Bad Image Output using voxl_cam_ros

[Dean Fortier]

Hey Modalai Team,

I'm trying to use voxl_cam_ros with an M0025 (IMX214) and am not getting good image quality out. Here is an example:

I am able to use voxl-rtsp with a decent output:

I am not getting any terrible errors when launching the ROS node except for

ERROR: The requested frame_id(0) does not exist in the queue.
[ERROR] [20204.856915384]: GetImageData() Unable to get Frame data for id: 0 rc: -2

which is harmless according to this post.

my voxl-version is as follows:

yocto:/# voxl-version 
cat: /etc/modalai/voxl-software-bundle-version.txt: No such file or directory
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
system-image:    ModalAI 3.2.0 BUILDER: ekatzfey BUILD_TIME: 2021-02-05_19:54
kernel:          #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Feb 5 20:03:22 UTC 2021 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: install user 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
Installed-Time: 13238

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: unknown ok not-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

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dean

[James Strawson]

Hello Dean,

Starting with voxl-suite 0.3.4 (what you have installed) voxl_cam_ros is deprecated due to annoyances like this.

Please try its replacement node voxl_mpa_to_ros. This will publish all cameras, IMU, and some other data to ROS all with one node!

yocto:/# roslaunch voxl_mpa_to_ros voxl_mpa_to_ros.launch

in another window:

yocto:/# rostopic list
/hires/image_raw
/imu0
/imu1
/qvio/odometry
/qvio/pose
/qvio_overlay/image_raw
/rosout
/rosout_agg
/stereo/left/image_raw
/stereo/right/image_raw
/tracking/image_raw
/parameter_descriptions
/tracking/image_raw/compressedDepth/parameter_updates

Don't worry, it won't actually publish data until something subscribes to the topic so it's not wasting CPU having all those topics advertised.

Best Regards,
James

[Dean Fortier]

Hi @James-Strawson,

Thanks for the tip I will try it out!