Heartbeat scheduler and receiver for node-mavlink

Sending and receiving heartbeats is really a basic thing. It shouldn't have to be written per project. This is why the node-mavlink-heartbeat package has been created. In a simple and effective way it allows the developer to concentrate on what is important and not what is just noise.

Installation

To install the package issue the following command:

$ npm install --save node-mavlink-heartbeat

Usage

There are 2 birds that you'll be able to kill with one stone, so to speak. That's because the same instance of Heartbeat can serve as both the receiver, sender and scheduler of sending heartbeat packets.

For a comprehensive example please see examples/simple.ts

const port = new SerialPort({ path: '/dev/ttyACM0', baudRate: 115200 })
const heartbeat = new Heartbeat(port)
heartbeat.on('heartbeat', ({ packet, heartbeat }: HeartbeatData) => {
  // do something with the packet
  console.log(packet.debug())
  // or with the typed heartbeat packet
  console.log(heartbeat.baseMode)
})

port
  .pipe(new MavLinkPacketSplitter())
  .pipe(new MavLinkPacketParser())
  .pipe(heartbeat)
  .resume()

// Wait for the drone to give us a sign it's alive
// That way we know for sure the connection is ready.
await heartbeat.waitForOne()

// send a single heartbeat
await heartbeat.send()
// start sending heartbeats
heartbeat.start()
// stop sending heartbeats
heartbeat.stop()

Happy coding!