Sentinel VOXL2 Microhard not running

rohitpillai · 29 Jun 2022, 17:37

Hi,

Recently I bought a Sentinel Dev Drone with the Microhard add-on kit with pMDDL2450. My GS is a pMDDL5824. Once I configured all the microhard settings, I am able to ping the microhard from my GS and vice versa. However, when I try to setup voxl-configure-modem and then run systemctl status -l voxl-modem. I get the following message and no IP address is given for it (Image attached below). Therefore I am not able to SSH into the drone via Microhard. How do I fix this?

tom · 29 Jun 2022, 17:41

@rohitpillai What does ifconfig show?

as a note voxl-modem runs and exits so it is normal for it to be "not running" in voxl-inspect-services

rohitpillai · 29 Jun 2022, 17:44

ifconfig shows the following.

However, that is not the IP address that I have set for the microhard using voxl-configure-modem. The IP address I have set is 192.168.168.60 therefore I am not able to SSH in.

tom · 29 Jun 2022, 17:52

@rohitpillai As a test, can you do the following?:

disable the voxl-modem service with systemctl disable voxl-modem
reboot your drone
adb back on
run voxl-modem-start.sh manually
post the output and resulting ifconfig here

rohitpillai · 29 Jun 2022, 17:57

Where is the voxl-modem-start.sh file located?

tom · 29 Jun 2022, 17:58

@rohitpillai It's in /usr/bin so you should be able to run it from wherever

rohitpillai · 29 Jun 2022, 17:59

Here is the output.

tom · 29 Jun 2022, 18:00

@rohitpillai Let's see what package versions you have installed, can you run voxl-version?

rohitpillai · 29 Jun 2022, 18:01

Here you go!

tom · 29 Jun 2022, 18:06

@rohitpillai Okay that looks to be the latest, let me mimic your setup and see if I can figure out the issue. Thank you for being patient!

In the meantime, a couple other things to check:

What does your /etc/network/interfaces file look like?

And does anything change if you do the following:

ifconfig usb0 down and ifconfig usb0 up

rohitpillai · 29 Jun 2022, 18:12

Here is the output for the network-interfaces file

Output for ifconfig usb0 down

Output for ifconfig usb0 up gives the same output as ifconfig from previous message.

tom · 29 Jun 2022, 18:57

@rohitpillai Try ifconfig usb0 up not eth0 also try adding a sudo

rohitpillai · 29 Jun 2022, 19:01

Here is the output -

If I try to SSH using this IP address, it takes me to this and not VOXL2 -

On the other drones it is usually eth0 for the Microhard connection. Why is it defaulting to usb0?

rohitpillai · 29 Jun 2022, 19:04

Okay typing in bash takes me to VOXL2. However, it is not setting the static IP address that I want it to set, which is 192.168.168.60

tom · 29 Jun 2022, 19:09

@rohitpillai I'm still playing around to figure out exactly what is going wrong but here are a couple answers:

That SSH session is the VOXL2, SSH just doesn't put you in the bash shell by default, if you run bash it should give you the expected voxl terminal you're used to.

The reason why it is showing up as usb0 and not eth0 is because the Microhard add-on board you're using is a newer flavor than the others "M0048-2" vs "M0048-1" (the silk screen may not reflect that correctly). This newer flavor removes the LAN7500 chip and uses a slightly different driver to enable comms between the chips.

This functionality is new to voxl-modem as well which is why you're running into this bug, you're one of the first people to actually have one of these new boards in hand.

rohitpillai · 29 Jun 2022, 19:15

Oh cool! Is there anything I can do to help from my side to figure this out?

tom · 29 Jun 2022, 19:18

@rohitpillai I will let you know if I need anything from you. I'm screwing around with the voxl-modem source code right now to try to figure out how to fix the issue. I think I've already found a couple things that could resolve it.

I'll update once I get it going, I may generate a new voxl-modem deb package for you to try out

rohitpillai · 29 Jun 2022, 19:19

Sounds good!

tom · 29 Jun 2022, 20:11

@rohitpillai I believe I have fixed the issue. voxl-modem was jumping ahead and assuming that the modem had enumerated before it had which would cause some of the commands to never be run.

I have generated a new dev package for you to try out, the download link is:

http://voxl-packages.modalai.com/dists/qrb5165/dev/binary-arm64/voxl-modem_0.15.2-202206291955_arm64.deb

You can take a look at the source code changes here: https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/voxl-sdk/utilities/voxl-modem/-/commit/0cc330f8fcd6cafc97b80412dfe9994b8389e90b

In order to try this package out, do the following:

download the voxl-modem_0.15.2-202206291955_arm64.deb package using the above link
push the package to your VOXL2 in the directory you'd like (I'll use /data) using:

adb push voxl-modem_0.15.2-202206291955_arm64.deb /data

Force remove the voxl-modem package on board:

adb shell

dpkg --purge --force-all voxl-modem

Install the new dev package:

cd /data

dpkg -i voxl-modem_0.15.2-202206291955_arm64.deb

Re-run voxl-configure-modem and choose the IP to your liking

Verify that the network interface comes up and the IP is what you expect with ifconfig

Try a couple reboots to confirm that the expected behavior is consistent.

Let me know if you need any clarity on the above and let me know the outcome of your tests.

The usb0 network interface won't come up immediately after reboot (may take 10-15 seconds) for it to enumerate

rohitpillai · 29 Jun 2022, 20:27

After a couple of reboots I am getting the same behaviour. It works as it should now! Thanks!