mavros

[vaughanje]

On my VOXL Flight setup, I'm having trouble getting the Docker ROS image to communicate with the VOXL. I'm following the instructions from this link:

MAVROS

ModalAI technical documentation for VOXL and VOXL 2 Companion Computers for PX4 and ArduPilot Obstacle Avoidance and GPS-denied navigation, assembled in the USA

ModalAI Technical Docs (docs.modalai.com)

I changed the parameters in the /etc/modalai/voxl-vision-px4.conf file to include:

"en_localhost_mavlink_udp":	true,

I am able to communicate with the Docker image and can publish and subscribe to messages from it. I do see all the mavros topics, from inside the docker container, on the "native" VOXL shell, and from my remote computer connected over WiFi or via our MicroHard radio. However, the /mavros/state message indicates that there is no connection. rostopic echo /mavros/state gives only one message:

header:
  seq: 0
  stamp:
    secs: 2228
    nsecs: 862914984
  frame_id: ''
connected: False
armed: False
guided: False
manual_input: False
mode: ''
system_status: 0
---

The last messages on running ./run_mavros.sh from inside the Docker container are:

...
...
[ INFO] [732.234354982]: Known MAVLink dialects: common ardupilotmega ASLUAV autoquad icarous matrixpilot paparazzi slugs standard uAvionix ualberta
[ INFO] [732.234448888]: MAVROS started. MY ID 1.240, TARGET ID 1.1

I also found this article about the MAVlink SDK and how to setup local communication:

voxl / VOXL Docker Images / voxl-docker-mavsdk-python · GitLab

Example of how to use MAVSDK Python in a Docker container running on target.

GitLab (gitlab.com)

Given the version of the VOXL software on the system, it seems that we need this in /etc/modalai/voxl-vision-px4.conf instead of the above option:

"en_secondary_qgc": true,
"secondary_qgc_ip": "127.0.0.1",

However, that did not work either. I get the same type message from rostopic echo-ing /mavros/state.

I am able to plug into the FCU via USB and run mavros, by specifying the correct serial port on launch.

The output of voxl-version for my current setup is:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
system-image:    ModalAI 2.2.0 BUILDER: ekatzfey BUILD_TIME: 2020-01-28_23:54
kernel:          #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Jan 28 23:55:02 UTC 2020 3.18.71-perf
factory-bundle:  0.0.5
sw-bundle:       0.0.5
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
architecture:    aarch64
processor:       apq8096
os:              GNU/Linux
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
voxl-utils:
Package: voxl-utils
Version: 0.4.6
Status: install user installed
Architecture: aarch64
Installed-Time: 246

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Any help or direction on what to check next is greatly appreciated.

[modaltb]

Thanks for the post! You are user #1

We made a change to voxl-vision-px4 some time back and I'm wondering if you are caught in the middle.

v0.5.4 split localhost UDP to it's own port 14551, need to check mavros still works (e9259cff) · Commits · voxl / VOXL SDK / Services / voxl-vision-hub · GitLab

This service acts as the main hub managing communication between VOXL MPA services and autopilots such as PX4 and Ardupilot.

GitLab (gitlab.com)

"Older" (a few months back) version of the program expected all traffic over port 14550, since then we've split up traffic for 14550 for external clients (e.g. QGC) and 14551 for onboard traffic.

Notice here we are using 14551:
https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/mavros_test/-/blob/master/run_mavros.sh#L7

I wonder if updating this on your system to 14550 will get you going?

The other option is to update the system image and then software suite to get the latest, if this is an option let me know.
Thanks!
Travis

[vaughanje]

The change of port worked for me. Thank you for the help.