Arming VOXL, but motors won't spin up

[Matthew Wellner]

Hi,

I have a VOXL 2 with the m0134_6 ESC that @Alex-Kushleyev has been helping me tune for low kV motors. In the process, I updated the ESC to a new firmware that changed the baud rate from 250000 to 200000. I updated the params for the vehicle in QGC, but now I can arm the VOXL 2, but it won't spin the motors at all and there aren't any errors that I can see.

I can still voxl-esc scan / spin / etc. without any issues.

Any ideas?

[Alex Kushleyev]

@Matthew-Wellner , the baud rate is 2000000 (2Mbit), not 200K, can you please double check your PX4 params?

Also, some helpful commands:

px4-listener esc_status

this will print out the esc_status message, which the ESC driver should be sending out

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 may be experiencing the same issue. I will tag along here.

@Eric-Katzfey I responded in our thread about the spectrum error thinking this might be linked to it, but this is very similar to what I am seeing. So it could be a linked to this instead.

[Chase Riley]

@Alex-Kushleyev This is the results I get from running px4-listener esc_status and capturing the results of running px4-qshell voxl_esc status.

voxl2:/$ px4-listener esc_status

TOPIC: esc_status
 esc_status
    timestamp: 28243762 (0.002512 seconds ago)
    counter: 12602
    esc_count: 4
    esc_connectiontype: 1
    esc_online_flags: 15 (0b1111)
    esc_armed_flags: 15 (0b1111)

  esc[0] (esc_report):
    timestamp: 28241456 (0.005087 seconds ago)
    esc_errorcount: 0
    esc_rpm: 0
    esc_voltage: 24.03100
    esc_current: -0.05600
    esc_temperature: 31.00000
    failures: 0
    esc_address: 3
    esc_cmdcount: 56
    esc_state: 0
    actuator_function: 0
    esc_power: 0

  esc[1] (esc_report):
    timestamp: 28242530 (0.004309 seconds ago)
    esc_errorcount: 0
    esc_rpm: 0
    esc_voltage: 24.03000
    esc_current: -0.01600
    esc_temperature: 30.00000
    failures: 0
    esc_address: 2
    esc_cmdcount: 57
    esc_state: 0
    actuator_function: 0
    esc_power: 0

  esc[2] (esc_report):
    timestamp: 28243762 (0.003363 seconds ago)
    esc_errorcount: 0
    esc_rpm: 0
    esc_voltage: 24.03300
    esc_current: -0.05600
    esc_temperature: 30.00000
    failures: 0
    esc_address: 4
    esc_cmdcount: 58
    esc_state: 0
    actuator_function: 0
    esc_power: 0

  esc[3] (esc_report):
    timestamp: 28240673 (0.006735 seconds ago)
    esc_errorcount: 0
    esc_rpm: 0
    esc_voltage: 24.01200
    esc_current: -0.02400
    esc_temperature: 30.00000
    failures: 0
    esc_address: 1
    esc_cmdcount: 55
    esc_state: 0
    actuator_function: 0
    esc_power: 0

  esc[4] (esc_report):
    timestamp: 0
    esc_errorcount: 0
    esc_rpm: 0
    esc_voltage: 0.00000
    esc_current: 0.00000
    esc_temperature: 0.00000
    failures: 0
    esc_address: 0
    esc_cmdcount: 0
    esc_state: 0
    actuator_function: 0
    esc_power: 0

  esc[5] (esc_report):
    timestamp: 0
    esc_errorcount: 0
    esc_rpm: 0
    esc_voltage: 0.00000
    esc_current: 0.00000
    esc_temperature: 0.00000
    failures: 0
    esc_address: 0
    esc_cmdcount: 0
    esc_state: 0
    actuator_function: 0
    esc_power: 0

  esc[6] (esc_report):
    timestamp: 0
    esc_errorcount: 0
    esc_rpm: 0
    esc_voltage: 0.00000
    esc_current: 0.00000
    esc_temperature: 0.00000
    failures: 0
    esc_address: 0
    esc_cmdcount: 0
    esc_state: 0
    actuator_function: 0
    esc_power: 0

  esc[7] (esc_report):
    timestamp: 0
    esc_errorcount: 0
    esc_rpm: 0
    esc_voltage: 0.00000
    esc_current: 0.00000
    esc_temperature: 0.00000
    failures: 0
    esc_address: 0
    esc_cmdcount: 0
    esc_state: 0
    actuator_function: 0
    esc_power: 0

INFO  [muorb] SLPI: qshell gotten: voxl_esc status
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:   arg0 = 'voxl_esc'

INFO  [muorb] SLPI:   arg1 = 'status'

INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Max update rate: 0 Hz
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Outputs on: no
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: UART port: 2
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: UART open: yes
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: 
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Params: VOXL_ESC_CONFIG: 1
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Params: VOXL_ESC_BAUD: 2000000
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Params: VOXL_ESC_FUNC1: 103
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Params: VOXL_ESC_FUNC2: 102
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Params: VOXL_ESC_FUNC3: 104
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Params: VOXL_ESC_FUNC4: 101
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Params: VOXL_ESC_SDIR1: 0
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Params: VOXL_ESC_SDIR2: 0
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Params: VOXL_ESC_SDIR3: 0
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Params: VOXL_ESC_SDIR4: 0
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Params: VOXL_ESC_RPM_MIN: 700
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Params: VOXL_ESC_RPM_MAX: 8000
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: 
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: -- ID: 0
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Motor:           3
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Direction:       1
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    State:           0
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Requested:       0 RPM
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Measured:        0 RPM
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Command Counter: 137
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Voltage:         24.010000 VDC
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: 
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: -- ID: 1
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Motor:           2
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Direction:       1
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    State:           0
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Requested:       0 RPM
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Measured:        0 RPM
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Command Counter: 138
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Voltage:         24.028002 VDC
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: 
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: -- ID: 2
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Motor:           4
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Direction:       1
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    State:           0
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Requested:       0 RPM
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Measured:        0 RPM
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Command Counter: 139
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Voltage:         24.020000 VDC
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: 
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: -- ID: 3
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Motor:           1
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Direction:       1
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    State:           0
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Requested:       0 RPM
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Measured:        0 RPM
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Command Counter: 136
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:    Voltage:         24.010000 VDC
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: 
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: voxl_esc: cycle: 44256 events, 37887531us elapsed, 856.10us avg, min 64us max 2164us 318.
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: voxl_esc: output update interval: 44255 events, 1271.43us avg, min 196us max 50628us 1397
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Param prefix: VOXL_ESC
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: control latency: 44218 events, 60898443us elapsed, 1377.23us avg, min 314us max 3288us 48
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Switched to rate_ctrl work queue
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Channel Configuration:

INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Channel 0: func: 103, value: 0, failsafe: 0, disarmed: 0, min: 700, max: 8000

INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Channel 1: func: 102, value: 0, failsafe: 0, disarmed: 0, min: 700, max: 8000

INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Channel 2: func: 104, value: 0, failsafe: 0, disarmed: 0, min: 700, max: 8000

INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Channel 3: func: 101, value: 0, failsafe: 0, disarmed: 0, min: 700, max: 8000

INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Ok executing command: voxl_esc status

[Alex Kushleyev]

@Chase-Riley, your output indicates that the ESC driver in PX4 is communicating with the ESC, I do not see any issue with that!

[Chase Riley]

@Alex-Kushleyev Not sure what happened but you are correct it is functioning now.

[Matthew Wellner]

@Alex-Kushleyev

Interesting - px4-listener esc_status gives me "never published".

[Matthew Wellner]

@Alex-Kushleyev

When I run and the motors don't spin up here is what your second set of commands gives me:

[Matthew Wellner]

@Alex-Kushleyev

I also watched as px4 started up and it looks like the process fails to open the port for the ESC (see the red after the voxl_esc start command) -

[Alex Kushleyev]

@Matthew-Wellner your ESC baud rate in PX4 params is 200,000 , not 2,000,000 which is most likely the issue.

[Alex Kushleyev]

the failure to open the UART port is most likely due to unsupported baud rate (200,000) instead of desired baud rate (2,000,000)

[Matthew Wellner]

@Alex-Kushleyev - Thanks again. You were right and that was all I needed to change. Sorry!

[Alex Kushleyev]

@Matthew-Wellner , no worries! I am glad you got that part working.

[Kiazoa Joao]

@Alex-Kushleyev I had a similar issue and this helped a lot. thanks.