INAV Configurator

INAV Configurator is a cross-platform configuration tool for the INAV flight control system.

It runs as an app within Google Chrome and allows you to configure the INAV software running on any supported INAV target.

Various types of aircraft are supported by the tool and by INAV, e.g. quadcopters, hexacopters, octocopters, and fixed-wing aircraft.

Support

INAV Configurator comes as is, without any warranty and support from the authors. If you find a bug, please create an issue on GitHub.

The GitHub issue tracker is reserved for bugs and other technical problems. If you do not know how to set up everything, the hardware is not working, or you have any other support problem, please consult:

• INAV Discord Server
• INAV Official on Facebook
• RC Groups Support
• INAV Official on Telegram

INAV Configurator starts minimized, what should I do?

You have to remove the C:\Users%Your_UserName%\AppData\Local\inav-configurator folder and all its content.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMoULyiFDp4

Alternatively, on Windows with PowerShell, you can use the post_install_cleanup.ps1 script that will do the cleaning. (thank you, James Cherrill)

Installation

Depending on the target operating system, INAV Configurator is distributed as a standalone application or Chrome App.

Windows

1. Visit release page
2. Download Configurator for Windows platform (win32 or win64 is present)
3. Extract ZIP archive
4. Run the INAV Configurator app from the unpacked folder
5. Configurator is not signed, so you have to allow Windows to run untrusted applications. There might be a monit for it during the first run

Linux

1. Visit release page
2. Download Configurator for Linux platform (linux32 and linux64 are present)
   • .rpm is the Fedora installation file. Just download and install using sudo dnf localinstall /path/to/INAV-Configurator_linux64-x.y.z-x86_64.rpm or open it with a package manager (e.g. via Files)
   • .deb is the Debian/Ubuntu installation file. Just download and install using sudo apt install /path/to/INAV-Configurator_linux64_x.y.z.deb or open it with a package manager (e.g. via the File Manager)
   • .tar.gz is a universal archive. Download and continue with these instructions to install
3. Change to the directory containing the downloaded tar.gz file
4. download this file to the same directory. Its filename should be inav-configurator.desktop.
5. Extract tar.gz archive

tar -C /tmp/ -xf INAV-Configurator_linuxNN_x.y.z.tar.gz

NN is the bits of your OS. x.y.z is the INAV Configurator version number.

6. If this is the first time installing INAV Configurator, create a home for its files

sudo mkdir /opt/inav
sudo chown $USER /opt/inav

7. Move the temporary files into their home

mv /tmp/INAV\ Configurator /opt/inav/inav-configurator

8. Update the application icon.

sudo mkdir /opt/inav/inav-configurator/icon
sudo cp /opt/inav/inav-configurator/images/inav_icon_128.png /opt/inav/inav-configurator/icon

9. As a one-off, move the desktop file into the applications directory

sudo mv inav-configurator.desktop /usr/share/applications/

10. Make the following files executable:

• inav-configurator chmod +x /opt/inav/inav-configurator/inav-configurator
• (5.0.0+) chrome_crashpad_handler chmod +x /opt/inav/inav-configurator/chrome_crashpad_handler

11. Run the INAV Configurator app from the unpacked folder /opt/inav/inav-configurator/inav-configurator

Notes

On some Linux distros, you may be missing libatomic and/or NW.JS (especially libnode.so) dependencies. If so, please install libatomic using your distro's package manager, e.g:

• Arch Linux: sudo pacman -S --needed libatomic_ops
• Debian / Ubuntu: sudo apt install libatomic1
• Fedora: sudo dnf install libatomic

1. Don't forget to add your user to the dialout group "sudo usermod -aG dialout YOUR_USERNAME" for serial access
2. If you have 3D model animation problems, enable "Override software rendering list" in Chrome flags chrome://flags/#ignore-gpu-blacklist

Mac

1. Visit release page
2. Download Configurator for the Mac platform
3. Extract ZIP archive
4. Run INAV Configurator

Building and running INAV Configurator locally (for development)

For local development, the node.js build system is used.

1. Install node.js
2. From the project folder run npm install
3. To build the JS and CSS files and start the configurator:
   • With NW.js: Run npm start.
   • With Chrome: Run npm run gulp. Then open chrome://extensions, enable the Developer mode, click on the Load unpacked extension... button, and select the inav-configurator directory.

Other tasks are also defined in gulpfile.js. To run a task, use node ./node_modules/gulp/bin/gulp.js task-name. Available ones are:

• build: Generate JS and CSS output files used by the configurator from their sources. It must be run whenever changes are made to any .js or .css files in order to have those changes appear in the configurator. If new files are added, they must be included in gulpfile.js. See the comments at the top of gulpfile.js to learn how to do so. See also the watch task.
• watch: Watch JS and CSS sources for changes and run the build task whenever they're edited.
• dist: Create a distribution of the app (valid for packaging both as a Chrome app or NW.js app) in the ./dist/ directory.
• release: Create NW.js apps for each supported platform (win32, osx64 and linux64) in the ./apps directory. Running this task on macOS or Linux requires Wine since it's needed to set the icon for the Windows app. If you don't have Wine installed, you can create a release by running the release-only-Linux task.
  --installer argument can be added to build installers for a particular OS. NOTE: MacOS Installer can be built with MacOS only.

To build a specific release, use the command release --platform="win64" for example.

Running with debug | Inspector

To be able to open Inspector, you will need SDK flavours of NW.js

npm install [email protected] --nwjs_build_type=sdk

Different map providers

INAV Configurator 2.1 allows you to choose between OpenStreetMap, Bing Maps (Aerial View), and MapProxy map providers. INAV Configurator is shipped WITHOUT API key for Bing Maps. That means: every user who wants to use Bing Maps has to create their own account, agree to all Terms and Conditions required by Bing Maps, and configure INAV Configurator by himself.

How to choose a Map provider

1. Click Settings icon in the top-right corner of INAV Configurator
2. Choose a provider: OpenStreetMap, Bing, or MapProxy
3. In the case of Bing Maps, you have to provide your own, personal, generated by you, Bing Maps API key
4. For MapProxy, you need to provide a server URL and layer name to be used

How to get the Bing Maps API key

1. Go to the Bing Maps Dev Center at https://www.bingmapsportal.com/.
   • If you have a Bing Maps account, sign in with the Microsoft account that you used to create the account or create a new one. For new accounts, follow the instructions in Creating a Bing Maps Account.
2. Select My keys under My Account.
3. Select the option to create a new key.
4. Provide the following information to create a key:
   1. Application name: Required. The name of the application.
   2. Application URL: The URL of the application. This is an optional field that is useful in helping you remember the purpose of that key in the future.
   3. Key type: Required. Select the key type that you want to create. You can find descriptions of key and application types here.
   4. Application type: Required. Select the application type that best represents the application that will use this key. You can find descriptions of key and application types here.
5. Click the Create button. The new key is displayed in the list of available keys. Use this key to authenticate your Bing Maps application as described in the documentation for the Bing Maps API you are using.

How to set up a MapProxy server for offline caching and mission planning

1. Follow the process described in MAPPROXY.md
2. Test your MapProxy server in a web browser, eg: http://192.168.145.20/inavmapproxy/
3. Once you have a working MapProxy server choose MapProxy as your map provider
   1. Enter MapProxy service URL, eg: http://192.168.145.20/inavmapproxy/service?
   2. Enter MapProxy service layer (inav_layer if configured from MAPPROXY.md)
4. Once completed, you can zoom in on the area you will be flying in while connected to the internet in either the GPS or Mission Control tab to save the cache for offline use

Font Customisation

INAV provides the font images so that custom fonts can be created for your personal preference. This is the case for both analogue and digital fonts. The resources can be found in the osd folder. Within the analogue and digital subfolders, you will find information on compiling your own fonts. There is also an INAV Character Map document. This contains previews of all the character images in the fonts and the appropriate variable names within the firmware and Configurator. There are tools for compiling the analogue and digital fonts. New font submissions via pull requests are welcome.

Notes

WebGL

Make sure Settings -> System -> "User hardware acceleration when available" is checked to achieve the best performance

Issue trackers

For INAV configurator issues raise them here

https://github.com/iNavFlight/inav-configurator/issues

For INAV firmware issues, raise them here

https://github.com/iNavFlight/inav/issues

Developers

We accept clean and reasonable patches, submit them!