skip to content

Getting started with Mission Planner plugins

Building simple C# extensions to explore, visualize, and automate missions.

6 min read

Installation and Setup

  1. Install Mission Planner and locate the plugin folder

    • Download and install Mission Planner for Windows from the official ArduPilot Mission Planner page.[1]
    • After installation, open the Mission Planner install directory (for example: C:\Program Files (x86)\Mission Planner).[2]
    • Inside this folder there is a plugins directory where custom .cs plugin files can be dropped and compiled on startup.

  2. Clone the plugin example repository

    Terminal window
    git clone https://github.com/rohith8272/missionplanner-plugin-example.git
    cd missionplanner-plugin-example
    • The repository contains several toy plugins demonstrating UI integration, MAVLink message handling, and mission editing with C#.

  3. Copy an example plugin into Mission Planner

    • From the cloned repo, open the examples folder and pick any .cs file (for example MapMarker.cs).
    • Copy the chosen .cs file into the MissionPlanner/plugins/ directory in your Mission Planner install path.
    • Restart Mission Planner so it discovers and compiles the new plugin on startup.[3]

  4. Enable the plugin in Mission Planner

    • In Mission Planner, open the Plugin Manager using CTRL + P.
    • Locate your plugin by the Name property defined in the class (for example “Simple Map Marker”).[1]
    • Enable the plugin and restart Mission Planner if requested so it loads cleanly.

Simple Map Marker plugin

The MapMarker.cs example shows how to embed a small UI panel into the Flight Data view and interact with the map control.[1]

  1. UI elements in the quick panel

    • The plugin creates labels and text boxes for Lat and Lon, and a Set Marker button.[1]
    • It locates the tableLayoutPanelQuick control inside FlightData and adds the new controls into the existing layout so they appear alongside standard Mission Planner widgets.[1]

  2. Placing a marker on the map

    • A GMapOverlay named "markers" is created and attached to Host.FDGMapControl.Overlays.[4][1]
    • When the button is clicked, the plugin parses the latitude and longitude from the text boxes, clears existing markers, adds a new GMarkerGoogle at the given coordinates, recenters the map on that point, and refreshes the control.[5][1]

  3. How to use it

    • Start Mission Planner with the plugin enabled and go to the Flight Data tab.[1]
    • In the quick panel, enter a latitude and longitude (for example 37.7749, -122.4194) and click Set Marker to drop a red marker at that location and center the view.[1]

Custom mission library plugin

Custom-WP.cs implements a mission library menu entry that can quickly preload a set of waypoints into the Flight Planner.[6]

  1. Adding a menu item to the Flight Plan view

    • On load, the plugin creates a ToolStripMenuItem called "Mission library" and attaches it to Host.FPMenuMap (the Flight Planner map menu).[6]
    • It also caches a reference to the Commands grid (MyDataGridView) in the Flight Planner UI to manipulate the visible mission list.[6]

  2. Inserting custom waypoints

    • When the menu item is clicked, the plugin displays a CustomMessageBox prompt indicating that it will load common flight plans.[6]
    • A small array of waypoints (lat, lon, alt) is defined and the current mission is cleared using clearMissionToolStripMenuItem_Click on the main form.[6]

  3. Syncing with the mission list UI

    • For each waypoint, the plugin calls Host.InsertWP to populate the internal mission with MAV_CMD.WAYPOINT commands, and then uses Host.AddWPtoList so the waypoints appear in the mission grid.[7][6]
    • Finally, it removes the first row in the Commands grid if present, cleaning up any placeholder row left by Mission Planner.[6]

  4. How to use it

    • Enable the plugin, open the Flight Plan tab, and right‑click on the map or open the planner menu where "Mission library" appears.[6]
    • Clicking it replaces the current mission with the preconfigured waypoint sequence, ready to upload to the vehicle after review.[8][6]

GPS-console.cs demonstrates how to subscribe to raw MAVLink messages and log them directly to the console from within Mission Planner.[3]

  1. Registering a GPS RAW listener

    • When the plugin initializes, it adds a "Start GPS RAW Listener" menu item to the Flight Data map menu (Host.FDMenuMap).[3]
    • Clicking this item subscribes to MainV2.comPort.OnPacketReceived and logs that it is listening for GPS_RAW_INT messages.[9][3]

  2. Handling incoming packets

    • The OnComPortOnOnPacketReceived handler checks if the message ID is MAVLINK_MSG_ID.GPS_RAW_INT and casts the payload to mavlink_gps_raw_int_t.[10][3]
    • It converts the raw integers into SI units (latitude and longitude divided by 1e7, altitude from millimeters to meters) and prints a formatted line with position and satellite count.[3]

  3. How to use it

    • Connect Mission Planner to a vehicle or SITL instance that publishes GPS_RAW_INT.[11]
    • Trigger "Start GPS RAW Listener", then use the Mission Planner console (or debug output in your IDE) to watch the incoming GPS data stream in real time.[3]

Exploring the Mission Planner UI tree

Panelexplorer.cs is a small introspection tool that prints out the control hierarchy of the Flight Data tab.[2]

  1. Dumping UI controls

    • On Loaded, the plugin writes a header and then calls DumpControls on Host.MainForm.FlightData.[2]
    • DumpControls iterates through each child control, logs its Name and type, and recurses into its children with indentation to show nesting.[2]

  2. Why this is useful

    • Mission Planner’s WinForms layout is large and often undocumented at the control level, so discovering names like tableLayoutPanelQuick or FDGMapControl can be difficult.[2][1]
    • Running Panel Explorer gives a live map of what controls exist, making it easier to inject custom widgets into the right panel without digging through the entire source tree.[2][6]

  3. How to use it

    • Enable Panel Explorer and open the Flight Data tab.[2]
    • Check the console output (Visual Studio debug window or standard output) to see the full hierarchy, then reuse those control names in your own plugins to position inputs, charts, or overlays.[12][2]

Tips for developing your own plugins

  1. Use the Plugin base class

    • All examples derive from MissionPlanner.Plugin.Plugin and override Name, Version, Author, and lifecycle methods (Init, Loaded, Loop, Exit).[3][6][1][2]
    • Host exposes key objects like MainForm, FDGMapControl, FPMenuMap, and FDMenuMap, giving access to both UI elements and the active MAVLink connection.[3]

  2. Iterate quickly with single‑file plugins

    • For early experiments, copying a single .cs file into MissionPlanner/plugins/ and restarting is enough to test small UI or MAVLink ideas.
    • Once a plugin grows, clone the official Mission Planner source, open it in Visual Studio, and add your plugin to a dedicated project so you can debug with breakpoints.[6][2]

  3. Common patterns from the examples

    • UI injection: Use Controls.Find with known names (for example "tableLayoutPanelQuick" or "Commands") to attach new controls into existing layouts.[1][6]
    • Map overlays: Create GMapOverlay instances, manage markers, and recenter the map for visual feedback on geographic data.[5][1]
    • Mission editing: Use helpers like InsertWP and AddWPtoList to keep the internal mission and planner UI in sync.[7][6]
    • MAVLink streaming: Subscribe to OnPacketReceived to inspect specific messages and prototype analytics or logging tools before integrating them more deeply.[9][3]

Because the repository is MIT‑licensed, you are free to copy, modify, and redistribute these example plugins in your own Mission Planner workflows as long as you include the license notice.[12]

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15