Voxl2/Microhard/NV Trip 2
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Good afternoon,
Starting a new thread here related to my last vague question.
Using the VOXL2 with the pDDL2450 attached and your previous experience with the NV Trip2 system. Is it achievable to have the UART pins on the bottom of the MH carrier board(I understand its solder points and thats not a problem) going to a SER port for an external FC, and have an Ethernet to USB adaptor from the Trip2 going to one of the USB host connectors on the MH unit? I think the only way to get what we need to accomplish is set the vehicle up as what your documented architecture describes.
@Vinny can you confirm the HW side? Hopefully i have more or most of my ducks in a row this time.
Or would it be best to use the USB UART board which i have a few of?
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Hi @McMason
I think you can make either solution work from a Hardware viewpoint.
Option 1)
Voxl2 + Microhard Add-on:
UART from soldering (little messy, might need external level translation)
USB to MH already done via J3 plug-in
Note you want to add Kapton tape to Voxl2 J5 connector to prevent the bottom of the MH board from touching Voxl2 components. And/or use 5mm standoffs or a "tray with guide rails" like our flight decks.
USB to ETH adapter via MH downstream port (but note the 500mA limit)
Option 2)
Voxl2 + M0125 USB3 Add-on + MH Dongle (not add-on) + (USB<->ETH adapter via MH Dongle):
And you'll need a 10-pin to 4-pin USB cable though, so you could start from the 10-pin to 10-pin "PWM Output Cable" we sell, and bring one side to 4-pins in order to make the connection to the MH Dongle.
https://www.modalai.com/products/mcbl-00004
and 4-pin side (I think we might be missing this on our store-front, I'll try to get that fixed)
https://docs.modalai.com/cable-datasheets/#mcbl-00015It would seem in either config, I am suggesting you cascade the USB-ETH adapter through the USB hub on the MH board(s). In that case you'll probably want this cable to give you a USB-A port from the MH:
https://docs.modalai.com/cable-datasheets/#mcbl-00009Let me know if this helps.
@tom, do you see any SW concerns here with running a camera using a USB-ETH converter?
Thanks!
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@Vinny @McMason We haven't tried that camera so I can't comment on that specifically but this is the USB to ETH adapter that I use with VOXL2: https://www.cablecreation.com/collections/usb-2-0-3-0/products/usb-ethernet-adapter
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awesome thank you, ill start by getting the VOXL2 and external FC going first, then add in things along the way!
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@McMason Previously we just used the DragonEye camera directly without the Trip computer and used an HDMI to MIPI adapter.
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@Eric-Katzfey Did it look like this?
Also I'm following the Voxl2 with external FC setup. I get to the line where I should be pulling from gitlab and i get a cannot access failure. Is there a new link to the source?
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@McMason That docs page appears to be out of date, if you're on SDK 0.9, it should have the external FC capabilities included in voxl-mavlink-server
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@McMason No, we made a custom adapter.
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@tom thanks reason im asking is I can verify Mavlink server is enabled and running, then when i command voxl-mavlink-server nothing shows on the external FC line. I have the cube SER3 set to 921600 and mavlink2. Any ideas? Or is there an up to date instruction? I can confirm i'm on sdk-0.9
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voxl2:/$ voxl-mavlink-server
loading our own config fileParameters as loaded from config file:
px4_uart_bus:
1
px4_uart_baudrate:
921600
udp_port_to_px4:
14556
udp_port_from_px4:
14557
external_fc:
0existing instance of voxl-mavlink-server found, attempting to stop it
starting receive thread
Init complete, entering main loop -
@McMason You need to set
external_fcto1in order to enable it -
@tom in order to do that i would have to modify voxl-mavlink-server.conf correct? When i try to issue that line its not recognized. Or im just being dumb which is entirely a possibility. I also did voxl-configure-mavlink-server and when prompted went to 1 for external FC
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@McMason Interesting, it's possible that menu isn't setting that value correctly. But yes, you can manually edit that config file to modify that value
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@McMason Confirmed that value wasn't being set correctly, thank you so much for catching that! Adding that fix right now
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oh right on! thanks @tom
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@Vinny with using M000125 uart usb board i can get a uart and the ETH (video line) in. I also need a way to talk to the VOXL2, is there a hack to get WiFi with using the mentioned board and the functionality we need?
Or am i stuck with using the MH carrier with UART solder leads, and passing the video feed through MH board.Also if the MH modem isnt installed could i use the two USB peripheral ports to keep video and WiFi? long shot but i thought i would ask.
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Hi @McMason
You do NOT need to have the MH modem actually installed to get the benefit of the USB Hub and downstream ports.
We have block diagrams on the MH tech docs page to help illustrate this:
https://docs.modalai.com/microhard-add-on-datasheet/#block-diagram
If you want to SSH over WiFi into Voxl2, you can use the second downstream USB port on the MH board to host a WiFi dongle, much like we do.
https://www.modalai.com/collections/cables/products/wifi-usb-cable-add-on
That may be your complete solution (hopefully, unless I missed something) but yes, it does hinge on a hub based product (either Microhard, or our newer 5G modem boards which have much higher VBUS capability).
So, you might want to really look into getting the 5G add-on modem board (no modem) and then that gives you the UART plus multiple USB ports, and on one of them, you can cascade a MH dongle and on the other one, the WiFi for SSH into V2.
Might be more elegant than the M0125 + all those adapters.
Depends on your SWAP constraints. But, I think you do have an option. -
Sweet, thanks @Vinny I might actually have a 5g modem board as well! Man i really appreciate your patience with all my questions.
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Nevermind its the 4gLte carrier.
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Hi @McMason
Of course, we want you to be successful!!
That 4G modem board works just like the Microhard boards we have... you have the same USB hub and the same VBUS capabilities, and you do not need to install a modem to get that functionality.
Hope that helps!
