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Setup Walkthrough

This page walks through every step of the ground-station setup wizard the way a fresh operator sees it. For a more compact reference, see Setup and Pairing.

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Before you start

You need:
  • A flashed SBC (Raspberry Pi 4B / 5, Radxa Rock 5C, or a supported alternative) with the ADOS Drone Agent installed.
  • One RTL8812EU USB Wi-Fi adapter for the air link.
  • An optional second RTL8812EU adapter if you plan to run the node as a relay or receiver.
  • The pairing key from the drone you want to receive from. The drone side prints this in its setup webapp.

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Step 1. Welcome

The wizard opens on the agent’s mDNS URL (http://ados.local:8080). The welcome step confirms the device name, board, and version, and shows a chip row for the local network (Wi-Fi, hotspot, USB tether, or LAN). If no usable local network is up, this step asks you to bring one up before continuing. Otherwise no action is needed; click Next.

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Step 2. Profile

Pick Ground station. Then pick the role: The recommended role appears as a hint based on the agent’s hardware fingerprint.

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Step 3. Operating region

Optional. The agent defaults to an unrestricted RF posture, so this step never blocks the wizard. Pin a region here if you want your local jurisdiction’s channel and power limits enforced. When unpinned, you are responsible for local RF compliance.

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Step 4. Hardware check

The page sweeps every component the picked role requires: SBC, RTL8812EU adapter, kiosk display (HDMI), gamepad, second USB adapter for mesh roles. Components that fail show a fix hint. Resolve any required missing items before continuing. Optional items can be skipped.

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Step 5. Cloud posture

Choose how this ground station talks to the outside world. ADOS is local-first, so the default and primary path is local-only: Mission Control reaches the agent over the LAN by hostname or IP and stores the key locally, with no cloud round-trip. Pick cloud (or a self-hosted backend) only when you need remote or cross-network access. Local-only is a correct, fully-working state, not a misconfiguration. The next step (Pair with Mission Control) appears only when you choose a cloud or self-hosted posture. Local-only deployments skip it.

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Step 6. Pair with Mission Control (cloud or self-hosted only)

When you opted into a cloud or self-hosted posture, the agent shows a six-character pairing code. Enter it in Mission Control to accept the device, or accept a code from Mission Control. After a successful pair, the wizard moves on. For local-only deployments, you pair from Mission Control’s Add-a-Node card by the ground station’s hostname or IP over the LAN. No code is needed.

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Step 7. WFB pairing

This is the drone-to-ground air link, separate from Mission Control pairing. On the ground receiver step, paste the drone’s pairing key, pick the radio channel, and click Pair. The agent stores the key, configures the WFB-rx service, and starts receiving. The page lights up with the live RSSI and bitrate once the air side is in range.

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Step 8. Local display

If a kiosk display is attached, the wizard offers driver install + calibration. Touch screens prompt a four-corner calibration step.

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Step 9. Remote access

Optional. Configure a cloud or tunnel link (for example a Cloudflare tunnel) for reaching the ground station from outside the local network. Skip it for an offline or LAN-only setup.

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Step 10. Finish

The wizard’s final step writes the chosen profile to /etc/ados/profile.conf, marks setup_finalized = true, and reboots any services that need it. After finalization the sidebar shows the role-aware entries (Mesh, Sources) and the ProfileGate enforces page visibility across profiles.

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Re-running the wizard

You can re-run the wizard from Settings → Profile → Re-run setup, or via:
Pairing keys and Mission Control links are preserved across a reset unless you explicitly unpair first.