<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[VOXL2 randomly reboots during flight – PMIC reports S3_RESET_PBS_WATCHDOG_TO]]></title><description><![CDATA[<p dir="auto">Hi ModalAI team,</p>
<p dir="auto">I am experiencing a serious random reboot issue on a Starling 2 / VOXL2. The issue does not happen on every flight. Typically, the vehicle can fly several times normally, and then VOXL2 suddenly reboots during a later flight. When this happens, the vehicle immediately loses control and falls because PX4/Offboard also disappears during the reboot.</p>
<p dir="auto">System information<br />
Platform: Starling 2 / VOXL2<br />
VOXL2: M0054-1, QRB5165M<br />
VOXL Suite: 1.6.4<br />
System image: 1.8.08-M0054-14.1a-perf<br />
Kernel: 4.19.125<br />
PX4 running through voxl-px4.service<br />
Indoor flight without GPS<br />
OpenVINS + Vision Hub<br />
PMD ToF rangefinder<br />
4x VOXL ESC<br />
Reboot confirmation</p>
<p dir="auto">Immediately after the latest event:</p>
<p dir="auto">$ uptime<br />
15:58:55 up 7 min</p>
<p dir="auto">$ cat /proc/uptime<br />
467.18 2576.05</p>
<p dir="auto">This places the reboot at approximately 15:51.</p>
<p dir="auto">The services also restarted at approximately the same time:</p>
<p dir="auto">voxl-open-vins-server : ~15:51:15<br />
voxl-vision-hub       : ~15:51:15<br />
voxl-px4              : ~15:51:17</p>
<p dir="auto">Therefore, this does not appear to be only an OpenVINS reset or a PX4 service restart. The complete Linux system rebooted.</p>
<p dir="auto">PMIC reset reason</p>
<p dir="auto">The most interesting information from the new boot is:</p>
<p dir="auto">qcom,qpnp-power-on ... pm8150@0:<br />
PMIC@SID0 Power-on reason:<br />
Triggered from CBL (External Power Supply) and 'cold' boot</p>
<p dir="auto">PMIC@SID0:<br />
Unknown power-off reason</p>
<p dir="auto">qcom,qpnp-power-on ... pm8150b@2:<br />
PMIC@SID2 Power-on reason:<br />
Triggered from CBL (External Power Supply) and 'cold' boot</p>
<p dir="auto">PMIC@SID2:<br />
Unknown power-off reason</p>
<p dir="auto">qcom,qpnp-power-on ... pm8150l@4:<br />
PMIC@SID4 Power-on reason:<br />
Triggered from PON1 (Secondary PMIC) and 'cold' boot</p>
<p dir="auto">PMIC@SID4 Power-off reason:<br />
Triggered from S3_RESET_PBS_WATCHDOG_TO</p>
<p dir="auto">The kernel also reports:</p>
<p dir="auto">msm_watchdog 17c10000.qcom,wdt:<br />
MSM Watchdog Initialized</p>
<p dir="auto">However, there is no /dev/watchdog* or /sys/class/watchdog/ interface available on this image.</p>
<p dir="auto">Could you clarify what conditions on VOXL2 / QRB5165M + PM8150L can cause:</p>
<p dir="auto">S3_RESET_PBS_WATCHDOG_TO</p>
<p dir="auto">and whether this reset reason indicates a known VOXL2 hardware, PMIC, subsystem, or firmware issue?</p>
<p dir="auto">Previous SLPI failure</p>
<p dir="auto">I previously observed a separate failure on this same system involving SLPI / IMU communication.</p>
<p dir="auto">The log included messages similar to:</p>
<p dir="auto">ERROR [muorb] Sending kill command to SLPI!!!<br />
Accel #0 fail: TIMEOUT!<br />
Keep alive timeout from Apps<br />
Created /data/px4/slpi/keepalive_fail<br />
Forcing blind descent / land</p>
<p dir="auto">In that previous case, /data/px4/slpi/keepalive_fail was created.</p>
<p dir="auto">For the latest full-system reboot described above, /data/px4/slpi/ is empty after reboot:</p>
<p dir="auto">$ ls -lah /data/px4/slpi/</p>
<p dir="auto">total 8.0K<br />
drwxr-xr-x 2 system system 4.0K Sep 21 11:47 .<br />
drwxr-xr-x 6 root   root   4.0K Sep 15 16:16 ..</p>
<p dir="auto">I am therefore wondering whether the earlier SLPI/SSC failure and the current PMIC watchdog reset could be related.</p>
<p dir="auto">Wi-Fi behavior after the abnormal reboot</p>
<p dir="auto">There is another repeatable symptom that may be relevant.</p>
<p dir="auto">After this abnormal reboot, Linux/VOXL2 comes back up, but Wi-Fi does not recover correctly.</p>
<p dir="auto">A normal reboot/power-up normally provides Wi-Fi access, but after this failure the Wi-Fi connection remains unavailable. I have to completely remove power from VOXL2 and power it on again before Wi-Fi works normally.</p>
<p dir="auto">So the observed sequence is:</p>
<p dir="auto">Normal operation<br />
↓<br />
Several flights<br />
↓<br />
Unexpected reset during flight<br />
↓<br />
VOXL2 performs a full/cold reboot<br />
↓<br />
Linux/PX4 services restart<br />
↓<br />
Wi-Fi does not recover<br />
↓<br />
Complete physical power cycle<br />
↓<br />
Wi-Fi works again</p>
<p dir="auto">This makes me suspect that some subsystem or peripheral may not be completely reset by the abnormal reset sequence.</p>
<p dir="auto">Temperature and system load</p>
<p dir="auto">Immediately after reboot, system temperatures and load were normal:</p>
<p dir="auto">CPU temperature: ~53 C<br />
GPU temperature: ~51 C<br />
CPU utilization: ~28%<br />
Memory usage: ~2.2 GB / 7.7 GB</p>
<p dir="auto">Therefore, I do not currently see evidence of a thermal shutdown or memory exhaustion.</p>
<p dir="auto">ESC status</p>
<p dir="auto">All four ESCs were online after reboot:</p>
<p dir="auto">esc_count: 4<br />
esc_online_flags: 15<br />
esc_armed_flags: 15</p>
<p dir="auto">ESC temperature: ~46 C<br />
esc_errorcount: 0<br />
failures: 0<br />
Battery information</p>
<p dir="auto">At the time I checked after the event:</p>
<p dir="auto">voltage_v: 6.274 V<br />
cell_count: 2<br />
remaining: 0.27263</p>
<p dir="auto">The ESCs reported approximately:</p>
<p dir="auto">6.256 - 6.276 V</p>
<p dir="auto">I understand that this is a low battery voltage, so I am also investigating possible voltage sag / power integrity issues under motor load.</p>
<p dir="auto">However, I would particularly like to understand whether a simple input power/brownout condition would normally produce:</p>
<p dir="auto">S3_RESET_PBS_WATCHDOG_TO</p>
<p dir="auto">or whether a different PMIC reason such as UVLO would normally be expected.</p>
<p dir="auto">Questions<br />
What exactly causes S3_RESET_PBS_WATCHDOG_TO on the VOXL2 QRB5165M / PM8150L platform?<br />
Is this a known issue on VOXL2, system image 1.8.08, or VOXL Suite 1.6.4?<br />
Could an SLPI/SSC subsystem hang eventually result in this type of full-system reset?<br />
Could a short input voltage drop/brownout produce S3_RESET_PBS_WATCHDOG_TO, or should we expect a different PMIC reset reason such as UVLO?<br />
Could the fact that Wi-Fi remains unavailable after the abnormal reboot, but recovers after a complete power cycle, indicate that a peripheral/power domain is not being completely reset?<br />
Are there any additional Qualcomm crash dump, PMIC, watchdog, minidump, or reset-reason logs that we can enable or collect to determine the root cause before the next occurrence?</p>
<p dir="auto">This is currently preventing further flight testing because a VOXL2 reboot during flight causes an immediate loss of control and the vehicle falls.</p>
<p dir="auto">Any guidance on additional debugging steps or logs to collect would be greatly appreciated.</p>
]]></description><link>https://forum.modalai.com/topic/5424/voxl2-randomly-reboots-during-flight-pmic-reports-s3_reset_pbs_watchdog_to</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Mon, 21 Sep 2026 11:44:32 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://forum.modalai.com/topic/5424.rss" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><pubDate>Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:21:30 GMT</pubDate><ttl>60</ttl></channel></rss>