Hey Everyone,

Working on a mavlink connection API for a starling max 2 and encountered some unknown messages being output from the drone:

Unhandled message: UNKNOWN_410 UNKNOWN_410 {data:['fd', '12', '0', '0', 'fd', '1', '1', '9a', '1', '0', 'b9', '1b', 'd3', '1', '8b', 'a0', '12', '0', 'c0', '1', '0', '0', '33', '3c', '0', '7e', '0', '14', '5', '39']}
Unhandled message: UNKNOWN_410 UNKNOWN_410 {data:['fd', '12', '0', '0', 'fe', '1', '1', '9a', '1', '0', '73', 'c2', '98', '1', '8b', 'a0', '12', '0', 'c1', '1', '0', '0', '33', '38', '0', '0', '0', '14', 'b9', '3c']}
Unhandled message: UNKNOWN_410 UNKNOWN_410 {data:['fd', '12', '0', '0', 'ff', '1', '1', '9a', '1', '0', 'd9', 'c2', '5', '1', '8b', 'a0', '12', '0', 'c2', '1', '0', '0', '66', '8', '0', '0', '0', '14', '89', '88']}
Unhandled message: UNKNOWN_410 UNKNOWN_410 {data:['fd', '12', '0', '0', '0', '1', '1', '9a', '1', '0', 'c7', '1d', '2f', '1', '8b', 'a0', '12', '0', 'c3', '1', '0', '0', '33', '0', '40', '0', '0', '14', '67', 'cb']}
Unhandled message: UNKNOWN_410 UNKNOWN_410 {data:['fd', '12', '0', '0', '1', '1', '1', '9a', '1', '0', '30', '36', '1', '1', '8b', 'a0', '12', '0', 'c4', '1', '0', '0', '66', '20', '0', '0', '0', '14', 'ad', '27']}
Unhandled message: UNKNOWN_410 UNKNOWN_410 {data:['fd', '12', '0', '0', '2', '1', '1', '9a', '1', '0', '29', 'ed', '6', '1', '8b', 'a0', '12', '0', 'c5', '1', '0', '0', '44', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', '7', 'd8', '78']}
Unhandled message: UNKNOWN_410 UNKNOWN_410 {data:['fd', '12', '0', '0', '3', '1', '1', '9a', '1', '0', '27', '37', '1d', '1', '8b', 'a0', '12', '0', 'c6', '1', '0', '0', '88', '0', '2', '19', '2', '28', 'd7', '8f']}
Unhandled message: UNKNOWN_380 UNKNOWN_380 {data:['fd', '14', '0', '0', 'a', '1', '1', '7c', '1', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', '5', '50']}
Unhandled message: UNKNOWN_290 UNKNOWN_290 {data:['fd', '2e', '0', '0', '30', '1', '1', '22', '1', '0', '59', '4f', 'd2', '48', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', 'b3', 'd1', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '7c', '15', 'b4', '14', '18', '15', '7c', '15', '0', '4', '1', 'f', 'f8', 'cc']}
Unhandled message: UNKNOWN_291 UNKNOWN_291 {data:['fd', '28', '0', '0', '31', '1', '1', '23', '1', '0', '59', '4f', 'd2', '48', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', 'd6', '78', '47', '41', 'b3', '9d', '47', '41', 'c7', '4b', '47', '41', 'bd', '74', '47', '41', '77', '1e']}
Unhandled message: OPEN_DRONE_ID_LOCATION OPEN_DRONE_ID_LOCATION {target_system : 0, target_component : 0, id_or_mac : [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], status : 1, direction : 36100, speed_horizontal : 25500, speed_vertical : 6300, latitude : 0, longitude : 0, altitude_barometric : 111.9713363647461, altitude_geodetic : -1000.0, height_reference : 0, height : -1000.0, horizontal_accuracy : 0, vertical_accuracy : 0, barometer_accuracy : 1, speed_accuracy : 0, timestamp : 65535.0, timestamp_accuracy : 0}
Unhandled message: UNKNOWN_380 UNKNOWN_380 {data:['fd', '14', '0', '0', '3c', '1', '1', '7c', '1', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'ff', 'db', 'a0']}
Unhandled message: UNKNOWN_411 UNKNOWN_411 {data:['fd', '2', '0', '0', '58', '1', '1', '9b', '1', '0', 'c6', '1', '79', '8d']}
Unhandled message: UNKNOWN_290 UNKNOWN_290 {data:['fd', '2e', '0', '0', '64', '1', '1', '22', '1', '0', 'af', '8b', 'e1', '48', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', 'd6', 'd4', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '7c', '15', 'b4', '14', '18', '15', '7c', '15', '0', '4', '1', 'f', 'e8', 'e6']}
Unhandled message: UNKNOWN_291 UNKNOWN_291 {data:['fd', '28', '0', '0', '65', '1', '1', '23', '1', '0', 'a0', '90', 'e1', '48', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '73', '68', '47', '41', 'cb', 'a1', '47', '41', '7e', '3f', '47', '41', '7', '81', '47', '41', '9d', 'f5']}

I have been looking at the messages being broadcast from the drone and had not seen these specific messages until just now. The output is from a GCS script and throws the Unhandled message: exception when an unknown message type appears along with the type and content of the message.

• Where can I find the necessary definitions for these extra / unknown message types? I am only using the common.xml definitions (afaik)
• Why would the drone ID messages suddenly start appearing? This appears to be part of the remote ID system; does this mean that someone nearby is sending out pings?

Thanks for any help!

Kind regards,
Griffin

Hey All,

Testing indoors I've had several instances of altitude estimate divergence requiring reversion to manual control and an emergency landing on a starling 2 max.

It seems that the error begins when I activate the offboard mode with the default figure 8 loaded.
My assumption is that as the drone yaws it loses some of the VIO points and is uncertain about its altitude causing a rapid climb in offboard and position modes.

What would the best way be to correct this issue?

• I could try to add visual markers (i.e. april tags) to the warehouse walls to provide more references?
• Does the starling 2 max use both forward and downward facing cameras for VIO? I thought I saw a post about this feature being enabled in the nightly builds but am unsure.
• Should I expect these issues to improve inherently by moving into a more visually active space (inside an unoccupied office area)? I am hesitant to fly in more confined areas without being confident in the aircraft estimate and position holding reliability.

Kind regards,
Griffin

@tom thanks for the information. Does this also mean that when in outdoor mode it will ignore VIO inputs, even when GPS becomes unavailable?

@Eric-Katzfey thanks! I got started using mavsdk and pymavlink

Hey All,

I'm working on integrating support for a Starling 2 max into an existing high level control stack written in Python. After completing the VOXL bootcamp and looking through the SDK docs I was unsure what the best method would be for building such an API. Is it possible to directly send velocity/position/orientation setpoints as well as image collection commands through VOXL? Would it be easier to simply send PX4 / Mavlink / Mavros commands?

Just wanted to get some advice before I overcommit to an approach.

Thanks,
Griffin

@James-Strawson

Hey James,

Thanks for the tip, installing via apt install voxl-mapper and then running with systemctl start voxl-mapper worked out of the box.

Kind regards,
Griffin

Following the 0.9 VOA tutorial we cannot start up the voxl-dfs-server via systemctl enable or start, it shows enabled but does not run even after restarting the drone.

• Checking in the VOXL portal the VOA point cloud shows that some kind of depth information is being gathered.
• Does DFS occur through some process other than the dfs-server in the 1.0+ version of the SDK? Or does the depth information originate from the TOF sensor?
• The config file from the VOA tutorial is missing / has been renamed to voxl-vision-hub.conf, there is a voxl-vision-hub process running; is this where depth information is produced in newer SDK versions?

Additionally:

• The tof_pc and tof views in VOXL portal seems to be rotated s.t. z is forward, y is left and x is down which does not match the NED/FRD frames of the other views. Is this correct?
• The VOXL mapper does not populate on the portal (blank scene) and the mapper service does not appear for voxl-inspect-services.

What is the source of depth information on a Starling 2 Max drone with the TOF module?
Any help is appreciated.

@tom That seems to have fixed it, thanks.

When in this mode will the position fix ignore GPS data, if available, or will it incorporate it if the drone is taken outside

Within 2-3 seconds of selecting the high res camera in the VOXL portal the cpu inspect shows an overheat flag with an average core temp of ~90F. Additionally, the voxl-camera-server process is always using 130% CPU, while the same process uses only 70% CPU in the documentation screenshots.

Is this expected behavior? Should I be concerned about the overheat flags?

During indoor testing of a Starling 2 Max we cannot enter position mode.

• The drone shows a no valid position estimate error in QGC despite the qvio visualization in VOXL portal showing a good track of 60-90%.
• The starling first flight tutorial shows the VIO as sufficient for indoors position flight. Is this still correct for Starling 2 max?
• Is there a way to inspect the state estimate of the drone?
• Does starling 2 max require a GPS fix for accurate position fix even when running indoors?

Any help would be appreciated.