Sending custom MAVLink commands in Drone Programming - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Sending Custom MAVLink Commands

📖 Scenario: You are working with a drone that uses MAVLink protocol for communication. You want to send a custom command to the drone to perform a specific action, such as changing the LED color or triggering a buzzer.

🎯 Goal: Build a simple program that sends a custom MAVLink command with specific parameters to the drone and prints the confirmation of the command sent.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a dictionary called custom_command with keys command_id, param1, param2, param3, param4 and their exact values.

Create a variable called target_system and set it to the exact integer 1.

Write a function called send_mavlink_command that takes target_system and custom_command as parameters and returns a string confirming the command sent.

Print the result of calling send_mavlink_command with target_system and custom_command.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Sending custom MAVLink commands is useful for controlling drones with specific instructions that are not covered by standard commands, such as turning on LEDs or activating special sensors.

💼 Career

Understanding how to send custom commands via MAVLink is important for drone developers, robotics engineers, and anyone working with UAV communication protocols.

1

Create the custom MAVLink command data

Create a dictionary called custom_command with these exact entries: 'command_id': 300, 'param1': 1.0, 'param2': 0.0, 'param3': 0.0, 'param4': 0.0.

Drone Programming

# Create the custom_command dictionary with specified keys and values
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use curly braces {} to create a dictionary with the exact keys and values.

2

Set the target system ID

Create a variable called target_system and set it to the integer 1.

Drone Programming

custom_command = {
    'command_id': 300,
    'param1': 1.0,
    'param2': 0.0,
    'param3': 0.0,
    'param4': 0.0
}
# Create the target_system variable and set it to 1
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Just assign the number 1 to the variable target_system.

3

Write the function to send the MAVLink command

Write a function called send_mavlink_command that takes parameters target_system and custom_command. The function should return the string: f"Command {custom_command['command_id']} sent to system {target_system}".

Drone Programming

custom_command = {
    'command_id': 300,
    'param1': 1.0,
    'param2': 0.0,
    'param3': 0.0,
    'param4': 0.0
}
target_system = 1
# Define the function send_mavlink_command with parameters target_system and custom_command
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use an f-string to format the return message with the command ID and target system.

4

Print the confirmation message

Print the result of calling send_mavlink_command with target_system and custom_command.

Drone Programming

custom_command = {
    'command_id': 300,
    'param1': 1.0,
    'param2': 0.0,
    'param3': 0.0,
    'param4': 0.0
}
target_system = 1

def send_mavlink_command(target_system, custom_command):
    return f"Command {custom_command['command_id']} sent to system {target_system}"

# Print the confirmation message by calling send_mavlink_command
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use the print function to show the message returned by send_mavlink_command.