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    (Platform 1.0.0) Bug in the most recent VOXL2 ESC Firmware (Random motors reverse directions each arm)

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    • Alex KushleyevA
      Alex Kushleyev ModalAI Team @John Nomikos 0
      last edited by

      @John-Nomikos-0

      Yes, you should perform the ESC calibration - it should be done for best results whenever you have a new motor or propeller type. There is more information about it in the other thread you found. Then you would need to update your PX4 parameters for min and max rpm so the commanded thrust is properly mapped to what motors can achieve.

      Also, if you are experimenting with new motors and props, it is always better to fly in manual mode to make sure the basic flight is working properly and then test higher level modes like VIO.

      @modaltb , are there any other params that need updating if John is using a custom drone for his custom motor/prop combo?

      Alex

      John Nomikos 0J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • John Nomikos 0J
        John Nomikos 0 @Alex Kushleyev
        last edited by

        @Alex-Kushleyev

        The interesting thing is that these aren't new motors and props. We got them working previously on the older esc firmware and even did PID tuning. Drone was flying smoothly. But of course, changing the ESC firmware parameters could have completely invalidated that.

        Alex KushleyevA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Alex KushleyevA
          Alex Kushleyev ModalAI Team @John Nomikos 0
          last edited by

          @John-Nomikos-0 , i see. In that case, if you kept the old control parameters the same (such as the calibration curve and gainst, etc), the new firmware should work the same. The new firmware only had changes that relate to the spin-up procedure. Therefore, if you have migrated your old params to the new params correctly (you could double check that all the control params should be the same between your old param file and new param file), then the issue may be somewhere else. You should try to fly in non VIO mode, just manual mode to check if the drone flies well manually.

          Alex

          John Nomikos 0J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • John Nomikos 0J
            John Nomikos 0 @Alex Kushleyev
            last edited by John Nomikos 0

            @Alex-Kushleyev And just to confirm, the actuators tab should be where I am testing that the motors are mapped correctly, right?

            We were seeing this problem when flying in stabilized flight mode as well. I can try manual next

            John Nomikos 0J modaltbM 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • John Nomikos 0J
              John Nomikos 0 @John Nomikos 0
              last edited by

              Even in manual mode it tries to eat dirt as soon as it tries to lift off. I triple checked, motors are mapped correctly and spinning in the right direction

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • modaltbM
                modaltb ModalAI Team @John Nomikos 0
                last edited by modaltb

                Hey @John-Nomikos-0 , you'll need to know how things are wired up to "quickly" be able to use this guide: https://docs.modalai.com/modal-esc-px4-user-guide/#actuator-setup-using-qgc

                If you don't know the wiring, it becomes a fun guess and check game....

                To reverse, you could try these I believe:

                MODAL_IO_SDIR1
                MODAL_IO_SDIR2
                MODAL_IO_SDIR3
                MODAL_IO_SDIR4
                
                John Nomikos 0J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • John Nomikos 0J
                  John Nomikos 0 @modaltb
                  last edited by

                  @modaltb I have actually successfully been able to use the "Identify and assign motors" functionality, so I was using that to identify the motors.

                  I'm going to try via command line just to make sure that the actuator test matches with what is expected

                  John Nomikos 0J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • John Nomikos 0J
                    John Nomikos 0 @John Nomikos 0
                    last edited by John Nomikos 0

                    @John-Nomikos-0

                    Double checked using command line
                    actuator_test set

                    It matches what I see on the actuators tab.

                    Moving back to previous ESC firmware to see if problem persists.
                    Nevermind, I think I would need to plug into ESCs to do that

                    John Nomikos 0J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • John Nomikos 0J
                      John Nomikos 0 @John Nomikos 0
                      last edited by

                      Just to clarify, I am still unable to fly with the most recent ESC firmware. All of the motors are mapped correctly and the props are on right, but the drone still seems to eat dirt whenever I throttle it up. It even completely flipped over once. I tried in manual mode and same story.

                      Any other suggestions? I'm starting to run out of ideas 😢

                      Alex KushleyevA Eric KatzfeyE 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • Alex KushleyevA
                        Alex Kushleyev ModalAI Team @John Nomikos 0
                        last edited by

                        @John-Nomikos-0 i have asked for help from our other devs, we will follow up with further suggestions.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • Eric KatzfeyE
                          Eric Katzfey ModalAI Team @John Nomikos 0
                          last edited by

                          @John-Nomikos-0 Is this on a custom drone? Seems like perhaps a bad PX4 parameter somewhere. Maybe you can wipe everything and start from scratch?

                          John Nomikos 0J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • John Nomikos 0J
                            John Nomikos 0 @Eric Katzfey
                            last edited by John Nomikos 0

                            @Eric-Katzfey Maybe there's something with my ESC firmware parameters that's causing issues?

                            I'm going to try to flash an esc config that is used on a modalai drone to see if it's any different

                            Also, is there an easy way to go to the previous ESC firmware version without manually plugging in? I want to go back to see if this is due to the firmware flash in a time-efficient manner. I'm pretty sure there isn't but I wanted to make absolute sure

                            Also it is on a custom drone, but we got our drone flying with the exact same parameters on the previous ESC version on 1.0.0. Really is seeming like an ESC firmware issue to me.

                            Alex KushleyevA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • Alex KushleyevA
                              Alex Kushleyev ModalAI Team @John Nomikos 0
                              last edited by

                              @John-Nomikos-0

                              Yes i can provide you with old firmware for m0117 (the original firmware you had before). You will need your old ESC params. All this can be done right from voxl2 without unplugging. I will follow up tomorrow morning.

                              John Nomikos 0J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • John Nomikos 0J
                                John Nomikos 0 @Alex Kushleyev
                                last edited by

                                @Alex-Kushleyev said in (Platform 1.0.0) Bug in the most recent VOXL2 ESC Firmware (Random motors reverse directions each arm):

                                Yes i can provide you with old firmware for m0117 (the original firmware you had before). You will need your old ESC params. All this can be done right from voxl2 without unplugging. I will follow up tomorrow morning.

                                Sounds good. I don't think we ever changed the ESC params on the old firmware version. So they would be whatever the ESC came out of the factory with. I'm assuming there are default parameters available for the old firmware, right?

                                Alex KushleyevA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • Alex KushleyevA
                                  Alex Kushleyev ModalAI Team @John Nomikos 0
                                  last edited by

                                  @John-Nomikos-0 , yes i will provide the default params that are loaded during production.

                                  Alex KushleyevA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                  • Alex KushleyevA
                                    Alex Kushleyev ModalAI Team @Alex Kushleyev
                                    last edited by Alex Kushleyev

                                    @John-Nomikos-0 ,

                                    I have uploaded the older firmware that was used during production of M0117-1 ESC : https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/voxl-sdk/utilities/voxl-esc/-/blob/dev/voxl-esc-tools/firmware/old/modalai_esc_firmware_m0117_1_v0_36_f75f1fdb.bin

                                    The default params that are loaded with that are here : https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/voxl-sdk/utilities/voxl-esc/-/blob/params-v1/voxl-esc-params/old/esc_params_modalai_4_in_1_revb.xml (please note that this is not the same as the latest esc_params_modalai_4_in_1_revb.xml in dev or master branch.

                                    (you can put the old firmware file into the following location: /usr/share/modalai/voxl-esc-tools/firmware/

                                    Note that if you want to perform the ESC downgrade right on VOXL 2, you need to get both of these files on your VOXL2 and run the following commands:

                                    cd /usr/share/modalai/voxl-esc-tools/
                                    
                                    #disable PX4
                                    voxl-esc enable-bridge
                                    
                                    #upload firmware to each ESC ID (you will hear a sad beep after each update, which means the params are invalid - this is ok
                                    python3 voxl-esc-upload-firmware.py --firmware-file firmware/modalai_esc_firmware_m0117_1_v0_36_f75f1fdb.bin --id 0
                                    python3 voxl-esc-upload-firmware.py --firmware-file firmware/modalai_esc_firmware_m0117_1_v0_36_f75f1fdb.bin --id 1
                                    python3 voxl-esc-upload-firmware.py --firmware-file firmware/modalai_esc_firmware_m0117_1_v0_36_f75f1fdb.bin --id 2
                                    python3 voxl-esc-upload-firmware.py --firmware-file firmware/modalai_esc_firmware_m0117_1_v0_36_f75f1fdb.bin --id 3
                                    
                                    #upload old params (one command to update params on all 4 ESCs)
                                    python3 voxl-esc-upload-params.py --params-file <path_to_your_params_file>/esc_params_modalai_4_in_1_revb.xml
                                    
                                    #detect the ESCs
                                    python3 voxl-esc-scan.py
                                    
                                    #re-enable PX4
                                    voxl-esc disable-bridge
                                    

                                    Your firmware has should now be updated to have the hash f75f1fdb, which is the original firmware that you had on the ESC and the old firmware esc_params_modalai_4_in_1_revb.xml should have been the firmware that you received installed during production.

                                    Depending on the baud rate that you use in your latest ESC params, you may have to update it (the old baud rate was 250K but it could have been changed to 2Mbit, please double check).

                                    Let me know if you have any issues in this process

                                    Alex

                                    John Nomikos 0J 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • John Nomikos 0J
                                      John Nomikos 0 @Alex Kushleyev
                                      last edited by John Nomikos 0

                                      @Alex-Kushleyev Thank you so much for the help. I will try this next week. Have a great weekend!

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • John Nomikos 0J
                                        John Nomikos 0 @Alex Kushleyev
                                        last edited by

                                        @Alex-Kushleyev said in (Platform 1.0.0) Bug in the most recent VOXL2 ESC Firmware (Random motors reverse directions each arm):

                                        python3 voxl-esc-upload-params.py --params-file

                                        So I successfully flashed the firmware on all 4 ESCs. But uploading params gave me this error

                                        voxl2:/usr/share/modalai/voxl-esc-tools$ python3 voxl-esc-upload-params.py --params-file /esc_params_modalai_4_in_1_revb.xml 
                                        Detected Python version : 3.6.9 (default, Mar 10 2023, 16:46:00) 
                                        [GCC 8.4.0]
                                        Found voxl-esc tools bin version: 1.2
                                        
                                        INFO: Params file name : /esc_params_modalai_4_in_1_revb.xml 
                                        INFO: Params file size : 6971 bytes
                                        
                                        
                                        VOXL Platform: M0054
                                        Detected VOXL2 M0054 or M0104!
                                        Found previous connection information in .voxl_esc_cache ..
                                        Prioritizing /dev/slpi-uart-2 @ 2000000
                                        INFO: Scanning for ESC firmware: /dev/slpi-uart-2, baud: 2000000
                                        Sending library name request: libslpi_uart_bridge_slpi.so
                                        Received standard error event 2
                                        Sending initialization request
                                        INFO: Scanning for ESC firmware: /dev/slpi-uart-2, baud: 250000
                                        INFO: Scanning for ESC firmware: /dev/slpi-uart-2, baud: 921600
                                        INFO: Scanning for ESC firmware: /dev/slpi-uart-2, baud: 230400
                                        INFO: Scanning for ESC firmware: /dev/slpi-uart-2, baud: 57600
                                        INFO: ESC(s) detected on port: /dev/slpi-uart-2, baud rate: 57600
                                        INFO: ESCs detected:
                                        INFO: ---------------------
                                        ID: 0, SW: 36, HW: 34: ModalAi 4-in-1 ESC (M0117-1)
                                        ID: 1, SW: 36, HW: 34: ModalAi 4-in-1 ESC (M0117-1)
                                        ID: 2, SW: 36, HW: 34: ModalAi 4-in-1 ESC (M0117-1)
                                        ID: 3, SW: 36, HW: 34: ModalAi 4-in-1 ESC (M0117-1)
                                        ---------------------
                                        ERROR: ESC firmware version 36 is incompatible with params supported by this utility
                                               Acceptable ESC firmware versions are:  [38]
                                        

                                        I think voxl-esc-upload-params is checking for the version. I could modify it and try again, unless there is an earlier tool meant for this firmware

                                        Alex KushleyevA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • Alex KushleyevA
                                          Alex Kushleyev ModalAI Team @John Nomikos 0
                                          last edited by

                                          @John-Nomikos-0 ,

                                          Yes, you are right, in order to load older params, you need earlier version of the voxl-esc tools. Please use this version of voxl-esc tools, you can check it out right onto your VOXL2 next to the latest voxl-esc tools (do not overwrite) : https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/voxl-sdk/utilities/voxl-esc/-/tree/params-v1

                                          Everything else should work the same with old tools.

                                          Sorry about that, i forgot to mention it 🙂

                                          Alex

                                          John Nomikos 0J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • John Nomikos 0J
                                            John Nomikos 0 @Alex Kushleyev
                                            last edited by

                                            @Alex-Kushleyev Thank you. Successfully uploaded params

                                            John Nomikos 0J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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