Handheld and game controllers
You can run DroneTracker from a game controller or joystick, and from the Android handheld operator terminal. The controller layout is the same everywhere:
- the handheld’s built-in controls;
- a controller paired with the handheld;
- a controller in the desktop app on Linux, macOS or Windows.
Game controllers and joysticks
Pair the controller with the computer or handheld you are using DroneTracker on, not with the rig.
Supported controllers
- Gamepads: Xbox, PlayStation (DualSense, DualShock 4), Nintendo Switch Pro, 8BitDo, Logitech F310/F710, Steam, and most USB or Bluetooth gamepads.
- Flight sticks and HOTAS: Logitech Extreme 3D Pro, Thrustmaster T.16000M and T.Flight, Logitech/Saitek X52 and X56, VKB, Virpil.
- Camera (PTZ) joysticks, such as the AXIS T8311.
When a controller is connected, a 🕹 PAD badge appears next to the mount controls on the dashboard. Click it to open the button layout.
What each control does
Flight-stick equivalents are in brackets.
| Control | In the video view | In the 3D topology view |
|---|---|---|
| Left stick (stick: the stick) | Move the mount. The further you push, the faster it moves. | Pan the map |
| L2 / R2 | Fine / fast mount speed (handheld) | Zoom out / in |
| Right stick (stick: twist) | Up/down zooms the video | Turn and tilt the view |
| D-pad (stick: hat) | Nudge the mount one step | — |
| L1 / R1 | Step through the flights on the RF · 1090 MHz card | Pick the previous / next aircraft |
| A (stick: trigger) | Point the mount at the highlighted flight | Fly to the picked aircraft |
| L3 (stick: thumb button) | Stop the mount and reset zoom | Recenter on the site |
| R3 | Fold / unfold the RF · 1090 MHz card | — |
| B | Clear the selection / go back | Go back (handheld) |
| Select | Switch to 3D topology (desktop); hide side panels (handheld) | Back to the video (desktop) |
Buttons go by position, not by the letter printed on them. A is always the bottom face button. On a Nintendo controller, that button is marked B.
In the other views (RF, map, reporting), the D-pad moves between buttons and A presses the highlighted one.
On a Dedicated Rig, the sticks drive the head instead (right stick fast, left stick slow), Y sends it home, X changes the thermal palette and LB / RB zoom the telephoto. See The rig view.
Moving the mount needs an operator account or higher. See Accounts and security.
If a controller does nothing
- Browsers only see a controller after you press a button with the DroneTracker tab open. They only read it while that tab is in front and focused.
- The mount stops by itself if you switch tabs, the window loses focus, or the controller disconnects.
- 8BitDo: switch it to X-input (Xbox) mode for the most reliable layout.
- Nintendo Joy-Cons used separately appear as two half-controllers, and they are not supported. Use a Switch Pro controller.
- On a Mac, Chrome or Edge map Nintendo controllers more consistently than Safari.
The Android handheld
The handheld is a handheld operator terminal for a DroneTracker rig. It shows the rig’s live video with a heads-up display (HUD), and it opens the rig’s own views full-screen. The rig does all the detection and correlation. The handheld displays the results.
To get the handheld app, contact DroneTracker support (Admin → Support Access).
Adding a rig
The first time, the handheld asks you to add a rig. The screen reads “ADD A RIG — sign in once to enroll this handheld as a trusted device.”
- Enter the RIG ADDRESS.
- Enter your OPERATOR name and PASSPHRASE, then tap CONNECT.
- If your account uses two-factor sign-in, enter the code from your authenticator app (or a backup code) under MFA OR BACKUP CODE, then tap VERIFY.
After that, the handheld is enrolled as a trusted device. Later connections to that rig need no password.
Certificate check. The first time you connect, the handheld may show UNVERIFIED RIG CERTIFICATE. Before you tap TRUST THIS RIG, ask an admin to confirm that the fingerprint matches the one on the rig, under Admin → Trusted Devices.
If the handheld shows ⚠ CERTIFICATE CHANGED, the rig presented a different certificate from the one this handheld trusted before. That can mean the rig was reinstalled, or it can mean someone is intercepting the connection. Do not tap TRUST NEW CERTIFICATE unless you know the rig’s certificate changed. Tap CANCEL and check with your administrator.
Switching rigs
The RIGS screen lists every rig saved on the handheld. Each rig is tagged:
- ACTIVE: the rig you are connected to now;
- TRUSTED: enrolled, so it connects without a password;
- SIGN-IN NEEDED: you must sign in again.
From this screen you can also:
- tap + ADD A RIG to add another rig;
- use RENAME to give a rig a label you’ll recognize;
- use FORGET to remove a rig. Tap it twice: the first tap changes it to TAP AGAIN TO FORGET.
The HUD
The main screen is the live video feed with the HUD on top.
- Link status shows LINK OK, LINKING…, LINK LOST or AUTH FAILED. AUTH FAILED means the handheld needs to sign in to the rig again.
- The target card shows the current target. CV DETECTION is what the camera models concluded: CLASS, MODEL, CONFIDENCE and SOURCE. RAG CORROBORATION is what flight data confirms: FLIGHT, ROUTE, OPERATOR and a STATUS such as CORRELATING… or NO ADS-B MATCH.
- The RF · 1090 MHz card lists nearby ADS-B flights. Tap its header (or press R3) to fold it to one line. Drag the header to move it anywhere on the video. The handheld remembers where you put it and whether it is folded.
- Drag a box around anything and the rig follows it. Draw a rectangle on the feed with a finger and the rig’s drawn-box tracker locks onto what you outlined, class-blind; the box comes back in cyan as FOLLOWING, dashed as SEARCHING while the rig looks for a lost object. The mount steers to it and a recording starts with it, as on the main station (Drawing a box around something). Tap inside the box to stop. The rig refuses a box drawn on a camera its detector is not watching and says which one to draw on.
- UNKNOWN boxes are motion, not a detection. With the device on a stand or a tripod, or a USB camera fixed in place, anything that moves against a still picture is boxed UNKNOWN within a second or two, before the detector can name it: the same class-blind tripwire the main station runs on cameras without their own detector. Auto zoom and a stand go to it; once the detector names the object, its own box takes over. Swaying branches and flickering edges are learned as background, and a stand turning slowly is followed: the app measures how far the picture slid and moves its learned background with it. Hand-held, the picture is never still enough and nothing is marked. Settings → Detection → Motion cue turns it off, and the Motion cutoff sets how sure the app must be before a box shows.
The side rail
Tap ≡ at the top left to open the side rail. Tap it again to close it.
SOURCES lists the rig’s cameras.
- AUTO follows your default camera if you have set one, or the first live camera if you haven’t.
- A green dot means the camera is online.
- DET marks the camera that detection is running on.
- Tap a camera’s ☆ to make it your default for this rig (★). Tap ★ again to clear it.
- ⟳ refreshes the list.
RIG VIEWS opens the rig’s own pages, full-screen:
| Entry | Opens |
|---|---|
| 3D TOPOLOGY | The 3D view. See Map and 3D view. |
| RF SPECTRUM | The RF view. See The RF view. |
| MAP | The radar map. |
| REPORTING | Recordings and analytics. See Recording and reporting. |
| SOURCE GRID | All camera feeds in a grid. |
| FULL CONSOLE | The complete dashboard. |
Tap ‹ BACK, or use the handheld’s back button, to return to the HUD.
ASK THE RIG › opens a question box. Ask about tracks, flights, ATC or alerts, in plain language. It is read-only, so it can’t change anything on the rig. See Ask the Rig.
FIELD UNIT › shows what this handheld itself captures and sends to the rig. See Field unit.
At the bottom of the rail are the name of the rig you are connected to, ⇄ SWITCH RIG and ⏻ SIGN OUT.
ATC and SIGINT on the handheld
Inside the handheld, the rig’s pages run without the desktop’s side panels and footer. In RF SPECTRUM, tap ATC at the top right of the spectrum. It opens the ATC bar and the SIGINT events table, the same content the desktop shows in its footer. Tap ATC again to return to the spectrum.
The spectrum’s control rail starts in its wide, touch-friendly layout on the handheld.
Field unit
The handheld can also act as a field unit. The FIELD UNIT screen reads: “This phone captures and forwards; the main station does all detection and correlation.”
It shows four things:
| Section | What it shows |
|---|---|
| UPLINK | Link: connected, or “down — holding data”. Then counts for Waiting to send, Sent and Dropped (too old or queue full). |
| BLUETOOTH REMOTE ID | Whether the handheld is listening for drone Remote ID, how many broadcasts it heard and forwarded, and whether it supports Long Range and extended advertising. If it reads Allow Bluetooth and location, grant those permissions. |
| SDR (USB) | Any radio dongle plugged into the handheld. In the side rail, each dongle shows FWD (forwarding), ONLINE or ERR. |
| CAMERA (USB) | A USB webcam plugged into the handheld, and whether it is relaying its picture to the main station. Being watched by counts who is pulling the picture right now. |
A USB webcam as a rig camera
Plug any standard USB webcam into the handheld, through a powered USB-C hub if the handheld also has a radio attached. Android asks whether DroneTracker may use the camera; allow it. The handheld then sends the picture to the main station, which adds it as a camera named after the webcam, for example Field camera · HP HD-4110.
The handheld only captures and sends the picture. The main station does all the detection. To run detection on the field camera, an administrator picks it as the detection source in the console, the same way as any other camera. To watch it on the handheld, pick it in the side rail.
The main station must be able to reach the handheld: on the same local network, or over Tailscale. Unplugging the webcam takes the camera off the main station’s list of active cameras.
THIS PHONE shows the model and whether Battery limits are on. Some phone makers’ battery managers stop background apps on their own. If forwarding stops when the screen is off, tap Turn off battery limits for DroneTracker. Then set DroneTracker to unrestricted in the phone’s battery settings.
Notifications
The handheld adds two notification channels to Android:
- Rig Link: keeps the connection to the rig alive and delivers detection alerts.
- Airspace Alerts: Level 2 and Level 3 detections from the connected rig.
You can change how each one alerts you in Android’s notification settings.
Controllers on the handheld
The handheld’s built-in sticks and buttons follow the table above, and so does a controller paired with the handheld. On the handheld:
- L2 / R2 set fine or fast mount speed.
- B goes back.
- Select hides the side panels.