Download Aircast
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    Get Started

    Aircast is a Raspberry Pi image with cellular uplink, video streaming, MAVLink telemetry, and a web dashboard already installed and wired together. Flash it with the Aircast Flasher, power on, and open the dashboard in a browser. Setup happens in that browser, not over SSH.

    About 20 to 30 minutes end to end: installing the Flasher, 5 to write the card, 2 or 3 for the first boot, then the setup wizard. Getting your own laptop onto the tailnet adds another 5.

    Have the hardware?

    A Pi, a card, a 4G modem and a camera within reach. Skip straight to writing the card.

    Yes, flash it

    Not yet?

    The starter kit lists every part with buy links, $120 to $180 all in, and how it wires together.

    See the starter kit
    How video and telemetry reach youThe camera sends RTSP to a Raspberry Pi running Aircast. A flight controller feeds it MAVLink over serial. The Pi reaches your tailnet over 4G or Wi-Fi, and your laptop joins the same tailnet to watch.RTSP4G or Wi-FiTailscaleMAVLinkCameraRTSP streamRaspberry Pirunning AircastYour tailnetno public IPYour laptopvideo + telemetryFlight controlleroptional
    The Pi pulls video from the camera and telemetry from the flight controller, then serves both over your tailnet.

    What you need

    • Raspberry Pi

      3, 4, 5, or Zero 2 W

    • microSD card

      16 GB or larger, plus a card reader

    • A computer

      macOS, Windows, or Linux. The Flasher is a desktop app, so you cannot do this from a phone

    • SIM and 4G modem

      A data plan for the uplink, seated in a supported modem before first boot

    • RTSP camera

      Anything that serves an RTSP stream. See Tested Cameras

    • Flight controller

      optional

      Only if you want MAVLink telemetry

    If you don't have the hardware yet, the Recommended Starter Kit lists what to buy and how to wire it.

    1. 1Flash the card with the Aircast Flasher5 min
    2. 2Power on and open the dashboard2 to 3 min
    3. 3Run the setup wizard on the device5 min
    4. 4Pick how you watch remotelyvaries

    Flash with the Aircast Flasher

    The Aircast Flasher downloads the latest image, writes your Wi-Fi credentials and hostname onto the card so the device connects on first boot, then writes the image and verifies it. Download it below and follow along.

    Flash the card2:05All five screens, including the pre-auth key.

    First run

    Opening it for the first time differs per platform. Screenshots for all three are in Installing the Flasher.

    1

    Pick the image

    Aircast OS (recommended) is already selected, and the line under it names the exact build it will write. The Flasher fetches it for you, so there is nothing to download by hand and no .img.xz to unpack.

    Aircast Flasher, Operating system step: Aircast OS (recommended) selected, showing the version, file name and size
    2

    Network and hostname

    How the device gets online, and what it is called. Pick your Wi-Fi network, enter its password, and give the device a hostname. All three are written to the card, so it joins your network the first time it boots. The hostname is also how you reach it later, as in falcon.local, so pick something you will recognise across a fleet.

    Aircast Flasher, Network step: Wi-Fi network dropdown, password field, and the hostname that becomes hostname.local
    3

    Access

    How you reach the device once it is running. Both halves are optional, and skipping them leaves the image defaults in place.

    Remote access takes a pre-auth key from your control server. Paste one and the device joins your tailnet by itself on first boot, with nothing to click on the device afterwards. The key is written to the card in plain sight, so use a short-expiry or ephemeral one. Leave it blank and you sign the device in from the dashboard later instead. See Install Tailscale.

    Device access replaces the default pi / raspberry login. An SSH key is the safest choice, and the Flasher offers the one already on your machine. Password login is off on the device, so check the key it shows is one you hold: getting this wrong means re-flashing to get back in.

    Aircast Flasher, Access step: collapsed Remote access section and Device access set to an SSH key from the local machine
    4

    Pick the card

    Insert a microSD card (16 GB or larger) and it appears here on its own. This screen also summarises everything about to be written, so read it before continuing: everything on that drive is erased, and this is the one step you cannot undo.

    Aircast Flasher, Storage step: the detected SD card with a summary of the image, hostname, network and target drive, above an erase warning
    5

    Write and verify

    Hit Flash SD Card. The Flasher decompresses the image, writes it, then reads it back to check every byte. Let the verify finish: a card that wrote badly looks exactly like a Pi that will not boot, and the second pass is what tells those apart.

    When it finishes, eject the card and slot it into your Pi. If it isn't assembled yet, the wiring guide shows how the camera, modem, and flight controller connect. Once everything is plugged in and the SIM is seated in the modem, power on.

    Aircast Flasher, Write step: progress bar showing bytes written of the total image size

    Open the dashboard

    The first boot takes two or three minutes while the Pi brings up cellular and joins your network. After that, point a browser at the hostname you set. The device serves the dashboard itself, so there is nothing to install to view it. If you named it falcon:

    http://falcon.local

    On Windows, .local names often don't resolve. Open the Pi's IP address instead, which you can find in your router's device list, e.g. http://192.168.1.23.

    Aircast dashboard Overview on first boot: a Finish setting up this device prompt, cellular connected, Tailscale not joined, and video not set up

    When the device is healthy you'll see the green All systems operational banner at the top of every page. Cellular is already connected, telemetry is ready, and the two things still to do are remote access and the camera.

    Finish setting up this device at the top is how you do both. Hit Start setup and follow along below.

    Run the setup wizard

    Start setup walks five steps: internet, remote access, camera, telemetry, and a summary. It writes real configuration as you go, so this is the fastest way from a fresh card to a working device. You can leave at any point with Skip setup. The same settings live on the dashboard afterwards: Wi-Fi on Network, the camera on Streaming, and remote access on the Overview page.

    Run the setup wizard3:08Internet, remote access, camera and telemetry on the device itself.
    1

    Connect to the internet

    Cellular usually connects on its own, so if you seated the SIM before boot there is nothing to do here. If you would rather the device used Wi-Fi, join a network on this step. Either way, Next moves on.

    2

    Join your tailnet

    Hit Connect to Tailscale. This puts the device on your own private network, so the dashboard, telemetry and video are all reachable from anywhere without port forwarding or a public IP. If you only want to watch video remotely, the Aircast cloud route covers that without a tailnet.

    Setup wizard step 2, Remote access: a Connect to Tailscale button with the five-step progress bar above it

    A Tailscale login page opens. Sign in, creating a free account if you don't have one, then approve the device. The step switches to connected by itself.

    Tailscale login page to connect the device to your tailnet
    3

    Point it at your camera

    This step runs in three parts: find the camera, tell it which port the camera is plugged into, then check the picture.

    Scan for cameras checks the RTSP ports on every reachable address, then asks over ARP, which finds cameras still on the subnet they shipped with, even when the device has no address there yet. A camera the scan can't see needs its address typed in. It's in the camera's app or manual, or on the Tested Cameras page. For a SIYI camera on its default address, that's:

    rtsp://192.168.144.25:8554/main.264

    The Camera name below it becomes part of the stream URLs, so keep it to lowercase letters, numbers and dashes. Then pick the Ethernet port the camera's cable is in. Each port shows its own address, and the camera has to be on that same subnet to be reachable. The address you typed tells the wizard which network that is, so it offers the port a fixed address on it and prints the exact change before making it.

    Set up & verify applies the source and then checks video is actually arriving. A wrong address fails here, on the bench, rather than in flight. Change settings goes back to the address, and Start over restarts the step.

    Setup wizard step 3, Camera: the camera name and RTSP URL filled in, with a Continue button
    4

    Check telemetry

    Nothing to fill in. MAVLink is detected from the flight controller's serial port, so connect the autopilot and power it on, and the UDP endpoint appears on this step. That address is what your ground station points at. Skip it if you aren't flying a flight controller.

    5

    Finish

    The last step lists what is set up and what isn't, and every row jumps back to its step. Anything you skipped is still available from the dashboard afterwards.

    Pick how you'll watch remotely

    Video already works on your own network. Two routes take it outside, and they cost different things:

    • Aircast cloud, the quicker one. Publish the camera in one click and share a revocable browser link. Whoever watches installs nothing. Watch from anywhere has the click path. If that is all you need, you are done here.
    • Your tailnet, the private one. Video never touches the Aircast cloud, and the dashboard and telemetry come with it, but every device you watch from has to run Tailscale and be signed in. Carry on below.

    Get your laptop on the tailnet

    Wizard step 2 put the device on your tailnet; if you skipped it, run it now from Overview. A tailnet only links machines that are both signed in to it, so the laptop or phone you'll watch from has to join as well.

    1

    Install Tailscale on your computer or phone

    Install Tailscale has the click path for iPhone, Android, macOS, Windows, and Linux. Sign in with the same account you used to approve the device in the wizard, and make sure Tailscale is toggled on. Now your computer or phone and the device are on the same private network.

    2

    Find your device's address

    Open the Tailscale admin console → Machines → your device. Its Tailscale IPv4, a 100.x.x.x address, is listed under Addresses. Use that IP, or the <hostname>.<tailnet>.ts.net name, to reach the dashboard, video, and telemetry from anywhere. You don't need port forwarding or a public IP.

    Tailscale admin console machine page for the device, showing its Tailscale IPv4 address under the Addresses panel

    You're set up

    This is what a finished device looks like: video live, telemetry ready, and cellular up.

    Aircast dashboard Overview on a configured device: all services up, cellular connected, remote access connected on a tailnet name, telemetry ready, and video live

    To watch the stream, open Streaming and expand Manage next to the camera. Watch live opens it in the browser, and the RTSP, WHEP, and HLS links next to it paste into your own viewer. Those links carry whatever address currently reaches the device, so they work from anywhere once it is on your tailnet.

    From here: