How do you use 2 cameras on QGroundControl

Thanks for the notice, Eliot. :slight_smile:

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As Elliot said, we have archived our github fork of QGroundControl. The docs site is now located at https://docs.dwe.ai for any additional information you may be looking for.

Our QGroundControl fork has been replaced by a much more advanced streaming software called Discovery (Discovery - Stream and Record Network Video – DeepWater Exploration) which offers the ability to stream multiple cameras at extremely low latency if that is of interest to you.

@305155973 -
It is possible to stream both the standard Blue-ROV2 camera and a DWE camera in QGround Control, however you will only be able to switch between the video streams (with a jarring 1-2 second pause) not view at the same time. Cockpit does allow for multiple video streams, with picture in picture! Users like to setup one view with Camera A full screen and Camera B small, and a second view with the A and B stream size/location reversed - the switch between these two views is seamless!
I’ve not tried the DWE software but it may be possible to run in parallel with QGroundControl, although this does seem a bit awkward


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Thank you, Brandon :slight_smile:

Thanks very much, Tony. :grinning:

I’m working on a project with a ground station showing real-time multi-streaming underwater videos only, without control an underwater vehicle. And I’m thinking of using QGC instead of other video streaming softwares (VLC or OBS, etc) to keep consistent with my other projects.

For QGC, when you mentioned ‘switch between the video streams’ of a Blue-ROV2 camera and a DWE camera, do you mean to switch via ‘Application settingâžĄïžVideo SettingâžĄïžvideo sources’ and choose among the list?

Or we can simply switch between multiple videos with easy UI operations like double clicking on the video?

I saw some people managed to layout 2 video views at the bottom of the main flight view in QGC , one on bottom left and the other bottom right. I guess I should work on editing the ‘FlightDisplayViewVideo.qml’ file in the source code?

Hi @305155973 -
Our freshly launched Cockpit software may be of interest - it is open source and much easier to develop / modify than QGC.
With QGC and BlueOS / Ardusub, video streams can be switched between via game-controller button - not the path you mention.
Picture and picture is not possible in QGC as far as I know, I’m not sure what you came across that indicated otherwise!

Thanks Tony. I will definitely download and try cockpit. :slight_smile:

BTW, with QGC/ardusub, video streams can be switched between via game-controller button? I didn’t know that.

I knew ROV flight modes can be switched between via the buttons on the control joystick. Maybe you can throw me a link on this? thank you

The joystick button functions are configurable. Switching video feeds is unrelated to the autopilot (so can’t be set using the autopilot button parameters), but QGC provides a set of extra button functions that it can either handle locally or send a direct MAVLink message that a system may be able to handle.

I believe you’re after the “Next Video Stream” / “Previous Video Stream” functions, although I did just try those (and the “Next Camera” / “Previous Camera” ones) and wasn’t able to get them to work. I’m pretty sure they worked previously, so I’ve asked internally in case we know why that would have changed.


So you’re aware, QGC does also include support for sending custom MAVLink commands to the vehicle, but that’s unrelated in this case.

Very interesting, Eliot. Thank you so much. Yes I am after the "“Next Video Stream” / “Previous Video Stream” functions.

After checking the button parameters, it seems to me with BTNn_FUNCTION value set to 25 (camera_source_toggle), should do the video stream switch. I will definitely try to see how it works. I will update here if I get lucky:)

I’ve managed to confirm that this worked previously (back in BlueOS-1.1.1), but the functionality has somehow been broken since then. I’ve raised an issue where anyone interested can track progress as we investigate further and get this fixed :slight_smile:

As I mentioned earlier, in ROV use-cases the autopilot is typically unrelated to the cameras (as compared to an FPV drone with no onboard computer, for example), so I don’t expect any of the autopilot parameters to have any effect.

It would of course be interesting/useful if it does, but I assume the camera_source_toggle option is for when there is only one stream being sent from a vehicle with multiple cameras, and the autopilot is able to change which camera’s stream is being transmitted.

In the case of BlueOS all the enabled streams are being transmitted, and it’s a QGC limitation to only be able to view one at a time, so we added some MAVLink functionality to BlueOS so that QGC can know about the available streams and let the user choose which one to display/record.

As per the earlier comments Cockpit does not have that limitation, and can display multiple streams at the same time :slight_smile: