Install Tailscale

Aircast reaches your device over a tailnet — a private WireGuard mesh that links your devices directly, no matter which network each one is on. On a cellular link the drone sits behind carrier NAT and isn't reachable from the internet; Tailscale is what puts it on your private network so the dashboard, video, and telemetry are reachable from anywhere.

Tailscale is mandatory. Every device you want to see video and telemetry on must run Tailscale and be signed in to the same tailnet — that means both the Aircast drone and every phone, tablet, laptop, or ground-station computer you watch from. A device that isn't on the tailnet cannot reach the stream. There is no public fallback.

What needs Tailscale

The Aircast device — the Raspberry Pi on the drone. Easiest is to provision it at flash time with a pre-auth key (see below); otherwise connect it from the dashboard's Remote Access card.
Every viewer — the phone, tablet, or laptop you open the dashboard and video on.
Your ground-station computer — whatever runs QGroundControl or Mission Planner for telemetry.

All of them sign in to one Tailscale account. A tailnet only links devices that are both signed in to it — mixing accounts is the most common reason a viewer “can't reach the drone.”

Get every device on the tailnet

Put the drone on your tailnet

The simplest path is to provision it at flash time: in the Aircast Flasher's Remote access section, paste a Tailscale pre-auth key (mint one in your Tailscale admin console). The device joins your tailnet automatically on first boot — no clicking, no sign-in.

Already flashed without a key? Open the dashboard on your LAN, find the Remote Access card, click Connect, and approve the device on the Tailscale login page that opens. See the Get Started guide for the full walkthrough.

Install Tailscale on every viewer

Install the app on each phone, tablet, or computer you'll watch from, and sign in with the same account you used for the drone.

iPhone & iPad

Install Tailscale from the App Store, open it, and sign in. Approve the VPN configuration when iOS asks, then flip the toggle on. The status row should read Connected.

Android

Install Tailscale from Google Play, sign in, and allow the VPN connection request. Toggle it on — the tile shows your device once it's connected.

macOS

Get it from the Mac App Store or tailscale.com/download. Sign in from the menu-bar icon and choose Connect.

Windows

Download the installer from tailscale.com/download, run it, then sign in from the system-tray icon. It connects on sign-in.

Linux

The official installer covers every major distro:

On your Linux machine

curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh

Then bring it up and sign in when the browser link opens:

On your Linux machine

sudo tailscale up

Reach the device by its tailnet address

Open the Tailscale admin console → Machines → your device. Its Tailscale IPv4 (a 100.x.x.x address) — 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 only coordinates the connection. Your video and telemetry travel directly between the drone and your viewer over encrypted WireGuard — they never pass through Tailscale's servers.

Prefer to own the control plane?

You don't have to use Tailscale's hosted coordination service. Point the drone and your viewers at your own Headscale control server instead — no Tailscale account, no third-party coordinator. See Self-Hosting with Headscale.

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