Download Aircast

Get Started

Aircast is the all-in-one Raspberry Pi image — cellular uplink, video streaming, MAVLink telemetry, and a built-in web dashboard, pre-installed and managed for you. Flash it with the Aircast Flasher, power on, open the dashboard. No SSH, no setup scripts.

~10 minutes to the dashboard — Flash (5 min) + first boot (~2–3 min). Remote access adds ~5.

What you need

  • Raspberry Pi — 3, 4, 5, or Zero 2 W
  • microSD card — 16 GB or larger, plus a card reader
  • SIM card & 4G modem — a SIM with a data plan for the cellular uplink, seated in a supported modem before first boot
  • RTSP camera — see Tested Cameras
  • Flight controller (optional) — for MAVLink telemetry

No hardware yet? The Recommended Starter Kit is a proven shopping list with a wiring guide.

Flash with the Aircast Flasher

The Aircast Flasher is the easiest way in — it downloads the latest image, writes your Wi-Fi and hostname so the device connects on first boot, then writes and verifies the card. Four steps, no terminal. Download it below, then follow along.

1

Pick your SD card

Insert a microSD card (16 GB or larger) and select it under Storage. Everything on the card is erased, so double-check you picked the right drive.

Aircast Flasher — Storage step: selecting the built-in SDXC card reader as the target drive
2

Choose Aircast OS

Under Operating system, leave Aircast OS (recommended) selected — the Flasher fetches the latest Aircast image for you (no manual download).

Aircast Flasher — Operating system step: Aircast OS (recommended) selected, showing the aircast-lite-arm64 image and size
3

Set Wi-Fi & hostname

Under Customisation, pick your Wi-Fi network and enter its password, then give the device a hostname. These are written to the card so it joins your network on first boot — and the hostname becomes how you reach it, e.g. falcon.local. Pick something you'll recognise across a fleet.

Aircast Flasher — Customisation step: Wi-Fi SSID dropdown, password field, and hostname input that becomes <hostname>.local
4

Write & verify

Hit Flash SD Card. The Flasher decompresses the image, writes it, and verifies the card — no need to unpack the .img.xz yourself.

Aircast Flasher — Write step in progress: decompressing the image before writing to the card

When you see Ready to go, eject the card and slot it into your Pi. Not assembled yet? The wiring guide shows how the camera, modem, and flight controller connect. Once everything's plugged in — SIM seated in the modem — power on.

Aircast Flasher — Write step: success state confirming the SD card has been flashed and verified

Open the dashboard

Give the Pi ~2–3 minutes on first boot to bring up cellular and join your network, then point a browser at the hostname you set — no app to install. If you named it falcon:

http://falcon.local

When the device is healthy you'll see the green “All systems operational” banner at the top of every page.

Dashboard won't open? See Device Unreachable.

Watch your first video

Open the Streaming page and set Camera Source to your camera's RTSP URL — the address the Pi pulls video from. For a SIYI camera on its default address, that's:

rtsp://192.168.144.25:8554/main.264

Your camera's URL is in its manual, or on the Tested Cameras page. A reachability check confirms the camera is live, and saving applies instantly — no restart. Then head back to Overview and hit Watch live, or copy the RTSP, WebRTC, or HLS link into your own viewer.

Connect remotely with Tailscale

On a cellular link the device sits behind carrier NAT, so it isn't reachable from the internet directly. Tailscale fixes that — it puts the device on your private network so the dashboard, video, and telemetry are reachable from anywhere. You only do this once.

1

Start the connection

On the Overview page, find the Remote Access card and click Connect.

Aircast dashboard Overview with the Connect to Tailscale prompt and a Connect button
2

Approve the device

A Tailscale login page opens. Sign in — create a free Tailscale account if you don't have one — and approve the device. It joins your tailnet and Remote Access switches to Connected on its own.

Tailscale login page to connect the device to your tailnet
3

Install Tailscale on your computer or phone

A tailnet only links devices that are both signed in to it — so the laptop or phone you'll watch from needs Tailscale too. Install the app and sign in with the same account you used to approve the device in the previous step.

Open the app, sign in, and make sure Tailscale is toggled on. Now your computer or phone and the device are on the same private network.

4

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. That IP — or the <hostname>.<tailnet>.ts.net name — is what you use to reach the dashboard, video, and telemetry from anywhere. No port forwarding, no public IP.

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

You're set up

Flashed, streaming, and reachable from anywhere. From here: