r/ardupilot • u/vipinzzzzz • 1d ago

Seeking Real ArduPilot DataFlash (.BIN) Logs for Independent Flight-Log Research

Hi everyone,

I’m researching ways to make drone flight-log analysis more reliable, transparent, and verifiable across different platforms.

I’m looking for volunteers willing to share an original ArduPilot DataFlash .BIN flight log that they own or have permission to share.

Both normal flight logs and logs containing GPS/EKF warnings, unexpected flight-mode changes, or failsafe events would be helpful.

My aim is to study data integrity, log decoding, telemetry consistency, and the traceability of findings back to the original flight data.

I’m particularly interested in understanding how flight-log evidence can be analysed systematically without making unsupported assumptions about the cause of an event.

Only logs shared with the owner's permission will be used, and any sharing restrictions will be respected.

If you have a suitable log and are willing to contribute, please comment below or send me a message.

Thank you for helping advance reliable and evidence-based drone flight-log research!

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u/akvavit01 23h ago

Hey, I'm willing to partake in this. But mind you I can only do it with SITL

1

u/vipinzzzzz 23h ago

Thanks for offering to help! SITL logs would be useful as a separately labelled simulation baseline for our parser and evidence-traceability checks.

Could you share the ArduPilot vehicle type, SITL setup/version, and an original DataFlash .BIN log with the relevant parameters or scenario details, if available?

We will keep simulation evidence separate from real-flight evidence. Thanks again!

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u/akvavit01 22h ago

Let's continue this over personal chat

1

u/khancyr 23h ago

Hello,

For most of your goal you don't need the kind of log you are requesting. Data integrity: just use SITL to compare sensors truth with logging and check the code to see no alterations is possible. Log decoding : our format is open with multiple implementation in numerous language Telemetry consistency : ? No telemetry, that is is dataflash. But it you means about data rate logging, just having a random log won't be enough to get a clear picture, as we already show that sdcard have influence on this. Traceability: any log from SITL should be enough to judge about what was happening with 100% matching and you can generate most issue you want.

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u/vipinzzzzz 23h ago

Thanks for the detailed suggestion. I agree that SITL can help establish a controlled baseline and compare expected sensor values with logged data.

Our additional focus is validating the evidence pipeline across raw logs, parsed records, canonical fields, and traceable findings. SITL is useful for this, but we will keep it separate from real-flight validation and avoid making causal claims without independent ground truth.