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Rpanion Server Plus

Unit Tests ESLint Coverage License

A 4G/LTE-first companion-computer stack for ArduPilot drones — an extended, independent fork of stephendade/Rpanion-server.

Built on the excellent Rpanion-server by Stephen Dade and its contributors — all credit for the original platform (MAVLink telemetry routing, video streaming, network / NTRIP / logging, VPN, the web UI foundation) belongs to that project. This fork keeps master tracking upstream and layers a cellular-first feature set on top. It is an unofficial fork, not affiliated with or endorsed by the upstream project or rpanion.com. License: GPL-3.0 (same as upstream).

It runs on a Raspberry Pi carried by the drone and serves a web interface to configure MAVLink telemetry, HD video, networking, cellular modems and VPNs — so you can fly and stream over 4G/LTE (including behind carrier-grade NAT) to Mission Planner from anywhere.

Rpanion Server Plus — dashboard (dark theme)   Rpanion Server Plus — dashboard (light theme)

Rpanion Server Plus — mobile responsive layout
The redesigned, self-documenting "Ground Station" web UI — light/dark toggle, collapsible categories, mobile-responsive (shown with sample data). See GROUND-STATION-THEME.md.

The upstream user documentation at https://www.docs.rpanion.com/software/rpanion-server covers the shared base; fork-specific features are documented under docs/.

What this fork adds

On top of upstream Rpanion-server (each with docs in docs/):

  • LTE modem management — SimCom SIM7600 driven directly over AT commands (never via ModemManager): signal/registration/RSRP, operator & band, persistent data-usage accounting, optional auto-reconnect, and a raw AT console. Selectable data path: RNDIS / QMI (libqmi) / PPP. (LTE-MODEM, MODEM-DATA-PATH)
  • Cellular video tuning — a low-latency preset (1 s keyframe, CBR-style VBV capping, leaky queues) plus runtime encoder bitrate retuning over a control channel. (CELLULAR-TUNING)
  • Multi-camera switching — switch between two cameras from an RC channel (with hysteresis/debounce) or manually, without restarting the stream. (CAMERA-SWITCHER)
  • Custom GStreamer pipelines — per-camera pipeline overrides with a parse/dry-run validator and a runtime fallback so the stream never bricks. (CUSTOM-PIPELINES)
  • Self-hosted WireGuard Hub — generates a turnkey VPS setup script for a vendor-free WireGuard rendezvous server, solving the CGNAT inbound problem without relying on ZeroTier/Tailscale relays. (WIREGUARD-HUB)
  • Tailscale VPN and Dynamic DNS (DuckDNS / No-IP). (TAILSCALE, DYNAMIC-DNS)
  • Network priority / failover with bandwidth monitoring. (NETWORK-PRIORITY)
  • Telemetry injector — inject external sensor data into the MAVLink stream as NAMED_VALUE_FLOAT / STATUSTEXT (HTTP / UDP / serial sources). (TELEMETRY-INJECTORS)
  • Role-based access control — admin / read-only users. (USER-ROLES)
  • "Ground Station" UI — a redesigned, self-documenting web interface with a light/dark toggle, a mobile-responsive layout, and collapsible navigation. (GROUND-STATION-THEME)
  • Engineering — TypeScript backend, 100 % unit-test coverage on both suites, plus a Playwright e2e suite.

The full design rationale and per-feature reports are in docs/FORK-NOTES.md and docs/reports/.

Feature comparison

How this fork sits between upstream Rpanion-server and the commercial UAVcast-Pro.

Legend: ✓ supported · ◑ partial / different approach · ✗ not available · ? not stated in public docs

Capability Rpanion-server (upstream) Rpanion Server Plus (this fork) UAVcast-Pro 6.x
License / source Open-source (GPL-3.0) Open-source (GPL-3.0) Commercial, closed-source
Price Free Free Paid licence
MAVLink routing to multiple GCS (UDP/TCP) ✓ ✓ ✓
HD video to GCS (RTSP + RTP/UDP, H.264/H.265) ✓ ✓ ✓
In-browser live video preview ✗ ✗ ✓ (HLS)
Low-latency cellular preset + runtime bitrate retune ✗ ✓ ◑ (configurable bitrate)
Custom per-camera GStreamer pipelines ✗ ✓ ✓
Multi-camera switching (RC channel) ✗ ✓ ?
Cellular modem mgmt (signal, data usage, auto-reconnect, AT console) ✗ ✓ (SIM7600, direct AT) ✓ (Traditional + HiLink)
Selectable modem data path (RNDIS / QMI / PPP) ✗ ✓ ◑ (Traditional / HiLink)
Network config + WiFi access point ✓ ✓ ✓
Network failover + bandwidth monitoring ✗ ✓ ✓
VPN — ZeroTier ✓ ✓ ✓
VPN — WireGuard ✓ ✓ ?
Self-hosted WireGuard hub generator (CGNAT, vendor-free) ✗ ✓ ✗
VPN — Tailscale ✗ ✓ ✓
Dynamic DNS ✗ ✓ ✓
NTRIP (RTK corrections) input ✓ ✓ ?
Telemetry injection (NAMED_VALUE_FLOAT / STATUSTEXT) ✗ ✓ ?
Flight log / media management ✓ ✓ ✓
Cloud upload ✓ ✓ ?
Live map / fleet dashboard (GPS tracking, flight path) ✗ ✗ ✓
Role-based access (admin / read-only) ✗ (single login) ✓ ?
Web UI ✓ ✓ (light/dark, mobile, self-documenting) ✓ (React + live map)
Supported boards Pi 3+, Jetson Orin, OrangePi, Le Potato Pi 4 / Pi Zero 2 W (focus) Pi Zero 2 W / 3 / 4 / 5
Commercial support / managed updates community community (personal fork) ✓ vendor-backed

The UAVcast-Pro column reflects its public 6.x documentation (https://docs.uavmatrix.com) as of June 2026. UAVcast-Pro is a mature, polished, vendor-supported product — notably it ships a live map / fleet dashboard and an in-browser video preview that this fork does not, and offers broad plug-and-play modem support. This table is best-effort and not exhaustive; verify current capabilities on their site before relying on it.

In short: pick upstream Rpanion-server for the broadest board support (Jetson/OrangePi/Le Potato) and a rock-solid open base; UAVcast-Pro for a turnkey commercial product with a map/fleet dashboard and support; this fork if you want a free/open, cellular-first stack with deep SIM7600 control, a self-hosted (vendor-free) WireGuard hub, telemetry injection, RBAC, and a self-documenting UI.

Supported boards

The fork is developed and tested primarily on the Raspberry Pi 4 (primary) and Pi Zero 2 W. The upstream board matrix still applies to the shared base:

Board Compatible OS
Raspberry Pi 3B or later Raspberry Pi OS, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Nvidia Jetson Orin Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Orange Pi Zero 3 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Libre Computer Le Potato Raspberry Pi OS

Note

The cellular / camera features target a Pi 4 (or Zero 2 W) with a SimCom SIM7600-series modem and a libcamera-compatible camera (e.g. Camera Module 3 / IMX708). Other boards run the shared base but those specific features are unverified there.

Installing (this fork)

There are no prebuilt release packages for this fork yet — it is installed from source on the device. On a fresh 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS (Bookworm/Trixie):

git clone https://github.com/mmi-coding/Rpanion-server.git
cd Rpanion-server
./deploy/deploy-fork.sh   # installs deps (apt/Node 24/Python venv/VPNs), builds, packages + installs the systemd service

deploy-fork.sh is idempotent. For later code updates, pull and rebuild on the device:

git pull && ./deploy/redeploy.sh

After installation the web UI is at http://<device_ip>:3001.

Important

ModemManager must not be installed — the flight-controller link auto-fails if it is, because ModemManager probes serial ports and can seize the FC UART. deploy-fork.sh purges it; the LTE feature drives the modem directly (libqmi / pppd / AT) instead.

Manual prerequisites (if not using deploy-fork.sh) 
sudo apt install -y gstreamer1.0-plugins-good libgstrtspserver-1.0-0 gir1.2-gst-rtsp-server-1.0
sudo apt install -y gstreamer1.0-plugins-base-apps gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad
sudo apt install -y network-manager python3 python3-gst-1.0 python3-pip dnsmasq git jq wireless-tools iw
sudo apt install -y python3-lxml python3-numpy gpsbabel zip python3-dev gstreamer1.0-x ppp python3-venv
# RasPiOS camera:
sudo apt install -y gstreamer1.0-libcamera python3-picamera2 python3-libcamera python3-kms++
# LTE data paths (QMI) + VPNs:
sudo apt install -y libqmi-utils udhcpc wireguard wireguard-tools
# Node.js 24:
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_24.x | sudo bash - && sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

Then npm install && npm run build && npm run package && sudo dpkg -i rpanion-server_*.deb.

Building and running in development mode

The dev stack is a node.js backend on port 3001 and a Vite/React frontend on port 3000:

npm run dev

Use npm run dev only during development — it skips login/authentication. The UI is then at http://<ip>:3000.

To produce a .deb package: npm run build && npm run package.

Default username and password

Access control prevents unauthorised changes via the web UI (it does not apply to MAVLink or video streams). The default login is admin / admin, changeable on the User Management page (this fork adds read-only users alongside admin — see USER-ROLES).

Credentials are stored in config/user.json. Set DISABLE_AUTH=1 on the node process (e.g. in the rpanion-server.service unit) to disable access control on a trusted network.

Tests

npm run testback     # backend (mocha)
npm run testfront    # frontend (vitest)
npm run lint         # eslint
npm run e2e          # Playwright end-to-end (see docs/E2E-TESTING.md)

This fork targets 100 % coverage on both suites via a ratchet — see docs/TESTING.md.

Credits & licence

Original Rpanion-server © Stephen Dade and contributors — https://github.com/stephendade/Rpanion-server. This fork is distributed under the same GPL-3.0 licence. UAVcast-Pro and UAVmatrix are trademarks of their respective owners and are referenced here for comparison only.