Reference

Practical references for using the configurator: how it is driven, what to do when something does not connect, what hardware it supports, and a short glossary of the terms used throughout this wiki.

Keyboard shortcuts

Configuration in ArduConfigurator is mouse-driven — there are no global keyboard shortcuts for navigation or editing. The one keyboard affordance is Escape, which closes transient dialogs and overlays (the motor-reorder dialog and the board-media lightbox).

Troubleshooting

No RC telemetry / the Receiver monitor shows nothing. The receiver isn’t being seen by the flight controller yet. Check that the serial port the receiver is wired to has its protocol set to RCIN (serial protocol 23) — see Ports & Serial — and that the receiver is bound to your transmitter. The Receiver tab has an in-app bind button for ELRS/CRSF; see Receiver.

Wrong or silent serial port at connect. Flight controllers typically expose two USB serial ports, and only one carries MAVLink. The app auto-detects the MAVLink port by probing for heartbeats, but if you connected to the wrong one (or nothing appears), simply reconnect and let it re-detect, or pick the other port.

The browser won’t offer a serial port. Web Serial is a Chromium-only API. Use Chrome, Edge, or another Chromium-based browser; Firefox and Safari do not implement it. The desktop shell uses a native serial transport instead and is not subject to this limit. See Getting Connected.

A change didn’t take effect. Some parameters only apply after a reboot. When a change needs one, the app surfaces a reboot prompt — reboot the flight controller (or power-cycle it) and re-check the value. See Parameters (Expert).

The link dropped and I saw a “link lost” banner. This is not data loss. If the connection drops — including a board that watchdog-resets partway through the parameter sync — the app keeps the parameters it already read behind a link lost banner (marked as no longer live; writes are blocked while disconnected). On reconnect the parameter download resumes from where it stopped instead of restarting, so even a board that keeps resetting eventually reaches a complete table. See Getting Connected.

Supported hardware

ArduConfigurator connects to, configures, and can flash ArduPilot autopilots — the same boards ArduPilot firmware targets. Connect over USB (Web Serial in the browser, or native serial in the desktop shell).

The validated, real-hardware-exercised path is ArduCopter — it is the trust anchor the project guarantees against, so Copter workflows are the most thoroughly exercised. Plane, Rover, and Sub are increasingly supported, but Copter is where the deepest testing lives. For the authoritative, continuously-updated list of supported boards, the ArduPilot wiki is canonical.

Glossary

ArduPilot

The open-source autopilot firmware (ArduCopter, ArduPlane, Rover, Sub) that runs on the flight controller. ardupilot.org is its canonical wiki.

GCS

Ground Control Station — software that talks to the vehicle over MAVLink. ArduConfigurator is a setup- and configuration-first GCS, not a general mission/flight GCS.

MAVLink

The lightweight serial protocol used to exchange messages and commands between a vehicle and a ground station. ArduConfigurator speaks MAVLink v2.

DroneCAN

A message-based protocol (formerly UAVCAN) for peripherals — GPS, compass, ESCs, power monitors — over a CAN bus. See CAN & DroneCAN.

CRSF / ELRS

Crossfire and ExpressLRS — modern RC link protocols. The flight controller relays binding and link data over the CRSF serial link; see Receiver.

RSSI

Received Signal Strength Indication — RC link-quality reporting, surfaced as a percentage in the Receiver tab.

DShot

A digital ESC protocol. Bidirectional DShot additionally returns ESC RPM telemetry to the flight controller.

MAVFTP

MAVLink’s file-transfer extension, used here to list and download onboard logs and to read system files. See Logs & Inspectors.

RTL

Return To Launch — an ArduPilot flight mode that flies the vehicle back to its launch point.

SITL

Software In The Loop — a simulated ArduPilot vehicle with no hardware, used for testing and the in-app demo.

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For firmware concepts, flight modes, and tuning theory, the ArduPilot documentation remains the canonical reference.