@Alex-Kushleyev said in Starling 2: TOF sensor not recognized by VOXL Portal:

[ 1712.679736] qcom,camera ac50000.qcom,cci:qcom,cam-sensor2: Dropping the link to regulator.60

Can you send me the syntax to get the dmesg output from voxl-camera-server -l ? I've tried a few options but I do not get an output that looks like the one you show. Thanks.

@george-kollamkulam : the problem with the drone shooting straight up in position mode seems related to bad estimation of altitude. In particular, if you are flying indoors (no GPS signal accessible) GPS needs to be eliminated from the altitude estimation since the lack of GPS signal in the sensor fusion seems to cause the problem.
IN summary, if you are flying indoors and experience this problem, try disabling GPS in PX4 by setting the parameter SYS_HAS_GPS to "disable" in QGroundControl. That seems to have resolved the issue for us - at least for now.

Hello,
After fresh IMU and gyro calibration, and with successful check of VIO (via VOXL portal) Starling 2 is able to arm in position mode and fly in position mode rather well. However, as soon as switching to offboard mode (in this case to test follow_tag) flight becomes unstable: drone starts to very quick climbing straight up in the vertical direction.
It seems this kind of failure (drone starts climbing up fast straight in the vertical direction) seems a relatively common failure mode when going to offboard mode. Are there any suggestions of what can be causing this ? VIO has been tested multiple times and looks solid. Drone is able to arm in position mode.
Please let me know your suggestions. Thanks.

Hello - The Voxl-Vision-Hub - Follow tag maneuver does not operate as expected on Startling 2. Background information:

• voxl-vision-hub has been built and deployed on Startling 2
• VIO works well and IMU has been calibrated - Drone can arm and fly as expected on Position mode
• Figure-8 maneuver works well when switching to offboard mode
• To test follow tag maneuver in offboard mode, the following preparations were done:

• /etc/modalai/voxl-tag-detector.conf was edited to select detector_0: "input_pipe": "tracking_front_misp_norm"
• the path to the lens calibration file was updated to the correct path
• run voxl-tag-detector on voxl2 works properly: the overlay on voxl portal shows correct tag detection in tracking tag overlay

• /etc/modalai/voxl-vision-hub.conf was changed to: "offboard_mode": "follow_tag",
  The tag to be used for the test "follow_tag_id": 0 corresponds to the 36h11 tag family. The tag is 15x15 cm.
  After all of the above, Starling 2 is armed in position mode and maneuvered to a distance of approx. 2.5 m in front of the tag.
  voxl-follow-tag is running on voxl2 terminal.
  Offboard mode is enganged.
  Instead of flying towards the tag, the drone yaws to the right and flies in a divergent trajectory away from the tag.
  Flight behavior has been tested several times and is always the same.
  Please advise on what can be wrong and what can be tested. Thanks.

@Eric-Katzfey - Brilliant idea- thank you.

@Eric-Katzfey - thanks for the prompt response.
My test scenario is as follows. I need to modify the follow_tag code to include a search maneuver (search for a tag while following a square or circular search path) followed by fly towards the tag.
I would like to test for instance if the tag is being properly detected by moving the drone by hand in the search pattern.
If the tag is found I can send a debug text message to the terminal.
This is much simpler than HITL. Just examine if the code logic is correct by looking at certain variables while moving the drone by hand.
This would require to run offboard code while the drone is not armed, and output debug text to the terminal.
It doesn't need to use fake sensor values (as in HITL): the drone is disarmed and being moved by hand. VIO would be working. Is this possible ?
Please let me know - thanks.

Hello,

Voxl-vision-hub is the most important tool (to my knowledge) to develop autonomous flight applications in the VOXL2 platform.
One can develop a new application based on the existing templates as "offboard_mycode.c" , change the config parameter "offboard_mode" to "mycode" and the code will execute when the drone enters offboard mode - which requires having the drone armed and flying !

It would be of great value for development, test and debug purposes to be able to run offboard_mycode when the drone is NOT armed. This is not exactly HITL using Gazebo, the idea is to run the program while printing debug values to the monitor to see if intermediate variables have the correct value and the code is running correctly.

Is there a way to run and test offboard code in VOXL2 while the drone is not armed , by sending debug text to the terminal ? Please let me know. Thanks.

Hello,
Running a VOXL2 stationary (drone sitting on a desk) during software testing, configuration or development leads to the VOXL CPU heating up to temperatures near 100 Celsius in 3-5 minutes.
The main culprit is voxl-camera-server: if this service is disabled, the VOXL2 CPU can run cold forever. But in most applications voxl-camera-server is needed and as a result the VOXL CPU is running always very hot (near 100C), which brings obvious concerns about system health:
Can running the VOXL2 board at 95~100C for several minutes damage the board, CPU or other onboard components, sensors, etc. ?
One solution is to turn power off every 5-10 minutes and wait until CPU cools down (which only tales 3-4 min) but this is very inefficient and a waste of time since network connection and other services need to be started all over again each time power is cut off.
Is there a recommended approach to keep the VOXL CPU temperature at reasonable levels ?
Or alternatively, is it actually safe to run the VOXL2 CPU at 100C for extended periods of time ?
Please advise. Thanks.

@Alex-Kushleyev - Any updates on this thread ? Let me know if there is anything else I could try or if you consider this a hardware problem with the PMD sensor itself. Thanks, Hector

@tom - that solved the problem . The solution was to download and build using voxl-cross:V2.7
Thanks for the very prompt response ! regards, Hector