WASP-200 LIDAR on Starling 2 Max

[adiprin1]

I would like to add a WASP-200 UART device to the starling 2 max running arducopter (also interested if it could work on PX4). can i use the VOXL 2 IO board's UART output to connect it to an a serial device? if so, what would the UART number be within arducopter?

[Eric Katzfey]

@adiprin1 With Ardupilot the VOXL 2 IO board can only be used for PWM output. With PX4 it can also be used for SBUS RC. So, unfortunately, you cannot connect that WASP-200 to the VOXL 2 IO board.

[adiprin1]

@Eric-Katzfey Is there any way to connect a UART peripheral other than the provided hardware to the DSP side a VOXL2 / starling 2 max ? It looks like there are two DSP uarts on the starling 2 max, one used by the RC and one by the GPS. If i were to remove one of those components could i replace it with the WASP200? if using PX4, could we move the RC controller to the SBUS on the io board and use the UART on J19 for the LIDAR?

is there a facility to provide apps processor io into the px4 flight computer in the DSP? it appears as if the down facing lidar on the starling 2 max is connected to the apps processor.

[Eric Katzfey]

@adiprin1 On Ardupilot there is currently no way to use apps side UARTs (Some day we will add a method to use them). So, you would have to use one of the 3 UARTs attached to the DSP. If you removed the RC or the GPS and used that port then, theoretically, it could work. However, we have not tried that so can't make any guarantees. Also on PX4 you can use an apps side UART if there is one available on an add-on board. And, as you mention, you could use an SBUS RC on the VOXL 2 IO board and free up the standard RC UART.