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Plug a USB-C data cable from the ground station to a laptop or Android phone. The board appears as a USB Ethernet adapter, so there are no drivers to install on current operating systems, and there is no Wi-Fi hop between you and the ground station.

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Before you start

  • Board. USB tether works on the Raspberry Pi 4B through its USB-C port in device (OTG) mode. The Radxa Cubie A7Z does not support it.
  • Enable the USB device controller. On a Raspberry Pi, add this line to /boot/firmware/config.txt and reboot. The installer does not set it.
  • A data-capable USB-C cable. Many cheap cables carry power only.

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How it works

The uplink router (ados-uplink-router) composes a USB gadget with two Ethernet functions:
  • CDC-NCM, native on current macOS, Windows 11, Linux and Android.
  • RNDIS, for older Windows 10 builds.
Your computer picks the one it supports and gets a new network interface.

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Platform notes

Plug in the cable. A new USB Ethernet interface appears in System Settings. Open http://192.168.7.1:8080.

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Endpoints over USB

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Why use USB tether

USB 2.0 has far more throughput than one video stream and telemetry need.

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Power and cables

If no network interface appears after you plug in, try another cable. Look for cables labelled for data.
On a Pi 4B the USB-C port carries both data and power. A laptop may back-power the board, but many laptops cannot supply enough current under radio and access point load, and brownouts follow. Power the ground station from its own wall adapter or power bank and use the tether cable for data. See Power and runtime.

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USB tether and Wi-Fi together

Both work at the same time: one client on USB for the pilot view, others on the access point to watch. The agent serves both subnets. With uplink sharing on, clients on either subnet get NAT internet through the active uplink; the two local subnets are still not bridged to each other.

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HTTPS caveat

A browser that loaded Mission Control over HTTPS blocks plain HTTP connections to 192.168.7.1. Use the on-box surfaces at http://192.168.7.1:8080, or run Mission Control locally. See Install Mission Control.

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Troubleshooting

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Next steps

Wi-Fi access point

The wireless alternative.

Android client

Connect an Android phone.
Last modified on October 11, 2026