial devices and TCP are supported for upload / download to / from flight controllers.

Please see the user guide for more information.

YouTube Tutorial

$ impload --help
Usage of impload [options] command [files ...]
Options:
  -a int
    	Default altitude (m) (default 20)
  -b int
    	Baud rate (default 115200)
  -d string
    	Serial Device
  -fmt string
    	Output format (xml, json, md, cli, xml-ugly) (default "xml")
  -force-land
    	Adds RTH / Land for 'external' formats
  -force-rth
    	Adds RTH for 'external' formats
  -rebase string
    	rebase 1st WP to location (as lat,lon[,wpidx,segidx])
  -s float
    	Default speed (m/s)
  -v	Shows version
  -verbose
    	Verbose
  command:
	Action required (upload|download|store|restore|convert|test|clear|erase|multi[=n])

Device Name

impload supports the mwp device naming scheme:

• serial_device[@baudrate]
• tcp://host:port
• udp://remotehost:remote_port
• udp://local_host:local_port/remote_host:remote_port
• xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx (raw BT socket, Linux only)

The baud rate given as an extended device name is preferred to -b

For ESP8288 transparent serial over UDP (the recommended mode for ESP8266), the latter form is needed.

Device name examples:

/dev/ttyUSB0@57600
/dev/ttyACM0
COM17@115200
tcp://esp8266:23
udp://:14014/esp-air:14014
# both sides use port 14014, remote (FC) is esp-air, blank local name is understood as INADDR_ANY.
30:14:12:02:16:64

Use Cases

• Plan missions in apmplanner2 (QGC WPL 110 text files), upload (& save) to INAV
• Plan missions in qgroundcontrol (JSON plan files), upload (& save) to INAV
• Plan missions an any GPX creating GIS tool
• Plan mission in Google Earth, save as KML path, upload to the FC
• Convert "alien" formats to MW-XML.
• Move a mission to a new location

Install

Binaries in the Release area (FreeBSD, Linux, MacOS, Win32) if you don't want it build it locally.

Command summary

• upload : upload mission to FC volatile memory
• store : upload mission to FC volatile memory and stores in EEPROM
• download : downloads mission from FC volatile memory
• restore : restores mission from EEPROM to FC volatile memory and downloads the mission
• convert : converts alien formats to MW-XML (default), or the format defined by the -fmt option.
• test : tests communications with FC
• clear : clear mission in volatile RAM (specifically, uploads a mission with just a single RTH WP, which is always safe).
• erase : erases mission in EEPROM and clears mission in volatile RAM (specifically, uploads and stores a mission with just a single RTH WP, which is always safe).
• multi, multi=n : inav 4.0+; gets / sets the nav_wp_multi_mission_index value.

Examples

# Linux, detect serial device, test communications
# Linux tries /dev/ttyACM0 and /dev/ttyUSB0 (in that order)
$ ./impload test
2018/05/24 18:08:11 Using device /dev/ttyUSB0 115200
INAV v2.0.0 SPRACINGF3 (e7ca7944) API 2.2 "vtail"
Waypoints: 0 of 60, valid 0

# Linux, detect serial device and upload a apmplanner2 mission file
$ ./impload upload samples/qpc_0.txt
2018/05/24 18:09:10 Using device /dev/ttyUSB0 115200
INAV v2.0.0 SPRACINGF3 (e7ca7944) API 2.2 "vtail"
Waypoints: 0 of 60, valid 0
upload 12, save false
Waypoints: 12 of 60, valid 1

#
# Upload / store a GPX file
$ ./impload store samples/qpc_1_trk.gpx
2018/05/24 18:34:49 Using device /dev/ttyUSB0 115200
INAV v2.0.0 SPRACINGF3 (e7ca7944) API 2.2 "vtail"
Waypoints: 11 of 60, valid 1
upload 11, save true
Saved mission
Waypoints: 11 of 60, valid 1

# TCP ...
#
$ impload  -d tcp://localhost:4321 upload samples/qpc_1.mission
2018/09/18 18:57:08 Using device localhost 4321
INAV v2.1.0 SPRACINGF3 (a29bfbd1) API 2.2
Waypoints: 0 of 60, valid 0
upload 12, save false
Waypoints: 12 of 60, valid 1

$ impload  -d tcp://localhost:4321 download /tmp/m.mission
2018/09/18 19:08:30 Using device localhost 4321
INAV v2.1.0 SPRACINGF3 (a29bfbd1) API 2.2
Waypoints: 12 of 60, valid 1

# UDP ....
#
$ impload -d udp://:14014/esp-air:14014 test
2018/09/19 21:11:34 Using device udp://:14014/esp-air:14014
INAV v2.1.0 SPRACINGF3 (a29bfbd1) API 2.2
Waypoints: 12 of 60, valid 1

$ impload -d udp://:14014/esp-air:14014 download /tmp/m.mission
2018/09/19 21:11:46 Using device udp://:14014/esp-air:14014
INAV v2.1.0 SPRACINGF3 (a29bfbd1) API 2.2
Waypoints: 12 of 60, valid 1

> REM  Windows, needs a named device to be given
> impload -d COM17 upload samples/google-earth-mission.kml

# Conversion
$ impload convert g-earth.kmz example.mission
# Convert and relocate
impload -rebase  35.761000,140.378945 convert WP_test.mission  /tmp/wp-test-jp.mission

Build Instructions

Go infrastructure, unmodified source

go get github.com/stronnag/impload, binaries endup in go/bin, source in go/src/github.com/stronnag/impload. Requires go and git.

Local compilation (e.g for local modification)

git clone https://github.com/stronnag/impload

Files sources where ever you wish.

• Simplest: make (or make install)
• Windows (native): make nocgo (probably). You can also use the nocgo target on POSIX to generate a dynamically linked executable (vice the default static executable).

Note that you can cross-compile for any OS / architecture supported by Go using the GOOS and GOARCH environment variables, e.g for Win32 on Linux riscvs64:

$ uname -a
Linux jagular 5.15.2-cwt13 #2 SMP PREEMPT Thu Jun 1 14:42:43 +07 2023 riscv64 GNU/Linux
GOOS=windows GOARCH=386 make clean nocgo
rm -f impload
CGO_ENABLED=0  go build -trimpath -ldflags "-s -w -X \"main.GitCommit=0fa31fb / 2023-06-11\" -X \"main.GitTag=v5.161.652\""
$ file impload.exe
impload.exe: PE32 executable (console) Intel 80386 (stripped to external PDB), for MS Windows, 6 sections

Postscript

The author knows how to spell "implode".