ArduPilot DataFlash BIN plugins for PlotJuggler

This fork of ArduPilot/plotjuggler-apbin-plugins provides a stable PlotJuggler 3 loader and an independent PlotJuggler 4 SDK adapter for ArduPilot DataFlash logs. Original authorship, Git history and LGPLv3 licensing are preserved. These are plugins, not standalone log viewers or Chinese-localized user interfaces.

Choose the correct plugin

• PlotJuggler 3: stable v1.2.0, maintained on main. Download and release notes. Prebuilt Windows and Ubuntu 22.04 x86-64 libraries were tested against PlotJuggler 3.9.2 / Qt 5. Compatibility with other PJ3 versions, Qt versions or compiler ABIs is not claimed. Choose exactly one variant: no_units, with_units, or with_units_rcou.
• PlotJuggler 4: SDK preview v1.3.0-pj4.rc.1, maintained separately on plotjuggler-4.x-sdk. SDK4 guide and prerelease. Requires the pinned plotjuggler_sdk 0.34.1, boot ABI 5, data-source protocol 4; this is not a promise of compatibility with every PlotJuggler 4 build. Windows and Ubuntu 22.04 x86-64 packages include a native shared library and its manifest. This preview adds leading TimeMS boot-clock support and does not replace v1.2.0-pj4.rc.1 assets or the PJ3 stable release / Latest.

PJ3 and PJ4 binaries are not interchangeable. Published packages do not cover macOS, ARM or ROS packages. The build/install instructions below are for the PJ3 Qt plugin only; PJ4 users should follow the SDK4 guide instead. For exact tested boundaries, known limits and checksums, read the selected release's notes. Fork version numbers are not upstream ArduPilot release tags.

The PJ4 marketplace entry is ArduPilot BIN (Contributed), plugin ID ardupilot-dataflash. Check its advertised version before installing: a new GitHub prerelease does not automatically update the marketplace catalog.

Quick installation

1. Download the package/library for your host and OS, and verify it against that release's SHA256SUMS.
2. Close the host and move an older copy out of its plugin search paths to avoid duplicate loaders. PJ3 users should keep only one variant.
3. For PJ3, copy the selected DLL/SO into the plugin folder configured under App → Preferences → Plugins. For PJ4, extract the ZIP, keep the library and .pjmanifest.json together, retain licenses and SOURCE.json, and use the host's plugin directory or --plugin-dir <directory>.
4. Restart the compatible host and open an ArduPilot .BIN log.

See fork provenance and maintenance, release policy and LICENSE. The SDK4 guide includes additional SDK/source licenses.

Install PlotJuggler

To build any plugin for PlotJuggler, PlotJuggler must be installed on your system. For detailed instructions on how to install PlotJuggler please have a look at the Installation section of the PlotJuggler repository.

If you have ROS installed, you can install PlotJuggler using:

sudo apt install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-plotjuggler-ros

(Optional) Build plotjuggler-apbin-plugin

If you wish to build plotjuggler-apbin-plugin follow these steps.

1. Clone the repository

git clone --branch main https://github.com/reliable-ly0411/plotjuggler-apbin-plugins.git

2a. Compile via Docker

This requires that you have Docker installed in your system.

1. cd into the cloned repository.

2. Prepare a new folder with

   mkdir artifacts

3. Build the plugin with

   docker build -o type=local,dest=artifacts .

   This command will clone and build PlotJuggler anew, which takes a lot of time.

   You can pass build arguments with the --build-arg option. Build arguments include:

   • ADD_UNITS[=OFF]: Set to ON to enable the display of units in the logged fields. Read at the end for more information.
   • ADD_RCOU_FUNCTION_LABELS[=OFF]: Set to ON to enable the display the channel function next to its name.
   • BASE_IMAGE[=ubuntu:22.04]: Specify the OS image to build off of. It is known that using a different OS than your host OS may result in the plugin not working.
   • PJ_TAG[=3.9.2]: The PlotJuggler git branch or tag to use when cloning and compiling PlotJuggler.

Once compilation is finished, you will find your .so plugin in the artifacts folder you created previously.

2b. Compile locally

1. Clone and compile PlotJuggler following the instructions. Make a note of the workspace folder you created (where the src, build and install folders live).

2. Install the dependencies:
   The plugin uses Qt as dependency. Since PlotJuggler also depends on Qt, chances are high that you already have it installed. On Ubuntu Qt can be installed with:

   sudo apt -y install qtbase5-dev libqt5svg5-dev

3. The optional features are selected with cmake options, both OFF by default:

   • -DADD_UNITS=ON displays the units of the logged fields (read at the end).
   • -DADD_RCOU_FUNCTION_LABELS=ON displays the channel function next to its name.

4. Compile using cmake:

   export PJ_WS=<absolute_path_to_plotjugger_workspace>
   export LIBRARY_PATH="$LIBRARY_PATH:$PJ_WS/install/lib"
   mkdir build; cd build
   cmake -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$PJ_WS/install/lib/cmake/plotjuggler" -DCMAKE_LIBRARY_PATH="$PJ_WS/install/lib;$PJ_WS/build/PlotJuggler" ..
   make
   sudo make install

Testing a built plugin

tests/ holds a headless check that loads a plugin the way PlotJuggler does and parses the small log in tests/logs/, without starting the GUI. It also verifies that the cmake options above actually reached the binary, and on Linux reports whether the plugin's libstdc++ requirement is satisfied by your system — which is what catches a plugin built on a newer distro than the one running it.

cmake -S tests -B tests/build -DPJ_INCLUDE_DIR="$PJ_WS/install/include"
cmake --build tests/build
./tests/test_plugin.sh build/libDataAPBin.so

Point it at a plugin downloaded from CI or a release to check it before use.

Notes for building on MacOS

Qt dependencies may not be found automatically. If you run into issues, try this cmake command instead:

cmake -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/qt@5;$PJ_WS/install/lib/cmake/plotjuggler" -DCMAKE_LIBRARY_PATH="$PJ_WS/install/lib;$PJ_WS/build/PlotJuggler" ..

If using this plugin with the new official PlotJuggler .dmg releases, you may run into signing and security issues. This command allows running a custom plugin on a signed version of PlotJuggler:

sudo codesign --force --deep --sign - /Applications/PlotJuggler.app

This likely adds your signature to the app so your plugin and the official .dmg now share a common signature.

Install plotjuggler-apbin-plugin

PlotJuggler looks for plugins in specific folders. Check App->Preferences->Plugins in PlotJuggler to find out which they are and add more if you wish to.

If you have added a folder, you will need to restart PlotJuggler for the change to take effect.

For prebuilt binaries

You can find a pre-built plugin for Ubuntu and Windows in the stable fork release page. Copy that binary to one of the PlotJuggler plugin folders.

For Docker-built binaries

If you used Docker to compile the plugin, copy the build artifact from the artifacts folder to one of the PlotJuggler plugin folders.

For locally-built binaries

If you compiled the plugin in your host system, the plugin has been installed to /usr/local/bin/.

Ensure that PlotJuggler scans for plugins in this folder or copy the plugin in one of the folders PlotJuggler already scans.

Displaying units

This plugin allows the units of logged fields to be appended to the logged field names.

Be careful:

If you created a PlotJuggler layout without units and then enable the units, the layout will be unusable and vice-versa. This is because the units are part of the field name; hence, the original field name no longer exists.