Documentation

MavLink Input Plugin

This plugin collects metrics from MavLink-compatible flight controllers such as ArduPilot or PX4 to live ingest flight metrics from unmanned systems (drones, planes, boats, etc.) Currently the ArduPilot-specific Mavlink dialect is used, check the Mavlink documentation for more details and the various messages available.

This plugin potentially generates a large amount of data. If your output plugin cannot handle the rate of messages, use Metric filters to limit the metrics written to outputs, and/or the filters configuration parameter to limit which Mavlink messages this plugin parses.

Introduced in: Telegraf v1.35.0 Tags: iot OS support: all

Global configuration options

In addition to the plugin-specific configuration settings, plugins support additional global and plugin configuration settings. These settings are used to modify metrics, tags, and field or create aliases and configure ordering, etc. See the CONFIGURATION.md for more details.

Configuration

# Read metrics from a Mavlink flight controller.
[[inputs.mavlink]]
  ## Flight controller URL supporting serial port, UDP and TCP connections.
  ## Options are documented at
  ##   https://mavsdk.mavlink.io/v1.4/en/cpp/guide/connections.html.
  ##
  ## Examples:
  ## - Serial port: serial:///dev/ttyACM0:57600
  ## - TCP client:  tcp://192.168.1.12:5760
  ## - UDP client:  udp://192.168.1.12:14550
  ## - TCP server:  tcpserver://:5760
  ## - UDP server:  udpserver://:14550
  # url = "tcp://127.0.0.1:5760"

  ## Filter to specific messages. Only the messages in this list will be parsed.
  ## If blank or unset, all messages will be accepted. Glob syntax is accepted.
  ## Each message in this list should be lowercase camel_case, with "message_"
  ## prefix removed, eg: "global_position_int", "attitude"
  # filter = []

  ## Mavlink system ID for Telegraf. Only used if the mavlink plugin is sending
  ## messages, eg. when `stream_request_frequency` is 0 (see below.)
  # system_id = 254

  ## Determines whether the plugin sends requests to subscribe to data.
  ## In mavlink, stream rates must be configured before data is received.
  ## This config item sets the rate in Hz, with 0 disabling the request.
  ##
  ## This frequency should be set to 0 if your software already controls the
  ## rates using REQUEST_DATA_STREAM or MAV_CMD_SET_MESSAGE_INTERVAL
  ## (See https://mavlink.io/en/mavgen_python/howto_requestmessages.html)
  # stream_request_frequency = 4

Metrics

Each supported Mavlink message translates to one metric group, and fields on the Mavlink message are converted to fields in telegraf.

The name of the Mavlink message is translated into lowercase and any leading text message_ is dropped.

For example, the message ATTITUDE will become an attitude metric, with all fields copied from its Mavlink message definition.

Example Output

system_time,source=udp://:5760,sys_id=1 time_unix_usec=1732901334516981i,time_boot_ms=1731552i
ekf_status_report,source=udp://:5760,sys_id=1 velocity_variance=0.006436665542423725,pos_horiz_variance=0.006062425673007965,pos_vert_variance=0.0029854460153728724,compass_variance=0.010930062271654606,terrain_alt_variance=0,airspeed_variance=0
local_position_ned,source=udp://:5760,sys_id=1 time_boot_ms=1731552i,x=-0.010437906719744205,y=-0.02162001095712185,z=-0.0037050051614642143,vx=-0.011906237341463566,vy=-0.02467793971300125,vz=0.012739507481455803
vibration,source=udp://:5760,sys_id=1 time_usec=1731552102i,vibration_x=0.0028534166049212217,vibration_y=0.002792230574414134,vibration_z=0.0028329004999250174,clipping_0=0i,clipping_1=0i,clipping_2=0i
battery_status,source=udp://:5760,sys_id=1 id=0i,temperature=32767i,current_battery=0i,current_consumed=0i,energy_consumed=0i,battery_remaining=100i,time_remaining=0i
ahrs,source=udp://:5760,sys_id=1 omegaix=-0.0012698185164481401,omegaiy=-0.0011798597406595945,omegaiz=-0.0017210562946274877,accel_weight=0,renorm_val=0,error_rp=0.002372326795011759,error_yaw=0.0014012008905410767
ahrs2,source=udp://:5760,sys_id=1 roll=-0.0015893152449280024,pitch=-0.0018129277741536498,yaw=-1.2297048568725586,altitude=0.22999998927116394,lat=450469223i,lng=-834024728i
attitude,source=udp://:5760,sys_id=1 time_boot_ms=1731811i,roll=-0.0011288427049294114,pitch=-0.0013485358795151114,yaw=-1.2430261373519897,rollspeed=-0.00023304438218474388,pitchspeed=-0.00023194786626845598,yawspeed=-0.0008081073756329715 0
global_position_int,source=udp://:5760,sys_id=1 time_boot_ms=1731811i,lat=450469223i,lon=-834024730i,alt=0i,relative_alt=-115i,vx=-1i,vy=-2i,vz=1i,hdg=28878i
gps_raw_int,source=udp://:5760,sys_id=1 time_usec=1731635000i,lat=450469223i,lon=-834024728i,alt=0i,eph=121i,epv=200i,vel=0i,cog=0i,satellites_visible=10i,alt_ellipsoid=0i,hacc=300i,vacc=300i,vel_acc=40i,hdg_acc=0i,yaw=0i

Was this page helpful?

Thank you for your feedback!


New in InfluxDB 3.5

Key enhancements in InfluxDB 3.5 and the InfluxDB 3 Explorer 1.3.

See the Blog Post

InfluxDB 3.5 is now available for both Core and Enterprise, introducing custom plugin repository support, enhanced operational visibility with queryable CLI parameters and manual node management, stronger security controls, and general performance improvements.

InfluxDB 3 Explorer 1.3 brings powerful new capabilities including Dashboards (beta) for saving and organizing your favorite queries, and cache querying for instant access to Last Value and Distinct Value caches—making Explorer a more comprehensive workspace for time series monitoring and analysis.

For more information, check out:

InfluxDB Docker latest tag changing to InfluxDB 3 Core

On November 3, 2025, the latest tag for InfluxDB Docker images will point to InfluxDB 3 Core. To avoid unexpected upgrades, use specific version tags in your Docker deployments.

If using Docker to install and run InfluxDB, the latest tag will point to InfluxDB 3 Core. To avoid unexpected upgrades, use specific version tags in your Docker deployments. For example, if using Docker to run InfluxDB v2, replace the latest version tag with a specific version tag in your Docker pull command–for example:

docker pull influxdb:2