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  4. LTE Modem "Feather is Disabled"

LTE Modem "Feather is Disabled"

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  • tomT Offline
    tomT Offline
    tom
    admin
    wrote on last edited by
    #2

    Hi @scottesicdrone ,

    Just to make sure I understand your setup, are you using a v1 modem or v2 modem?

    Another question, did you previously run voxl-configure-modem? If so there will be a service running in the background on boot attempting to connect to the LTE network.

    You can check the status of this service by running systemctl status -l voxl-modem

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    • S Offline
      S Offline
      scottesicdrone
      Contributor
      wrote on last edited by
      #3

      Thanks for the quick response! We are using a v1 modem.
      We ran voxl-configure-modem previously so that definitely could be the case. Here is the output for systemctl status -l voxl-modem:

      yocto:/# systemctl status -l voxl-modem
      ● voxl-modem.service - Modem Initialization
         Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/voxl-modem.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
         Active: active (running) since Thu 1970-01-01 00:00:08 UTC; 51 years 3 months ago
        Process: 2041 ExecStartPre=/bin/sleep 2 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
       Main PID: 2824 (voxl-modem-star)
         CGroup: /system.slice/voxl-modem.service
                 ├─2824 /bin/bash /usr/bin/voxl-modem-start.sh
                 └─2907 /usr/bin/python /usr/bin/voxl-modem --feather_configure
      
      Jan 01 00:00:06 apq8096 systemd[1]: Starting Modem Initialization...
      Jan 01 00:00:08 apq8096 systemd[1]: Started Modem Initialization.
      Jan 01 00:00:09 apq8096 voxl-modem-start.sh[2824]: Initializing v1 modem...
      
      

      Should I disable this service and try configuring and connecting?

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      • tomT Offline
        tomT Offline
        tom
        admin
        wrote on last edited by tom
        #4

        @scottesicdrone Okay great, if you went through the setup using voxl-configure-modem then you shouldn't need to run anything manually. Can I also see what your voxl-modem config file looks like: /etc/modalai/voxl-modem.conf? As a next step I would try rebooting and monitoring the status of the voxl-modem service with watch systemctl status -l voxl-modem.

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        • S Offline
          S Offline
          scottesicdrone
          Contributor
          wrote on last edited by
          #5

          Here is my voxl-modem.conf file:

          {
          	"modem_type":	"v1",
          	"apn":	"broadband",
          	"world":	"false",
          	"microhard_ip": "192.168.168.100",
          	"modallink":	"false",
          	"placeholder": "hello world"
          }
          

          I'm watching the service right now and here is where it is at currently

          ● voxl-modem.service - Modem Initialization
             Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/voxl-modem.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
             Active: active (running) since Thu 1970-01-01 00:01:23 UTC; 51 years 3 months ago
            Process: 2129 ExecStartPre=/bin/sleep 2 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
           Main PID: 2853 (voxl-modem-star)
             CGroup: /system.slice/voxl-modem.service
                     ├─2853 /bin/bash /usr/bin/voxl-modem-start.sh
                     └─3364 /usr/bin/python /usr/bin/voxl-modem --connect_to_network
          
          Apr 02 17:13:49 apq8096 voxl-modem-start.sh[2853]: Setting network preference to LTE
          Apr 02 17:13:59 apq8096 voxl-modem-start.sh[2853]: Failed to open device
          Apr 02 17:13:59 apq8096 voxl-modem-start.sh[2853]: Finished setting network preference
          Apr 02 17:13:59 apq8096 voxl-modem-start.sh[2853]: Disabling band 5...
          Apr 02 17:13:59 apq8096 voxl-modem-start.sh[2853]: configband starting
          Apr 02 17:13:59 apq8096 voxl-modem-start.sh[2853]: Band mask 1 to 32: 0x0000080a 0x0a 0x08 0x00 0x00
          Apr 02 17:13:59 apq8096 voxl-modem-start.sh[2853]: Band mask 33 to 64: 0x00000000 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
          Apr 02 17:13:59 apq8096 voxl-modem-start.sh[2853]: Band mask 65 to 96: 0x00000000 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
          Apr 02 17:13:59 apq8096 voxl-modem-start.sh[2853]: Error opening /dev/ttyUSB0: No such file or directory
          Apr 02 17:13:59 apq8096 voxl-modem-start.sh[2853]: Initalizing cellular connection...
          
          
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          • tomT Offline
            tomT Offline
            tom
            admin
            wrote on last edited by
            #6

            @scottesicdrone Okay let's have you go through the steps manually to see if it's a timing issue.

            First, disable the voxl-modem service -> systemctl disable voxl-modem and reboot.

            Now, run the following:

            voxl-modem --feather_configure -> this should bring up /dev/qcqmi0 and /dev/ttyUSB0, make sure these exist before proceeding

            Next, run:

            uqmi -P -d /dev/qcqmi0 --set-network-preference lte

            then

            configband write /dev/ttyUSB0 0x80a

            Lastly, run

            voxl-modem --conect_to_network

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            • S Offline
              S Offline
              scottesicdrone
              Contributor
              wrote on last edited by
              #7

              I disabled the service and ran voxl-modem --feather_configure and got this:

              Configuring GPIO pins
                  Setting defaults:
                      GPIO_PIN_WWAN_WAKEUP_IN  = 1
                      GPIO_PIN_WWAN_POWER_ON_N = 1
                      GPIO_PIN_WWAN_RESET_N    = 1
                  feather is DISABLED
              ENABLE WNC feather module
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
              WARNING: feather state transtion failed.
                 enable failed, try again 0 retries remaining
              ENABLE WNC feather module
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
              WARNING: feather state transtion failed.
                 enable failed, try again 1 retries remaining
              ENABLE WNC feather module
                  feather is DISABLED
                  feather is DISABLED
              

              And this will keep going if I let it, I'm pretty sure. In the /dev folder, /dev/qcqmi0 exists but /dev/ttyUSB0 doesn't exist.

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              • tomT Offline
                tomT Offline
                tom
                admin
                wrote on last edited by
                #8

                @scottesicdrone Thanks for the info, I will look into this behavior in order to get a solution for you

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                • S Offline
                  S Offline
                  scottesicdrone
                  Contributor
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #9

                  Thanks, Tom, for the help! I really appreciate it! Is it possible that the serial port and the ports got renamed from /dev/ttyACM0 and /dev/ttyUSB0? I'm not too familiar with how these devices are generated or normal behavior for these devices. We have also noticed that this happened on two different VOXLs with the same v1 modem, so this problem seems to be with the modem and not the VOXL (though this is not something I am 100% certain about).

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                  • tomT Offline
                    tomT Offline
                    tom
                    admin
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #10

                    @scottesicdrone I'm leaning toward it being a hardware issue with your modem. Did anything hardware related change from when it was working and wasn't working? Do you have any other v1 modems you can test with?

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                    • S Offline
                      S Offline
                      scottesicdrone
                      Contributor
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #11

                      Nothing physically changed that I can recall, and unfortunately, we don't have extra modems though we ordered more modems. Last potential useful bit of info: when I ran dmesg, I saw errors relating to qmi pop up but I don't know what to make of them:

                      yocto:/# dmesg | grep "qmi"
                      [    1.186410] usbcore: registered new interface driver qmi_wwan
                      [    1.187419] msm_sharedmem: sharedmem_register_qmi: qmi init successful
                      [    5.741357] sysmon_send_event_no_qmi: Message sending failed -19
                      [    5.890086] type=1130 audit(7.556:61): pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj=system_u:system_r:init_t:s0-s15:c0.c1023 msg='unit=qmi_shutdown_modemd comm="systemd" exe="/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
                      [    5.903844] sysmon_send_event_no_qmi: Message sending failed -19
                      [    5.903850] sysmon_send_event_no_qmi: Message sending failed -19
                      [    5.908564] sysmon-qmi: sysmon_clnt_svc_arrive: Connection established between QMI handle and slpi's SSCTL service
                      [    5.914578] sysmon_send_event_no_qmi: Message sending failed -19
                      [    6.039513] sysmon-qmi: sysmon_clnt_svc_arrive: Connection established between QMI handle and adsp's SSCTL service
                      [    6.523379] sysmon-qmi: sysmon_clnt_svc_arrive: Connection established between QMI handle and modem's SSCTL service
                      [    6.543970] msm_slim_qmi_send_power_request: QMI request failed 0x1 (Unknown error)
                      [    7.045169] msm_slim_qmi_send_power_request: QMI request failed 0x1 (Unknown error)
                      [    7.546548] msm_slim_qmi_send_power_request: QMI request failed 0x1 (Unknown error)
                      [    8.049225] msm_slim_qmi_send_power_request: QMI request failed 0x1 (Unknown error)
                      
                      
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                      • tomT Offline
                        tomT Offline
                        tom
                        admin
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #12

                        Can you also run voxl-version so I can see what system image / package version you're using.

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                        • S Offline
                          S Offline
                          scottesicdrone
                          Contributor
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #13

                          Here is what I get when I run voxl-version:

                          yocto:/# voxl-version
                          --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                          system-image:    ModalAI 3.1.0 BUILDER: ekatzfey BUILD_TIME: 2020-12-23_19:41
                          kernel:          #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Dec 23 19:50:23 UTC 2020 3.18.71-perf
                          factory-bundle:  1.0.1 (Yocto installation)
                          --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                          architecture:    aarch64
                          processor:       apq8096
                          os:              GNU/Linux
                          --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                          voxl-suite:
                          Package: voxl-suite
                          Version: 0.3.4
                          Depends: voxl-utils (>= 0.6.0), libmodal_json (>= 0.3.4), libmodal_pipe (>= 1.7.8), librc_math (>= 1.1.4), libvoxl_io (>= 0.5.4), mavlink-camera-manager (>= 0.0.1), opencv (>= 4.5.1), openmp (>= 10.0.1), voxl-camera-server (>= 0.5.6), voxl-dfs-server (>= 0.0.7), voxl-docker-support (>= 1.1.1), voxl-gphoto2 (>= 0.0.5), voxl-hal3-tof-cam-ros (>= 0.0.5), voxl-imu-server (>= 0.7.8), voxl-modem (>= 0.11.0), voxl-mpa-tflite-server (>= 0.0.2), voxl-mpa-tools (>= 0.1.6), voxl-nodes (>= 0.1.3), voxl-qvio-server (>= 0.2.1), voxl-rtsp (>= 1.0.3), voxl-streamer (>= 0.2.1), voxl-vision-px4 (>= 0.8.1), voxl-vpn (>= 0.0.3)
                          Status: unknown ok not-installed
                          Section: base
                          Architecture: all
                          Maintainer: james@modalai.com
                          MD5Sum: e1e5bf1a125affe5036099f6ce895bed
                          Size: 1818
                          Filename: voxl-suite_0.3.4.ipk
                          Description: meta-package for voxl-suite stable release
                          
                          Package: voxl-suite
                          Version: 0.2.0
                          Depends: docker, imu_app (= 0.0.6), libvoxl_io (= 0.5.2), voxl-cam-manager (= 0.2.2), voxl-docker-support (= 1.1.1), voxl-hal3-tof-cam-ros (= 0.0.2), voxl-modem (= 0.10.0), voxl-nodes (= 0.0.8), voxl-rtsp (= 1.0.2), voxl-utils (= 0.5.2), voxl-vision-px4 (= 0.6.8), voxl_imu (= 0.0.4), voxl-time-sync (= 0.0.1), voxl-vpn (= 0.0.2), librc_math (= 1.1.2), libmodal_pipe (= 1.2.2), modalai-vl (= 0.1.3)
                          Status: install user installed
                          Section: base
                          Architecture: armv7a
                          Maintainer: james@modalai.com
                          MD5Sum: af706cd3c1ea59f274f2ed9b93141f1d
                          Size: 870
                          Filename: voxl-suite_0.2.0.ipk
                          Description: meta-package to install all of the voxl-suite
                          Installed-Time: 689
                          
                          --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                          
                          
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                          • tomT Offline
                            tomT Offline
                            tom
                            admin
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #14

                            Just to show you what a working modem would look like:

                            / # voxl-modem --feather_configure
                            Configuring GPIO pins
                                Setting defaults:
                                    GPIO_PIN_WWAN_WAKEUP_IN  = 1
                                    GPIO_PIN_WWAN_POWER_ON_N = 1
                                    GPIO_PIN_WWAN_RESET_N    = 1
                                feather is DISABLED
                            ENABLE WNC feather module
                                feather is DISABLED
                                feather is DISABLED
                                feather is DISABLED
                                feather is ENABLED, device detected: /dev/ttyUSB0
                            

                            It comes up within a few seconds. Good thought about qmi / dmesg, those errors will go away once the modem is powered up correctly by voxl-modem

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                            • S Offline
                              S Offline
                              scottesicdrone
                              Contributor
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #15

                              This makes a lot of sense. I have seen this working before but now it just says feather is DISABLED until it power cycles and repeats. So if I understand correctly, after a few seconds, /dev/ttyUSB0 will be created and then the feather is enabled? Also random question: what is a feather exactly? I haven't heard of this before and I tried to look into it but I'm still confused!

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                              • tomT Offline
                                tomT Offline
                                tom
                                admin
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #16

                                @scottesicdrone Haha okay so "feather" is a remnant from the days that the VOXL predecessor was a Qualcomm product. The nickname for the project at the time was "Eagle", therefore a "feather" was the nickname for an add-on board for the Eagle. So any reference to "feather" in voxl-modem is just talking about the modem add-on board. An example of one of the VOXL's predecessors is currently powering NASA's "Ingenuity" Drone on Mars (https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/).

                                A little ModalAI lore for you that you won't find on Google 😉

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                                • S Offline
                                  S Offline
                                  scottesicdrone
                                  Contributor
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #17

                                  Love the Lore and good thing to note! Last last thing, here is the link to an instance of me running dmesg if that's of any use.
                                  output here
                                  I'm going to keep trying to figure this out because this is a time-sensitive situation but if we will know for sure if it's a hardware issue once we get another modem to test it on. Thanks for the help thus far! Anything else I should try on here?

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                                  • tomT Offline
                                    tomT Offline
                                    tom
                                    admin
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #18

                                    @scottesicdrone Thanks! I am going to have another resource take a look at the issue and I will update you with our conclusion. I will message you if anything else is needed.

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                                    • S Offline
                                      S Offline
                                      scottesicdrone
                                      Contributor
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #19

                                      Sounds good, thanks!

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