Seeing the Invisible
What if you had the ability to record and see the invisible? Well, we’ve got something cool to tell you. You can.
Aton® opens the door to new and exciting features in the world of flight. Part of that excitement is the ability to use Google Earth™ and Mission Planner.
Mission Planner is a program created by Michael Oborne that takes the fun of flight beyond just simply flying. It’s a software application that gives you access to Aton’s flight information. Aton records mission log files onto a microSD card. These mission log files can be downloaded from Aton for analysis after flights, or simply just to see what your flight(s) looked like.
Note: You will need to fly Aton with a microSD card installed (a class-10 card is recommend to ensure optimum performance), and then remove the card for use in the following steps. We recommend saving the information from your card to a file on your computer.
With Mission Planner, you can convert your flight information for use in Google Earth™. This gives you the ability to view your flight path over the terrain map in Google ™. Here’s how to do it.
- Install Google Earth™ on your computer. Note: The files that will be generated can be used in Google Earth™ on a PC or Mac, however, Mission Planner will only run on a PC.
- Visit Ardupilot to read about and download the Mission Planner software.
- Open Mission Planner.
- Click on the icon labeled “Terminal”.
- Click on the tab labeled “Log Download”. There may be a popup window with an error, simply click “OK” and continue.
- A new window will open, this is the Log Menu. Click on the tab labeled “.bin to .log”, this will open a file window.
- Locate and select your .bin file.
- Another file window will open. Name your .log file and save it.
- Click on the tab labeled “Recreate KML”; a file window will open.
- Select the desired .log file to be used. This will be saved as a .kmz file.
- With the Google Earth™ window open and the file window open. Locate the .kmz file in the file window.
- Drag and drop the file onto the Google Earth™ page. Google Earth™ will take you to the location of the flight that you’ve selected. (Alternatively, you can simply double-click on the .kmz file and it will open Google Earth, if closed, and take you to the location of your flight.)
Aton opens the door to the fun of flying and filming, giving you the best of both worlds. Software like Mission Planner takes your Aton experience even further. Now that you can see your flight path, get out there and start flying.
