Adding & Editing UAVs

Click the Add Aircraft button at the top of the UAV Management page to open the registration form. The form is divided into sections covering general information, motors, video, firmware, components, and sensors. When editing an existing UAV, the form pre-fills with stored data and the button label changes to Update Aircraft.

Required fields

The following four fields must be filled to successfully save a UAV. If any are missing or invalid, you will see inline red error messages and a yellow summary box listing all problems.

Form sections (optional fields)

General Information

• Drone Name (required)
• Manufacturer — e.g., "DJI", "BetaFPV", or leave blank
• Type (required; dropdown)

Motors

• Number of Motors (required; integer ≥ 1)
• Type of Motor (required; dropdown)

Video Information

• Video — Choose from: Analog, Digital, None (optional)
• Video System — Choose from: HD-Zero, DJI O2, DJI O3, DJI O4, Analog, Walksnail, Caddx Vista, Others (optional)

Firmware and Components

All fields in this section are optional:

• Firmware — e.g., Betaflight, INAV, Cleanflight, Baseflight, Emuflight, DJI, KISS, Ardupilot, or Other
• Firmware Version — e.g., "4.5.1"
• ESC — Electronic speed controller model
• ESC Firmware — ESC firmware version
• Receiver — Receiver model (e.g., "FrSky R9")
• Receiver Firmware — Receiver software version
• Flight Controller — Flight controller board (e.g., "Omnibus F7")

Registration and Serial

• Registration Number — National UAV registration ID or "N/A" (optional)
• Serial Number — Manufacturer serial or custom identifier (optional)
• Simulator checkbox — Check this if this entry represents a flight simulator (e.g., Donkey Kong FPV, Phoenix simulator) rather than a physical drone. Simulator UAVs are tagged with a purple SIM badge in the list and can be filtered separately via the Type filter. Simulators go through the same workflow as physical UAVs (configs, maintenance logs, etc.) but are visually distinguished for organization.

Sensors

All fields are optional numeric inputs (default to 0):

• GPS — GPS module presence (1 = yes, 0 = no)
• MAG — Magnetometer presence
• BARO — Barometer presence
• GYRO — Gyroscope presence
• ACC — Accelerometer presence

Validation and error handling

When you submit the form, all required fields are validated client-side:

• If validation fails, inline red error messages appear below each offending field.
• A yellow summary box lists all errors together.
• Fix the errors and submit again.
• Server-side validation errors (if any) are also mapped back to the same inline display for easy correction.

Editing an existing UAV

Click the pencil icon next to any aircraft in the list. The form opens pre-filled with its current data. Make your changes and click Update Aircraft. All the same validation rules apply.

Note: Statistics (total flights, flight time, takeoffs, landings) are read-only and computed from imported flight logs — they cannot be edited here.

Tips

• Model name matching: Use the same Drone Name in UAV Desk as your transmitter's model name for automatic telemetry mapping. The match is exact and case-sensitive.
• Minimal vs. detailed: You only need to fill the four required fields to save. Add optional details (manufacturer, firmware, serial) if you want a more complete record.
• Simulator flag: Use this to distinguish flight simulator entries from real aircraft. They can then be filtered separately or hidden via the Type filter at the top.

See Best Practices & Model Matching for more on naming conventions and telemetry mapping.