Hi ModalAI team,
I am working on a Starling 2 / VOXL2 setup and I am stuck with an ESC communication / firmware issue. I would appreciate your guidance on whether this looks like a software mismatch, a known M0129 compatibility issue, or a hardware-side comms problem.
Hardware / platform:
VOXL2 (M0054) Starling 2 platform ESC board label: M0129 SKU shown on device:MRB-D0014-4-V1-C27-T9-M22-X0
Current software versions:
system-image: 1.8.06-M0054-14.1a-perf voxl-suite: 1.6.3 voxl-esc package manually upgraded from 1.5.7 to 1.6.1What I did:
Reflashed the board Restored / checked calibration as needed Verified Wi-Fi and internet access Confirmed newer voxl-esc was available in sdk-1.6 and manually installed:dpkg -i /data/voxl-esc_1.6.1_arm64.deb Checked available firmware files under:
/usr/share/modalai/voxl-esc-tools/firmware/
Firmware files present for M0129:
modalai_esc_firmware_m0129_3_v39_25_a58f5f6f.bin modalai_esc_firmware_m0129_6_v39_25_a58f5f6f.binNote:
My physical ESC only says M0129 I do not see a suffix like M0129-3 or M0129-6 printed on the board I also do not see an m0129_1 firmware file in the installed firmware folderMain issue:
voxl-esc scan does not reliably detect any ESCs voxl-esc upgrade_firmware sometimes previously said “successfully pinged ESCs” but then failed with:[ERROR] Unknown board detected: After deeper testing, the underlying Python tools also fail to detect the ESC consistently
Direct tool results:
voxl-esc-scan.py No ESCs detected at all baud rates Sometimes reports:ERROR: voxl_uart_read_bytes: Bus '12' is not initialized voxl-esc-board-detect.py Ends with:
ERROR: No ESC(s) detected, exiting. Debug scan:
Command used:
python3 voxl-esc-scan.py --enable-debug True --force-scan-all-baud-rates True
Observed behavior:
UART TX packets are clearly being sent No valid UART RX from ESC In one case RX was all zeros after:ERROR: voxl_uart_read_bytes: Bus '12' is not initialized Every scan ends with:
WARNING: No ESC(s) detected
ERROR: not all ESCs found
Relevant logs:
dmesg shows SLPI restart events after reset commands, for example:Fatal error on slpi!
... Got kill command from apps processor. /dev shows SLPI subsystem nodes, but the scan path still fails to get a valid ESC reply
Important observations:
The VOXL side appears to be transmitting on the ESC link The ESC side does not appear to respond This now looks more like a low-level comms / wiring / power / bootloader issue than just a wrapper-script issueQuestions:
Is system-image 1.8.06 with voxl-suite 1.6.3 a supported combination for Starling 2 + M0129 ESC? For an ESC labeled only “M0129”, which firmware should be used: m0129_3 m0129_6 or is there another variant / package expected? Is the missing response from the ESC more indicative of: incorrect harness / connector / pinout ESC not powered correctly damaged ESC MCU wrong firmware / bootloader state Is there a recommended low-level recovery path for M0129 when voxl-esc-scan.py cannot detect any ESCs? Are there any additional commands you want me to run to verify the ESC UART / SLPI bridge path on this platform?Example command outputs:
system image / suite:
system-image: 1.8.06-M0054-14.1a-perf voxl-suite: 1.6.3voxl-esc version after manual install:
1.6.1Direct scan result:
WARNING: No ESC(s) detected ERROR: not all ESCs foundDirect board detect result:
ERROR: No ESC(s) detected, exiting.Any help would be greatly appreciated. I can also provide full logs or photos of the ESC board/harness if needed.
Thank you.