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  4. VOXL2 - Cube Orange External Flight Controller Integration

VOXL2 - Cube Orange External Flight Controller Integration

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  • tomT tom

    @Jetson-Nano You can disable px4 on voxl with systemctl disable voxl-px4 to ensure its not running

    Jetson NanoJ Offline
    Jetson NanoJ Offline
    Jetson Nano
    Veteran
    wrote on last edited by
    #3

    @tom yes, I have done that.

    Eric KatzfeyE 1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • Jetson NanoJ Jetson Nano

      @tom yes, I have done that.

      Eric KatzfeyE Offline
      Eric KatzfeyE Offline
      Eric Katzfey
      ModalAI Team
      wrote on last edited by
      #4

      @Jetson-Nano If you have disabled the internal flight controller and remove the USB connection to the external flight controller and are still seeing the connection to QGC then I think you are setup. Are seeing any issues?

      Jetson NanoJ 1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • Eric KatzfeyE Eric Katzfey

        @Jetson-Nano If you have disabled the internal flight controller and remove the USB connection to the external flight controller and are still seeing the connection to QGC then I think you are setup. Are seeing any issues?

        Jetson NanoJ Offline
        Jetson NanoJ Offline
        Jetson Nano
        Veteran
        wrote on last edited by
        #5

        @Eric-Katzfey, I'm having a Starling drone setup on my custom airframe build and having integrated external FC, how do I do vehicle actuator setup in QGC once I'm done setting up external FC?

        Eric KatzfeyE 1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • Jetson NanoJ Jetson Nano

          @Eric-Katzfey, I'm having a Starling drone setup on my custom airframe build and having integrated external FC, how do I do vehicle actuator setup in QGC once I'm done setting up external FC?

          Eric KatzfeyE Offline
          Eric KatzfeyE Offline
          Eric Katzfey
          ModalAI Team
          wrote on last edited by
          #6

          @Jetson-Nano Once you are up and running on your external Orange Cube then VOXL 2 is just a conduit for mavlink packets. You should be able to interact with your Orange Cube normally. I do not know anything about Orange Cubes so can't answer how to do vehicle actuator setup in QGC with it.

          Jetson NanoJ 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • Eric KatzfeyE Eric Katzfey

            @Jetson-Nano Once you are up and running on your external Orange Cube then VOXL 2 is just a conduit for mavlink packets. You should be able to interact with your Orange Cube normally. I do not know anything about Orange Cubes so can't answer how to do vehicle actuator setup in QGC with it.

            Jetson NanoJ Offline
            Jetson NanoJ Offline
            Jetson Nano
            Veteran
            wrote on last edited by Jetson Nano
            #7

            Hey @Eric-Katzfey , I saw this post and in this you have asked to add the driver to the build configuration, but how do I include the voxl_esc driver to a build of different board configuration?

            One more question, can I use the J5 connector of this to connect to the telemetry port of the FC?

            Eric KatzfeyE 2 Replies Last reply
            0
            • Jetson NanoJ Jetson Nano

              Hey @Eric-Katzfey , I saw this post and in this you have asked to add the driver to the build configuration, but how do I include the voxl_esc driver to a build of different board configuration?

              One more question, can I use the J5 connector of this to connect to the telemetry port of the FC?

              Eric KatzfeyE Offline
              Eric KatzfeyE Offline
              Eric Katzfey
              ModalAI Team
              wrote on last edited by
              #8

              @Jetson-Nano To add the driver you need to modify the build configuration file (https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/blob/main/boards/cubepilot/cubeorange/default.px4board). You can add the voxl-esc driver to that with CONFIG_DRIVERS_ACTUATORS_VOXL_ESC=y

              1 Reply Last reply
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              • Jetson NanoJ Jetson Nano

                Hey @Eric-Katzfey , I saw this post and in this you have asked to add the driver to the build configuration, but how do I include the voxl_esc driver to a build of different board configuration?

                One more question, can I use the J5 connector of this to connect to the telemetry port of the FC?

                Eric KatzfeyE Offline
                Eric KatzfeyE Offline
                Eric Katzfey
                ModalAI Team
                wrote on last edited by
                #9

                @Jetson-Nano Yes, you should be able to use the UART pins on that J5 connector.

                Jetson NanoJ 1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • Eric KatzfeyE Eric Katzfey

                  @Jetson-Nano Yes, you should be able to use the UART pins on that J5 connector.

                  Jetson NanoJ Offline
                  Jetson NanoJ Offline
                  Jetson Nano
                  Veteran
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #10

                  Thank you @Eric-Katzfey , I'll test this out and get back to you on the result

                  Jetson NanoJ 1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • Jetson NanoJ Jetson Nano

                    Thank you @Eric-Katzfey , I'll test this out and get back to you on the result

                    Jetson NanoJ Offline
                    Jetson NanoJ Offline
                    Jetson Nano
                    Veteran
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #11

                    Hey @Eric-Katzfey , I tested whatever you told,

                    1. I connected to the UART port on the J5 of M0141, and I tested, it is not working. When using a companion computer you can run
                    cat /dev/ttyHSx
                    

                    to get data from the FC, you'll get random symbols. I tried it and it is not working, when I tested yesterday with this I got the output as said previously, but still with J5 I tried the pymavlink part by changing the baud rate, but I am getting this output

                    voxl2:/home$ python3 mavlink_shell.py /dev/ttyTHS1
                    Connecting to MAVLINK...
                    

                    And what will be the port for the J5 connector of M0141, it is not listed in the below table.

                    f14a4425-60c1-4ecf-9f43-ea072727ba21-image.png

                    1. The VOXL ESC Driver part, I added that to the board config and built, after that I am not able to see any VOXL_ESC parameters.
                    Eric KatzfeyE 2 Replies Last reply
                    0
                    • Jetson NanoJ Jetson Nano

                      Hey @Eric-Katzfey , I tested whatever you told,

                      1. I connected to the UART port on the J5 of M0141, and I tested, it is not working. When using a companion computer you can run
                      cat /dev/ttyHSx
                      

                      to get data from the FC, you'll get random symbols. I tried it and it is not working, when I tested yesterday with this I got the output as said previously, but still with J5 I tried the pymavlink part by changing the baud rate, but I am getting this output

                      voxl2:/home$ python3 mavlink_shell.py /dev/ttyTHS1
                      Connecting to MAVLINK...
                      

                      And what will be the port for the J5 connector of M0141, it is not listed in the below table.

                      f14a4425-60c1-4ecf-9f43-ea072727ba21-image.png

                      1. The VOXL ESC Driver part, I added that to the board config and built, after that I am not able to see any VOXL_ESC parameters.
                      Eric KatzfeyE Offline
                      Eric KatzfeyE Offline
                      Eric Katzfey
                      ModalAI Team
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #12

                      @Jetson-Nano For the UART issue it's best to take things step by step. I would first verify the Orange Cube telemetry port by attaching it to a laptop or desktop computer. Make sure you can attach to QGC that way. And note the baudrate being used when it is working. That will validate the Orange Cube. Then validate the port of the add on card that you want to use with VOXL 2. For example, with M0141, validate /dev/ttyHS1 by attaching to a computer with a serial to UART cable and sending / receiving test data with a simple Python script. Once you are sure that the parts are working individually then you can hook them together and start debugging higher level things like voxl-mavlink-server.

                      Jetson NanoJ 1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • Jetson NanoJ Jetson Nano

                        Hey @Eric-Katzfey , I tested whatever you told,

                        1. I connected to the UART port on the J5 of M0141, and I tested, it is not working. When using a companion computer you can run
                        cat /dev/ttyHSx
                        

                        to get data from the FC, you'll get random symbols. I tried it and it is not working, when I tested yesterday with this I got the output as said previously, but still with J5 I tried the pymavlink part by changing the baud rate, but I am getting this output

                        voxl2:/home$ python3 mavlink_shell.py /dev/ttyTHS1
                        Connecting to MAVLINK...
                        

                        And what will be the port for the J5 connector of M0141, it is not listed in the below table.

                        f14a4425-60c1-4ecf-9f43-ea072727ba21-image.png

                        1. The VOXL ESC Driver part, I added that to the board config and built, after that I am not able to see any VOXL_ESC parameters.
                        Eric KatzfeyE Offline
                        Eric KatzfeyE Offline
                        Eric Katzfey
                        ModalAI Team
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #13

                        @Jetson-Nano For the VOXL ESC part, now that you have the driver in your build you need to start the driver. For testing you can just go to the Nuttx shell and run voxl_esc start -d <uart-port>. This will show you if it is starting correctly. Once it is working correctly you should see the VOXL_ESC_XXX parameters and then you need to add the device start into your Orange Cube start scripts.

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • Eric KatzfeyE Eric Katzfey

                          @Jetson-Nano For the UART issue it's best to take things step by step. I would first verify the Orange Cube telemetry port by attaching it to a laptop or desktop computer. Make sure you can attach to QGC that way. And note the baudrate being used when it is working. That will validate the Orange Cube. Then validate the port of the add on card that you want to use with VOXL 2. For example, with M0141, validate /dev/ttyHS1 by attaching to a computer with a serial to UART cable and sending / receiving test data with a simple Python script. Once you are sure that the parts are working individually then you can hook them together and start debugging higher level things like voxl-mavlink-server.

                          Jetson NanoJ Offline
                          Jetson NanoJ Offline
                          Jetson Nano
                          Veteran
                          wrote on last edited by Jetson Nano
                          #14

                          Thank you @Eric-Katzfey , it worked, I tested each port individually and made sure the individual ports are working, and then integrated the two and is working fine.

                          Here is my solution if anyone needs.

                          I used Telem 1 port of the cube and the UART pins on the J5 connector of USB2 Type A Breakout (M0141) . The parameters I set for MAV 1 is here

                          214a9a31-6231-4a59-bb93-3048e5fc9c5b-image.png

                          33012de2-cc53-484e-99de-dc534345f369-image.png

                          After disabling the voxl-px4 services, Connect to VOXL wifi and check QGC, you'll get the FC data in which the cube is used as the flight controller.

                          The VOXL ESC, I haven't tested it yet, I'll test and get back if any problems.

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