Starling infinite loop switching between Position and Manual mode

[hmlow]

Hi devs

Can i trouble you guys to verify if this following is a legitimate bug?
I am able to repeat the observation on 2 different units of Starling.

SDK1.0 with voxl-px4_1.14.0-2.0.43
VIO only. GNSS and Baro disabled. No RC transmitter.

1. Disable voxl-camera-server launch on startup ie. systemctl disable voxl-camera-server
2. Reboot/power up the Starling
3. Connect to Starling over WiFi
4. Flight mode shown by QGC is Manual mode. Now, select Position mode on QGC to command the flight mode change.
5. From here on, flight mode switches back and forth between Position and Manual endlessly

Note: On a customized aircraft configuration (same SDK 1.0 and same voxl-px4 version as above) but with connection done over cellular 5G, this issue does not occur.

Thanks

[hmlow]

Hi did anyone manage to verify this?

[Eric Katzfey]

@hmlow Can you clarify a couple of things? Why do you disable voxl-camera-server? If you keep it enabled does it solve the issue? When you say no RC transmitter does that just mean that you do not turn on the transmitter or do you actually disable the RC driver in PX4? And when you say GNSS and Baro disabled how are you doing that?

[hmlow]

@Eric-Katzfey said in Starling infinite loop switching between Position and Manual mode:

@hmlow Can you clarify a couple of things?

Why do you disable voxl-camera-server?
Will only start the service before the aircraft is going to take off, which may or may not take quite a while.
Im using the Starling to dev and test this but will eventually be ported over to smth else.

If you keep it enabled does it solve the issue?
Yes

When you say no RC transmitter does that just mean that you do not turn on the transmitter or do you actually disable the RC driver in PX4?
Do not turn on the transmitter (in fact i did not purchase any). Control is done entirely with QGC with a gamepad/joystick.
If the mode of communication is WiFi, this issue shows up.
If the mode of communication is cellular (modified Starling with the 5G Quectel modem), this issue does not occur.

And when you say GNSS and Baro disabled (my bad, enabled) how are you doing that?
EKF2_GPS_CTRL 0
SYS_HAS_GPS 0
SYS_HAS_BARO 1
EKF2_BARO_CTRL 1
EKF2_HGT_REF 3
EKF2_EV_CTRL 15

[Eric Katzfey]

@hmlow And if you start voxl-camera-server and then put it into position mode is that okay? My guess is that you stopped voxl-camera-server but not some of the other services that depend on it like voxl-qvio-server, voxl-vision-hub, etc. and so they are sending erroneous data to px4 which confuses it. You are, obviously, trying some non-standard stuff here. Also, with respect to the RC, make sure you set RC=EXTERNAL in /etc/modalai/voxl-px4.conf so that the RC drivers are not started needlessly.

[hmlow]

@Eric-Katzfey said in Starling infinite loop switching between Position and Manual mode:

And if you start voxl-camera-server and then put it into position mode is that okay?
Not immediately. The longer the system was in the endlessly switching state the longer it takes for it to recover even after voxl-camera-server is started. Can be in the order of minutes.

My guess is that you stopped voxl-camera-server but not some of the other services that depend on it like voxl-qvio-server, voxl-vision-hub, etc. and so they are sending erroneous data to px4 which confuses it.
During this weird behavior I have attempted to turn off all other services that might be doing this, which includes the 2 that you have mentioned. The only exception is voxl-mavlink-server which obviously I can't turn it off but after restarting it, it's still weird behavior is still present.

You are, obviously, trying some non-standard stuff here.
Yes I do understand that. I'm just wondering why it appears only when the WiFi interface is used for communication and not when cellular 5G is used...

Also, with respect to the RC, make sure you set RC=EXTERNAL in /etc/modalai/voxl-px4.conf so that the RC drivers are not started needlessly.
Ok will do so thanks