How to: Seeker ESC calibration

[alarm_hq]

I'm unsure how to calibrate the ESCs on the seeker.

I can't use qgroundcontrol as the seeker doesn't have 5v input, non battery power input as documented here

However, using the px4-esc-tool to calibrate the seeker's ESC, the prompts request your to remove J1007 from the VOXL Flight. This connector is not populated from the factory.

Any advice? Should I just ignore it and move to the next step?

[Chad Sweet]

There is no need to calibrate the Seeker's ESC. They use a closed loop RPM control with parameters specified at the factory.

So we can improve our documentation, where is that step listed?

[Chad Sweet]

The Seeker (and all of our drones), come ready to fly out of the box.

[alarm_hq]

And if I've already made the "mistake" of reflashing px4 firmware, is the closed loop RPM control affected?

[Chad Sweet]

Ah I'll ping some more folks. Don't know off the top of my head.

[modaltb]

Mainline PX4 doesn't have our ESC driver (yet), so if was from the QGC auto update, it's likely wiped that driver out!

Here's the .px4 binary that has support (what we are shipping with).

info:
https://docs.modalai.com/flight-core-firmware/

v1.11.3-0.0.5:
https://storage.googleapis.com/modalai_public/flightcore-releases/1.11.3-0.0.5.modalai_fc-v1_default.px4

[modaltb]

Source code for reference: https://github.com/modalai/px4-firmware/tree/modalai-1.11/src/drivers/uart_esc/modalai_esc

[alarm_hq]

Awesome, that was the driver I had used. Thanks for clarifying!

[James Strawson]

@alarm_hq said in How to: Seeker ESC calibration:

And if I've already made the "mistake" of reflashing px4 firmware, is the closed loop RPM control affected?

The ModalAI ESCs used on Seeker have their own firmware and settings stored on the ESC itself, independent from PX4 so your ESC is fine after changing PX4 firmware.