MAVLink Adapter

The MAVLink adapter connects to ArduPilot, PX4, and other MAVLink-speaking vehicles and streams decoded telemetry as Plexus metrics. It supports UDP, TCP, and serial connections.

Install

pip install plexus-agent[mavlink]

Basic Usage

from plexus import Plexus
from plexus.adapters import MAVLinkAdapter
 
px = Plexus(api_key="plx_xxx", source_id="drone-001")
adapter = MAVLinkAdapter(
    connection_string="udpin:0.0.0.0:14550",  # SITL or GCS
)
 
with adapter:
    while True:
        for metric in adapter.poll():
            px.send(metric.name, metric.value, tags=metric.tags)

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`connection_string`	str	`"udpin:0.0.0.0:14550"`	MAVLink connection string (see table below)
`baud`	int	`57600`	Serial baud rate (only for serial connections)
`source_system`	int	`255`	MAVLink system ID
`source_component`	int	`0`	MAVLink component ID
`dialect`	str	`"ardupilotmega"`	MAVLink dialect
`dialect_path`	str \| None	`None`	Path to custom dialect XML file
`include_messages`	list \| None	`None`	Whitelist of message types to process
`exclude_messages`	list \| None	`None`	Blacklist of message types to skip
`emit_raw`	bool	`False`	Emit raw message dictionaries as metrics
`emit_decoded`	bool	`True`	Emit decoded named metrics
`raw_prefix`	str	`"mavlink.raw"`	Metric name prefix for raw messages
`request_streams`	bool	`True`	Request data streams on connect
`stream_rate_hz`	int	`4`	Requested data stream rate in Hz
`source_id`	str \| None	`None`	Override source ID for metrics from this adapter

Connection Types

Format	Use Case	Example
`udpin:host:port`	Listen for UDP (from SITL or GCS)	`udpin:0.0.0.0:14550`
`udpout:host:port`	Send UDP to a target	`udpout:127.0.0.1:14551`
`tcp:host:port`	TCP client	`tcp:192.168.1.100:5760`
`tcpin:host:port`	TCP server (listen)	`tcpin:0.0.0.0:5760`
`/dev/ttyXXX`	Serial port (Linux)	`/dev/ttyACM0`
`COMx`	Serial port (Windows)	`COM3`

Decoded Metrics

The adapter automatically decodes MAVLink messages into named metrics, including attitude (roll, pitch, yaw), GPS position, battery status, airspeed, RC channels, and more.

See examples/mavlink_basic.py for more.

Next Steps

CAN Bus -- Read CAN bus data with DBC decoding
MQTT -- Bridge MQTT brokers to Plexus
CLI Reference -- Run adapters from the command line

MQTT Camera