QGC Starts up showing a heading of north no mater the direction of compass

[Eric Katzfey]

@Chase-Riley Hmmm. Do you also have VIO running?

[Eric Katzfey]

@Chase-Riley What are the parameter values for SYS_HAS_MAG and EKF2_MAG_TYPE?

[Chase Riley]

@Eric-Katzfey I do not have VIO running and I have SYS_HAS_MAG = 1 and EKF2_MAG_TYPE = 0

[Eric Katzfey]

@Chase-Riley And on QGC does the attitude display move around normally as you would expect as you pick up the drone and move it around? Just the heading stays stuck at North?

[Eric Katzfey]

@Chase-Riley And when you say that you cannot go into position mode do you have a solid GPS lock?

[Eric Katzfey]

@Chase-Riley In QGC can you open up mavlink inspector and take a look at the global position int message? How often is it coming in? Do all of the fields look like they are updating normally? Is hdg stuck at 0?

[Chase Riley]

@Eric-Katzfey yes QGC artificial horizon and other telem reacts as it should. If I power up the air vehicle pointing south, east, or west it show that the heading is north. If I yaw the air vehicle the heading does change but it is incorrect because the system always starts at north.

I went a step further in testing and removed the GPS/Mag from the air vehicle. This allowed me to yaw the GPS/Mag independently from the air frame. When doing this QGC shows no change in heading. If I yaw the air vehicle while the GPS/Mag stays still the heading moves in QGC.

This makes it seem that QGC is getting heading info from the VOXL2 maybe IMU instead of the external GPS/Mag.

I have full GPS lock when trying to switch to position mode which makes me think that this heading issue could be why I can't switch into position.

I also have 5 total systems that are configured the same way. All 5 have this same heading issue.

[Chase Riley]

@Eric-Katzfey I was able to look at GPS_RAW_INT in the mavlink inspector. Value seem to be updating at about 1Hz, however you are correct that HDG_acc us stuck at 0 no matter the heading of the Voxl or GPS/Mag.

[Chase Riley]

@Eric-Katzfey I was also able to flash 1 of my 5 systems to SDK 1.1.2 just to check to see if I have the same issue and it seems I do. I have included an error I found while running voxl-px4 on my SDK 1.1.2.

INFO  [muorb] SLPI: >>> ICM42688P this: 3176eba0
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Ok executing command: icm42688p start -s
INFO  [uORB] Advertising remote topic qshell_retval
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: >>> ICM42688P this: 3176eba0
INFO  [qshell] qshell return value timestamp: 46007098, local time: 46011498
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: >>> ICM42688P this: 3176eba0
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Register interrupt b21d31a4 e6201b3c 3176eba0
INFO  [uORB] Advertising remote topic sensor_gyro_fifo
INFO  [uORB] Advertising remote topic sensor_accel_fifo
INFO  [uORB] Advertising remote topic imu_server
INFO  [qshell] Send cmd: 'icp101xx start -I -b 5'
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Marking DeviceNode(qshell_req) as advertised in process_remote_topic
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: qshell gotten: icp101xx start -I -b 5
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:   arg0 = 'icp101xx'

INFO  [muorb] SLPI:   arg1 = 'start'

INFO  [muorb] SLPI:   arg2 = '-I'

INFO  [muorb] SLPI:   arg3 = '-b'

INFO  [muorb] SLPI:   arg4 = '5'

INFO  [muorb] SLPI: *** I2C Device ID 0xb76329 12018473
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: icp101xx #0 on I2C bus 5
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:  address 0x63
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: 

INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Ok executing command: icp101xx start -I -b 5
INFO  [qshell] qshell return value timestamp: 46049655, local time: 46051360
Looking for qmc5883l magnetometer
INFO  [qshell] Send cmd: 'qmc5883l start -R 10 -X -b 1'
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Marking DeviceNode(qshell_req) as advertised in process_remote_topic
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: qshell gotten: qmc5883l start -R 10 -X -b 1
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:   arg0 = 'qmc5883l'

INFO  [muorb] SLPI:   arg1 = 'start'

INFO  [muorb] SLPI:   arg2 = '-R'

INFO  [muorb] SLPI:   arg3 = '10'

INFO  [muorb] SLPI:   arg4 = '-X'

INFO  [muorb] SLPI:   arg5 = '-b'

INFO  [muorb] SLPI:   arg6 = '1'

INFO  [muorb] SLPI: *** I2C Device ID 0x80d09 527625
ERROR [muorb] SLPI: i2c probe failed
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: PX4_qshell: no instance started (no device on bus?)
ERROR [muorb] SLPI: Failed to execute command: qmc5883l start -R 10 -X -b 1
INFO  [qshell] cmd returned with: -1
INFO  [qshell] qshell return value timestamp: 46090352, local time: 46091734
ERROR [qshell] Command failed
Looking for ist8310 magnetometer
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: >>> ICM42688P this: 3176eba0
INFO  [qshell] Send cmd: 'ist8310 start -R 10 -X -b 1'
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Marking DeviceNode(qshell_req) as advertised in process_remote_topic
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: qshell gotten: ist8310 start -R 10 -X -b 1
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:   arg0 = 'ist8310'

INFO  [muorb] SLPI:   arg1 = 'start'

INFO  [muorb] SLPI:   arg2 = '-R'

INFO  [muorb] SLPI:   arg3 = '10'

INFO  [muorb] SLPI:   arg4 = '-X'

INFO  [muorb] SLPI:   arg5 = '-b'

INFO  [muorb] SLPI:   arg6 = '1'

INFO  [muorb] SLPI: *** I2C Device ID 0x60e09 396809
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: ist8310 #0 on I2C bus 1
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:  (external)
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:  address 0xE
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:  rotation 10
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: 

INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Ok executing command: ist8310 start -R 10 -X -b 1
INFO  [qshell] qshell return value timestamp: 46128693, local time: 46130008
INFO  [qshell] Send cmd: 'gps start'
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Marking DeviceNode(qshell_req) as advertised in process_remote_topic
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: qshell gotten: gps start
INFO  [muorb] SLPI:   arg0 = 'gps'

INFO  [muorb] SLPI:   arg1 = 'start'

INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Creating pthread gps

INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Successfully created px4 task PX4_gps with tid 2097647
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Ok executing command: gps start
INFO  [qshell] qshell return value timestamp: 46153157, local time: 46155078
Looking for ncp5623c RGB LED
INFO  [qshell] Send cmd: 'rgbled_ncp5623c start -X -b 1 -f 400 -a 56'
INFO  [muorb] SLPI: Marking DeviceNode(qshell_req) as advertised in process_remote_topic

[Eric Katzfey]

@Chase-Riley It makes me believe that one of the rotations somewhere is not set correctly. What is SENS_BOARD_ROT set to? I guess we can just trace the topic messages through the system to see where it is getting confused. So you already did listener sensor_mag and you can see it publishing and the values updating regularly when you move the unit around? That topic goes to the sensors module that then publishes the vehicle_magnetometer topic. Can you do a listener on that to make sure it looks like it is working?

[Eric Katzfey]

@Chase-Riley What happens when you try to do a compass calibration?

[Eric Katzfey]

@Chase-Riley That error is normal. It tries to start both mag drivers assuming that one will fail.

[Eric Katzfey]

@Chase-Riley Also, when arming is failing in position mode you can do a listener on the failsafe_flags topic to see what flags are set.

[Chase Riley]

@Eric-Katzfey running px4-listener sensor_mag shows the mag data and it changes as I move the GPS/Mag around. So that is behaving how I would expect it to SENS_BOARD_ROT is set to YAW 180. This is due to the VOXL2 being mounted 180 degrees rotated in the air frame.

Everything seems to go well through an compass calibration. We have done quite a few while troubleshooting this.

I will take a look at the failsafes when I try to go into position mode, however at this point I think the heading needs to be resolved first either way. Am I correct to think that when rotating the GPS/Mag separate from the VOXL2 I should see a heading change based on the direction of the GPS/Mag? In this case I only see the heading change when rotating the VOXL2 (Which to my knowledge has no Mag on board).

[Eric Katzfey]

@Chase-Riley Instead of setting SENS_BOARD_ROT you can set the rotation on the IMU driver to -R 4. But don't do both. I would try setting SENS_BOARD_ROT to 0 and keeping the -R 4 on the IMU driver start and see if that makes any difference. Also, do the listener vehicle_magnetometer to see if it is updating nicely like listener sensor_mag does.

[Eric Katzfey]

@Chase-Riley Is there any way that you can orient the board exactly as we have it in one of our drones (Sentinel, Starling) and use our parameter set and see if it works fine then?

[Chase Riley]

@Eric-Katzfey I set SENS_BOARD_ROT to No rotation and made the change to the IMU driver as you mentioned and had the same results still always points north on startup. px4-listener vehicle_magnetometer updates nicely as just like px4-listener sensor_mag.

I was able to flash the sentinel params on to the board and was able to match the orientation of the Sentinel and had the same results. I made sure to change the IMU driver back to original before this test.

[Chase Riley]

@Eric-Katzfey I went back in this morning and flashed the ci_sentinel-params which seems to be a entire param set and was able to get it working. Now I need to change the VOXL2 orientation. Would you recomend doing this through QGC or the voxl-px4-start? I am unsure which parameter caused it to start to work. Any insight would be appreciated so that I can make that change in my other systems with out having to change a bunch of params.

[Chase Riley]

@Eric-Katzfey I pulled the params from the system I have working and one of the systems that is having the Mag problem. Weirdly enough there is only 9 differences. I have listed them below. They all seem to be calibration differences if I understand correctly.

CAL_ACC0_XOFF
CAL_ACC0_YOFF
CAL_ACC0_ZOFF

CAL_GYRO0_XOFF
CAL_GYRO0_YOFF
CAL_GYRO0_ZOFF

CAL_MAG0_XSCALE
CAL_MAG0_YSCALE
CAL_MAG0_ZSCALE

[Eric Katzfey]

@Chase-Riley Huh, that's very interesting. I'm guessing that if the rotation isn't set properly and a calibration is done then those calibration parameters will be incorrect such that even when all rotations are specified correctly those old calibration values will mess everything up. So I guess that each time any rotation parameter or option is changed you need to go and recalibrate everything. For your case it seems like you should leave everything the same as Sentinel except change the rotation of the IMU driver in voxl-px4-start to -R 4 and then recalibrate everything.