PWM and CAN channels
-
Hello, we currently fly a VTOL fixed wing aircraft with PX4 and a cube autopilot. We use 8 pwm outputs for the motors and 6 more for control surfaces. We also use two CAN busses, one as a traditional bus and the second as a UAVCAN (dronecan) bus. I was interested in moving to the voxl2 for NDAA compliance and the computational power it offers. However I noticed to get CAN and PWM I need to add a flight core v2. However that still seems to come up short with only 8 PWM outputs and 1 CAN bus.
So a few questions. Am I missing something in the documentation or are there really only 8 PWM outputs and 1 CAN bus? I know I could move to CAN or serial controlled actuators but was hoping to only change my autopilot hardware and not tear up everything else.
Another question I have is how voxl2 and flight core v2 integrate together.
-
Hello, we currently fly a VTOL fixed wing aircraft with PX4 and a cube autopilot. We use 8 pwm outputs for the motors and 6 more for control surfaces. We also use two CAN busses, one as a traditional bus and the second as a UAVCAN (dronecan) bus. I was interested in moving to the voxl2 for NDAA compliance and the computational power it offers. However I noticed to get CAN and PWM I need to add a flight core v2. However that still seems to come up short with only 8 PWM outputs and 1 CAN bus.
So a few questions. Am I missing something in the documentation or are there really only 8 PWM outputs and 1 CAN bus? I know I could move to CAN or serial controlled actuators but was hoping to only change my autopilot hardware and not tear up everything else.
Another question I have is how voxl2 and flight core v2 integrate together.
Hi @preston-schipper
We do have this solution which is meant to pair with Voxl2 or a FlightCore and can give you an extra 8 PWMs + S.BUS : https://docs.modalai.com/voxl2-io/For your CAN.BUS solution however, I'm not 100% sure how to expand on that one. You might need an external widget/adapter, or you can experiment with putting multiple devices on the one CAN.BUS port (it's supposed to be a daisy-chained/Multi-drop bus architecture).
When I do a search for USB to CAN, or UART to CAN, I find a lot of hobby-grade adapters out there, so it might be worth a shot.
When someone wants to pair a FlightCore with a Voxl grade "companion", the expected use is that the FlightCore performs all flight and attitude control (and interfaces with the ESC). Then, Voxl focuses on high-bandwidth data transmission (4G/5G, etc) and any sensor integration and computer vision applications.
I encourage you to take a look at some of the VoxlFlight and Seeker use cases where a Voxl V1 and FlightCore (V1) are paired together. Now imagine those bumped up with even more power and easier I/O and enhanced expandability that the V2 architectures bring. It's really a power-house solution, and we encourage you posting other questions on here.
Little tip: new forum posts for new topics are best, since everyone gets notified of a new post, but we do not all get notified of forum responses to an existing thread.
Thanks! -
@Vinny Hi, is there any update on this CAN support through FlightCore V2?
We're seriously considering the option instead of a PWM through the I/O board to control our motors. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any code that would do this from the PX4 pilot - other than that the connector exists. How is this supported by the board interfaces? How would I go about sending commands to that bus?
Let me know if you need more info.
Best -
@Vinny Hi, is there any update on this CAN support through FlightCore V2?
We're seriously considering the option instead of a PWM through the I/O board to control our motors. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any code that would do this from the PX4 pilot - other than that the connector exists. How is this supported by the board interfaces? How would I go about sending commands to that bus?
Let me know if you need more info.
BestHi @Filip-Slezak
As far as I understand, FCv2 does indeed support CAN with no issues that I have heard of.I'm not able to help with SW issues, so please review these pages, and if you get stuck, please try to post a new Forum topic so our SW engineers can see it as a fresh case and respond accordingly.
https://docs.modalai.com/flight-core-v2-user-guides/Thanks!
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login