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Mavlink Camera Manager not appearing on QGC

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  • Eric KatzfeyE Eric Katzfey

    Can you try QGroundControl v3.5.6? That is what was used during development and the best place to troubleshoot this issue.

    Daniel RyuD Offline
    Daniel RyuD Offline
    Daniel Ryu
    Regular
    wrote on last edited by
    #3

    @Eric-Katzfey Same problem, but this time not even the camera sidebar appears. I can only stream video with the same above method. Screenshot from 2021-08-27 12-27-23.png

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    • Daniel RyuD Offline
      Daniel RyuD Offline
      Daniel Ryu
      Regular
      wrote on last edited by Daniel Ryu
      #4

      Can I have the exact steps the development team used on the QGC side? The documentation only provides instructions on setup the stream on the drone, not actually on how to use those streams with the QGC

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      • Eric KatzfeyE Offline
        Eric KatzfeyE Offline
        Eric Katzfey
        ModalAI Team
        wrote on last edited by
        #5

        Do you have an active connection to the autopilot when you are attempting to use mavlink-camera-manager?

        Daniel RyuD 1 Reply Last reply
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        • Eric KatzfeyE Offline
          Eric KatzfeyE Offline
          Eric Katzfey
          ModalAI Team
          wrote on last edited by
          #6

          You can also run mavlink-camera-manager with the debug flag -d to show the protocol messages being transferred to QGC.

          Daniel RyuD 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • Eric KatzfeyE Eric Katzfey

            Do you have an active connection to the autopilot when you are attempting to use mavlink-camera-manager?

            Daniel RyuD Offline
            Daniel RyuD Offline
            Daniel Ryu
            Regular
            wrote on last edited by
            #7

            @Eric-Katzfey I did have an active autopilot connection. I'll try running with the debug flag and see what I get

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            • Eric KatzfeyE Eric Katzfey

              You can also run mavlink-camera-manager with the debug flag -d to show the protocol messages being transferred to QGC.

              Daniel RyuD Offline
              Daniel RyuD Offline
              Daniel Ryu
              Regular
              wrote on last edited by
              #8

              @Eric-Katzfey Here is my update regarding the Mavlink Camera Manager. I switched to QGC 3.5.6 (the latest does not in fact work with mavlink camera manager) and I was able to stream one camera using the mavlink camera manager, but only one camera at a time (no dropdown screen). I had all three cameras running simultaneously with voxl-streamer and mavlink-camera-manager, all with different ports and ids. Individually, I could stream each one to QGC, which would only show the first camera service that I would start up and not give me an option for switching to the others.

              Strange behavior: I had all three mavlink-camera-manager services running. I can only see the first camera I start on the QGC screen (lets say its hires, for this example). I then CTRL-C (stop) the mavlink-camera-manager process thats running the hires. However, the hires stream doesn't stop and continues streaming as normal. This continues until I stop all three mavlink-camera-manager services, which is when the QGC then shows a "Waiting for video" screen.

              Screen Shot 2021-09-02 at 3.35.48 PM.png

              When i tried clicking the double boxes in the top left corner, the QGC went into a non-responsive state and I had to force quit QGC.

              Commands I ran and error messages I received

              Screen Shot 2021-09-02 at 3.34.44 PM.png
              Screen Shot 2021-09-02 at 3.34.59 PM.png
              Screen Shot 2021-09-02 at 3.38.02 PM.png

              QGC error message (this was repeated multiple times when running more than one stream, up to 4):
              Screen Shot 2021-09-02 at 3.36.19 PM.png

              Eric KatzfeyE 1 Reply Last reply
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              • Daniel RyuD Daniel Ryu

                @Eric-Katzfey Here is my update regarding the Mavlink Camera Manager. I switched to QGC 3.5.6 (the latest does not in fact work with mavlink camera manager) and I was able to stream one camera using the mavlink camera manager, but only one camera at a time (no dropdown screen). I had all three cameras running simultaneously with voxl-streamer and mavlink-camera-manager, all with different ports and ids. Individually, I could stream each one to QGC, which would only show the first camera service that I would start up and not give me an option for switching to the others.

                Strange behavior: I had all three mavlink-camera-manager services running. I can only see the first camera I start on the QGC screen (lets say its hires, for this example). I then CTRL-C (stop) the mavlink-camera-manager process thats running the hires. However, the hires stream doesn't stop and continues streaming as normal. This continues until I stop all three mavlink-camera-manager services, which is when the QGC then shows a "Waiting for video" screen.

                Screen Shot 2021-09-02 at 3.35.48 PM.png

                When i tried clicking the double boxes in the top left corner, the QGC went into a non-responsive state and I had to force quit QGC.

                Commands I ran and error messages I received

                Screen Shot 2021-09-02 at 3.34.44 PM.png
                Screen Shot 2021-09-02 at 3.34.59 PM.png
                Screen Shot 2021-09-02 at 3.38.02 PM.png

                QGC error message (this was repeated multiple times when running more than one stream, up to 4):
                Screen Shot 2021-09-02 at 3.36.19 PM.png

                Eric KatzfeyE Offline
                Eric KatzfeyE Offline
                Eric Katzfey
                ModalAI Team
                wrote on last edited by
                #9

                @Daniel-Ryu I'm going to have to resurrect my development station to look into this. The mavlink camera manager doesn't actually do any streaming. It's job is to just run the mavlink camera protocol to allow you to easily connect to a stream coming from voxl-streamer (or other application). Can you show the output of the mavlink camera manager application(s) when the debug "-d" option is used? That will show the protocol messages being transferred between the GCS and Voxl.

                Daniel RyuD 1 Reply Last reply
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                • Eric KatzfeyE Eric Katzfey

                  @Daniel-Ryu I'm going to have to resurrect my development station to look into this. The mavlink camera manager doesn't actually do any streaming. It's job is to just run the mavlink camera protocol to allow you to easily connect to a stream coming from voxl-streamer (or other application). Can you show the output of the mavlink camera manager application(s) when the debug "-d" option is used? That will show the protocol messages being transferred between the GCS and Voxl.

                  Daniel RyuD Offline
                  Daniel RyuD Offline
                  Daniel Ryu
                  Regular
                  wrote on last edited by Daniel Ryu
                  #10

                  @Eric-Katzfey

                  Hires, stereo, tracking mavlink-camera-manager debug outputs (in this order). All three are running at the same time:
                  Screen Shot 2021-09-03 at 12.39.55 PM.png

                  Screen Shot 2021-09-03 at 12.40.04 PM.png

                  Screen Shot 2021-09-03 at 12.40.13 PM.png

                  Voxl-streamer debug output for hires (only hires had updated debug output, other voxl-streamers only had the standard bootup debug)
                  Screen Shot 2021-09-03 at 12.40.33 PM.png

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                  • Eric KatzfeyE Offline
                    Eric KatzfeyE Offline
                    Eric Katzfey
                    ModalAI Team
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #11

                    Okay, thanks! That shows, at least, a mavlink protocol session has been initiated with the mavlink-camera-manager. The camera protocol is documented here: https://mavlink.io/en/services/camera.html. The mavlink-camera-manager module is implementing a portion of that protocol. When it first connects there should be a flurry of protocol messages going back and forth. Once things are setup then it is just heartbeat messages as you see in the debug output above. So the key part of the debug output is the very beginning.

                    Daniel RyuD 1 Reply Last reply
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                    • Eric KatzfeyE Eric Katzfey

                      Okay, thanks! That shows, at least, a mavlink protocol session has been initiated with the mavlink-camera-manager. The camera protocol is documented here: https://mavlink.io/en/services/camera.html. The mavlink-camera-manager module is implementing a portion of that protocol. When it first connects there should be a flurry of protocol messages going back and forth. Once things are setup then it is just heartbeat messages as you see in the debug output above. So the key part of the debug output is the very beginning.

                      Daniel RyuD Offline
                      Daniel RyuD Offline
                      Daniel Ryu
                      Regular
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #12

                      @Eric-Katzfey Where can I go from here then, to be able to swap streams from a dropdown menu in QGC?

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                      • Eric KatzfeyE Offline
                        Eric KatzfeyE Offline
                        Eric Katzfey
                        ModalAI Team
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #13

                        Look at the beginning of the debug output from mavlink-camera-manager. Do you see anything besides the heartbeat / ping messages? If so, can you paste that here?

                        Daniel RyuD 1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • Eric KatzfeyE Eric Katzfey

                          Look at the beginning of the debug output from mavlink-camera-manager. Do you see anything besides the heartbeat / ping messages? If so, can you paste that here?

                          Daniel RyuD Offline
                          Daniel RyuD Offline
                          Daniel Ryu
                          Regular
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #14

                          @Eric-Katzfey

                          Screen Shot 2021-09-09 at 9.17.48 AM.png

                          Screen Shot 2021-09-09 at 9.48.55 AM.png

                          Screen Shot 2021-09-09 at 9.49.34 AM.png

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                          • J Offline
                            J Offline
                            jaredjohansen
                            Regular
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #15

                            @Eric-Katzfey , we got it working. The secret we were missing was our MAV_SYS_ID was not set to 1, which, apparently, is what this capability expects. Thanks!

                            Eric KatzfeyE 1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • J jaredjohansen

                              @Eric-Katzfey , we got it working. The secret we were missing was our MAV_SYS_ID was not set to 1, which, apparently, is what this capability expects. Thanks!

                              Eric KatzfeyE Offline
                              Eric KatzfeyE Offline
                              Eric Katzfey
                              ModalAI Team
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #16

                              @jaredjohansen Great! Glad to hear it!

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                              • wilkinsafW Offline
                                wilkinsafW Offline
                                wilkinsaf
                                ModalAI Team
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #17

                                We are facing a similar issue. Is it correct to say there is not one singular service on VOXL that will automatically stream all cameras to QGC?

                                We have to write our own script for it correct?

                                Daniel RyuD 1 Reply Last reply
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                                • wilkinsafW wilkinsaf

                                  We are facing a similar issue. Is it correct to say there is not one singular service on VOXL that will automatically stream all cameras to QGC?

                                  We have to write our own script for it correct?

                                  Daniel RyuD Offline
                                  Daniel RyuD Offline
                                  Daniel Ryu
                                  Regular
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #18

                                  @wilkinsaf Way we handled it was creating our own services/scripts for streaming to QGC automatically with mavlink-camera-manager. Hope it helps

                                  wilkinsafW 1 Reply Last reply
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                                  • Daniel RyuD Daniel Ryu

                                    @wilkinsaf Way we handled it was creating our own services/scripts for streaming to QGC automatically with mavlink-camera-manager. Hope it helps

                                    wilkinsafW Offline
                                    wilkinsafW Offline
                                    wilkinsaf
                                    ModalAI Team
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #19

                                    @Daniel-Ryu

                                    I figured. We just wanted to double check that this was the case. Thank you!

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