We have our Blue Boat in Malaysia, ready to roll, but yet another all night session has proved futile in getting QGroundControl to connect. We are using a cellular modem, not wifi, and we have succeeded with this setup in California many times.
State of the situation:
ZeroTier Network is created and properly populated. (see attached jpg) Both devices (new W11 laptop,
and BlueBoat) are marked as currently updating (time stamps).
The address of the Blue Boat can be used (192.168.96.234), from the laptop, to connect to the Blue Boat control pages, ZeroTier can be seen installed in BlueOS as an extension.
Windows Defender (Windows 11) firewall rule changed to allow Public and Private, although, your online instructions show two rows for “Open Source …” and we see only one.
Won’t connect, despite any combination of reboot/power cycle, etc.
Have we missed a step?
One thing that concerns me is that ipconfig on the laptop shows two devices for ZeroTier: ours on 192.168.196.x; and some other one on 192.168.191.x. I inspected the ZeroTier networks page and found another network instance that used the 192.168.191.x, and deleted it. It is gone from the website, but no amount of reboot will shake the extra device off of W11. We tried `ipconfig /release ‘hex_id’, and were informed that the ZeroTier device was not a DHCP device, so ipconfig errored out. We want to look at ifconfig on the RPi to check for the same situation, but we don’t know how to get to a console.
Given some inputs from you, we could throw ourselves at it again tonight.
Hi @cuz -
Yes, I believe you have missed a critical step!
You need to create a Mavlink Endpoint on the vehicle directed at the ZeroTier IP of your laptop.
Connect to BlueOS via the ZeroTier IP, and navigate to Mavlink Endpoints. Click the + in the lower right, and select UDP client - your laptop ZeroTier IP will automatically fill in. No need to change anything else - save, and QGC should immediately connect!
I wouldn’t recommend mucking about with any of the network devices - as long as you can reach BlueOS at the ZeroTier IP things will work!
Thank you Tony;
We did mess with mavlink, perhaps not enough. We did choose UDP, but nothing automatically filled in (or we didn’t notice), I assume you mean address and port. This page didn’t cover Mavlink:
Hi @cuz -
You need to choose UDP client, not UDP server.
The IP address goes in the IP address field. Don’t change the default port - this is what QGC expects.
That page doesn’t cover Mavlink Endpoints because the default ones are all a typical user setup needs. We’ll have extensive documentation on what you’re setting up, once we launch our own cellular modem product - coming soon! In the meantime, please bear with us - the instrucitons are covered in several places on this and other forums. There is also this documentation on the ZeroTier extension page.
Hi @Terence-SFB
Welcome to the forums!
If the IP address 192.167.196.93 corresponds to the ZeroTier address of your laptop, that should be all it takes! Can you confirm you’re running ZeroTier on that laptop, and able to reach BlueOS at its ZeroTier IP?
What version of QGround Control are you using? We recommend 4.2.8.…
If you’re using that version, and those IP addresses are correct, perhaps the wrong network was deleted from the ZeroTier BlueOS menu by @cuz - assuming this is the same vehicle?
I’m also assuming that you have “authorized” both devices on the ZeroTier network configuration page, as they should both have ZeroTier IP addresses.
Hi @Terence-SFB -
The version of QGC should not matter, but we do recommend 4.2.8 in general - you can download it here, and install after uninstalling the version you have installed currently.
QGC will automatically connect when:
Your client computer is on the same zerotier network as the vehicle, and you can reach BlueOS at the ZeroTier IP address of the Pi in the BlueBoat.
You have created a UDP Client endpoint in the Mavlink Endpoints menu in BlueOS, with the target IP set to your client computer’s ZeroTier IP address.
If you’ve not done those two things, you won’t have a connection. Can you share what you’ve tried, and if anything I’m describing isn’t making sense?
Hi @Terence-SFB -
What is unclear is which IP is which! You’ll want to edit the names in the ZeroTier interface so you understand which is the BlueBoat, and which is your control computer.
Also note the type of connection you’ve selected is not UDP - QGround Control is expecting a UDP, and not TCP connection as mentioned previously. If you make that change to the endpoint, things should start working!
Note that sharing your ZeroTier network ID publicly means anyone can try to join it, so you may want to take that screenshot down… Of course, they would only have access if you authorized their client!
Thanks Tony. We’re still stuck. The Windows 10 laptop we were using, has two devices for Zero Tier in ipconfig, one on 192.168.191.x, and a second one (the right one) on 192.168.196.x. All attempts at removing the 192.168.191.x original network have failed. We deleted the network on ZeroTier website, rebooted, forced DHCP, nothing worked. Since we can’t rule out that the issue is this original network stealing the show, we opted to punt that laptop and start fresh with a new one. Now Zero Tier has forced us into a new network on 192.168.2.x, and we cannot reach BlueOS any more, ergo we have no means to move the Blue Boat to the new network. My Mom used to say: ‘Heavens to Mergatroid.’
Is there a way to access the existing network from the new laptop? All attempts to switch to another network are blocked. Is the because we haven’t paid for the deluxe plan? Thank you.
Hi @cuz -
Wow, I’m amazed this has become such an epic struggle!
192.168.2.X is the default network used by the BlueBoat radios - I’m confused why you think this has anything to do with ZeroTier?
The network adapter you’re using to connect to the BaseStation - either USB to Ethernet or WiFi, needs to be configured to have a static IP of 192.168.2.1 for your laptop. 192.168.2.2 is the Boat (BlueOS) and 192.168.2.3 and .2.4 are the BaeStation radio and BlueBoat radio.
All you should need to do is verify that both BlueOS and your laptop are connected to the same ZeroTier network. If using the BaseStation to connect, you would reach BlueOS at 192.168.2.2. If using ZeroTier, you would use whatever ZeroTier IP address the BlueBoat has, and both the BlueBoat and your computer would need internet access and an authorized connection to the same ZeroTier network.
Please reach out via the support form and share availability / timezone - I’d be happy to schedule a call to resolve this - it shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes! It may be good to start with a “clean slate” - a freshly flashed BlueOS on your SD card in the Boat, ready to setup.
Thank you. The missing understanding is that we don’t have a base station, but rather a Teltonika RUT955 cellular modem. So we can’t use 192.168.2.X without a physical connection. Your post helped though, because now I realize that we need to set up port forwarding within the cellular modem to allow us to connect to Blue OS via back door. Any clue from you on which ports we should open up would be good: 22? 80? 443? etc. This will enable a path to Blue OS outside of Zero Tier, and allow us to configure the Zero Tier extension and the mavlinks. We got it all working once before with a Linux laptop.
I will move the onboard LAN that we made for our sensors to 192.168.2.X, then when building the boats in our hangar, we can connect a laptop to Blue OS via LAN connector or WiFI on the RUT255, using static 192.168.2.1.
That you for your offer of time and help. Terence & I usually work on this 4PM Pacific time.
Hi @cuz -
No BaseStation is necessary - just configure your computer’s ethernet adapter with that 192.168.2.1 IP address, and connect it with an ethernet cable directly to the Pi in the vessel. You can reach the BlueOS interface, verify it has access to the internet, and configure ZeroTier. If you are connecting it to your Teltonika modem via ethernet, that device will need to be configured to have the 192.168.2.X subnet on that connection. It may be easier to connect the Pi WiFi to the modem, assuming it makes a WiFi hotspot? In that case, the IP address range used by the cell modem is not important.
No port forwarding is required for ZeroTier to work! It only needs access to the internet, it creates essentially a “tunnel” so open ports are not required - this is why it works so well on cellular networks, which likely have most ports blocked anyways (beyond your control) !
Please reach out via the support form if you’d like to arrange a call some afternoon.
