@Eric-Katzfey Appreciate your help!

Hi @RoyAzriel ,

Running voxl-inspect-cam -a puts significant stress on VOXL2 as all possible camera streams are generated and sent out to the voxl-inspect-cam application. With a small number of camera or low resolutions this can work fine, but in C29 config, this is not a sustainable test. There are quite a few very large images (4056x3040) per hires camera that are being sent uncompressed, causing a lot of cpu stress.

A better test would be to first run voxl-list-pipes to see which camera pipes are available and then run voxl-inspect-cam with arguments explicitly listing the camera streams to inspect -- ideally choosing one stream per camera.

example : voxl-inspect-cam tracking_front tracking_down hires_front_misp_color etc.

So to answer your question regarding "I wonder how it works well when you ship out C29 from the factory" -- we do not use voxl-inspect-cam -a for testing for the exact reason i described. Single stream per camera verification (can be simultaneous for all cameras) is sufficient to test the camera pipeline.

When voxl-inspect-cam was originally developed, we did not have as many cameras connected and the test worked fine, but started hitting system limits as the number of connected cameras (and their resolution) increased. In reality, you would never have to ship such large images across processes -- there is a better mechanism for sharing large buffers between processes (ION buffer) which avoids sending huge amounts of data over the linux pipes. ION buffer sharing is supported on voxl2 but that is outside of the context of this discussion, i believe 🙂

The rotation of the PMD sensor is done in software (camera server config, look for the rotation param) and it is done to match the actual rotation of the sensor in the camera mount. You can disable rotation in the camera server config.

Alex

@LukeNow This worked, thanks.

@JB1 Our voxl-remote-id software with WiFi dongle is intended only for reference and is not meant to be a commercially ready system for our customers who need a remote id solution for their VOXL2 based drone products. Integration, testing, validation, and FAA registration with desired hardware is up to the end user. At a minimum the manufacturer id would need to be changed from ModalAI's id to your companies issued manufacturer id.

@qubotics-admin , thanks for doing the motor swap test. From this result, it does appear that one of the ESC channels is not working properly. We would like to take a look at the ESC - are you able to send it back for inspection? We can send you a replacement ESC in return.

Alex

@ApoorvThapliyal : the problem (Error message: "set_position_target_local_ned: coordinate frame 0 unsupported") appeared in QGC after updating VOXL SDK from 1.5.0 to 1.6.3.
The error blocked me from being able to use QGC to calibrate or arm the drone. Stopping and restarting voxl-vision-hub solved the problem.
For now I'm using voxl-vision-hub as it comes on SDK 1.6.3 (no changes yet) and have not made changes to the .conf file (yet).

@Ben-Linne : Thanks for the excellent instructions. Worked perfectly first shot. betaFPV is back to normal and binds to the radio controller ! Best regards, Hector

@jon When running that way make sure you wait a few seconds before restarting. If you ctrl-c out of voxl-px4 and immediately restart voxl-px4 you will see that error condition.

@Jetson-Nano ,

Thank you for providing detailed description of the tests. I just requested access to the logs.

Please see the following comments:

ESC temperature: the VOXL FPV ESC is rated for pretty high operating temperatures. For example, the MCUs are rated to run at up to 125C MCU temperature. I would not recommend running the ESC above 100C, however I am confident that the ESC will perform fine even above 100C. We typically recommend designing the system such that ESC temperature does not exceed 80C under normal flight conditions - this gives plenty of margin before a failure would occur. Did you take note of the ESC temps of VOXL ESC? VOXL FPV ESC reports two types of temperatures: two of the IDs (ID 0, 3) are measuring the ESC temps from separate temperature sensors located on top and bottom of the ESC. IDs 1 and 2 are reporting the MCU temps (the temperature of the MCU silicon). The MCU temps at steady state are typically a bit higher (5-7 deg C higher) because the MCU itself generates a little heat internally. VOXL ESC not responding after a crash : the likely reason is mechanical damage as a result of the crash. Components can be knocked off during the crash. If the ESC powers on briefly (you see the leds blink initially, but then the ESC turns off), then the likely issue is some kind of short or high load on one of the regulated ESC power rails (5V or 3.3V) -- the high current drain (due to some issue) results in the voltage regulator to turn off due to over-current, resulting in the ESCs shutting down. If only 3 out of 4 LEDs blink, then it is possible that one ESC channel has some sort of a short (due to mechanical damage) and it does not turn on, eventually causing the power rails to be disabled due to over-current. motor suddenly stopping in flight: this is often a result of a mechanical issue related to mounting the motor to the frame. Sometimes the motor mounting screws are too long and they can penetrate the motor windings and cause intermittent failures just like this. We have experienced this ourselves several times when long screws were used and were touching the motor windings. Alternatively, something could be touching the ESC itself and intermittently affecting operation of the ESC once I see the px4 log with the FPV ESC, i can check if one of the motors was operating abnormally before it stopped spinning. There is some additional information in the log that can tell us if a particular motor requires more power to spin (compare to the others).

Questions:

do you have px4 logs of the VOXL ESC with one of the motors shutting down in flight? is it possible that the aluminum enclosure is making contact with the ESC components, causing some kind of short? especially during crash, perhaps the ESC is making contact with the enclosure? did you check if the motor temperature was OK after successful flights? what was the total current draw during flight when the failure occurred? (should see that in the px4 log)

Alex

@bschulzhf PX4 will only correct incoming messages. Something external will have to also run TIMESYNC with PX4 to estimate the offset and correct and incoming PX4 message timestamps that it wants to align. voxl-mavlink-server does this for a few messages.

@vmbasvi said in Starling 2 max Not detecting Wifi hardware:

MRB-D0012-4-V2-C28-T8-M11-X0

I don't have this config so I can't confirm, but It may not come with WiFi module out of the box.

It looks like the modem carrier board may support USB2, Referencing documentation here:
https://docs.modalai.com/microhard-add-on-datasheet/

So you may be able to add:
https://www.modalai.com/products/mcbl-00009
To J4/J5 (or equiv) on your modem board

And one of the USB WiFi modules listed here:
https://docs.modalai.com/voxl-2-wifi-setup/
Note: We've had great performance with the AWUS036ACS as long as it is connected to a 2.4ghz network.

Perhaps @Alex-Kushleyev can confirm if this setup will work through the modem USB ports.

Hi @gerard
Do you not get these LEDs either?
https://docs.modalai.com/microhard-usb-carrier/

7bc35bb8-c446-4e2f-b42e-5082bc84dbb9-image.png
Without a Microhard module installed, the 5V LED and the USB Hub LEDs should all still illuminate.
When the MH is properly configured, then you should start to see the other Activity and RSSI/Status LEDS. Those not appearing indicate the module is not configured, not seated, or in error.
Images will help.
Thanks!

@jameskuesel ,

I think there is another option which i have not considered before. The first three cameras are the same as above:

: M0173 J1: AR0144 slot 0 : CCI0 : M0173 J2: AR0144 slot 6 : CCI1 : M0173 J5: AR0144 slot 2 : CCI2

Then if we use J8U (which can be done using M0181 - it allows you to connect a Boson sensor to lower slot, and a tracking / hires camera to upper slot). Then the fourth camera would be:

VOXL2 J8: M0181 Upper : AR0144 slot 5 : CCI3

And there are no CCI conflicts.

One issue is that we don't typically sell M0181 by itself (only in a kit). Instead you could use two other options, both of which allow connecting a tracking / hires camera to the upper slot:

M0194 : https://www.modalai.com/products/m0194/ M0172: https://docs.modalai.com/M0172/ / https://www.modalai.com/products/mdk-m0172-1-00

The only down side of using M0172 / M0194 instead of M0181 is that the two alternatives do not have a mounting hole that would align with VOXL2 mounting hole, but M0181 does have a tab with a mounting hole for VOXL2 J8, see below. The M0172 and M0194 were really designed as mainly options for VOXL2 mini.

98d5f0ec-7f07-44bf-b002-036aefd3921d-image.png

c9c77086-b5fc-4215-99a2-fdc310d6f18c-image.png

@jon And you can find a lot of detailed information about the agent, including the start options, here: https://docs.px4.io/main/en/middleware/uxrce_dds

@awagner , I believe on VOXL2 Mini should be able to support any 4 cameras on the J6L, J6U, J7L, J7U (specifically the AR0144 (M0149) and IMX412 (M0107), which I assume you are using)

Can you please clarify the error that you are seeing? Is the issue the lack of correct sensormodule or something else? (you can check if correct sensormodules are present in /usr/lib/camera after configuring the cameras). As a reminder, the J6L, maps to slot 0, J6U, slot 1, J7L slot 2 and J7U slot 3.

Are you able to connect the 2 AR0144 cameras to J6 and J7?

What is your goal - how many of each cameras do you need to use? We can test it.

Alex

@Eyal , sorry for the delay. Here is some additional information regarding Stinger FPV:

https://docs.modalai.com/stinger-vision-datasheet/ base weight with battery : ~570g maximum thrust per motor : 650g @ 15V, 2600g total theoretical theoretical max thrust to weight ratio: 4.5:1, lots of extra margin, but if you add a LOT of weight, will need to check motor temps, etc. CAD model for stinger (may be slightly outdated) : https://forum.modalai.com/topic/5180/looking-stinger-fpv-cad-models -- you can attach your payload to carbon fiber I think that Stinger will be easier to tune up with additional payload because of more responsive and powerful propulsion system than Starling 2. i dont know what your sensor package is so, it is hard to comment about which platform is better. Starling 2 has landing gear that offsets it from the floor. Stringer is much lower to the ground.

Alex

@tom said in Latest SDK versions - How to access?:

https://storage.googleapis.com/platform-beta-releases/voxl2/voxl2_SDK_1.6.4-beta8.tar.gz

Thanks @tom !!!

@Eric-Katzfey I’m looking for the voxl-emulator Docker image referenced in the documentation:

VOXL Emulator Documentation: https://docs.modalai.com/voxl-emulator/#install-the-voxl-emulator-docker-image

However, in the Development Sources / Developer Portal there doesn’t seem to be any Docker image available for voxl-emulator.

Could you please confirm if the image is still available, or if there is an updated download location for it?

Thanks @Eric-Katzfey ! Here is the pinout for the dev board "UART" port that includes i2C_SCL and I2C_SDA.

0cda71eb-2c0f-4b1b-ba91-8b3862fc9763-image.png

The dev board pins 1-6 matching to J19 pins 1-6

We will give the COMPASS_DISBLMSK parameter a shot and see if that works.

@nickanick , can you please clarify which exact WIFI Dongle you would like to use?