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Version: 6.x

Camera

Camera Page

UAVcast-Pro streams video from Raspberry Pi cameras or USB cameras to your ground control station using GStreamer with H.264 encoding over UDP.

Supported Cameras​

Raspberry Pi Camera​

  • Pi Camera Module v1/v2/v3
  • HQ Camera

USB Cameras​

  • Logitech C615, C920
  • Most V4L2-compatible cameras

Verify connected cameras: v4l2-ctl --list-devices

Video Settings​

Resolution, frame rate, and bitrate options are automatically detected from your camera's capabilities.

Low Bandwidth

For limited connectivity (4G), use lower resolution, 15 FPS, and 1000-1500 Kbps bitrate.

Pi Camera Options​

  • Rotation: 0°, 90°, 180°, 270°
  • Flip: Horizontal or vertical mirroring

Multi-Camera​

UAVcast-Pro supports two cameras with instant switching.

Multi-Camera

RC Channel Switching​

Control camera selection from your transmitter:

  1. Enable RC Channel Switching
  2. Select RC channel (1-18)
  3. PWM threshold: < 1500 = Camera 1, > 1500 = Camera 2

Live Preview​

The web interface includes an HLS preview powered by MediaMTX.

Preview vs GCS Latency
  • Web preview (HLS): ~2-3 seconds latency - for setup/monitoring
  • GCS stream (UDP): ~100-200ms latency - for flight operations

Custom Pipeline​

For unsupported cameras or advanced configurations:

videotestsrc ! x264enc ! video/x-h264, stream-format=byte-stream ! rtph264pay ! udpsink host=192.168.1.100 port=5600

See GStreamer documentation for pipeline syntax.

Receiving Video​

Mission Planner / QGroundControl​

Both applications receive UDP video on port 5600 automatically.

  1. Configure GCS destination in Ground Control Stations
  2. Enable video for that destination
  3. Start camera in UAVcast-Pro
  4. Video appears in HUD

Custom GStreamer Source (Mission Planner)​

Right-click HUD → Video → Set GStreamer Source

Mission Planner GStreamer

udpsrc port=5600 caps="application/x-rtp, media=video, clock-rate=90000, encoding-name=H264, payload=96" ! rtpjitterbuffer ! rtph264depay ! avdec_h264 ! videoconvert ! video/x-raw,format=BGRA ! appsink name=outsink

GStreamer (Windows)​

Installation​

  1. Download from gstreamer.freedesktop.org/download
    • Choose MSVC 64-bit runtime installer
Select Complete Installation

You must select "Complete" installation. Video will not work with Typical or Custom installation.

  1. Open Command Prompt and navigate to GStreamer:

    cd C:\gstreamer\1.0\msvc_x86_64\bin

  2. Run receive command:

    gst-launch-1.0 -v udpsrc port=5600 caps="application/x-rtp, media=(string)video, clock-rate=(int)90000, encoding-name=(string)H264" ! rtpjitterbuffer ! rtph264depay ! avdec_h264 ! videoconvert ! autovideosink sync=false

Windows Helper Script​

Save as start-video.cmd:

@echo off
cd /d C:\gstreamer\1.0\msvc_x86_64\bin
gst-launch-1.0 -v udpsrc port=5600 caps="application/x-rtp, media=(string)video, clock-rate=(int)90000, encoding-name=(string)H264" ! rtpjitterbuffer ! rtph264depay ! avdec_h264 ! videoconvert ! autovideosink sync=false
pause

GStreamer (Ubuntu)​

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gstreamer1.0-tools gstreamer1.0-plugins-good gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad

Then run the same gst-launch-1.0 command.

GStreamer (Mac)​

brew install gstreamer gst-libav gst-plugins-ugly gst-plugins-base gst-plugins-bad gst-plugins-good

Then run the same gst-launch-1.0 command.

Android​

Install QGroundControl - video is received automatically on port 5600.

Troubleshooting​

Camera Not Detected​

Pi Camera:

libcamera-hello --list-cameras
sudo raspi-config  # Enable camera interface
sudo reboot

USB Camera:

v4l2-ctl --list-devices

No Video on GCS​

  1. Verify GCS destination IP and port in Ground Control Stations
  2. Check firewall allows UDP 5600
  3. Test with gst-launch-1.0 command

Choppy Video​

Reduce settings: 640x480, 15 FPS, 1500 Kbps