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We've recently ordered two Starling 2 Max units with M0062 add-ons. We want to attach an external USB 3.0 drive off the VOXL 2, and want to be sure we're using the right port and the right cable before we order anything.

A few questions:
The M0062 user guide says USB3 isn't reliable on the Type-A port (J10) and to treat it as USB2, and that J11 is the USB3 host port. Is J11 where we should be plugging in?
MCBL-00022 is in your cable datasheet but we can't find it in the store. It's not on either page of the cables collection. Is it still available? If so, how do we order it?

Also our Starling order included cables we never itemized. If you can see from the order whether a 10-pin USB3 cable was in it, that would save us buying a duplicate.

And if MCBL-00022 is discontinued, is there a replacement? Failing that, the mating connector part number and pinout would let us get one made.

Eric Katzfey

Most of this can be answered by our documentation here: https://docs.modalai.com/. If after reading through that you still have any specific questions feel free to reach out here on the forum. The short answer to most of your questions is "yes".

Eric Katzfey

That's kind of pointing to VLC as the issue. Can you try with QGC?

Alex Kushleyev

Hello @ישראל-בן-שלמה ,

Please see some options below and the recommendations at the end.

For reliable VIO, we recommend dual tracking cameras. The tracking cameras are very light, so the extra 3 grams will give you lots of safety margin
AR0144 is probably the best option since this is what we use. 2.2g with 80mm coax cable
- OV7251 camera (M0014) is probably the smallest (it is lower resolution also 640x480 vs 1280x800 for AR0144). ov7251 is EOL but it looks like we have some in stock. the weight of M0014 module is 0.5g (with the flex cable). However, to connect it to VOXL2 / mini, you would need an interposer like M0076 (0.6g) ( or M0135 (1.0g)
IMX214 (M0025 module, https://docs.modalai.com/M0025/ ) may be the lightest 4K camera we have (0.7g with flex cable), but it is very old and sensor + lens quality is very far from our newer (and heavier) IMX412- and IMX664-based camera modules.
Flir Boson 320 is a bit heavy too. The one i have with lens is about 23g. Most of the weight is the lens, i think.
- for connecting Boson to a Voxl2 Mini, you should use M0194 ( https://www.modalai.com/products/m0194 )
Boson → M0201 → coax → M0194 → VOXL 2 Mini J6 or J7?
you can plug in another camera into M0194, such as AR0144 (coax version) or the IMX412 (coax version)

The best option in terms of support (no EOL components) and hardware quality, would probably be:

VOXL2 Mini (11g)
M0195 (5.0g) -- see C43 configuration : https://docs.modalai.com/M0195/
Boson + M0201 + coax -> plugs directly into M0195. weight of M0201 + 80mm coax is 1.7g + 0.7g = 2.4g. Need to add weight of Boson!
one or two AR0144 (M0166) -- 2.2g with 80mm cable (each)
hires camera (IMX412) M0161 : 8.5g with 800mm coax cable

Minimal Config

VOXL2 Mini (11g)
M0194 plugged into J7 (1.4g) + 80mm coax (0.7g) + M0201 (1.7g) + weight of Boson
- M0166 AR0144 (2.2g with 80mm coax) plugged into M0194
M0076 (0.6g) plugged into VOXL2 mini J6
- M0025 IMX214 camera (0.7g) plugged into M0076
  ** note that this is mixing the coax and non-coax cameras, but i think this should work. we would need to give this a quick test to make sure.

Alex

Eric Katzfey

MIPI is the physical connection to the VOXL2 board. So, yes, the "normal hires camera" is connected via mipi instead of USB. I'm trying to help you debug this. Normally, when something doesn't work, you try to narrow down the issue by trying some carefully thought out variations to see what works and what doesn't. That can determine the part that is not working. For example, if you have USB camera -> voxl-uvc-server -> voxl-streamer -> Microhard -> VLC and that is showing problems and then you switch to a stream with MIPI camera -> voxl-camera-server -> voxl-streamer -> Microhard -> VLC and that doesn't have problems then it's logical to focus on the USB camera -> voxl-uvc-server part of the pipeline as the problematic part. In your first post you mention QGC stream works and then in your last reply you said you did not test with QGC so that is confusing. And I'm not sure what your end goal is. In the first post you say "Please help to stream live video from the lepton camera through the microhard board." Then you say that it is working from ffplay. So, is that okay now? Or is ffplay not an acceptable solution for you?

Eric Katzfey

I'm confused by all of the new data. Can you summarize? You have tested with 2 different USB cameras: Lepton and c270. You have tested with 3 viewers: QGC, VLC, and ffplay. You have tested with 2 applications: voxl-uvc-server and voxl-streamer. Only one network connection: Microhard. Can you also try a MIPI camera instead of a USB camera? Then can you create a matrix saying which ones worked and which ones didn't?

Eric Katzfey

Ah, interesting, thanks for the update!

Eric Katzfey

There are likely 2 issues here. One was a floating point math fix that is in newer versions of PX4. Can you update to latest px4: http://voxl-packages.modalai.com/dists/qrb5165/dev/binary-arm64/voxl-px4_1.14.0-2.0.146-202607161052_arm64.deb and try again? The other issue is that sending in trajectory setpoints from your external application, even when in altitude mode, will go straight into the position controller and affect flight. So, I would only send those in when in offboard mode.

tom

Hi @Dylan-Gresham,

Starling 2 Max ships with cameras in both directions already. The C28 config is two IMX412 4K color cameras and two AR0144 tracking cameras, one of each facing forward and one of each facing downward, so you get a front and a down view at the same time without moving anything. The camera names in the config are hires_front, hires_down, tracking_front, and tracking_down: https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/voxl-sdk/services/voxl-camera-server/-/blob/master/misc_files/usr/share/modalai/voxl-camera-server/standard_configs/voxl2/platform_config_1/28 - M0173 Starling 2 Max dual IMX412 %2B dual AR0144

If you are asking about something different, can you point to the product image you are looking at and describe what you want to do? For example, physically re-mounting the front 4K camera to point down, or tilting it. That will help us give you a precise answer.

Front end board with the camera connector layout: https://docs.modalai.com/M0173/

Eric Katzfey

Those warning messages don't really signify dropped Mavlink messages, it's just a by product of two separate event numbering sequences between the DSP and the Linux processor.

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