ESC Calibration issues

Riley Dove · 1 Feb 2021, 15:57

In the end goal, When I arm the copter, the motors stay at the ESC armed throttle level, despite seeing throttle input from the RC. Once I get this resolved, should it work, or are they unrelated?

modaltb · 1 Feb 2021, 16:07

ESC cal "shouldn't" matter for this (it does set min/max range, but typically bad ESC cal just results in some iffy flights).

I've seen throttling up occurring if the estimator isn't running. Are you using a magnetometer in the setup?

PX4 expects an external mag by default, our custom FW is basically to handle this use case for indoor flight without a mag, there's work arounds for this so let me know and I can show you if this is the case.

Thanks!

Riley Dove · 1 Feb 2021, 16:20

@modaltb No magnetometer. I installed the No mag params file, as well as a few others, but I'd like to get your instructions. Mavlink inspector shows it not going above 1075.

modaltb · 1 Feb 2021, 16:32

@Riley-Dove ,

On VOXL, what happens if you run systemctl status voxl-vision-px4 ?

In our 1.10, to fly without mag, the system expects VIO data from VOXL. The FlightDeck should have this setup by default (e.g VOXL is sending VIO data to FlightCore). This is setup via EKF2_AID_MASK which is seems like you loaded, can you check this step to make sure PX4 is getting VIO data? https://docs.modalai.com/flying-with-vio/#confirm-px4-is-getting-vio-data

In our 1.11, we've reduced the requirement so simply check if EKF2_AID_MASK is configured (and doesn't care if there's actual vision data...)

Riley Dove · 1 Feb 2021, 18:28

This is what I see. I also cannot get to QGC through VOXL.

~ # systemctl status voxl-vision-px4
● voxl-vision-px4.service - voxl-vision-px4
Loaded: loaded (/usr/bin/voxl-vision-px4; disabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: failed (Result: signal) since Thu 1970-01-01 00:44:44 UTC; 5min ago
Process: 3084 ExecStart=/usr/bin/voxl-vision-px4 (code=killed, signal=SEGV)
Main PID: 3084 (code=killed, signal=SEGV)

Jan 01 00:44:44 apq8096 voxl-vision-px4[3084]: "en_send_voa_to_qgc": false,
Jan 01 00:44:44 apq8096 voxl-vision-px4[3084]: "en_mvl_video_stream": false,
Jan 01 00:44:44 apq8096 voxl-vision-px4[3084]: "en_adsb" false,
Jan 01 00:44:44 apq8096 voxl-vision-px4[3084]: "adsb_uart_bus": 7,
Jan 01 00:44:44 apq8096 voxl-vision-px4[3084]: "adsb_uart_baudrate": 57600,
Jan 01 00:44:44 apq8096 voxl-vision-px4[3084]: "en_offboard_figure_eight": true,
Jan 01 00:44:44 apq8096 voxl-vision-px4[3084]: "vio_to_ned_rotation_matrix":...]
Jan 01 00:44:44 apq8096 systemd[1]: voxl-vision-px4.service: Main process e...GV
Jan 01 00:44:44 apq8096 systemd[1]: voxl-vision-px4.service: Unit entered f...e.
Jan 01 00:44:44 apq8096 systemd[1]: voxl-vision-px4.service: Failed with re...'.
Hint: Some lines were ellipsized, use -l to show in full.
~ #

modaltb · 1 Feb 2021, 20:05

OK without that service running, the QGC link through VOXL won't work, and this would also prevent VIO data making it's way to PX4, and then flying without a mag won't work....

How about systemctl stop voxl-vision-px4 and then running manually with the debug flag: voxl-vision-px4 -d

This service is used when we calibrate the cameras before shipping so I'm wondering what's going on.

Riley Dove · 1 Feb 2021, 20:27

This is what I typed and what I get.

~ # systemctl stop voxl-vision-px4
~ # voxl-vision-px4 -d
loading config file
Error parsing config file before: en_vao": false,
"en_send_vio_to_qgc": false,
"en_send_voa_to_qgc": false,
"en_mvl_video_stream": false,
"en_adsb" false,
"adsb_uart_bus": 7,
"adsb_uart_baudrate": 57600,
"en_offboard_figure_eight": true,
"vio_to_ned_rotation_matrix": [[0, 1, 0], [1, 0, 0], [0, 0, -1]]

Segmentation fault
~ #

modaltb · 1 Feb 2021, 21:25

Hi @Riley-Dove , I think the config file got messed up. Perhaps around the "offboard_mode" setting.

This lives at /etc/modalai/voxl-vision-px4.conf

Here's an example, where the qgc_ip is your system with QGC's IP address:

{
	"qgc_ip":	"192.168.8.47",
	"en_localhost_mavlink_udp":	true,
	"en_secondary_qgc":	false,
	"secondary_qgc_ip":	"192.168.1.214",
	"offboard_mode":	"none",
	"en_vio":	false,
	"en_voa":	false,
	"en_send_vio_to_qgc":	false,
	"en_send_voa_to_qgc":	false,
	"en_adsb":	false,
	"adsb_uart_bus":	7,
	"adsb_uart_baudrate":	57600,
	"px4_uart_bus":	5,
	"px4_uart_baudrate":	921600,
	"R_imu_to_body":	[[0, 1, 0], [1, 0, 0], [0, 0, -1]],
	"T_imu_wrt_body":	[0.068, -0.015, -0.008],
	"height_body_above_ground_m": 0.05,
	"T_stereo_wrt_body":	[0.10, -0.04, 0.0],
	"land_on_tag_id":	0,
	"follow_tag_id":	0,
	"en_apriltag_fixed_frame":	false,
	"fixed_apriltags":	[{
		"tag_id":	0,
		"R_tag_to_fixed":	[[0, -1, 0], [1, 0, 0], [0, 0, 1]],
		"T_tag_wrt_fixed":	[0, 0, 0]
		}],
	"en_transform_mavlink_pos_setpoints_from_fixed_frame":	true,
	"en_fixed_frame_pipe": false,
	"fixed_frame_filter_len": 5
}

modaltb · 1 Feb 2021, 21:26

Also, if you didn't modify this file and this is how it shipped let me know so I can look into what happened. We enable VOA during flight testing and then disable so if there's a typo introduced causing this issue I want to inform the team over here. Thanks!

Riley Dove · 1 Feb 2021, 22:02

Now it says only "error parsing config file before: ?
Segmentation fault"

Riley Dove · 1 Feb 2021, 22:06

@modaltb I may have modified it, not even sure. I'm still learning the hardcore software side of this. I'm a hardware guy.

modaltb · 2 Feb 2021, 04:46

@Riley-Dove ok, we can reset it to factory defaults, maybe that's easiest! If you can delete that file /etc/modalai/voxl-vision-px4.conf and then run the following command: voxl-configure-vision-px4 -f it will set the factory settings.

Restart the service:
systemctl restart voxl-vision-px4

Check status:
systemctl status voxl-vision-px4

If all looks good, you can set your IP back up:

vi /etc/modalai/voxl-vision-px4.conf

vi isn't easy to use. But this should get you going:

hit 'i' to enter edit mode
move cursor to text using arrows, edit the ip address following the same format that's there
hit 'esc' to exit edit mode
to save, enter :wq

Restart the service:
systemctl restart voxl-vision-px4

Check status:
systemctl status voxl-vision-px4

Then you should have a connection to QGC.

Riley Dove · 2 Feb 2021, 13:02

I run into the same issue when I check the voxl vision status. Active: Failed. There is nothing on the voxl-vision-px4.conf file. It's not properly configuring that file.

modaltb · 2 Feb 2021, 16:10

Hi @Riley-Dove ,

Sorry, something is happening when editing maybe... This setup is heavily used all over so trying to see what up, we can do a screen share if the following fails.

What if you do the following, without editing the file at all.

systemctl stop voxl-vision-px4
voxl-configure-vision-px4 -f
cat /etc/modalai/voxl-vision-px4.conf

Can you then copy paste the output of the last command here?

Then if the JSON output looks OK above, try to start again... systemctl start voxl-vision-px4.

This is where I'm getting the file.

Riley Dove · 2 Feb 2021, 16:21

Looks like that worked.

~ # systemctl stop voxl-vision-px4
~ # voxl-configure-vision-px4 -f
loading and updating config file with voxl-vision-px4 -c
Error parsing config file before:
/usr/bin/voxl-configure-vision-px4: line 120: 3072 Segmentation fault voxl-vision-px4 -c
^ don't worry about the segfault ^

attempting to use camera configuration 3
adding override_cam_id value=1 to /etc/snav/camera.downward.xml
adding override_cam_id value=2 to /etc/snav/camera.stereo.xml
reloading systemd services
disabling all the snav services
starting imu_app
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/imu_app.service to /etc/systemd/system/imu_app.service.
WARNING: Missing stereo calibration file. Follow instructions here to
calibrate if you wish to use stereo visual obstacle avoidance.
https://docs.modalai.com/docs/quickstarts/calibrate-cameras/

DONE configuring ModalAI Vision Lib
enabling voxl-vision-px4 systemd service
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/voxl-vision-px4.service to /etc/systemd/system/voxl-vision-px4.service.
starting voxl-vision-px4 systemd service
DONE configuring voxl-vision-px4
~ # cat /etc/modalai/voxl-vision-px4.conf
{
"qgc_ip": "192.168.8.60",
"en_localhost_mavlink_udp": true,
"en_secondary_qgc": false,
"secondary_qgc_ip": "192.168.1.214",
"offboard_mode": "figure_eight",
"en_vio": true,
"en_voa": false,
"en_send_vio_to_qgc": false,
"en_send_voa_to_qgc": false,
"en_adsb": false,
"adsb_uart_bus": 7,
"adsb_uart_baudrate": 57600,
"px4_uart_bus": 5,
"px4_uart_baudrate": 921600,
"R_imu_to_body": [[0, 1, 0], [1, 0, 0], [0, 0, -1]],
"T_imu_wrt_body": [0.068, -0.015, -0.008],
"height_body_above_ground_m": 0.05,
"T_stereo_wrt_body": [0.10, -0.04, 0.0],
"land_on_tag_id": 0,
"follow_tag_id": 0,
"en_apriltag_fixed_frame": false,
"fixed_apriltags": [{
"tag_id": 0,
"R_tag_to_fixed": [[0, -1, 0], [1, 0, 0], [0, 0, 1]],
"T_tag_wrt_fixed": [0, 0, 0]
}],
"en_transform_mavlink_pos_setpoints_from_fixed_frame": true,
"en_fixed_frame_pipe": false,
"fixed_frame_filter_len": 5
}
~ #

I edited the QGC IP to my laptop's IP and QGC still doesnt see it. I will try from a different computer.

Riley Dove · 2 Feb 2021, 16:32

No luck on different computer. I just tried the ESC cal as well and no luck.

modaltb · 2 Feb 2021, 16:56

What kind of computer are you using, Linux, Windows?

If Windows, you likely need to configure the firewall (maybe easier to just disable the windows firewall for this test).

You can use the USB connection straight to the blue connector to get a connection to QGC.

But, if you have QGC running, the ESC calibration tool won't work because QGC will have taken ownership of the port.

Riley Dove · 2 Feb 2021, 16:57

I've been testing on a Macbook Pro. I can get QGC via the USB port, just not via Wifi. And the motors dont spin above minimum armed PWM.

modaltb · 2 Feb 2021, 18:19

I just went through similar yesterday on a new board we're developing. PX4 is configured to expect a magnetometer, you'll want to set the sys_has_mag param to 0, and GPS_1_CONFIG to off/none via the QGC.

I can get on a screen share after a bit if needed so just let me know if you want to wait till then.

Riley Dove · 2 Feb 2021, 18:47

I just did another test randomly while eating my lunch and it worked as expected. So I did a maiden and checked stabilize, althold, and position mode and all modes flew well. We have lots of snow here so cant test too much more outdoors.