OV with External Autopilot

[SKA]

@tom Thanks! I referred to this page in order to set up what I have right now.
My voxl 2 mini is connected to the external autopilot using the one exposed UART. It seems to be connected fine, since I'm receiving the voxl heartbeat on the autopilot end, and I'm receiving autopilot mavlink messages on the voxl side.

I wonder if there is anything I might be missing on the voxl-vision-hub side, or elsewhere.
Thanks for your help!

[SKA]

@tom I have some updates, and here's more info on my setup!

voxl-open-vins-server is running and outputting the following:

voxl-vision-hub and voxl-mavlink-server are running, and the odom messages are being sent. Here's the output from voxl-mavlink-server -l:

At my external autopilot, the Odometry messages are coming through, but the values are not populating/reading correctly:

Thanks in advance for any input you may have!

[Eric Katzfey]

@SKA What version of the SDK do you have installed? Can you post the output of voxl-version?

[SKA]

@Eric-Katzfey @tom

Here's the output of voxl-version:

voxl2-mini:~$ voxl-version
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
system-image: 1.8.02-M0104-14.1a-perf
kernel:       #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Nov 11 23:21:25 UTC 2024 4.19.125
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
hw platform:  M0104
mach.var:     2.0.0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
voxl-suite:   1.4.0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Packages:
Repo:  http://voxl-packages.modalai.com/ ./dists/qrb5165/sdk-1.4/binary-arm64/
Last Updated: 2025-03-12 18:51:42
WARNING: repo file has changed since last update,
        packages may have originated from a different repo
List:
kernel-module-voxl-fsync-mod-4.19.125     1.0-r0
kernel-module-voxl-gpio-mod-4.19.125      1.0-r0
kernel-module-voxl-platform-mod-4.19.125  1.0-r0
libfc-sensor                              1.0.7
libmodal-cv                               0.5.16
libmodal-exposure                         0.1.3
libmodal-journal                          0.2.2
libmodal-json                             0.4.3
libmodal-pipe                             2.10.4
libqrb5165-io                             0.4.7
libvoxl-cci-direct                        0.2.3
libvoxl-cutils                            0.1.1
modalai-slpi                              1.1.19
mv-voxl                                   0.1-r0
qrb5165-bind                              0.1-r0
qrb5165-dfs-server                        0.2.0
qrb5165-imu-server                        1.1.0
qrb5165-rangefinder-server                0.1.4
qrb5165-slpi-test-sig                     01-r0
qrb5165-system-tweaks                     0.3.2
qrb5165-tflite                            2.8.0-2
voxl-bind-spektrum                        0.1.1
voxl-camera-calibration                   0.5.9
voxl-camera-server                        2.0.2
voxl-ceres-solver                         2:1.14.0-10
voxl-configurator                         0.9.4
voxl-cpu-monitor                          0.5.1
voxl-docker-support                       1.3.1
voxl-elrs                                 0.3.4
voxl-esc                                  1.4.8
voxl-feature-tracker                      0.5.2
voxl-flow-server                          0.3.6
voxl-fsync-mod                            1.0-r0
voxl-gimbal                               0.0.1
voxl-gphoto2-server                       0.0.10
voxl-gpio-mod                             1.0-r0
voxl-io-server                            0.0.4
voxl-jpeg-turbo                           2.1.3-5
voxl-lepton-server                        1.3.3
voxl-lepton-tracker                       0.0.4
voxl-libgphoto2                           0.0.4
voxl-libuvc                               1.0.7
voxl-logger                               0.4.9
voxl-mavcam-manager                       0.5.7
voxl-mavlink                              0.1.1
voxl-mavlink-server                       1.4.4
voxl-modem                                1.1.3
voxl-mongoose                             7.7.0-1
voxl-mpa-to-ros                           0.3.9
voxl-mpa-tools                            1.3.4
voxl-open-vins                            0.4.14
voxl-open-vins-server                     0.2.83
voxl-opencv                               4.5.5-2
voxl-osd                                  0.0.2
voxl-platform-mod                         1.0-r0
voxl-portal                               0.7.2
voxl-px4                                  1.14.0-2.0.93
voxl-px4-imu-server                       0.1.2
voxl-px4-params                           0.5.8
voxl-qvio-server                          1.1.1
voxl-remote-id                            0.0.9
voxl-reset-slpi                           0.0.1
voxl-state-estimator                      0.0.3
voxl-streamer                             0.7.5
voxl-suite                                1.4.0
voxl-tag-detector                         0.0.4
voxl-tflite-server                        0.3.7
voxl-utils                                1.4.4
voxl-uvc-server                           0.1.7
voxl-vision-hub                           1.8.18
voxl-vtx                                  1.1.3
voxl2-io                                  0.0.3
voxl2-system-image                        1.8.02-r0
voxl2-wlan                                1.0-r0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Eric Katzfey]

@SKA Okay, great, that's a very recent SDK so that's good. Have you also made sure to disable the voxl-qvio-server service?

[Eric Katzfey]

@Eric-Katzfey Your output shows that it is connecting properly to ov pipe so shouldn't really be necessary to stop voxl-qvio-server but probably a good idea anyways.

[Eric Katzfey]

@SKA That odometry output results when voxl-vision-hub thinks that vio is in a failed state and sends out that default message. Does the time_usec field increment normally? Do you ever see it populate with good data or is it always showing that? Here is the code where it sends that: https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/voxl-sdk/services/voxl-vision-hub/-/blob/master/src/vio_manager.c?ref_type=heads#L150

[Eric Katzfey]

@SKA voxl-vision-hub will print out debug messages showing VIO status as it is running. Can you see anything that may indicate why it thinks VIO is failed?

[SKA]

@Eric-Katzfey Thanks for helping me out with this! I've made some progress at narrowing in on the problem. First to answer your questions:

• QVIO: I tried with voxl-qvio-server disabled, this didn't change anything.
• VIO failed state: I fixed some other issues leading to the failed state from voxl-open-vins-server. Now the ovins translation and rotation outputs look healthy, and time_usec increments normally, but the external autopilot still does not log the odometry output.
• Debug: VIO status debug shows that it isn't failing.

I was able to get qvio odometry outputs to log on the external autopilot, but when I switched over to ovins, it fails. With ovins I still see incoming VIO (comp IP 197) heartbeat and timestamp mavlink messages going through, but not the 331 odometry message.

Let me know what you think, thanks so much!

[Eric Katzfey]

@SKA What pipes do you see listed in /run/mpa? If you run the command voxl-inspect-vio does it show that VIO is running okay?