ESC failure error after SDK 1.1.2 upgrade

Alex Kushleyev

@smilon , when you are running the wrapper voxl-esc, it will automatically stop px4 if it is running, however if you are running the python scripts directly, this does not happen. Can you please try stopping px4 manually before running running voxl-esc-*.py scripts:

systemctl stop voxl-px4

smilon

@Alex-Kushleyev Hi, indeed they run just fine. Also performed a calibration and everything returns fine. However, when I boot up the drone I get a "sad" sound from the ESC's, much quietter than I used to get previously. Any ideas how to proceed?

smilon

I ran a voxl-configure-mpa and while im still getting quietter sounds from ESC, the Sentinel seems now fully functional. A lot of parameters were for some reason N/A and got filled in by this operation.

Alex Kushleyev

@smilon , I am glad that you got it working. I am a bit unclear about the following:

"Also performed a calibration and everything returns fine" -- which calibration you had to run?
"A lot of parameters were for some reason N/A and got filled in by this operation." -- are you talking about PX4 parameters?

Regarding the motor sounds getting quieter, perhaps you had much older ESC params which had louder sounds - I believe we lowered the volume so that it's not too loud. When in doubt, the voxl-esc-scan.py and voxl-esc-verify-params.py scripts can verify that your ESC is configured properly.

smilon

@Alex-Kushleyev Hi Alex, to clarify what you asked:

For ESC calibration I ran the voxl-esc-tools/voxl-esc-calibrate.py. This was not something I was prompted to do but since all of the voxl-esc scan/detect / voxl-esc-verify-params.py tools returned fine and was still getting "ESC failure" from QGC, I wanted to make sure that my ESC's are calibrated correctly.
The parameters I refer to were PX4 params. Unfortunately I have not captured the output but they were several "ESC_" prefixed params. From my understanding, after flashing SDK 1.1.2 I had to run voxl-esc-calibrate.py and then voxl-configre-mpa again in order to register them properly to PX4.

Thank you!

Alex Kushleyev

@smilon , voxl-esc-calibrate.py is a script that runs a test procedure in a single motor (with propeller mounted) to calibrate the behavior of the motor / propeller. This procedure only needs to be run once if you change motor or propeller type from a default configuration. The output of this script is just 3 coeficients a1, a2, a3 which you would need to manually enter into an ESC calibration xml file and then upload the xml paramer file to the ESC. Full details about the ESC calibration (when to do it and how) can be found here : https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/voxl-sdk/utilities/voxl-esc/-/blob/master/voxl-esc-tools/calibration.md?ref_type=heads

If you are using standard motors and propellers (one of standard ModalAI drones), you do not need to run this calibration procedure.

It sounds like you got it working, I believe voxl-configre-mpa took care of it. You can see what voxl-configure-mpa typically does here : https://docs.modalai.com/voxl-configure-mpa/ , which includes running voxl-esc to upload the latest firmware and params for a specific vehicle.

Chase Riley

@Alex-Kushleyev I am now experiencing this same issue. Updated to SDK 1.1.2 recently on our custom air vehicle and now in QGC I received the failsafe for ESC Failure. I am able to run voxl-esc-scan.py, and even upload firmware and params. I have other systems running on SDK 1.0 with the same firmware and params and the work fine. Should I do the voxl-configure-mpa as mentioned above?

Alex Kushleyev

@Chase-Riley,

you should check your PX4 params on the fresh system with 1.1.2, specifically the params related to the ESC and compare to those on your working SDK 1.0 (which have the same firmware and ESC params).

My guess either missing PX4 params to enable the modalai ESC driver or incorrect baud rate for ESC in PX4 params

voxl-configure-mpa script could help getting everything in order, however since you have a custom vehicle, our standard configurator script would not be able to set those custom px4 params for your vehicle.

Chase Riley

@Alex-Kushleyev All the voxl_esc params are the same in QGC.

Chase Riley

@Alex-Kushleyev I even tried to flash the sentinel params in QGC just to make sure I hadn't missed something and I am having the same issue.

Alex Kushleyev

@Chase-Riley ,

Are the leds on ESC blinking while you run voxl-px4? they indicate communication to the host (VOXL2)

Also, some helpful commands:

px4-listener esc_status

Also, if you run voxl-px4 in foreground

systemctl stop voxl-px4
voxl-px4 -d

then you can open another terminal / adb and run:

px4-qshell voxl_esc status
this will print status of voxl esc driver and the params (in the window where voxl-px4 -d is running)

Chase Riley

@Alex-Kushleyev I ran voxl-configure-mpa and was able to get the ESC to function again. Of course it caused other issues due to resetting files and params so I am now trying to work through setting everything back up. Im not sure what would have caused the mpa to need to be reconfigured because I had just done that obviously with the flash of SDK 1.1.2.

Alex Kushleyev

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