Self-host DroneBridge

DroneBridge constructs a two-way digital radio link between an unmanned aircraft and a ground station using off-the-shelf WiFi gear and a custom protocol built on the WifiBroadcast concept. It aims at UAV scenarios and positions itself as an alternative to closed systems like DJI Lightbridge or OcuSync. The code runs on Raspberry Pi boards for both the air and ground sides, on ESP32 microcontrollers for telemetry-only links, and ships with an Android application for ground-station display and control. Highlights include 1080p video at roughly 110 ms glass-to-glass latency, 12-channel RC control, MAVLink and iNAV flight-controller support, an on-screen display (OSD), error-correcting codes for data integrity, and a modular plugin architecture. Deployment means flashing ready-made SD-card images onto Raspberry Pis, wiring UART lines to the flight controller, and tuning settings through INI files. The Android app links via USB tethering or a WiFi hotspot. The project's own code carries the Apache-2.0 licence, while WifiBroadcast legacy parts use GPL v2. Development has slowed; the last release was v0.7.0 alpha in 2020 and the Android app is now marked as deprecated.