@tom
Thanks, Tom! We appreciate the support and the reassurance about VOXL 2's processing power. It's great to know there's room to explore its capabilities further. We'll definitely reach out if we have more questions—thanks again for being a resource we can count on!

@Zachary-Lowell-0
Were you able to run onnx model on GPU on VOXL 2

Hi @Eric-Katzfey,

Thank you for your response.

When I connect to QGroundControl (QGC), the reason for the failure to arm is shown as follows:

af72e7a5-d06b-4cde-9887-f489a1eb53ab-image.png

9ec8bf16-a1e4-4e79-a90d-a93dabdb0393-image.png

Additionally, here are the outputs when I run the voxl-px4 and voxl-px4-start commands:

voxl2:~$ voxl-px4
[INFO] Reading from /etc/modalai/voxl-px4.conf
Found DSP signature file
[INFO] Daemon mode enabled

AIRFRAME=MULTICOPTER
GPS=NONE
RC=SPEKTRUM
ESC=VOXL_ESC
POWER MANAGER=VOXLPM
AIRSPEED SENSOR=NONE
DISTANCE SENSOR=NONE
OSD=DISABLE
DAEMON_MODE=ENABLE
SENSOR_CAL=ACTUAL
ARTIFACT_MODE=DISABLE
EXTRA STEPS:

INFO [px4] mlockall() enabled. PX4's virtual address space is locked into RAM.
INFO [px4] PX4 server already running for instance 0

voxl2:~$ voxl-px4-start

AIRFRAME:
GPS:
RC:
ESC:
POWER MANAGER:
AIRSPEED SENSOR:
DISTANCE SENSOR:
OSD:
ARTIFACT_MODE:
EXTRA STEPS:

Running on M0054
INFO [param] selected parameter default file /data/px4/param/parameters
INFO [parameters] BSON document size 3366 bytes, decoded 3366 bytes (INT32:48, FLOAT:107)
ERROR [logger] Task already running
Starting IMU driver with no rotation
INFO [qshell] Send cmd: 'icm42688p start -s'
INFO [qshell] cmd returned with: -1
INFO [qshell] qshell return value timestamp: 804961172, local time: 804964507
ERROR [qshell] Command failed
INFO [qshell] Send cmd: 'icp101xx start -I -b 5'
INFO [qshell] cmd returned with: -1
INFO [qshell] qshell return value timestamp: 804991878, local time: 804994336
ERROR [qshell] Command failed
Looking for qmc5883l magnetometer
INFO [qshell] Send cmd: 'qmc5883l start -R 10 -X -b 1'
INFO [qshell] cmd returned with: -1
INFO [qshell] qshell return value timestamp: 805029897, local time: 805032559
ERROR [qshell] Command failed
Looking for ist8310 magnetometer
INFO [qshell] Send cmd: 'ist8310 start -R 10 -X -b 1'
INFO [qshell] cmd returned with: -1
INFO [qshell] qshell return value timestamp: 805068252, local time: 805069440
ERROR [qshell] Command failed
INFO [qshell] Send cmd: 'gps start'
INFO [qshell] qshell return value timestamp: 805101426, local time: 805103077
Looking for ncp5623c RGB LED
INFO [qshell] Send cmd: 'rgbled_ncp5623c start -X -b 1 -f 400 -a 56'
INFO [qshell] cmd returned with: -1
INFO [qshell] qshell return value timestamp: 805142844, local time: 805145634
ERROR [qshell] Command failed
No ESC type specified, not starting an ESC driver
INFO [qshell] Send cmd: 'sensors start'
INFO [qshell] cmd returned with: -1
INFO [qshell] qshell return value timestamp: 805268907, local time: 805270932
ERROR [qshell] Command failed
INFO [qshell] Send cmd: 'ekf2 start'
INFO [qshell] qshell return value timestamp: 805300354, local time: 805305054
/usr/bin/voxl-px4-start: line 215: [: =: unary operator expected
INFO [qshell] Send cmd: 'manual_control start'
INFO [qshell] cmd returned with: -1
INFO [qshell] qshell return value timestamp: 805334289, local time: 805336988
ERROR [qshell] Command failed
INFO [qshell] Send cmd: 'control_allocator start'
INFO [qshell] cmd returned with: -1
INFO [qshell] qshell return value timestamp: 805374536, local time: 805378458
ERROR [qshell] Command failed
INFO [qshell] Send cmd: 'load_mon start'
INFO [qshell] cmd returned with: -1
INFO [qshell] qshell return value timestamp: 805413929, local time: 805416679
ERROR [qshell] Command failed
INFO [qshell] Send cmd: 'rc_update start'
INFO [qshell] cmd returned with: -1
INFO [qshell] qshell return value timestamp: 805448866, local time: 805449872
ERROR [qshell] Command failed
INFO [qshell] Send cmd: 'commander start'
INFO [qshell] cmd returned with: -1
INFO [qshell] qshell return value timestamp: 805489289, local time: 805490118
ERROR [qshell] Command failed
INFO [qshell] Send cmd: 'flight_mode_manager start'
INFO [qshell] cmd returned with: -1
INFO [qshell] qshell return value timestamp: 805528214, local time: 805531157
ERROR [qshell] Command failed
WARN [dataman] dataman already running
ERROR [navigator] Task already running
ERROR [load_mon] Task already running
WARN [modal_io_bridge] Already started
ERROR [microdds_client] Task already running
INFO [mavlink] MAVLink only on localhost (set param MAV_{i}_BROADCAST = 1 to enable network)
voxl2:~$

Additionally, after running the voxl-esc disable_bridge command, do I need to enable any specific ports or perform additional configurations to ensure proper communication between the modules?

Thank you for your assistance!

I just realized you could also probably resolve this issue by leaving the gcs ip addresses blank in the config file for voxl-mavlink-server. That would force QGC to make a server side connection because there wouldn't be any heartbeats on the local port (I think QGC link manager checks local udp port first, hence the auto connection issue).

Hi @Eric-Katzfey, Thank you for your response and for pointing out potential issues.

Yes, when I fly with the RC in Position mode and Offboard mode, it works fine.

In Manual mode, the drone is completely unflyable. When I try to take off, it drifts aggressively to one side. The logs attached in my initial comment were recorded during an attempt to take off from the ground.

Yes, the MAVSDK program I mentioned was the only one I was running at the time.

Oh, is there a way to disable the Offboard figure-8 commands from voxl-vision-hub? (Edit: do I need to update "/etc/modalai/voxl-vision-hub.conf" and set "offboard_mode": "off"? Is this enough to turn off the figure 8 mode?)

Thank you for your support!

@Troi same issue here but with stereo camera and command:

voxl-calibrate-camera stereo_front -s 6x9 -l 0.030

Did you resolve this?

I just pushed two updates to a branch of voxl-streamer:

https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/voxl-sdk/services/voxl-streamer/-/commits/enable-h265-encode add option to use h265 encoder for non-encoded input frames (use either command line option -e h265 or --encoder h265 or in voxl-streamer.conf file "encoder": "h264" switch the h264 profile from baseline to main which allows using CABAC coding, which has better compression properties than default CAVLC at some expense of HW encoder usage (negligible) and potential additional cpu usage on decoding side. However, this will definitely be better for low bandwidth streaming. h265 uses CABAC coding as the only option.

It seems like it's working well, but not much testing has been done so far..

Alex

@Zachary-Lowell-0 Yes I have installed ros2 foxy and the mpa-to-ros2 deb. Running the command:

systemctl status voxl-microdds-agent

Gives this output:
ca7e0437-0050-4014-93b4-694f0e42da53-image.png

Meanwhile running :

ros2 topic list

Still gives nothing:
c58fe8da-ff79-4a68-8866-0b41b13112f2-image.png

@Ender , the UART-based communication offers many benefits over traditional PWM.

Just as few examples, we can use bi-directional communication to monitor and tune performance in real time and for offline analysis, take a look at some of the tools we have to analyze the ESC performance:

esc calibration regenerative braking analysis low-kv motor tuning

If you are not used to such protocols, it may take a bit longer to figure out how to properly tune and use our ESCs, but digital communication is the standard of many new ESCs and even hobby ESCs try to achieve similar protocols using DSHOT (which is essentially a UART-style digital communication protocol, which can be implemented using PWM pins that do not support UART on the microcontrollers). In addition to UART communication, our ESCs offer closed-loop RPM control, which helps with maintaining consistent ESC response across different conditions and battery charge levels.

If you don't want to add any more variables to your project, you should definitely try the voxl2-io solution that Zachary suggested, so that you can use it in PX4 just like traditional actuators and connect your favorite ESCs to voxl2-io. voxl2-io board will connect to VOXL2 and will communicate with PX4 (running on VOXL2) via UART. voxl2-io will send out the desired PWM signals to the individual ESCs that you have connected to it.

Alex

@jonathankampia , sorry for the delay, please see the response in this post https://forum.modalai.com/topic/3952/flir-boson-beta-hardware

@tom As we start our testing cycle and get close to release we will also start releasing "beta" SDKs which can be downloaded from the "platform-releases" bucket

@James-Strawson

Hey James,

Thanks for the tip, installing via apt install voxl-mapper and then running with systemctl start voxl-mapper worked out of the box.

Kind regards,
Griffin

@Chase-Riley the recommended approach is to use J18 ESC port directly: https://docs.modalai.com/voxl2-external-flight-controller/#voxl-2-connecting-an-external-flight-controller

You can reach out at https://modalai.com/contact and we will work with getting you enabled

Hello,

Sorry to hear about the crash. We have a collection of several CAD files (including the Starling lineup) available on our developer website, https://developer.modalai.com/. Sign up and accept the terms and conditions and you should be able to access the "Protected Downloads" folder, which includes said CAD models. As far as I am aware, the "Landing Gear" has remained relatively unchanged throughout the lifespan of the Starlings, so any of the Starling CAD models should include it (Excluding the Starling Max, which uses longer legs).

The part that ships with the drone is a nylon based material, so if you have access to a nylon that would be most comparable. We have seen some users do well with TPU or PETG as well for self printed replacements of this part.

Good luck!

@giladWDS , I believe i was able to reproduce the issue. It seems you cannot set the fps lower than 15fps only when you have raw preview enabled and no other streams that use ISP are running. Can you please confirm that this is the case?

If you have non-raw preview or other streams enabled like small or large video, then what happens the pipeline will actually drop frames to achieve the desired fps. So it is not ideal, that is to say that the camera is still sending higher fps, but the frames are dropped. However, the overhead for receiving extra frames and dropping them at lowest level is not too big. I will investigate if we can actually set the camera to run at the desired lower fps.

I am pretty sure that i can fix it, perhaps using the fix you already found, but can you please confirm that this is your camera configuration, if possible just paste your hires camera config here. Thanks!

Alex

@Jetson-Nano As suggested before, can you disable the rangefinder and optic flow and see if things work with VIO alone?

@Jetson-Nano What happens if you don't use the rangefinder? If VIO is working then you get the height from that.