DJI Edge Adapter -- Deployment Guide

The DJI Edge Adapter connects DJI docking stations and their sub-assets (drones) to the Zequent platform. It communicates with the dock via MQTT and exposes a gRPC interface toward the platform services.

Prerequisites

Access to the Zequent container registry (ghcr.io/zequent)
A running MQTT broker reachable by the adapter (e.g. HiveMQ Cloud)
Running Zequent platform services: Connector Service, Live Data Service, Mission Autonomy Service, Remote Control Service

Supported DJI Firmware Versions

The DJI Edge Adapter has been tested and verified against the following DJI firmware major versions:

Firmware Version	Status
v13.x.x	Supported
v14.x.x	Supported
v17.x.x	Supported

Note: Other firmware versions may work but are not officially validated. Ensure your DJI docking station and drone firmware are updated to one of the supported versions before deploying the adapter.

Supported Device Models & Dynamic Capabilities

Beyond the fixed command set (takeoff, dock ops, etc.), the DJI adapter reports a per-device-model list of vendor-specific settings as dynamic capabilities — settable through client.remoteControl().sendCustomCommand(...) without the platform needing a dedicated method for each one. Which properties are exposed is baked into the adapter build (dji-capabilities.yaml), not runtime-configurable — adding a new model or property requires a custom adapter build.

As of this adapter version, two device profiles are defined:

Model	Exposed properties
DJI Dock 3	Fast photo transfer, dock silent mode, DJI user-experience program (disabled by default)
Matrice 4D / 4TD	Obstacle avoidance, height limit, night lights, distance limit, RTH altitude, FlyTo flight height/mode/link-loss action, return reserve battery, camera watermark, and (M4TD only) thermal camera palette/gain-mode/isotherm settings

A dock or drone not matching either profile still works for standard flight/dock operations — it just reports no dynamic capabilities beyond those.

Environment Variables

Required

Variable	Description
`ZQNT_MQTT_BROKER_HOST`	MQTT broker hostname
`ZQNT_MQTT_USERNAME`	MQTT username for cloud backend channels
`ZQNT_MQTT_PASSWORD`	MQTT password for cloud backend channels
`ZQNT_MQTT_DOCK_USERNAME`	MQTT username for direct dock communication
`ZQNT_MQTT_DOCK_PASSWORD`	MQTT password for direct dock communication
`CONNECTOR_SERVICE_HOST`	Hostname of the Connector Service
`LIVE_DATA_SERVICE_HOST`	Hostname of the Live Data Service
`MISSION_AUTONOMY_SERVICE_HOST`	Hostname of the Mission Autonomy Service
`REMOTE_CONTROL_SERVICE_HOST`	Hostname of the Remote Control Service

Optional

Variable	Default	Description
`ZQNT_MQTT_BROKER_PORT`	`8883`	MQTT broker port (TLS)
`CONNECTOR_SERVICE_PORT`	`8010`	Connector Service gRPC port
`LIVE_DATA_SERVICE_PORT`	`8003`	Live Data Service gRPC port
`MISSION_AUTONOMY_SERVICE_PORT`	`8004`	Mission Autonomy Service gRPC port
`REMOTE_CONTROL_SERVICE_PORT`	`8002`	Remote Control Service gRPC port
`EDGE_ADAPTER_TARGET_ENDPOINTS`	`edge-adapter-dji:9001`	Address at which this adapter is reachable by the platform
`REDIS_URL`	`redis://localhost:6379`	Redis connection used by the adapter's caching layer
`ZQNT_DOCK_OFFLINE_TIMEOUT`	`10s`	A dock is reported offline if no OSD telemetry arrives within this window
`ZQNT_DOCK_WATCHDOG_INTERVAL`	`2s`	How often the adapter checks each dock's telemetry age against `ZQNT_DOCK_OFFLINE_TIMEOUT`
`S3_ENDPOINT`	`https://s3.amazonaws.com`	S3-compatible storage endpoint
`S3_REGION`	`eu-central-1`	S3 region
`S3_BUCKET`	`zqnt`	S3 bucket name
`S3_OBJECT_KEY_PREFIX`	`zqnt`	Prefix for stored objects
`S3_USERNAME`	--	S3 user identifier
`S3_ACCESS_KEY`	--	S3 access key
`S3_SECRET_KEY`	--	S3 secret key

Docker Compose

Use the same deployment-local .env file as the platform stack.

services:
  edge-dji:
    image: ghcr.io/zequent/zqnt-edge-adapter-dji:1.3.0
    container_name: edge-adapter-dji
    env_file:
      - .env
    ports:
      - "9001:9001"

The container (not necessarily the service key) must be named edge-adapter-dji — the Admin Console's adapter manager (AdapterManagementService) resolves the container to start/stop/restart by building that exact name (edge-adapter- + vendor) and shells out to it directly; it does not look this up any other way. Set container_name explicitly as shown — Docker Compose's default container naming from a edge-dji service key would not produce this name on its own. The public docker-compose.customer.yml template in this repo does not currently set container_name for its edge-dji service, so the Admin Console's start/stop/restart controls will not find that container as shipped.

Set the required MQTT, service endpoint, and optional storage values in .env.

Kubernetes

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: edge-adapter-dji
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: edge-adapter-dji
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: edge-adapter-dji
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: edge-adapter-dji
          image: ghcr.io/zequent/zqnt-edge-adapter-dji:1.3.0
          ports:
            - containerPort: 9001
          env:
            - name: QUARKUS_PROFILE
              value: "k8s"
            - name: EDGE_ADAPTER_TARGET_ENDPOINTS
              value: "edge-dji:9001"
            - name: ZQNT_MQTT_BROKER_HOST
              value: "your-broker.example.com"
            - name: ZQNT_MQTT_BROKER_PORT
              value: "8883"
            - name: ZQNT_MQTT_USERNAME
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: edge-adapter-dji-secrets
                  key: mqtt-username
            - name: ZQNT_MQTT_PASSWORD
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: edge-adapter-dji-secrets
                  key: mqtt-password
            - name: ZQNT_MQTT_DOCK_USERNAME
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: edge-adapter-dji-secrets
                  key: mqtt-dock-username
            - name: ZQNT_MQTT_DOCK_PASSWORD
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: edge-adapter-dji-secrets
                  key: mqtt-dock-password
            - name: CONNECTOR_SERVICE_HOST
              value: "connector-service"
            - name: CONNECTOR_SERVICE_PORT
              value: "8010"
            - name: LIVE_DATA_SERVICE_HOST
              value: "live-data-service"
            - name: LIVE_DATA_SERVICE_PORT
              value: "8003"
            - name: MISSION_AUTONOMY_SERVICE_HOST
              value: "mission-autonomy-service"
            - name: MISSION_AUTONOMY_SERVICE_PORT
              value: "8004"
            - name: REMOTE_CONTROL_SERVICE_HOST
              value: "remote-control-service"
            - name: REMOTE_CONTROL_SERVICE_PORT
              value: "8002"
            # S3 (optional - required for mission file uploads)
            - name: S3_ENDPOINT
              value: "https://s3.amazonaws.com"
            - name: S3_REGION
              value: "eu-central-1"
            - name: S3_BUCKET
              value: "zqnt"
            - name: S3_USERNAME
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: edge-adapter-dji-secrets
                  key: s3-username
            - name: S3_ACCESS_KEY
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: edge-adapter-dji-secrets
                  key: s3-access-key
            - name: S3_SECRET_KEY
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: edge-adapter-dji-secrets
                  key: s3-secret-key
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: edge-adapter-dji
spec:
  selector:
    app: edge-adapter-dji
  ports:
    - port: 9001
      targetPort: 9001

The container_name requirement above is specific to the Docker Compose path — the Admin Console's adapter manager shells out to a configured container runtime (docker/podman) by that exact name, which has no equivalent concept in Kubernetes. Start/stop/restart from the Admin Console is not expected to work against a Kubernetes deployment of this adapter.

Note: In Kubernetes deployments, keep credentials in Kubernetes Secrets and expose only the service hostnames required by the adapter.

MQTT Topics

The adapter subscribes and publishes to the following MQTT topics. The + wildcard matches the device serial number.

Topic	Direction	Purpose
`thing/product/+/osd`	Incoming	Drone telemetry (OSD data)
`thing/product/+/state`	Incoming	Device state updates
`thing/product/+/events`	Incoming	Device-reported events (e.g. flight-task lifecycle) — feeds task progress/asset status notifications back to the platform
`sys/product/+/status`	Incoming	Dock/drone topology updates
`thing/product/+/services_reply`	Incoming	Replies to service commands
`thing/product/+/property/set_reply`	Incoming	Replies to dynamic property-set commands (see Supported Device Models & Dynamic Capabilities)
`thing/product/+/requests`	Incoming	Device-initiated requests
`thing/product/+/drc/up`	Incoming	Direct Remote Control upstream data
Cloud-to-dock topics	Outgoing	Commands sent to the dock
Status reply topics	Outgoing	Topology update acknowledgements

Port

The adapter listens on port 9001 for incoming gRPC commands from the platform (HTTP and gRPC share the same port via use-separate-server=false).