Ability to name APM boards about ardupilot HOT 8 CLOSED

this is harder to do than you might think, as MAVLink doesn't support string parameters, and we don't have string parameter storage in APM.
We will fix this eventually, but it won't be soon!

from ardupilot.

What about using a pair of numbers then?

• owner / manufacturer ID
• owner's chosen number / manufacturer serial number

Owner's/manufacturers could be associated with a URL, and the URL could tell you how to interpret the chosen number (eg. resolve it to a name). For example, there might be a URL and numeric ID associated with accounts at DIYDrones.org, plus an interface that returns the URL given the account ID number.

Then, someone who cares about this feature could maintain a table at their URL mapping names to ids. Application code (e.g. GCS) could fetch the info when they need it, and fall back to using use the composite id {owner, number} if required (e.g. none of the other stuff is implemented yet).

from ardupilot.

Maybe using the following (common.xml) mavlink message:

<message id="7" name="AUTH_KEY">
    <description>Emit an encrypted signature / key identifying this system. PLEASE NOTE: This protocol has been kept simple, so transmitting the key requires an encrypted channel for true safety.</description>
    <field type="char[32]" name="key">key</field>
</message>

It would be great if each board had a unique serial number.

from ardupilot.

The problem isn't that the mavlink protocol doesn't support strings, but
rather that ArduPilot's parameter system, which stores values in EEPROM,
does not support strings.

On Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 2:16 PM, Arthur Benemann
[email protected]:

Maybe using the following (common.xml) mavlink message:

Emit an encrypted signature / key identifying this system. PLEASE NOTE: This protocol has been kept simple, so transmitting the key requires an encrypted channel for true safety. key

It would be great if each board had a unique serial number.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/57#issuecomment-14743218
.

from ardupilot.

So make it a number, and have the GCS maintain a map of number to name? Is there an existing UID that could be used for a key in such a map, rather than adding one?

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the pixhawks chip has a unique id built into the cpu i hear.

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currently that's only viewable from the bootloader

from ardupilot.

You can't name the boards but you can set the SYSID_THISMAV parameter.
When you download logs, the MP apparently uses this param and puts the logs in separate directories.

from ardupilot.