Ardupilot : connection with Mission Planner

Eric Katzfey

@Kessie Perhaps try setting this parameter:

# To improve Mavlink connection disable forwarding from camera/viso
SERIAL2_OPTIONS 1024

Eric Katzfey

@Kessie What type of vehicle are you using? What other voxl services are you running? You should probably disable most everything except for voxl-ardupilot and voxl-mavlink-server while you are debugging this.

Kessie

@Eric-Katzfey We're using a Starling 2 max (Rev. 2)

Voxl-inspect-services :

voxl2:~/workspace$ voxl-inspect-services
Scanning services...

 Service Name             |  Enabled  |   Running   |  CPU Usage
-------------------------------------------------------------------
 docker-autorun           | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 modallink-relink         | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-ardupilot           |  Enabled  |   Running   |     0.0%
 voxl-auto-logger         | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-camera-server       |  Enabled  |   Running   |    34.8%
 voxl-cpu-monitor         |  Enabled  |   Running   |     0.2%
 voxl-dfs-server          | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-elrs-startup        | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-feature-tracker     |  Enabled  |   Running   |    27.3%
 voxl-flow-server         | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-imu-server          |  Enabled  |   Running   |     1.0%
 voxl-io-server           | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-lepton-server       | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-lepton-tracker      | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-logger              | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-mavcam-manager      |  Enabled  |   Running   |     0.0%
 voxl-mavlink-server      |  Enabled  |   Running   |     0.2%
 voxl-microdds-agent      |  Enabled  |   Running   |     0.3%
 voxl-modem               | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-open-vins-server    |  Enabled  |   Running   |    23.5%
 voxl-osd                 | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-portal              |  Enabled  |   Running   |     0.1%
 voxl-px4-imu-server      | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-px4                 | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-qvio-server         | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-rangefinder-server  |  Enabled  |   Running   |     0.4%
 voxl-remote-id           | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-softap              | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-state-estimator     | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-static-ip           | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-streamer            |  Enabled  |   Running   |     0.0%
 voxl-tag-detector        |  Enabled  |   Running   |    11.9%
 voxl-tflite-server       | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-time-sync           | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-uvc-server          | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-vision-hub          |  Enabled  |   Running   |     0.3%
 voxl-vrx                 | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-vtx                 | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-wait-for-fs         |  Enabled  |  Completed  |

Disabling all services except voxl-ardupilot and voxl-mavlink-server didn't solve the issue.
The parameter SERIAL2_OPTIONS is already at 1024 (verified using QGC)

I'm using Mission Planner via Parallels (Bridged network), so that's something which I need to eliminate as well.
We will test tomorrow morning with a Windows PC to factor that out.

Kessie

@Eric-Katzfey Hi Eric,
We've tested on Windows laptop, which was able to connect using Serial and UDP to another Ardupilot device.
However, our Starling keeps not getting connection.
When we initiate from the drone, no connection is established and when we initiate from Mission Planner, it seems like it starts the connection but no heartbeats are received.

Is there maybe some specific implementation of voxl-mavlink-server which we must install?
On a sidenote : is the code for voxl-ardupilot available? Because I couldn't find it on Gitlab.

Eric Katzfey

@Kessie voxl-ardupilot is built directly by the ArduPilot CI servers. https://firmware.ardupilot.org/Copter/latest/QURT/

Eric Katzfey

@Kessie What version of the VOXL SDK are you running? What is the output of voxl-version? Here is the packaging script in ArduPilot https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/blob/master/libraries/AP_HAL_QURT/packaging/make_package.sh

Eric Katzfey

@Kessie You can kill the voxl-mavlink-server service (systemctl stop voxl-mavlink-server) and start it from the command line with some debug options so that you can see the message traffic between the GCS and AP. Perhaps do this with QGC to see it working and then with Mission Planner to compare the differences.

Eric Katzfey

@Kessie But you can also reach out to the ArduPilot support team. I know that some have successfully used Mission Planner with VOXL before.

Eric Katzfey

@Kessie I've also asked our partner support team at ArduPilot to take a look.

Randy Mackay

Hi @Kessie

It certainly is possible to get Mission Planner working because that's what I was using when we demonstrated it at the recent AP conference in Kaga Japan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsLEcEUyBYs

My random guess is that ArduPilot is not actually starting successfully.

We have some light instructions here on the ArduPilot wiki although they mostly link back to the ModalAI site.

I have a starling2 max so I'll pull it out and try and help investigate

Kessie

Hi @Randy-Mackay ,

Thank you for your help.
I followed the guide at https://docs.modalai.com/voxl-ardupilot/ and used the latest image available on the 17th of February.
The problem seems to be related to the mavlink heartbeats not (frequently enough) being send as far as I can debug, but maybe I'm chasing ghosts.

QGC and MavProxy work most of the time.
QGC can always connect but when arming, I sometimes get the message that the vehicle did not arm while physically it is.
MavProxy works approx. 50% of the time and the rest fails with "[Errno 49] Can't assign requested address"
This was tested on 2 different laptops to exclude problems on 1 certain laptop

Eric Katzfey

@Kessie Have you tried in AP mode for WiFi to eliminate anything in your WiFi network? With AP mode it would only be the laptop and drone on the network. You can try AP mode in 2.4GHz and 5GHz configurations in case there is a lot of interference on one of those bands. (e.g. voxl-wifi softap ssid pass or voxl-wifi softap5 ssid pass).

Kessie

Hi @Eric-Katzfey ,
Also in AP mode we have the same issues.
We both tried with the GCS IPs configured in voxl-mavlink-server.conf (connection initiated by Voxl) as well as GCS IP as “” and initiating the connection from the GCS.

Eric Katzfey

@Kessie I won't be able to run any of my own tests until the end of next week. One other thing you can try is to move to a slightly older VOXL SDK and see if something in the latest SDK is causing the issue (like SDK v1.3.5).

Kessie

@Eric-Katzfey
We reflashed to SDK 1.3.5 and did the installation of Ardupilot again. (Build : https://firmware.ardupilot.org/Copter/latest/QURT/voxl-ardupilot_ArduCopter_4.7.0-76aed8f8_arm64.deb)

Output of voxl-version:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
system-image: 1.7.10-M0054-14.1a-perf
kernel:       #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Sep 27 21:59:02 UTC 2024 4.19.125
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
hw platform:  M0054
mach.var:     1.0.1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
voxl-suite:   1.3.5
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Packages:
Repo:  http://voxl-packages.modalai.com/ ./dists/qrb5165/sdk-1.3/binary-arm64/
Last Updated: 2023-03-02 12:58:39
WARNING: repo file has changed since last update,
	packages may have originated from a different repo
List:
kernel-module-voxl-fsync-mod-4.19.125     1.0-r0
kernel-module-voxl-gpio-mod-4.19.125      1.0-r0
kernel-module-voxl-platform-mod-4.19.125  1.0-r0
libfc-sensor                              1.0.7
libmodal-cv                               0.5.11
libmodal-exposure                         0.1.1
libmodal-journal                          0.2.2
libmodal-json                             0.4.3
libmodal-pipe                             2.10.2
libqrb5165-io                             0.4.6
libvoxl-cci-direct                        0.2.3
libvoxl-cutils                            0.1.1
modalai-slpi                              1.1.19
mv-voxl                                   0.1-r0
qrb5165-bind                              0.1-r0
qrb5165-dfs-server                        0.2.0
qrb5165-imu-server                        1.0.1
qrb5165-rangefinder-server                0.1.3
qrb5165-slpi-test-sig                     01-r0
qrb5165-system-tweaks                     0.3.0
qrb5165-tflite                            2.8.0-2
voxl-ardupilot                            4.7.0-76aed8f8
voxl-bind-spektrum                        0.1.1
voxl-camera-calibration                   0.5.7
voxl-camera-server                        2.0.1
voxl-ceres-solver                         2:1.14.0-10
voxl-configurator                         0.8.5
voxl-cpu-monitor                          0.4.8
voxl-docker-support                       1.3.1
voxl-elrs                                 0.2.2
voxl-esc                                  1.4.7
voxl-feature-tracker                      0.4.1
voxl-flow-server                          0.3.6
voxl-fsync-mod                            1.0-r0
voxl-gphoto2-server                       0.0.10
voxl-gpio-mod                             1.0-r0
voxl-jpeg-turbo                           2.1.3-5
voxl-lepton-server                        1.2.3
voxl-lepton-tracker                       0.0.2
voxl-libgphoto2                           0.0.4
voxl-libuvc                               1.0.7
voxl-logger                               0.4.7
voxl-mavcam-manager                       0.5.7
voxl-mavlink                              0.1.1
voxl-mavlink-server                       1.4.2
voxl-modem                                1.1.3
voxl-mongoose                             7.7.0-1
voxl-mpa-to-ros                           0.3.9
voxl-mpa-tools                            1.2.3
voxl-neopixel-manager                     0.0.3
voxl-open-vins                            0.4.14
voxl-open-vins-server                     0.2.75
voxl-opencv                               4.5.5-2
voxl-osd                                  0.0.1
voxl-platform-mod                         1.0-r0
voxl-portal                               0.7.0
voxl-px4                                  1.14.0-2.0.84
voxl-px4-imu-server                       0.1.2
voxl-px4-params                           0.5.3
voxl-qvio-server                          1.0.4
voxl-remote-id                            0.0.9
voxl-reset-slpi                           0.0.1
voxl-state-estimator                      0.0.2
voxl-streamer                             0.7.4
voxl-suite                                1.3.5
voxl-tag-detector                         0.0.4
voxl-tflite-server                        0.3.4
voxl-utils                                1.4.3
voxl-uvc-server                           0.1.7
voxl-vision-hub                           1.8.9
voxl-vtx                                  1.1.0
voxl2-io                                  0.0.3
voxl2-system-image                        1.7.10-r0
voxl2-wlan                                1.0-r0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Output of voxl-inspect-services before disabling services:

Scanning services...

 Service Name             |  Enabled  |   Running   |  CPU Usage
-------------------------------------------------------------------
 docker-autorun           | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 modallink-relink         | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-ardupilot           |  Enabled  |   Running   |     0.0%
 voxl-auto-logger         | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-camera-server       |  Enabled  |   Running   |   130.0%
 voxl-cpu-monitor         |  Enabled  |   Running   |     0.3%
 voxl-dfs-server          | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-feature-tracker     | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-flow-server         | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-imu-server          |  Enabled  |   Running   |     3.9%
 voxl-lepton-server       | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-lepton-tracker      | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-logger              | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-mavcam-manager      |  Enabled  |   Running   |     0.0%
 voxl-mavlink-server      |  Enabled  |   Running   |     1.2%
 voxl-modem               | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-neopixel-manager    | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-open-vins-server    | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-osd                 | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-portal              |  Enabled  |   Running   |     0.1%
 voxl-px4-imu-server      | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-px4                 | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-qvio-server         |  Enabled  |   Running   |     4.0%
 voxl-rangefinder-server  |  Enabled  |   Running   |     0.5%
 voxl-remote-id           | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-softap              | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-state-estimator     | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-static-ip           | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-streamer            |  Enabled  |   Running   |     0.2%
 voxl-tag-detector        | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-tflite-server       | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-time-sync           | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-uvc-server          | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-vision-hub          |  Enabled  |   Running   |     5.4%
 voxl-vrx                 | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-vtx                 | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-wait-for-fs         |  Enabled  |  Completed  |

Output of voxl-inspect-services after disabling services:
voxl2:~$ voxl-inspect-services

Scanning services...

 Service Name             |  Enabled  |   Running   |  CPU Usage
-------------------------------------------------------------------
 docker-autorun           | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 modallink-relink         | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-ardupilot           |  Enabled  |   Running   |     0.0%
 voxl-auto-logger         | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-camera-server       | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-cpu-monitor         | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-dfs-server          | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-feature-tracker     | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-flow-server         | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-imu-server          | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-lepton-server       | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-lepton-tracker      | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-logger              | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-mavcam-manager      | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-mavlink-server      |  Enabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-modem               | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-neopixel-manager    | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-open-vins-server    | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-osd                 | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-portal              | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-px4-imu-server      | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-px4                 | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-qvio-server         | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-rangefinder-server  | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-remote-id           | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-softap              | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-state-estimator     | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-static-ip           | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-streamer            | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-tag-detector        | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-tflite-server       | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-time-sync           | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-uvc-server          | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-vision-hub          | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-vrx                 | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-vtx                 | Disabled  | Not Running |  
 voxl-wait-for-fs         |  Enabled  |  Completed  |

Output of netstat -tuln:

Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State      
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.53:53           0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN     
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:22              0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN     
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:8900            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN     
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:5037          0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN     
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:80              0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN     
tcp6       0      0 :::22                   :::*                    LISTEN     
udp        0      0 127.0.0.53:53           0.0.0.0:*                          
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:68              0.0.0.0:*                          
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:69              0.0.0.0:*                          
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:14550           0.0.0.0:*                          
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:14556           0.0.0.0:*                          
udp        0      0 127.0.0.1:14557         0.0.0.0:*                          
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:14558           0.0.0.0:*                          
udp        0      0 127.0.0.1:14559         0.0.0.0:*                          
udp6       0      0 :::69                   :::*

Connection over USB using Mission Planner => Starts the connection and then times out (Tried baud rates 115200 (default AP) and 921600 (Configured in voxl-mavlink-server.conf))

Station Mode tests (every time restarted voxl-mavlink-server)
Connection using MavProxy on 14550 : Failed to connect to udp:150.0.0.221:14550 : [Errno 49] Can't assign requested address
Connection using MavProxy on 14556 : Failed to connect to udp:150.0.0.221:14556 : [Errno 49] Can't assign requested address
Connection using MavProxy on 14557 : Failed to connect to udp:150.0.0.221:14557 : [Errno 49] Can't assign requested address
Connection using MavProxy on 14558 : Failed to connect to udp:150.0.0.221:14558 : [Errno 49] Can't assign requested address
Connection using MavProxy on 14559 : Failed to connect to udp:150.0.0.221:14559 : [Errno 49] Can't assign requested address

Connection using QGroundControl over port 14550 : Connected successfully

Connection using Mission Planner on UDP port 14550 :

Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted

   at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.DoBind(EndPoint endPointSnapshot, SocketAddress socketAddress)
   at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.Bind(EndPoint localEP)
   at MissionPlanner.Comms.UdpSerial.Open() in C:\Users\mich1\Desktop\CubePilot\MissionPlanner\ExtLibs\Comms\CommsUdpSerial.cs:line 130
   at MissionPlanner.MAVLinkInterface.OpenBg(IProgressReporterDialogue PRsender, Boolean getparams) in C:\Users\mich1\Desktop\CubePilot\MissionPlanner\ExtLibs\ArduPilot\Mavlink\MAVLinkInterface.cs:line 886
   at MissionPlanner.Controls.ProgressReporterDialogue.RunBackgroundOperation(Object o) in C:\Users\mich1\Desktop\CubePilot\MissionPlanner\ExtLibs\Controls\ProgressReporterDialogue.cs:line 111

Deleted the primary_static_gcs_ip from voxl-mavlink-server.conf
Connection using Mission Planner with UDPCI on 14550 : Times out after 30 Seconds
The log in voxl-mavlink-server show some sort of connection but the loses it because of the timeout

voxl2:~$ voxl-mavlink-server
loading our own config file
=================================================================
Parameters as loaded from config file:
primary_static_gcs_ip:        
secondary_static_gcs_ip:      192.168.8.11
onboard_port_to_autopilot:    14556
onboard_port_from_autopilot:  14557
gcs_port_to_autopilot:        14558
gcs_port_from_autopilot:      14559
en_external_uart_ap:          0
autopilot_uart_bus:           1
autopilot_uart_baudrate:      921600
autopilot_mission_delay_start:      -1
udp_mtu:                      0
gcs_timeout_s                 4.50
en_external_ap_timesync:      1
en_external_ap_heartbeat:     1
=================================================================
starting receive thread for onboard channel from autopilot
starting receive thread for gcs channel from autopilot
CONNECTED to autopilot on gcs channel
Not connecting to primary gcs ip: 
Adding secondary manual gcs IP address to udp connection list: 192.168.8.11
Added new UDP connection to 192.168.8.11
Init complete, entering main loop
CONNECTED to autopilot on onboard channel
Detected Autopilot Mavlink SYSID 1
Added new UDP connection to 150.0.0.185
CONNECTED to GCS at 150.0.0.185
DISCONNECTED FROM GCS 150.0.0.185

SoftAP Mode tests (every time restarted voxl-mavlink-server):
Exactly the same results

I'm going to try to take a capture of the traffic and compare the differences between QGroundControl and Mission Planner and revert back to you with more information

Kessie

@Eric-Katzfey, @Randy-Mackay After some more tests, we managed to get everything working.

Mission Planner on clean Windows device still had port 14550 blocked for some reason.
After a full reboot, it worked with initiating connection from the drone to the GCS.

On Mac OS, using Mission Planner via Parallels Desktop : Here, you'll need to add port forwarding of UDP Port 14550.
We've used a Shared Network and it also connect automatically from the drone to the GCS.

Thanks for your insights!

Eric Katzfey

@Kessie Excellent, glad to hear you got it working! And thanks for adding the details on what you had to do to the posting!

ModalAI Forum

Ardupilot : connection with Mission Planner