@Aidan-Dempster Also, if anybody is trying to get QuRT logs on a Mac, nano-dm does work. With the caveat that it must be from a remote computer over USB though.

Hello,

We have been testing the 4-in-1 mini ESC using our VOXL2. Running from testing scripts in python we are able to set the RPM to our desired quantity and measure the board current.

However, we are having trouble when using PX4. When I go into actuator test mode and request a power of 1.0 (so max in the px4 world) on the test stand, the ESC status topic returns that the ESC power is 50 which is too low to lift the drone. Modifying the ESC parameters to lift the max RPM has no effect on this behavior.

We would also like the monitor the ESC current, but the ESC status topic does not seem to have any fields for the board current and the mini does not return individual ESC current measurements. Will this be added in the full 1.0.0 release?

Thank you!

@Alex-Kushleyev

Ah, thank you. That makes sense. We are currently using 2 of the ESCs and want to record the total current. I see how we could do that now through the testing script, but I am still running into trouble. We would like to be able to monitor our usage in flight through PX4, but looking through the message definitions I don't see anything that would supply the board current And all currents are reported as 0 as I would now expect.

Has the ability to get this total board current been implemented in ModalIO?

struct esc_status_s {
	uint64_t timestamp;
	uint16_t counter;
	uint8_t esc_count;
	uint8_t esc_connectiontype;
	uint8_t esc_online_flags;
	uint8_t esc_armed_flags;
	uint8_t _padding0[2]; // required for logger
	struct esc_report_s esc[8];
}

struct esc_report_s {
	uint64_t timestamp;
	uint32_t esc_errorcount;
	int32_t esc_rpm;
	float esc_voltage;
	float esc_current;
	float esc_temperature;
	uint16_t failures;
	uint8_t esc_address;
	uint8_t esc_cmdcount;
	uint8_t esc_state;
	uint8_t actuator_function;
	int8_t esc_power;
	uint8_t _padding0[5]; // required for logger
}

We are testing the 4-in-1 esc (mini) with the VOXL2 (not mini). After connecting the J18 port to the ESC with the described pinouts we are able to spin our motors and interact with them through PX4. All metadata expected is available. The only problem is that the current measurement is always 0.

I have included some output of the voxl-esc spin command

Found voxl-esc tools bin version: 1.2
VOXL Platform: M0054
Detected VOXL2 M0054 or M0104!
Found previous connection information in .voxl_esc_cache ..
Prioritizing /dev/slpi-uart-2 @ 2000000
INFO: Scanning for ESC firmware: /dev/slpi-uart-2, baud: 2000000
Sending library name request: libslpi_uart_bridge_slpi.so
Received standard error event 2
Sending initialization request
INFO: ESC(s) detected on port: /dev/slpi-uart-2, baud rate: 2000000
INFO: Detected protocol: firmware
INFO: Additional Information:
INFO: ---------------------
	ID         : 0
	Board      : version 40: ModalAi 4-in-1 ESC (M0129-3)
	UID        : 0x2039333557555304003D001F
	Firmware   : version   38, hash 83faccfa
	Bootloader : version  184, hash 10bf24c8

	ID         : 1
	Board      : version 40: ModalAi 4-in-1 ESC (M0129-3)
	UID        : 0x2039333557555304003D001A
	Firmware   : version   38, hash 83faccfa
	Bootloader : version  184, hash 10bf24c8

	ID         : 2
	Board      : version 40: ModalAi 4-in-1 ESC (M0129-3)
	UID        : 0x2039333557555304003D001C
	Firmware   : version   38, hash 83faccfa
	Bootloader : version  184, hash 10bf24c8

	ID         : 3
	Board      : version 40: ModalAi 4-in-1 ESC (M0129-3)
	UID        : 0x2039333557555304003D0021
	Firmware   : version   38, hash 83faccfa
	Bootloader : version  184, hash 10bf24c8

---------------------
Detected Python version : 3.6.9 (default, Mar 10 2023, 16:46:00)
[GCC 8.4.0]
Found voxl-esc tools bin version: 1.2
VOXL Platform: M0054
Detected VOXL2 M0054 or M0104!
Found previous connection information in .voxl_esc_cache ..
Prioritizing /dev/slpi-uart-2 @ 2000000
INFO: Scanning for ESC firmware: /dev/slpi-uart-2, baud: 2000000
Sending library name request: libslpi_uart_bridge_slpi.so
Received standard error event 2
Sending initialization request

Output when testing ESC 1 (which has a motor attached)

[2.665] (1) RPM: 2830, PWR: 5, VOLTAGE: 12.384V, TEMPERATURE: 37.71C, CURRENT: 0.000A
[2.676] (1) RPM: 2830, PWR: 5, VOLTAGE: 12.384V, TEMPERATURE: 37.71C, CURRENT: 0.000A
[2.684] (1) RPM: 2835, PWR: 5, VOLTAGE: 12.385V, TEMPERATURE: 37.72C, CURRENT: 0.000A
[2.695] (1) RPM: 2836, PWR: 5, VOLTAGE: 12.381V, TEMPERATURE: 37.74C, CURRENT: 0.000A
[2.707] (1) RPM: 2836, PWR: 5, VOLTAGE: 12.381V, TEMPERATURE: 37.74C, CURRENT: 0.000A
[2.714] (1) RPM: 2866, PWR: 5, VOLTAGE: 12.391V, TEMPERATURE: 37.76C, CURRENT: 0.000A
[2.725] (1) RPM: 2834, PWR: 5, VOLTAGE: 12.373V, TEMPERATURE: 37.76C, CURRENT: 0.000A
[2.736] (1) RPM: 2834, PWR: 5, VOLTAGE: 12.373V, TEMPERATURE: 37.76C, CURRENT: 0.000A
[2.744] (1) RPM: 2834, PWR: 5, VOLTAGE: 12.376V, TEMPERATURE: 37.75C, CURRENT: 0.000A
[2.755] (1) RPM: 2831, PWR: 5, VOLTAGE: 12.378V, TEMPERATURE: 37.77C, CURRENT: 0.000A
[2.767] (1) RPM: 2831, PWR: 5, VOLTAGE: 12.378V, TEMPERATURE: 37.77C, CURRENT: 0.000A
[2.774] (1) RPM: 2826, PWR: 5, VOLTAGE: 12.369V, TEMPERATURE: 37.76C, CURRENT: 0.000A
[2.786] (1) RPM: 2828, PWR: 5, VOLTAGE: 12.375V, TEMPERATURE: 37.76C, CURRENT: 0.000A
[2.796] (1) RPM: 2828, PWR: 5, VOLTAGE: 12.375V, TEMPERATURE: 37.76C, CURRENT: 0.000A
[2.804] (1) RPM: 2838, PWR: 5, VOLTAGE: 12.376V, TEMPERATURE: 37.76C, CURRENT: 0.000A
[2.814] (1) RPM: 2832, PWR: 5, VOLTAGE: 12.377V, TEMPERATURE: 37.77C, CURRENT: 0.000A

We only have a motor connected to ESC 1, but I do see some logging for non-zero current on ESC 3. The RPM values are obviously bunk because there is nothing attached, but I do wonder if something went wrong in the hardware for logging current with ESCs 0-2.

Logging for the test of ESC 3 (with no motor attached):

[4.930] (3) RPM: 991, PWR: 0, VOLTAGE: 12.343V, TEMPERATURE: 44.29C, CURRENT: 0.000A, BOARD_VOLTAGE: 12.343V, BOARD_CURRENT: 0.024A
[4.935] (3) RPM: 991, PWR: 0, VOLTAGE: 12.343V, TEMPERATURE: 44.29C, CURRENT: 0.000A, BOARD_VOLTAGE: 12.343V, BOARD_CURRENT: 0.024A
[4.951] (3) RPM: 1021, PWR: 0, VOLTAGE: 12.350V, TEMPERATURE: 44.31C, CURRENT: 0.000A, BOARD_VOLTAGE: 12.350V, BOARD_CURRENT: 0.008A
[4.955] (3) RPM: 1021, PWR: 0, VOLTAGE: 12.350V, TEMPERATURE: 44.31C, CURRENT: 0.000A, BOARD_VOLTAGE: 12.350V, BOARD_CURRENT: 0.008A
[4.971] (3) RPM: 1051, PWR: 0, VOLTAGE: 12.341V, TEMPERATURE: 44.32C, CURRENT: 0.000A, BOARD_VOLTAGE: 12.341V, BOARD_CURRENT: -0.024A
[4.975] (3) RPM: 1051, PWR: 0, VOLTAGE: 12.341V, TEMPERATURE: 44.32C, CURRENT: 0.000A, BOARD_VOLTAGE: 12.341V, BOARD_CURRENT: -0.024A
[4.991] (3) RPM: 1081, PWR: 0, VOLTAGE: 12.350V, TEMPERATURE: 44.30C, CURRENT: 0.000A, BOARD_VOLTAGE: 12.350V, BOARD_CURRENT: -0.016A

Is there a most likely reason for us to be seeing this behavior?

Hello,

We are looking to upgrade our flight controller to PX4 1.14. I know that the upcoming 1.0.0 release will use PX4 1.14. Is there a way to get access to beta versions for our testing?

Alternatively, can we build PX4 from the voxl-dev branch and run it with the SDK version 0.9.5 for our testing?

Thank you

@Eric-Katzfey Oh, ha. I could have sworn it wasn't outputting my custom module status message. Checking again I see it though. That's silly.

@Aidan-Dempster Also, if anybody is trying to get QuRT logs on a Mac, nano-dm does work. With the caveat that it must be from a remote computer over USB though.

I want to see the output of a status command running on the QuRT side of PX4. I see in the documentation a method of accessing DSP logs from a connected computer with mini-dm (https://docs.modalai.com/build-environments/#dsp-development-tools), but it would be very helpful for us to access the logs from directly on the VOXL2.

Could we run min-dm directly from the VOXL2 to see these logs instead?

@AndriiHlyvko I just flashed firmware with a custom module to my VOXL2 using the SDK-0.9 branch of the voxl-px4 repo and the specific commit from the modalai px4-firmware repo that is included with that voxl-px4 branch. As far as I can tell this px4-firmware commit is the exact one used for the 0.9.5 platform release so it should have good compatibility with that firmware if you are using it.

@Aidan-Dempster I was able to fix this particular issue by performing a factory reset.

I do have a couple questions though. The Mavlink Console still does not work with PX4 saying it is unable to start a shell. I believe this to be normal behavior since PX4 is not running on a nuttx OS in this case, but I want to make sure it's not another issue.

Also, I want to clarify on the documentation. The setup video shows configuring voxl mavlink server with the wizard answers:
Do you want to reset the config file to factory defaults? - Yes
Do you want to enable the voxl-mavlink-server service to allow communication with an external PX4 flight controller? - Yes

However, if I use this configuration QGC never connects (and I never see px4 advertising ping as a remote topic). I need to answer no to the second questions for it to connect. Is this expected behavior and the documentation is out of date? Or does this speak to a deeper issue?

@AndriiHlyvko The instructions for that are actually on the voxl-px4 repository.
https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/voxl-sdk/services/voxl-px4/-/tree/master

This contains the wrapper that runs px4 on the VOXL2, but also the packaging and deployment scripts that make it easy to install.