CHANGELOG.md

Changelog

All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.

The format is based on Keep a Changelog, and this project adheres to Semantic Versioning.

[Unreleased]

Added

• Added the total number of UAVs in the UAV status summary header widget.

• Added a new panel for monitoring and controlling one specific drone and its devices.

• The RTK corrections dialog now shows which of the RTK messages are being forwarded to the drones, assuming that the server sends this information.

• Show start can now be authorized automatically when setting the start time.

• The UAV list and the UAV details dialog now show the RSSI (signal strength) of each drone if the server provides this information. Thanks to @mwls-sean for implementing the first version of this feature!

• When loading a show, we now validate the minimum distance between takeoff positions and the minimum distance between landing positions. An error will be shown if any pair of takeoff positions or any pair of landing positions are too close to each other.

• Make the "Flash lights" button latchable by holding Shift while activating it.

Changed

• When setting the start time based on a time offset from the current time, the offset is now taken into account when the "Set start time" button is pressed. For instance, selecting "+30s" in the suggestions box will now start the show 30 seconds after the time when the "Set start time" button was pressed, not 30 seconds after the time when the "+30s" button was pressed.

Fixed

• Fixed an issue with degenerate geofences consisting of one or two points only.

• Fixed a bug in handling UAV-SLEEP messages targeting multiple drones.

• Fixed a bug in the automatic coordinate system fitting algorithm when some UAVs did not have a GPS fix yet.

Miscellaneous

• Performance optimizations.

[2.8.0] - 2023-10-30

Added

• Added a new "Field notes" panel to the sidebar that can be used to jot down quick notes without having to leave Skybrush Live.

• Added a way to switch the selected UAV in the UAV Details Dialog by clicking the avatar at the top of the sidebar.

• Drawing operations can now be aborted with the Escape button.

• Desired takeoff headings for the UAVs before a show can now be different from the orientation of the X axis during a show, allowing for more flexibility in the placement of the GCS and the operator when preparing for a show.

• The UAV details panel now has a "Logs" tab that you can use to download log files from the UAV if the server knows how to fetch the logs.

Changed

• The Delete hotkey now removes the selected features as well.

Fixed

• Fixed minor issues with scrolling the Field notes panel; the size of the panel was slightly larger than its container so the last line was not visible at the bottom of the panel. This is working correctly now.

[2.7.2] - 2023-04-22

Fixed

• Fixed an issue with the "Onboard preflight checks" dialog that resulted in drones in the "On ground with motors off" state appeared incorrectly in the error list.

[2.7.1] - 2023-04-21

Added

• Enable multi-window support by making panels detachable from the main layout.

• Static image layer with adjustable latitude, longitude, heading and scaling.

• You can now cut holes into polygons and add a label that measures the area of the polygon.

• Error messages provided by the server during a failed upload are now shown in tooltips when hovering over the corresponding upload status pill of the UAV in the upload dialog.

• UAVs now support the new "sleep state" status code introduced in Skybrush Server 2.10.0.

• Support for handling true AGL (Above Ground Level) data.

• Added support for accelerometer calibration from the UI if the server also supports this operation for the particular UAV type.

• Added a new clock in the Clocks panel that shows the number of seconds until the end of the current show being managed by Live. This clock appears only if the server is updated to version 2.12.1 or later.

• The version number of the server is now shown in the popover of the connection widget in the header.

Changed

• The Electron based packaged version now uses a TCP socket to communicate with the server instead of the WebSocket connection used in the browser.

• The INACTIVE warning in the UAV list or grid view has been renamed to NO TELEM to make it clear that this status means that we have not received telemetry data from the UAV for a while.

• Motor tests now require confirmation on the user interface.

Fixed

• Fixed some cases in which the pending UAV ID overlay could remain on the screen without timing out.

• Corrected the previously misnamed occurrences of AGL to AHL. (Above Ground Level -> Above Home Level)

[2.6.0] - 2022-10-20

Added

• UAV trajectories shown on the map now have arrowheads at the start and end coordinates.

Fixed

• Empty mission slots can now be selected and the map view will show the corresponding trajectory even if no drone is assigned to the slot yet.

[2.5.0] - 2022-09-05

Added

• During the show upload process, you can now flash the LED lights of the drones automatically upon an upload failure. This feature, combined with the automatic retry feature, is helpful in identifying drones on the field that are struggling with the show upload due to poor wifi reception.

Changed

• The maximum zoom level of the map view is now limited to zoom level 24 to prevent the app from zooming in way too closely to a single drone when the "Fit to drones" button is pressed with a single drone only.

• Implemented several tweaks to the automatic show coordinate system fitting algorithm to make it work better in real situations on the field.

• The "Clear current fence" button in the "Setup geofence" dialog now also removes the fence polygon from the map instead of simply converting it to an ordinary polygon.

• The broadcast switch was moved from the UAV toolbar to the header and now it can also be triggered with a hotkey (Ctrl-B on Windows and Linux, Cmd-B on macOS).

• The graticule layer (the latitude-longitude grid overlaid on top of the map) now adjusts itself to the preferred coordinate format; in other words, if Skybrush is configured to show latitudes and longitudes using degrees, minutes and seconds, then the graticule itself will also try to ensure that the lines align with whole degrees, minutes and seconds.

Fixed

• Fixed a bug where the RTK correction message age counters were not updated correctly.

[2.4.1] - 2022-07-30

Fixed

• Fixed incorrect validation of the longitude field in the location editor dialog box.

• Show file change detection (only available in the desktop version) now works even while the "Show control" panel is not active.

[2.4.0] - 2022-07-21

Added

• The contrast of the LCD clocks can now be enhanced in dark mode by hiding the inactive segments.

• Experimental: the show coordinate system can now be fitted automatically to the current positions of the drones, i.e. there is no need to align the takeoff positions of the drones with the current positions before takeoff. The feature is experimental because we did not test all corner cases yet, but it should behave correctly for everyday cases when most of the drones are laid out on the launch pad according to the takeoff formation.

Changed

• When rotating the convex hull of the show using mouse gestures, the origin of the rotation is now the center of the takeoff area instead of the center of the entire convex hull.

Fixed

• Fixed a crash of the weather widget in the header when the map was scrolled to a coordinate with no sunrise and no sunset on the current day.

• The UAV list now remembers its scroll position when switching to/from the mapping editor mode.

[2.3.0] - 2022-06-26

Added

• Start time of the show can now be specified in terms of a MIDI timecode if the server supports MIDI clocks. (Pro edition only).

Fixed

• Fixed enforced limits on the maximum allowed size of a parameter file being uploaded to multiple drones. Before this fix, a dialog box was displayed with a warning if the size was over the limit, but the app still attempted to process the file.

[2.2.0] - 2022-06-09

Added

• The Messages panel in the UAV details dialog now shows timestamps for incoming messages. In order not to clutter the display, timestamps are shown only for the first entry and any entry where the minute of the timestamp is different from the previous one.

• You can now provide your own API keys to access Mapbox and Maptiler tile services. In the absence of an API key, Skybrush Live falls back to using an API key that is shared between all users of Skybrush Live. No guarantees are made regarding the availability of map tiles with the shared API keys, so you are advised to register your own API key to ensure access to map tiles from these providers.

• Skybrush Server users with the offline maps extension can now benefit from server-side cached map tiles, which are extremely useful when you are running field tests without Internet access. All it takes is to load the map of the test area from Skybrush Live with the cache enabled and zooming in and out a bit to cover all zoom levels; the server will then remember the downloaded tiles and serve them to you even if you have no Internet access. Note that the server-side caching is not available in the community edition of the server; you will need one of the premium editions.

Fixed

• The orientation of the show can now be adjusted by rotating the convex hull of the show on the map view. To rotate the convex hull, select it, hold down the Alt key (Option on macOS), press the mouse button and drag the mouse. Before this fix, moving the convex hull worked but it was unresponsive to rotations. The rotation gesture is also more intuitive now.

[2.1.0] - 2022-05-27

Added

• Added buttons in the UAV toolbar for remote power-on and sleep commands for UAVs that support it. Contact us if you would like to add support for your drone.

• Added a broadcast switch to the UAV toolbar. Toggling the switch will broadcast commands to all UAVs for the next five seconds before returning to normal mode. This is useful for waking up an entire drone swarm with broadcast power-on commands.

• The preferred geofence action can now be configured in the "Setup geofence" dialog box.

[2.0.0] - 2022-05-02

The source code of Skybrush Live is now licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 3 or later. You can find the source code on our Github account at https://github.com/skybrush-io

The version number was bumped to 2.0.0 to clearly indicate which versions are licensed under the GNU GPLv3. There are no breaking changes in this version.

Added

• The light control panel now contains buttons for setting the LED lights of the drones to 25% or 50% of full brightness.

• Added handling of new warning code in server that is emitted when a UAV is outside the geofence while on the ground.

Changed

• The application is now licensed as GNU GPL v3 or later.

Fixed

• Fixed a crash that happened when adding a UAV trace layer to the map.

• The state of the "Retry failed uploads" checkbox is now saved properly again when the application exits.

• Fixed the termination of the server process on macOS when the server is launched automatically by Skybrush Live.

• Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented workbench panels from being rendered correctly when they were freshly dragged off from the sidebar.

[1.27.2] - 2021-03-23

Fixed

• Fixed a rare crash that happened when selecting a group of UAVs with the popup of the status summary widget if the group has just become empty in the previous frame.

• UAVs marked as gone are now updated on the map correctly when the UAVs layer is removed and then re-added.

[1.27.1] - 2021-03-16

Fixed

• OpenStreetMap tiles are now pulled from our own servers to ease the load on the OpenStreetMap tile servers.

[1.27.0] - 2021-03-14

Added

• Parameters can now be imported from a Mission Planner compatible parameters file in the parameter upload dialog.

• The map and the 3D views now show a tooltip with the most important information about the status of a UAV when hovering over one of them.

• UAVs on the map view now show a yellow or red dot if they are in a warning or error state.

• Double-clicking on a UAV now opens the UAV details dialog.

• Added a new graticule layer type that shows a latitude-longitude grid on top of the map. The new layer is added automatically after a fresh install; for existing installations, you need to add it manually in the Layers panel. Typically, the graticule layer should be placed above the base map layer but below everything else.

Fixed

• Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented the map origin from being moved by dragging it on the map (only when the Y axis was dragged).

[1.26.0] - 2021-01-19

Added

• Parameters can now be uploaded to multiple drones at the same time with a dedicated parameter upload dialog.

• Added filter that shows inactive drones only.

• The UAV list view can now also be sorted by clicking on the column headers.

[1.25.0] - 2021-12-29

Added

• The header now includes a button for audible notifications when a UAV goes into an error state. Clicking on the button while the alert is active will dismiss the alert; clicking it again will disable the audible notification.

• Clicking on a row in the popover of the UAV status summary header widget now selects all UAVs corresponding to the given row.

• Each row of the UAV status summary header widget now shows a counter with the exact number of UAVs corresponding to that row.

• The RTK status widget now shows a summary describing how many UAVs are in a given GPS fix state; this can be used to validate whether all UAVs are receiving RTK corrections.

• The weather info widget now shows the current planetary K index estimate if the server provides this information. The widget also shows a warning badge if the planetary K index is high.

• The weather info widget also shows the magnetic declination according to the IGRF13 model at the location where the map is focused at.

• Added a button in the toolbar of the 3D view that rotates the camera towards the center of the drone swarm.

• Added a new Beacons panel and a Beacons layer to the map view; this layer can show the beacons or points of interests configured in the server. For Skybrush server 1.27.0 and later, this layer will also show the position of the RTK base station if a base station was selected in Live.

• UAV lists are now sortable and filterable based on various criteria.

Changed

• UAV status summary header widget is now sorted by the severity of the items, in decreasing order.

• Distances in the hover tooltip of the map are now shown in kilometers, meters or centimeters, depending on their magnitude.

Fixed

• Removing a UAV with the trashcan icon from the UAV list now also removes it from the map.

• Fixed a bug in the UAV selection using drag boxes when the map view was rotated.

[1.24.3] - 2021-09-03

Added

• Added a header widget that shows the time of the next sunrise or sunset; useful for conducting test flights on airfields that are closed to air traffic after sunset until the next sunrise.

[1.24.0] - 2021-08-13

Added

• Added a color input text field (in hex notation) under the color picker in the Light control panel.

• You can now move faster in the 3D view by pressing Shift.

Changed

• The default filename for an exported mapping file now includes the show filename and the time when it was saved.

Fixed

• Keyboard navigation no longer interferes with the controls of the 3D view.

• When viewing an indoor show, a single square on the floor texture now represents 1 meter instead of 20 meters.

• Drones marked as "gone" in the UAV list are now considered "missing" in the "Setup takeoff area" dialog. Before this fix, only drones that were never seen or were explicitly removed from Skybrush Live were considered missing.

• Fixed a bug that prevented the system from recording two saved locations with the same name.

[1.23.0] - 2021-07-19

Added

• Ctrl-S (or Cmd-S on macOS) can now be used to toggle whether the UAV list should be sorted by IDs or mission IDs.

• UAVs can now be selected by typing its ID or mission ID and then pressing Enter.

• UAV lights can now be flashed by typing the ID or mission ID of the UAV and then pressing W.

• The mapping from mission IDs to UAV IDs can now be exported into a simple text file and it can also be read back later.

• You can now change the type of the altitude displayed in the altitude summary header widget from AMSL to AGL or local Z coordinate by clicking on the widget itself.

• When testing a large show with only a few drones, you can now choose to hide the empty (unassigned) slots from the UAV list to make the list shorter.

Fixed

• Altitude summary indicator now works for indoor UAVs as well. Note that it is not possible to mix indoor with outdoor UAVs; the altitude indicator will still show AMSL if there is at least one UAV that provides an AMSL altitude.

[1.22.0] - 2021-07-12

Added

• Basic keyboard navigation in the UAV list view.

• The UAV list view now shows both the UAV ID and the mission (show) specific ID of the UAV all the time.

• The "Setup environment" button in the "Show control" panel now indicates whether an outdoor show will be flown based on AMSL or AGL altitudes.

• The "flash lights" operation has been bound to the W hotkey for the selected drone.

• Added indicators in the header for showing the accuracy of the RTK survey (when reported by the base station) and the number of satellites for which RTK correction data is sent to the drones.

• Added a battery status indicator to the header that shows the average and the minimum battery voltage of the set of tracked drones.

• Added an altitude summary indicator to the header that shows the maximum and the minimum altitude of the set of tracked drones. This is useful to check whether the altitudes are consistent before takeoff.

• Inactive UAVs for which no status information has been received for a while can now be removed from the UAVs list by pressing the "Remove" button on the UAV toolbar. Pressing the button when nothing is selected will remove all UAVs marked as "gone" from the UAV list.

Changed

• Redesigned user interface for the upload dialog, with more detailed status information and the ability to (re)start the upload process on any of the drones simply by clicking on its indicator in the dialog.

• The menu bar is now hidden on Windows and Linux.

• Skybrush Live prevents the system from going to sleep automatically when it is connected to a server.

Fixed

• Fixed word wrapping and alignment issues in the RTK header button.

• The popup that appears when hovering over the UAV status summary lights in the header now distinguishes properly between low battery (yellow LOWBAT) and critically low battery (red LOWBAT) conditions.

• When the map view becomes visible, the drones for which we have received a telemetry update earlier are added to the map immediately, without waiting for the next telemetry update.

• Reloading a show from disk now works again.

[1.21.0] - 2021-05-10

This is the release that serves as a basis for changelog entries above. Refer to the commit logs for changes affecting this version and earlier versions.