ModalAI Forum

@Eric-Katzfey said:

I do not have a Windows computer handy so cannot really try Mission Planner. I tried to recreate this with QGroundControl but don't see it. Can you try with QGroundControl just to see what happens? Does it look like the 'systemctl restart voxl-ardupilot' is working reliably?

stemctl restart voxl-ardupilot does work, this is our normal solution for this issue. We don't use QGC, will have to install it to test.

@Eric-Katzfey said:

What if you disconnect Mission Planner before trying the voxl-ardupilot restart?

Mentioned this in my post, we've tried this, but it does not change the behavior.

@Eric-Katzfey said:

Can you try upgrading to the latest VOXL SDK to see if that helps?

Right now we can't get the FLIR Hadron 640 to work on any other SDK.

We've found that mission planner does not always reconnect to the autopilot after a reboot so we have adopted a policy to disconnect and reconnect mission planner after performing a reboot. We have found that this causes voxl-ardupilot to crash.

Steps:

• Mission Planner is connected to the ardupilot instance over radio link
• Restart ardupilot, through either the mission planner interface or systemctl restart
• Disconnect mission planner
• Reconnect Mission Planner

Mission Planner will reconnect but when it tries to download the params list from the autopilot the data stream stops and the motors beep indicating loss of signal from the autopilot. Restarting voxl-ardupilot with systemctl resolves the issue but this is a consistent problem.

Performing a full power cycle does not recreate this issue. Mission Planner can be disconnected and reconnected without issue.

systemctl status voxl-ardupilot - Before crash

voxl2 (M0054):~$ systemctl status voxl-ardupilot
● voxl-ardupilot.service - ArduPilot
  Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/voxl-ardupilot.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
  Active: active (running) since Tue 2026-07-28 18:59:14 UTC; 2min 52s ago
 Process: 2173 ExecStartPre=/bin/sleep 1 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 2320 (voxl-ardupilot)
   Tasks: 8 (limit: 4915)
  CGroup: /system.slice/voxl-ardupilot.service
          ├─2320 /bin/bash /usr/bin/voxl-ardupilot
          └─2323 /usr/bin/ardupilot

Jul 28 18:59:13 m0054 systemd[1]: Starting ArduPilot...
Jul 28 18:59:14 m0054 systemd[1]: Started ArduPilot.
Jul 28 18:59:14 m0054 voxl-ardupilot[2320]: Starting up
Jul 28 18:59:14 m0054 voxl-ardupilot[2320]: Got data msg before configuration complete

systemctl status voxl-ardupilot - After crash

● voxl-ardupilot.service - ArduPilot
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/voxl-ardupilot.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Tue 2026-07-28 19:07:34 UTC; 1min 40s ago
  Process: 6178 ExecStartPre=/bin/sleep 1 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 6199 (voxl-ardupilot)
    Tasks: 8 (limit: 4915)
   CGroup: /system.slice/voxl-ardupilot.service
           ├─6199 /bin/bash /usr/bin/voxl-ardupilot
           └─6200 /usr/bin/ardupilot

Jul 28 19:09:07 m0054 voxl-ardupilot[6199]: Got response cb 0
Jul 28 19:09:08 m0054 voxl-ardupilot[6199]: Got response cb 0
Jul 28 19:09:09 m0054 voxl-ardupilot[6199]: Got response cb 0
Jul 28 19:09:09 m0054 voxl-ardupilot[6199]: Got response cb 0
Jul 28 19:09:10 m0054 voxl-ardupilot[6199]: Got response cb 0
Jul 28 19:09:11 m0054 voxl-ardupilot[6199]: Got response cb 0
Jul 28 19:09:12 m0054 voxl-ardupilot[6199]: Got response cb 0
Jul 28 19:09:13 m0054 voxl-ardupilot[6199]: Got response cb 0
Jul 28 19:09:14 m0054 voxl-ardupilot[6199]: Got response cb 0
Jul 28 19:09:14 m0054 voxl-ardupilot[6199]: Got response cb 0
Jul 28 19:09:15 m0054 voxl-ardupilot[6199]: Got response cb 0
voxl2 (M0054):~$

voxl-version

voxl2 (M0054):~$ voxl-version
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
system-image: 1.8.06-M0054-14.1a-perf
kernel:       #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Oct 22 04:13:18 UTC 2025 4.19.125
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
hw platform:  M0054
mach.var:     1.0.1
SKU:          MCCA-M0054-C0-T0-M0-X0
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
voxl-suite:   1.6.3
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Packages:
Repo:  http://voxl-packages.modalai.com/ ./dists/qrb5165/sdk-1.6/binary-arm64/
Last Updated: 2026-07-28 17:00:51
List:
libfc-sensor                   1.0.9
libmodal-cv                    0.6.0
libmodal-exposure              0.1.4
libmodal-flow                  1.0.3
libmodal-journal               0.2.7
libmodal-json                  0.4.8
libmodal-pipe                  2.14.11
libqrb5165-io                  0.6.3
libvoxl-cci-direct             0.3.3
libvoxl-codec                  0.0.5
libvoxl-cutils                 0.1.6
modalai-slpi                   1.2.2
mv-voxl                        0.1-r0
qrb5165-bind                   0.1-r0
qrb5165-dfs-server             0.2.0
qrb5165-mini-tof-server        0.2.2
qrb5165-rangefinder-server     0.1.6
qrb5165-slpi-test-sig          01-r0
qrb5165-tflite                 2.17.2
voxl-ardupilot                 4.8.0-8ed7441c
voxl-bind-spektrum             0.1.1
voxl-camera-calibration        0.6.1
voxl-camera-server             2.2.25
voxl-ceres-solver              2:2.0.0-2
voxl-configurator              1.1.5
voxl-cpu-monitor               0.7.7
voxl-docker-support            1.3.1
voxl-elrs                      1.1.0
voxl-esc                       1.5.7
voxl-esptool                   0.2.0
voxl-feature-tracker           0.5.2
voxl-flow-server               0.3.6
voxl-gphoto2-server            0.0.10
voxl-imu-server                2.0.1
voxl-io-server                 0.0.8
voxl-jpeg-turbo                2.1.3-7
voxl-lepton-server             1.3.3
voxl-lepton-tracker            0.0.4
voxl-libgeographic             1.0.0
voxl-libgphoto2                0.0.4
voxl-libuvc                    1.0.7
voxl-logger                    0.6.1
voxl-mavcam-manager            0.6.0
voxl-mavlink                   0.1.6
voxl-mavlink-server            1.4.14
voxl-microdds-agent            3.0.0-0
voxl-modem                     1.2.3
voxl-mongoose                  7.19.0
voxl-mpa-to-ros                0.3.9
voxl-mpa-to-ros2               0.0.7
voxl-mpa-tools                 1.5.8
voxl-nano-tracker              0.1.7
voxl-open-vins-server          0.6.0
voxl-opencv                    4.5.5-3
voxl-osd                       0.3.8
voxl-portal                    0.8.7
voxl-px4                       1.14.0-2.0.133
voxl-px4-params                0.9.0
voxl-qvio-server               1.2.3
voxl-remote-id                 0.0.9
voxl-reset-slpi                0.0.1
voxl-ros2-foxy                 0.0.1
voxl-state-estimator           0.0.6
voxl-streamer                  0.8.0
voxl-suite                     1.6.3
voxl-tag-detector              0.1.0
voxl-tflite-server             0.5.1
voxl-utils                     2.0.2
voxl-uvc-server                0.1.7
voxl-vision-hub                1.9.21
voxl-vtx                       2.0.2
voxl-wavemux                   0.0.3
voxl2-io                       0.0.3
voxl2-security-hardening-utls  1.0-r0
voxl2-system-image             1.8.06-r0
voxl2-wlan                     1.0-r0

voxl-inspect-services

voxl2 (M0054):~$ voxl-inspect-services
Scanning services...

 Service Name             |  Enabled  |   Running   |  CPU Usage
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 docker-autorun           | Disabled  | Not Running |
 modallink-relink         | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-ardupilot           |  Enabled  |   Running   |     0.0%
 voxl-camera-server       |  Enabled  |   Running   |     0.0%
 voxl-cpu-monitor         |  Enabled  |   Running   |     0.0%
 voxl-dfs-server          | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-dma-latency         |  Enabled  |   Running   |
 voxl-feature-tracker     | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-flow-server         | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-imu-server          |  Enabled  |   Running   |     3.5%
 voxl-io-server           | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-lepton-server       | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-lepton-tracker      | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-logger              | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-mavcam-manager      | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-mavlink-server      |  Enabled  |   Running   |     0.0%
 voxl-microdds-agent      |  Enabled  |   Running   |
 voxl-mini-tof-server     | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-modem-doodle        |  Enabled  |   Running   |     0.0%
 voxl-modem               |  Enabled  |   Running   |     1.8%
 voxl-nano-tracker        | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-open-vins-server    | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-osd                 | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-portal              |  Enabled  |   Running   |     0.0%
 voxl-px4                 | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-qvio-server         | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-rangefinder-server  | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-remote-id           | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-softap              | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-state-estimator     | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-static-ip-watcher   | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-static-ip           | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-streamer            | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-tag-detector        | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-tflite-server       | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-time-sync           | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-uvc-server          | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-vision-hub          |  Enabled  |   Running   |     1.8%
 voxl-vrx                 | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-vtx                 | Disabled  | Not Running |
 voxl-wait-for-fs         |  Enabled  |  Completed  |

voxl-mavlink-server.cfg

/**
 * voxl-mavlink-server Configuration File
 *
 * primary_static_gcs_ip & secondary_static_gcs_ip
 *    These configure voxl-mavlink-server to automatically try to connect to
 *    up to two known static GCS units. Set to empty or NULL if you don't want
 *    to use this and you want the GCS to initialize the connection instead.
 *    Note the default IP for the primary link is 192.168.8.10 which is the
 *    first IP that VOXL DHCP serves when connecting in wifi softap mode.
 *
 *    DON'T set either of these ip addresses to localhost, these are meant
 *    for external ground control stations. For mavsdk and mavros communication
 *    locally, set the 'en_localhost_mavlink_udp' flag in voxl-vision-hub's
 *    /etc/modalai/voxl-vision-hub.conf file instead.
 *
 * primary_static_gcs_ip_port & secondary_static_gcs_ip_port
 *    UDP port numbers for the static GCS IPs above, default to 14550 each, respectively
 *
 * Settings for running voxl-px4 on SLPI:
 * onboard_port_to_autopilot   - UDP port to send high-rate onboard data to SLPI
 * onboard_port_from_autopilot - UDP port to receive high-rate onboard data from SLPI
 * gcs_port_to_autopilot       - UDP port to send normal-rate gcs data to SLPI
 * gcs_port_from_autopilot     - UDP port to receive normal-rate gcs data from SLPI
 *
 * Settings for running an external autopilot connected via UART:
 * en_external_uart_ap       - set to true to enable an external flight controller
 * autopilot_uart_bus        - uart bus, default 1 for VOXL2
 * autopilot_uart_baudrate   - default 921600
 * autopilot_mission_delay_start - default -1 (off), >0 means to delay mission start for X seconds
 * autopilot_mission_delay_sound - play esc chime tone/behavior, true=on false=off
 * autopilot_mission_notif_dur   - visual notification using motor spin, duration in seconds
 * en_external_fc_timesync   - enable responding to timesync messages
 *                                   (enabled by default)
 * en_external_ap_heartbeat  - enable automatic sending of heartbeat
 * gcs_timeout_s - time without heartbeat to consider GCS disconnected
 *
 * udp_mtu - maximum transfer unit for UDP packets back to GCS. voxl-mavlink-server
 *           will bundle up backets for the GCS into a single UDP packet with
 *           a maxium size of this. This saves network traffic drastically.
 *           Set to 0 to disable this feature and send one UDP packet per msg.
 *
 *
 * External FC field is for QRB5165 only. Set to true to enable UART
 * communication to an external flight controller, otherwise a UDP interface
 * will be started to talk to voxl-px4 on localhost which is the default behavior.
 * Select UART port 1 to go through the legacy B2B connector, that's the port exposed by the
 * M0125 and M0141 accessory boards. Use port 12 to go through the ESC port (J18).
 *
 */
{
        "primary_static_gcs_ip":        "10.223.0.12",
        "primary_static_gcs_ip_port":   14550,
        "secondary_static_gcs_ip":      "10.223.0.202",        
		"secondary_static_gcs_ip_port": 14550,
        "onboard_port_to_autopilot":    14556,
        "onboard_port_from_autopilot":  14557,
        "gcs_port_to_autopilot":        14558,
        "gcs_port_from_autopilot":      14559,
        "en_external_uart_ap":  false,
        "autopilot_uart_bus":   1,
        "autopilot_uart_baudrate":      921600,
        "autopilot_mission_delay_start":        -1,
        "autopilot_mission_delay_sound":        false,
        "autopilot_mission_force_restart":      0,
        "autopilot_mission_notif_dur":  0.1,
        "en_external_ap_timesync":      1,
        "en_external_ap_heartbeat":     1,
        "udp_mtu":      500,
        "gcs_timeout_s":        4.5
}

@Eric-Katzfey
I'm not sure what may have changed, before when setting BATT_MONITOR to 21 the param would write but we wouldn't get the additional parameters that that setting should have enabled. Last week I tried it again to reply to your last message and we got the BATT_I2C_BUS parameter and were able to get it all working. Gotta love when things seem to magically fix themselves, thanks for the support.

PS, we have built a parallel system on the latest SDK and will be migrating the current one over to match.

@Eric-Katzfey I finally had an opportunity to try a different power board but we still do not have any battery_status topic. We will look at updating the SDK but don't want to derail our CV development doing so. I'd prefer to find a solution without having to do that.

@Eric-Katzfey
We will look into updating the sdk, but that's always a fair bit of work.

@Eric-Katzfey

I don't see any battery_status message

@Eric-Katzfey
We're on voxl-ardupilot 4.8.0-325875bb

I've been connecting through mission planner, but have not been able to get any battery data. Looked through mavlink inspector and there is no battery_status topic.

Hi I'm using the M0041 board to power our voxl2 running ardupilot and having difficulty configuring the battery monitor. I found this post but we do not have the BATT_I2C_BUS parameter to set.

When checking voxl-inspect-battery, we only get the headers, no data. Voxl-vision-hub is running.

voxl-version
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
system-image: 1.8.04-M0054-14.1a-perf
kernel:       #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Mar 24 22:31:58 UTC 2025 4.19.125
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
hw platform:  M0054
mach.var:     1.0.1
SKU:          MCCA-M0054-C11-T0-M0-X0
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
voxl-suite:   1.5.0
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Packages:
Repo:  http://voxl-packages.modalai.com/ ./dists/qrb5165/sdk-1.5/binary-arm64/
Last Updated: 2026-03-18 01:43:20
List:
libfc-sensor                1.0.7
libmodal-cv                 0.5.18
libmodal-exposure           0.1.4
libmodal-journal            0.2.6
libmodal-json               0.4.7
libmodal-pipe               2.13.2
libqrb5165-io               0.5.0
libvoxl-cci-direct          0.3.3
libvoxl-cutils              0.1.5
modalai-slpi                1.2.0
mv-voxl                     0.1-r0
qrb5165-bind                0.1-r0
qrb5165-dfs-server          0.2.0
qrb5165-imu-server          1.1.3
qrb5165-mini-tof-server     0.2.2
qrb5165-rangefinder-server  0.1.5
qrb5165-slpi-test-sig       01-r0
qrb5165-system-tweaks       0.3.6
qrb5165-tflite              2.8.0-2
voxl-ardupilot              4.8.0-325875bb
voxl-bind-spektrum          0.1.1
voxl-camera-calibration     0.6.0
voxl-camera-server          2.2.4
voxl-ceres-solver           2:1.14.0-10
voxl-configurator           1.0.2
voxl-cpu-monitor            0.6.0
voxl-docker-support         1.3.1
voxl-elrs                   0.4.7
voxl-esc                    1.5.4
voxl-feature-tracker        0.5.2
voxl-flow-server            0.3.6
voxl-gphoto2-server         0.0.10
voxl-joystick-server        0.0.6
voxl-jpeg-turbo             2.1.3-7
voxl-lepton-server          1.3.3
voxl-lepton-tracker         0.0.4
voxl-libgphoto2             0.0.4
voxl-libuvc                 1.0.7
voxl-logger                 0.5.3
voxl-mavcam-manager         0.6.0
voxl-mavlink                0.1.5
voxl-mavlink-server         1.4.9
voxl-modem                  1.1.8
voxl-mongoose               7.7.0-2
voxl-mpa-to-ros             0.3.9
voxl-mpa-tools              1.4.0
voxl-open-vins              0.4.19
voxl-open-vins-server       0.3.12
voxl-opencv                 4.5.5-3
voxl-osd                    0.1.8
voxl-portal                 0.7.11
voxl-px4                    1.14.0-2.0.105
voxl-px4-params             0.7.5
voxl-qvio-server            1.2.0
voxl-remote-id              0.0.9
voxl-reset-slpi             0.0.1
voxl-state-estimator        0.0.5
voxl-streamer               0.7.5
voxl-suite                  1.5.0
voxl-tag-detector           0.0.5
voxl-tflite-server          0.4.1
voxl-utils                  1.4.8
voxl-uvc-server             0.1.7
voxl-vision-hub             1.8.23
voxl-vtx                    1.4.7
voxl-wavemux                0.0.1
voxl2-io                    0.0.3
voxl2-system-image          1.8.04-r0
voxl2-wlan                  1.0-r0

@Vinny Is J8 still not supported? I'm looking at using a hadron and two M0166 sensors, which may not be possible without J8.

@Alex-Kushleyev
This was a first flight after a completely new flash. Unfortunately a package install failed and we had to unbrick before we had an opportunity to backup the PX4 params. The hover thrust was still in the process of training. We were also flying light because we've had so many issues with the system that we didn't want to risk the payload until we had confidence in the system. A mock payload weight would have helped here.

However that doesn't excuse the awful PX4 programming, not having a catch if the drone starts to fall, a default min xy of 1.5m/s, etc. We've shelved the system and will be using an ardupilot controller until we have time to develop the voxl at a slower pace.

@Alex-Kushleyev still pending on this. Have had other issues to solve. Will be starting another thread shortly.

@Alex-Kushleyev
Yes, ESC is working, we're able to calibrate ESCs using esc tools, spin up motors in QGC, and have flown several times. Just having to be very conservative without battery status.

@Alex-Kushleyev
Thank you for the instructions, I will look into those tomorrow.

We have the ESC plugged into Voxl2 J18 as indicated in the VOXL2 ESC configs

Low KV guidance is very welcome. We were having trouble getting the motors to work and looked into the param files to try and figure out what was wrong. Changing the KV made motor response much better. We have good motor behavior now but I'll go through those instructions to be sure the motors are properly tuned.

To add a bit more info;

ESC is connected to VOXL2 J18 and J4
VOXLIO is connected to VOXL2 J19 pins 9-12

Doodle Labs Dev port is connected to 5G carrier board J12
mRo Zed F9p is connected to 5G carrier board J9

If this is just a configuration issue where we need to point voxl or px4 to a different port I'd love to learn how.

@Alex-Kushleyev Yes thank you, we will be going through all of the calibrations as our application is completely custom.

@Alex-Kushleyev
The ESC came with the 4-pin UART cable for data to the ESC but nothing for power. That's it.