RC PWM joystick buttons override #10431

zdanek · 2022-09-22T14:50:52Z

This PR realizes #10430
Adds sending PWM values on Joystick press and release. Very useful.
Review would be appreciated :)

mrpollo · 2022-10-04T16:01:12Z

Hey @dagar / @bkueng can you please help me review this one?

src/AutoPilotPlugins/Common/RadioComponent.qml

fredowski · 2022-10-05T09:03:32Z

@zdanek : This breaks the regression?

zdanek · 2022-10-06T13:59:21Z

@fredowski fixed all issues with compiling and build

marshallwicker · 2022-10-12T13:00:07Z

I ran this version of QGroundControl with a Pixhawk 5x and Pixhawk 6c. Very useful feature for our confetti cannon trigger!

zdanek · 2022-10-12T13:24:11Z

I ran this version of QGroundControl with a Pixhawk 5x and Pixhawk 6c. Very useful feature for our confetti cannon trigger!

OMG @marshallwicker thank you for your support. Is there any chance to see a video with this cannon? :D
Can be privately with a link on my mail :)

dakejahl · 2022-10-12T21:19:09Z

Can you provide a little bit more info on how you tested? Hardware (CubeOrange / Pixhawk4 for example) and software (Ardupilot / PX4 and release version). I have some feedback I will leave a review but would like to be able to test as well I'm at it. Thanks for the contribution this seems like a really useful feature.

dakejahl · 2022-10-12T21:44:15Z

src/VehicleSetup/JoystickConfigButtons.qml

+                        QGCTextField {
+                            width:  ScreenTools.defaultFontPixelWidth * 10
+                            implicitHeight:     ScreenTools.implicitTextFieldHeight
+                            visible:                true
+                            validator: IntValidator { bottom:1000; top: 2000}
+
+                            Component.onCompleted: {
+                                if(_activeJoystick) {
+                                    text = parent._getButtonPwm(modelData, true)
+                                }
+                            }
+                            onEditingFinished: parent._setButtonPwm(modelData, true, text)


This text field needs to update when the channel selection changes. For example if you set it up for Channel 10, and then use the drop down to select Channel 11, the PWM values in "low" and "high" will not get applied but they still show up in the text fields. These text fields should reset to 0 when the channel selection changes.

marshallwicker · 2022-10-12T21:50:02Z

I ran this version of QGroundControl with a Pixhawk 5x and Pixhawk 6c. Very useful feature for our confetti cannon trigger!

OMG @marshallwicker thank you for your support. Is there any chance to see a video with this cannon? :D Can be privately with a link on my mail :)

I totally would, but it was just a proof of concept test on the bench to see if it would trigger our PWM switch (basically a pwm controlled relay). If I can find another confetti cannon, I’ll record it!

marshallwicker · 2022-10-12T21:52:08Z

Can you provide a little bit more info on how you tested? Hardware (CubeOrange / Pixhawk4 for example) and software (Ardupilot / PX4 and release version). I have some feedback I will leave a review but would like to be able to test as well I'm at it. Thanks for the contribution this seems like a really useful feature.

I tested on the Holybro Pixhawk 5x and Holybro Pixhawk 6c using PX4-Autopilot. I only tested one channel though! I will test further tomorrow.

dakejahl · 2022-10-12T21:55:03Z

src/Joystick/Joystick.cc

+    _assignableButtonActions.append(new AssignableButtonAction(this, _buttonActionEmergencyStop));
+
+    // TODO(bzd) take channel nos from config, especially max
+    for (int ch = 8; ch <= 16;ch++) {


Suggested change

for (int ch = 8; ch <= 16;ch++) {

for (int ch = 9; ch <= 16;ch++) {

Channels 1-8 are PWM MAIN

dakejahl · 2022-10-12T21:59:11Z

I tested on the Holybro Pixhawk 5x and Holybro Pixhawk 6c using PX4-Autopilot

Stupid question from me as I haven't used newer PX4 in a long time. I just got a Pixhawk 5X and am using PX4 1.13. I can enable FMU OUT channel 3 (PWM AUX 3) via QGC Actuators menu and control them via slider no problem, but this button feature isn't working. I have pre-arm mode set to always and I have even tested while armed with no success. I do see uORB rc_input update when I press the button so I know the messages are getting through, PX4 is just not acting on that data. And ideas?

marshallwicker · 2022-10-12T22:10:45Z

I tested on the Holybro Pixhawk 5x and Holybro Pixhawk 6c using PX4-Autopilot

Stupid question from me as I haven't used newer PX4 in a long time. I just got a Pixhawk 5X and am using PX4 1.13. I can enable FMU OUT channel 3 (PWM AUX 3) via QGC Actuators menu and control them via slider no problem, but this button feature isn't working. I have pre-arm mode set to always and I have even tested while armed with no success. I do see uORB rc_input update when I press the button so I know the messages are getting through, PX4 is just not acting on that data. And ideas?

I’m not sure, but I’ll check again tomorrow to see if I did anything out off the ordinary. I am building PX4 from master locally, but I haven’t changed my submodule for Mavlink, so I can’t see why that would be an issue.

zdanek · 2022-10-14T11:03:57Z

I tested on the Holybro Pixhawk 5x and Holybro Pixhawk 6c using PX4-Autopilot

Stupid question from me as I haven't used newer PX4 in a long time. I just got a Pixhawk 5X and am using PX4 1.13. I can enable FMU OUT channel 3 (PWM AUX 3) via QGC Actuators menu and control them via slider no problem, but this button feature isn't working. I have pre-arm mode set to always and I have even tested while armed with no success. I do see uORB rc_input update when I press the button so I know the messages are getting through, PX4 is just not acting on that data. And ideas?

@dakejahl I'm not sure is this related. The mechanism behind my feature it to use RC Override mavlink command to override RC channel value. I'm not sure how AUX channels work since I have only Pixhawk with Ardupilot.
Not sure if this is to be used / connected with AUX outputs. Joystick button press is translated to certain PWM value on RC channel (currently one of 8 to 16). That's all. I don't know if this is to be used with AUX output. Maybe you can explain it.

Thank you.

marshallwicker · 2022-10-14T13:33:32Z

After thinking about this further, this does feel like a bit of a workaround. Instead of directly assigning the outputs of the flight controller to a PWM output, I think we should find a way to map it to an actuator output (RC AUX 1-6) so it can be configured in the actuator menu. The computer joystick should be configured similar to an RC controller where the buttons become analog outputs and can be assigned to an RC AUX output.
I think this is a great solution, but it’s strongly coupled to flight controllers that have at least 16 outputs. To keep this abstract and follow the control scheme, we shouldn’t directly assign outputs to a high or low pwm value. We should just make them capable of transmitting on the RC Aux channels.

marshallwicker · 2022-10-14T15:13:40Z

Can you provide a little bit more info on how you tested? Hardware (CubeOrange / Pixhawk4 for example) and software (Ardupilot / PX4 and release version). I have some feedback I will leave a review but would like to be able to test as well I'm at it. Thanks for the contribution this seems like a really useful feature.

I tested on the Holybro Pixhawk 5x and Holybro Pixhawk 6c using PX4-Autopilot. I only tested one channel though! I will test further tomorrow.

Also after further review, I have discovered that it wasn't functioning on PX4. RC_OVERRIDE commands are only in ardupilot.

zdanek · 2022-10-14T20:29:17Z

Also after further review, I have discovered that it wasn't functioning on PX4. RC_OVERRIDE commands are only in ardupilot.

So it seems PX4 does not implement Mavlink standard message # 70
https://mavlink.io/en/messages/common.html#RC_CHANNELS_OVERRIDE

@marshallwicker I don't know PX4. Can you tell me is there any other mechanism I could use to pass (override) RC channel values?

dakejahl · 2022-10-14T22:11:09Z

It looks like MAV_CMD_DO_SET_SERVO will accomplish the same thing in Ardupilot. It is also not implemented in PX4. In fact I don't think there is any way in PX4 to allow the GCS to set an actuator output value outside of MAV_CMD_ACTUATOR_TEST

dakejahl · 2022-10-16T20:45:39Z

@junwoo091400 your input on this PR would be appreciated. I think this feature is useful but we need to find a way for it to work "properly" in both Ardupilot and PX4. Ardupilot does not have any of the ACTUATOR messages/commands in their mavlink fork and PX4 does not currently support setting servo endpoints (by any means) from the GCS using a Joystick.

Base changes to enable building and running QGC custom builds. QT build script are sufficient to run custom build but CMake scripts totally ignore all custom changes. There's lot of work to be done in matter of resources which I did not address at all in this commit.

Fix PWM input fields update

DonLakeFlyer · 2024-01-03T00:21:58Z

What's the state of this? Still doesn't seem to be ready.

zdanek · 2024-01-03T07:30:19Z

I did not push latest changes. I can rework this to Qt6 and in case of Ardupilot it's ready. For PX4 someone who knows it, should propose own solution, probably based on actuators or sth. But for Ardupilot it works nicely on real drones, as we're using it.

DonLakeFlyer · 2025-04-19T17:17:01Z

This has gotten super stale. I'm cleaning up stale Pulls for the 5.0 release. If nobody is working on this any more I"m gonna close it.

InnovativeUAVs · 2025-04-21T18:41:17Z

Apologies for barging in - I've landed here while trying to migrate our operation to QGC from MP. I'm learning QGC seems to lack support for Joystick buttons to servo functions. I see zdanek above has done some work here. I'm casting a vote that it's a really useful feature for those of us flying large ICE trad helis on Arducopter. So far, this limitation is the only thing preventing my move and I think my customers would prefer QGC UI.

DonLakeFlyer · 2025-04-21T19:28:22Z

You could post a bounty in the PX4 discord bounty channel to see if that would help anyone else picking this up.

zdanek · 2025-04-22T07:31:07Z

@InnovativeUAVs thanks for the vote. No one was interested in this feature. This works well in our fork. We tested it with a few drones used for SAR missions on military training ground. With PS3 / Xbox game pad works nice - steering drone and camera gimbal, issuing many different commands with buttons. Some buttons steer same channel, one button for low value if pressed, other for high and idle as 1500.

IMO I would not reject cool functionalities just because PX4 doesn't have some features yet. I would also make a demand for those in autopilot.
Ardupilot has some other missing features that are in PX4 and this did not block adding a feature that is natively supported by PX4 alone.

This was referenced Sep 22, 2022

[New Feature] Add PWM RC override under joystick buttons #10430

Open

Feature request - Add optional, configurable, on-screen buttons for aux servo control #6109

Open

zdanek force-pushed the joystick_chan_mapper branch from 785f4db to 4227fe3 Compare September 23, 2022 07:07

mrpollo reviewed Oct 4, 2022

View reviewed changes

src/AutoPilotPlugins/Common/RadioComponent.qml Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

zdanek force-pushed the joystick_chan_mapper branch from 4227fe3 to 1db81b9 Compare October 6, 2022 11:34

dakejahl reviewed Oct 12, 2022

View reviewed changes

zdanek force-pushed the joystick_chan_mapper branch 2 times, most recently from 76fa87e to e662fe9 Compare December 7, 2022 09:06

zdanek force-pushed the joystick_chan_mapper branch from cbc49b4 to fd44d8a Compare February 24, 2023 13:30

zdanek force-pushed the joystick_chan_mapper branch from fd44d8a to 4e1bc81 Compare March 16, 2023 15:02

zdanek added 3 commits August 4, 2023 13:46

Add Saving PWM values for button RC override

2cc3390

Working without saving and refresh gui

1b7ca68

zdanek added 7 commits August 4, 2023 13:52

Refactor PWM override to single joystick action class

b44de62

Add GUI react on action dropbox change

702bd06

Refactor for clearness

a1baf15

Add reseting PWM field values on button select combo change

7afaa5e

Add periodic RC override sending.

b02cd51

Fix PWM input fields update

Mix PWM buttons into single channel

49431b3

Multibutton channels

30dafd5

zdanek force-pushed the joystick_chan_mapper branch from 4e1bc81 to 30dafd5 Compare August 4, 2023 11:55

Cmake fix for compiling APMRemoteSupportComponent

99cbbbd

HTRamsey marked this pull request as draft April 12, 2024 12:42

Davidsastresas self-requested a review May 13, 2025 09:00

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RC PWM joystick buttons override #10431

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	for (int ch = 8; ch <= 16;ch++) {
	for (int ch = 9; ch <= 16;ch++) {

RC PWM joystick buttons override #10431

Are you sure you want to change the base?

RC PWM joystick buttons override #10431

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