Drone Telemetry Dashboard with MAVLink

Stream live flight data from any MAVLink-compatible vehicle — drones, rovers, fixed-wing aircraft — to a Plexus dashboard. See attitude, GPS, battery, and sensor data in real time.

What You'll Build

A flight monitoring dashboard with:

• Attitude — roll, pitch, yaw (with 3D attitude indicator)
• GPS — latitude, longitude, altitude, ground speed
• Battery — voltage, current, remaining percentage
• System — flight mode, armed status, heartbeat

What You Need

Works with any MAVLink connection: USB serial, UDP telemetry radio, TCP, or SITL simulator.

Step 1: Install the Agent

pip install plexus-agent[mavlink]

This installs the Plexus agent with the MAVLink adapter (pymavlink).

Step 2: Get Your API Key

1. Go to app.plexus.company (opens in a new tab)
2. Click Add Device
3. Copy the API key (starts with plx_)

Step 3: Identify Your Connection

Find how your flight controller is connected:

To test with ArduPilot SITL (no hardware needed):

# In a separate terminal, start SITL:
sim_vehicle.py -v ArduCopter --console --map
# This outputs on udp:127.0.0.1:14550 by default

Step 4: Start Streaming

plexus start --key plx_xxxxx --mavlink udpin:0.0.0.0:14550

Or for a USB-connected Pixhawk:

plexus start --key plx_xxxxx --mavlink /dev/ttyACM0:57600

You'll see telemetry flowing in the terminal:

Connected to MAVLink (ArduPilot ArduCopter 4.5.1)
System ID: 1  Component: 1

Streaming:
  attitude.roll     attitude.pitch    attitude.yaw
  gps.latitude      gps.longitude     gps.altitude
  gps.groundspeed   battery.voltage   battery.current
  battery.remaining heartbeat.mode    heartbeat.armed

Step 5: See Your Dashboard

Open app.plexus.company (opens in a new tab). Your device appears with all MAVLink metrics.

Recommended Dashboard Layout

Build a flight monitoring dashboard with these widgets:

Row 1 — Attitude & GPS

• Attitude Indicator — Shows aircraft orientation (roll/pitch/yaw)
• Line Chart — GPS altitude over time
• Line Chart — Ground speed

Row 2 — Battery & System

• Line Chart — Battery voltage and current
• Gauge — Battery remaining percentage
• Status — Flight mode and armed state

Row 3 — Raw Sensors

• Multi-series Line Chart — Accelerometer (accel_x, accel_y, accel_z)
• Multi-series Line Chart — Gyroscope data

Using the Python API Directly

For custom MAVLink processing or filtering specific messages:

from plexus import Plexus
from plexus.adapters import MAVLinkAdapter
 
px = Plexus(api_key="plx_xxxxx", source_id="drone-001")
 
adapter = MAVLinkAdapter(
    connection_string="udpin:0.0.0.0:14550",
    include_messages=["ATTITUDE", "GPS_RAW_INT", "SYS_STATUS"],
)
adapter.connect()
 
print(f"Connected: {adapter.vehicle_type}")
 
while True:
    for metric in adapter.poll():
        px.send(metric.name, metric.value, tags=metric.tags)

Recording Flight Sessions

Use sessions to group telemetry by flight:

# The agent creates sessions automatically when armed/disarmed,
# or you can control it from the dashboard
plexus run --key plx_xxxxx --mavlink udpin:0.0.0.0:14550 --name drone-001

Sessions let you:

• Compare flights side-by-side in the dashboard
• Replay telemetry from any past flight
• Export session data for post-flight analysis

MAVLink Messages Decoded

The adapter automatically decodes these MAVLink messages:

Additional messages are decoded automatically — any MAVLink message with numeric fields becomes a Plexus metric.

Troubleshooting

"No heartbeat received" — Check your connection string. For serial, verify the baud rate matches your flight controller (usually 57600 or 115200). For UDP, ensure the port isn't blocked.

Missing GPS data — The flight controller only sends GPS data when a GPS module is connected and has a fix. Indoor testing may not produce GPS metrics.

High latency — Telemetry radios (SiK) have limited bandwidth. Reduce the streaming rate or filter to essential messages with --mavlink-filter ATTITUDE,GPS_RAW_INT,SYS_STATUS.

Next Steps

• CAN Bus Adapter — Monitor vehicle CAN networks
• Attitude Indicator UI — GPU-accelerated 3D attitude display
• 3D Model Viewer — Visualize vehicle orientation in 3D
• Session Recording — Control recording from the dashboard