To run the application, use Raspberry Pi Os (64 bit) with desktop. Make sure the SD card is new and formatted accordingly to the requirements (usually FAT32).

This might take up to 20-45 minutes to do this action.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Move to the Documents directory:

cd /home/pi/Documents

Then clone from github

git clone https://github.com/AvionCargo-UL/SkyAvionics.git

Very important note : Normally librairies need to be installed with PEP668 standards, which involve using sudo apt install python-*pythonpackage*. However, this implies that librairies need to be registered in the apt server, which is not always the case with smaller independant librairies like pymavlink. Since we can't go for virtual environnements because of picamera2 (see lower), we are constrained to use the global python installation. Hence, we need to use the --break-system-packages argument. This is something to be very careful about later on in the future, as packages that change may cause the system to crash.

pip install -r requirements.txt --break-system-packages
pip install -r dev-requirements.txt --break-system-packages

Librairies should be

opencv-python==4.10.0.84
opencv-contrib-python==4.10.0.84
pyYAML==6.0.2
numpy==1.24.2
dronekit==2.9.2
pymavlink==2.4.41
pyserial==3.5

The most critical dependencies are with numpy, opencv, and picamera. Please always use the latest stable version if you need to upgrade because of dependency errors. They will often come as en error message like

ValueError: numpy.dtype size changed, may indicate binary incompatibility. Expected 96 from C header, got 88 from PyObject.

This seems to be very precarious, as all apt dependencie are fragile and unstable. The whole system is built around the version installed with the os, and is the only version «certified» as stable.

For all the informations in details: https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/camera/picamera2-manual.pdf

As of mid-September 2022, Picamera2 is pre-installed in all Raspberry Pi OS images. You can update it with a full system update, or via the terminal with:

sudo apt install -y python3-picamera2

Verify a camera is available

rpicam-hello

Use Tx/Rx and Ground on the RPI and on the serial device.

Execute sudo raspi-config then go to interface options

Would you like a login shell to be accessible over serial? <no>

Would you like the serial port hardware to be enabled? <yes>

See the link to setup the RPI.

sudo nmcli device wifi hotspot ssid <hotspot name> password <hotspot password> ifname wlan0

Then get the UUID:

 nmcli connection

sudo nmcli connection modify <hotspot UUID> connection.autoconnect yes connection.autoconnect-priority 100

To keep a stable version of python, we were using pyenv.

The instructions below are explained in detail here: https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv?tab=readme-ov-file#a-getting-pyenv

However, picamera2 is not meant to be installed on a virtual environnement for that purpous. This is why this project does not use virtual environnements.

Always make sure python version is 3.11.

This guide provides steps to enable and configure the watchdog on your Raspberry Pi to ensure the system can automatically restart if it becomes unresponsive.

1. Enable Watchdog in the Config File

   • Open the Raspberry Pi configuration file to enable the watchdog:

     sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt

   • Add the following line:

     dtparam=watchdog=on

2. Install the Watchdog Package

   • Update your system and install the watchdog package:

     sudo apt-get update
     sudo apt-get install watchdog

3. Configure Watchdog Settings

   • Edit the watchdog configuration file:

     sudo nano /etc/watchdog.conf

   • Modify the file with these settings:

     watchdog-device = /dev/watchdog
     watchdog-timeout = 60
     max-load-1 = 24

4. Enable and Start Watchdog Service

   • Enable the watchdog service to start on boot and start it immediately:

     sudo systemctl enable watchdog
     sudo systemctl start watchdog

5. Check Watchdog Status

   • Verify that the watchdog service is running:

     sudo systemctl status watchdog