Flight Core w/ BMI088

m4v3r

Hi,
I know it's an old topic but I finally figured that by "DNI" in your IMU documentation you likely mean "did not include" ?
However,
I ihave checked the boards and a good third of the 20'ish VOXLs we own do have the BMI088 actually on there.
I've seen in your firmware repository that you plan on only using one IMU (the icm42688p) going forward so I just wanted to get your thoughts on the BMI088, if I do have it, is it worth running (too?! solely?!) compared to the 42688p?
thanks for any thoughts and cheers

Vinny

Hi @m4v3r
I see no one responded yet, so I did not want to leave this hanging.... I am from HW so I cannot answer all of your questions, but I will clarify a few points for you.

Yes, DNI in our lingo is "Do Not Install", a directive that means we do not place the part on the CCA. Other companies may use terms like DNP (do not populate), NS (no stuff), or similar.
We did originally include the BMI088 on our builds, but as time went on, we saw the ICM products from TDK Invensense were just more common, had higher performance, and what we used everywhere else. So, when supply chain started getting tight, we started DNI'ing parts that were not readily used or had mainstream adoption. The BMI088 was one of those casualties.
Similarly, some of our designs support two options for Barometers, but there are chances only one is installed.

Whether or not a part is DNI'd vs used is a combination of supply chain and performance. I can tell you from my exposure that we do prioritize the better performing part(s). Our research has shown the parts from TDK/Invensense are looking like the better ones in the market, and over time, you may see all of our designs shifting to just those families of parts. But, that is today. As times change, we try to keep up and use the best parts we can get.

In the meantime, consider yourself lucky you have some HW that have effectively "redundant" components. Even if not exactly the same performance, they work for basic functions if you are ever in a bind (but I can't speak to how easy or hard it is to enable in SW, sorry....).

m4v3r

Hey Vinny,

no worries I'm not one to expect a full answer within an hour to anything I ask you know...
Thanks so much for clarifyiing this for me and I take it you wouldn't suggest using it since it's an older part?
From what I was able to compare so far I'd say using it together with the 42688p beats the 42688p/20602 combo noise wise but might also just be a hunch, I'll have to do more testing...
And yeah I think we do have quite a few boards with the two baros where one is on the Flight Core part and the other one on the opposite-end corner of the VOXL part.^^
Everything that's directly on the Flight Core portion is quite simple to talk to from a PX4 autopilot but everything VOXL-side would require wrapping it in the MPA I guess which also is totally out of my department.

Sorry I'm rambling here, thanks again for the clarification and may you have a wonderful weekend.
chgeers

Vinny

@m4v3r said in Flight Core w/ BMI088:

Thanks so much for clarifyiing this for me and I take it you wouldn't suggest using it since it's an older part?

My only suggestion is to use the ICM parts since that will always be installed on our boards, and you'll have no software mismatch builds across platforms old and new.
It's the Bosch parts that have fallen out of favor lately in the market and were also very hard to get last year hence the move to start DNI'ing them.
Thanks!