voxl-microdds-agent not publishing all topics

[K.Stute]

Hi,

I have the weird problem where the running agent is not publishing on all topics specified in the clients dds_topics.yaml. E.g. on the topic /fmu/out/senor_baro and /fmu/out/vehicle_odometry everything works fine but nothing is published on /fmu/out/vehicle_status and /fmu/out/vehicle_gps_position even though everything is specified in the .yaml with the corresponding px4_msgs. The vehicle status msg is published by uorb (at least "listener vehicle_status" in the px4 shell gives me a msg) and the microdds agent created a publisher, datawriter and topic. I've rebuild voxl-px4 and the microdds agent to no avail. I honestly dont know what to do next so any advice would be great!

[Zachary Lowell 0]

Hi @K-Stute - I will try to recreate on my end as I have not come across this issue before. Just to confirm - what SDK are you on? and also what repository were you looking at for the dds_topics.yaml?

Zach

[K.Stute]

@Zachary-Lowell-0 I'm using a newly flashed sdk 1.2.

voxl2:~$ voxl-version 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
system-image: 1.7.6-M0054-14.1a-perf
kernel:       #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Mar 20 19:48:52 UTC 2024 4.19.125
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
hw platform:  M0054
mach.var:     1.0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
voxl-suite:   1.2.0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And I'm using the repo you've send me in another post (https://github.com/modalai/px4-firmware/blob/voxl-dev/src/modules/microdds_client/dds_topics.yaml) and with that i followed your instructions from your github(https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/voxl-sdk/services/voxl-px4).
For ros i use ros2 humble in a docker container running the arm64v8/ros:humble-ros-base image with the px4_msgs from this repo https://github.com/PX4/px4_msgs.git.

I'm investigating a possible problem with the px4_msgs version in your px4-firmware fork and the repo i mentioned above. Maybe this rings a bell.

Is there anything else i can provide you with?

[Zachary Lowell 0]

Nope! Appreciate the info @K-Stute will be back with a solution soon I hope!

[Zachary Lowell 0]

Ok @K-Stute I am unable to recreate your issue:

voxl2:~$ ros2 topic echo /fmu/out/vehicle_status
timestamp: 1714152702737855
armed_time: 0
takeoff_time: 0
arming_state: 1
latest_arming_reason: 0
latest_disarming_reason: 0
nav_state_timestamp: 15311461
nav_state_user_intention: 0
nav_state: 0
failure_detector_status: 0
hil_state: 0
vehicle_type: 1
failsafe: false
failsafe_and_user_took_over: false
gcs_connection_lost: true
gcs_connection_lost_counter: 0
high_latency_data_link_lost: false
is_vtol: false
is_vtol_tailsitter: false
in_transition_mode: false
in_transition_to_fw: false
system_type: 2
system_id: 1
component_id: 1
safety_button_available: true
safety_off: true
power_input_valid: true
usb_connected: false
open_drone_id_system_present: false
open_drone_id_system_healthy: false
parachute_system_present: false
parachute_system_healthy: false
avoidance_system_required: false
avoidance_system_valid: true
rc_calibration_in_progress: false
calibration_enabled: false
pre_flight_checks_pass: false
---
timestamp: 1714152702778985
armed_time: 0
takeoff_time: 0
arming_state: 1
latest_arming_reason: 0
latest_disarming_reason: 0
nav_state_timestamp: 15311461
nav_state_user_intention: 0
nav_state: 0
failure_detector_status: 0
hil_state: 0
vehicle_type: 1
failsafe: false
failsafe_and_user_took_over: false
gcs_connection_lost: true
gcs_connection_lost_counter: 0
high_latency_data_link_lost: false
is_vtol: false
is_vtol_tailsitter: false
in_transition_mode: false
in_transition_to_fw: false
system_type: 2
system_id: 1
component_id: 1
safety_button_available: true
safety_off: true
power_input_valid: true
usb_connected: false
open_drone_id_system_present: false
open_drone_id_system_healthy: false
parachute_system_present: false
parachute_system_healthy: false
avoidance_system_required: false
avoidance_system_valid: true
rc_calibration_in_progress: false
calibration_enabled: false
pre_flight_checks_pass: false
---

The steps I did to do this on a 1.2.0 Voxl-suite -->

1. Enable/start voxl-px4
2. sudo apt-get install voxl-ros2-foxy
3. sudo apt-get install voxl-microdds-agent
4. sudo apt-get install voxl-mpa-to-ros2
5. Ensure that microdds-agent service has been started: systemctl start voxl-microdds-agent
6. voxl-configure-mpa-to-ros2
7. source /opt/ros/foxy/mpa_to_ros2/install/setup.bash
8. ros2 topic echo /fmu/out/vehicle_status

I had to wait about a second for vehicle_status to being publishing as well.

[K.Stute]

@Zachary-Lowell-0 Okay maybe this seems to work with foxy but as i mentioned I'm using humble and it seems like there is a mismatch between the version of the px4_msgs. I can provide a docker image to recreate the problem (at least with my voxl-px4 build).

To recreate use this docker image:
run with

docker run -it --network=host learningsql/voxl-px4-hector:tagname

Do:

cd ros2_ws
colcon build
source install/setup.bash
ros2 topic echo /fmu/out/vehicle_status

There should appear no msgs (at least on my system)

Fix this with:

rm -rf src/px4_msgs/msg
unzip /px4_firmware_msgs/msg_voxl_px4.zip
colcon build
source install/setup.bash
ros2 topic echo /fmu/out/vehicle_status

Now there should be msgs on the screen.

Idk if this is relevant for your px4_msgs fork but at least i found a solution and maybe this thread can help other people.

Thanks for you help!

[Darshit Desai]

@Zachary-Lowell-0 @Moderator A really important question here is what if there are two drones publishing the same name FMU topics and you haven't set the domain id different for those drones for data sharing through your custom interfaces. PX4 ROS2 docs provide a way to change the namespace of the FMU topics to be published but MODAL AI docs mention no such thing? Is there a way to do that? As most of the starling systems are being used as a swarm platform this thing is really critical