ModalAI Forum

DillonAllen

Am I going to have to add those IMU settings to the voxl-vision-px4.conf like "R_imu_to_body" and "T_imu_wrt_body"? I believe that I'm using the IMU1 but I'm also no sure how to check and see which one is in use currently.

DillonAllen

The only thing that we have really modified is the forward distance from the center of gravity which should only be a slight difference. I remember seeing something about changing that in the T_stereo_wrt_body in the voxl-vision-px4 for the collision detection to match the distance from the center of gravity, but that setting does not show up when I look at the voxl-vision-px4, is that what I would need to change to help stabilize my flights?

DillonAllen

Since we are attempting to preforming indoor flight using VIO I had disabled the SYS_HAS_MAG and the GPS_1 config like it says in the quickstart guide, so for this reason I didn't have the GPS and magnetometer plugged in. Once I plugged in the GPS and magnetometer the drone had valid position data and we were able to actually fly the drone.

The problem now is that when we flew it (which was outside in the sun which might have caused problems) the drone would take off in position mode very nice for about 5 seconds then it would start to freak out and flying more sporadically which is when we would land the drone. Is this due to the drone being flown outside is the sun or is this some type of calibration issue?

DillonAllen

So I've tried completely resetting the parameters on the drone back to factory and reloading all of the parameters again, but I am still getting invalid local position data.

Also as a small side note, should the tracking camera be inverted? (for example, I move an object from the top of the tracking camera and it shows up from the bottom on the feed)

DillonAllen

I ran the parameters from the quickstart guide, I also ran the indoor_VIO helper and just changed the aid mask to fit was in the quickstart guide. I reverted it back to its original settings and the drone is still having the same problems.

DillonAllen

I couldn't figure out how to share the file through here, so I uploaded them to a drop box:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7kxknquutoav00i/PX4_Param_Voxl.params?dl=0

DillonAllen

It just tells me "REJECT POSITION CONTROL"

DillonAllen

In QGC I only have the ODOMETRY data, but there is no local_position_ned tab if that is what you're referring to.

DillonAllen

I believe that I have the voxl-vision-px4 setup correctly for QGC, here is the conf file:

yocto:/$ cat /etc/modalai/voxl-vision-px4.conf
/**
 * VOXL Vision PX4 Configuration File
 *
 */
{
	"qgc_ip":	"192.168.8.20",
	"en_localhost_mavlink_udp":	true,
	"en_secondary_qgc":	false,
	"secondary_qgc_ip":	"192.168.1.214",
	"qgc_udp_port_number":	14550,
	"localhost_udp_port_number":	14551,
	"udp_mtu":	512,
	"en_vio":	true,
	"en_voa":	false,
	"en_send_vio_to_qgc":	true,
	"en_send_voa_to_qgc":	false,
	"en_set_clock_from_gps":	true,
	"en_force_onboard_mav1_mode":	true,
	"en_reset_px4_on_error":	true,
	"qvio_auto_reset_quality":	0.00050000002374872565,
	"en_adsb":	false,
	"adsb_uart_bus":	7,
	"adsb_uart_baudrate":	57600,
	"px4_uart_bus":	5,
	"px4_uart_baudrate":	921600,
	"offboard_mode":	"figure_eight",
	"follow_tag_id":	0,
	"en_tag_fixed_frame":	false,
	"fixed_frame_filter_len":	5,
	"en_transform_mavlink_pos_setpoints_from_fixed_frame":	false
}

And here is the output for voxl-inspect-pose vvpx4_body_wrt_local:

timestamp(ms)|     Position (m)     | Roll Pitch Yaw (deg) |    Velocity (m/s)    | angular rate (deg/s) |
      153336 |   0.00  -0.01  -0.09 |   -0.6   11.0   -0.2 |  -0.00   0.00   0.00 |  -0.00  -0.03   0.01

DillonAllen

Yes, but it is very iffy, when I have it sitting on my desk and move it around all of the data changes like it should, but then when I move it to the floor or vice versa then it will start giving me the LOW_FEATURES error

 T_imu_wrt_vio (m)   |Roll Pitch Yaw (deg)| state| error_code
   -0.02   -0.01   -0.07|   0.2    0.4    0.2| OKAY |

DillonAllen

Heres the output from QGC:

nsh> ekf2 status
INFO  [ekf2] local position: invalid
INFO  [ekf2] global position: invalid
INFO  [ekf2] time slip: 0 us
ekf2: update: 8677 events, 49546us elapsed, 5.71us avg, min 1us max 94us 4.090us rms
nsh> listener vehicle_visual_odometry

TOPIC: vehicle_visual_odometry
 vehicle_odometry_s
    timestamp: 431364179  (297.960915 seconds ago)
    timestamp_sample: 431346994  (17185 us before timestamp)
    x: -682.8690
    y: -951.3774
    z: -868.9987
    q: [0.9878, -0.0083, 0.0614, -0.1428]
    q_offset: [0.0000, 0.0000, 0.0000, 0.0000]
    pose_covariance: [nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan]
    vx: 0.0002
    vy: 0.0009
    vz: -0.0032
    rollspeed: 0.0095
    pitchspeed: 0.0000
    yawspeed: 0.0000
    velocity_covariance: [nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan, nan]
    local_frame: 1
    velocity_frame: 3
nsh>

DillonAllen

Still getting invalid local position data

DillonAllen

Okay, While I was waiting for your reply I went ahead and checked all of the cables and unplugged and re-plugged all of the cameras on the board and now I am getting this from the services:

 Service Name        |  Enabled  |   Running   |  CPU Usage
--------------------------------------------------------------
 docker-autorun      | Disabled  | Not Running | Not Running
 docker-daemon       | Disabled  | Not Running | Not Running
 modallink-relink    | Disabled  | Not Running | Not Running
 voxl-camera-server  |  Enabled  |   Running   |   7.5%
 voxl-cpu-monitor    |  Enabled  |   Running   |   0.0%
 voxl-dfs-server     |  Enabled  |   Running   |  10.0%
 voxl-imu-server     |  Enabled  |   Running   |   1.9%
 voxl-modem          | Disabled  | Not Running | Not Running
 voxl-qvio-server    |  Enabled  |   Running   |   2.2%
 voxl-streamer       | Disabled  | Not Running | Not Running
 voxl-tag-detector   |  Enabled  |   Running   |   4.1%
 voxl-tflite-server  |  Enabled  |   Running   |   0.0%
 voxl-time-sync      | Disabled  | Not Running | Not Running
 voxl-vision-px4     |  Enabled  |   Running   |   2.0%

DillonAllen

Here are the services that are currently running:

yocto:/$ voxl-inspect-services
 Service Name        |  Enabled  |   Running   |  CPU Usage
--------------------------------------------------------------
 docker-autorun      | Disabled  | Not Running | Not Running
 docker-daemon       | Disabled  | Not Running | Not Running
 modallink-relink    | Disabled  | Not Running | Not Running
 voxl-camera-server  |  Enabled  | Not Running | Not Running
 voxl-cpu-monitor    |  Enabled  |   Running   |   0.0%
 voxl-dfs-server     |  Enabled  |   Running   |   1.7%
 voxl-imu-server     |  Enabled  |   Running   |   1.3%
 voxl-modem          | Disabled  | Not Running | Not Running
 voxl-qvio-server    |  Enabled  |   Running   |   0.0%
 voxl-streamer       | Disabled  | Not Running | Not Running
 voxl-tag-detector   |  Enabled  | Not Running | Not Running
 voxl-tflite-server  |  Enabled  |   Running   |   0.0%
 voxl-time-sync      | Disabled  | Not Running | Not Running
 voxl-vision-px4     |  Enabled  |   Running   |   1.8%

DillonAllen

Hi, I think I'm pretty close to getting my drone to fly with VIO using the Flight Deck, the only problem is that I am not getting valid local position data.

nsh> ekf2 status
INFO  [ekf2] local position: invalid
INFO  [ekf2] global position: invalid
INFO  [ekf2] time slip: 0 us
ekf2: update: 9845 events, 56720us elapsed, 5.76us avg, min 1us max 62us 3.990us rms
nsh>

The quickstart says to update the ECL but I'm unsure of how to go about doing that. I'm on the latest system image and I've updated the voxl suite to the latest version.
Thank you for your help!

DillonAllen

Sorry for the late response, I've been doing some testing. so I've narrowed it down to the error lying in the stereo cameras, I connected each sensor one at a time, reconfigured, and ran the voxl-streamer and was able to get footage for the hires and tracking, but when it came to the stereo it would not work. When I would reboot the system and inspect the services I would see that the voxl-camera-server is running, but once I tried to voxl-streamer -c stereo it would get stuck at the same place and the voxl-camera-server would stop running. I've confirmed that both of my extension cables are working by testing them with the hires camera. I checked the physcial connections on the stereo cameras and there are no creases in them, they look just as they were folded with the original setup, and I believe that if any of the connections were inverted then the VOXL wouldn't even start up.

DillonAllen

Yes, and I've double checked that they are all in the correct ports

DillonAllen

Here is the output:

yocto:/$ voxl-camera-server -d 0
------ voxl-camera-server INFO: Port J2

------ voxl-camera-server: Done configuring hires camera
	 Port       : port_J2
	 Name       : hires
	 Enabled    : 1
	 Type       : hires
	 Api        : hal3
	 P-W        : 640
	 P-H        : 480
	 P-Fmt      : nv21
	 FPS        : 30
	 OverrideId : -1
	 AEAlgo     : isp

------ voxl-camera-server INFO: Port J3

------ voxl-camera-server: Done configuring stereo camera
	 Port       : port_J3
	 Name       : stereo
	 Enabled    : 1
	 Type       : stereo
	 Api        : hal3
	 P-W        : 1280
	 P-H        : 480
	 P-Fmt      : nv21
	 FPS        : 30
	 OverrideId : -1
	 AEAlgo     : modalai
=================MODALAI Auto Exposure Settings==================
gain_min:                        0
gain_max:                        1000
exposure_min_us:                 100
exposure_max_us:                 33000
desired_msv:                     58.000000
k_p_ns:                          32000.000000
k_i_ns:                          20.000000
max_i:                           250.000000
p_good_thresh:                   3
exposure_period:                 1
gain_period:                     2
display_debug:                   no
exposure_offset_for_gain_calc:   8000
=================================================================

------ voxl-camera-server INFO: Port J4

------ voxl-camera-server: Done configuring tracking camera
	 Port       : port_J4
	 Name       : tracking
	 Enabled    : 1
	 Type       : tracking
	 Api        : hal3
	 P-W        : 640
	 P-H        : 480
	 P-Fmt      : raw8
	 FPS        : 30
	 OverrideId : -1
	 AEAlgo     : modalai
=================MODALAI Auto Exposure Settings==================
gain_min:                        0
gain_max:                        1000
exposure_min_us:                 100
exposure_max_us:                 33000
desired_msv:                     58.000000
k_p_ns:                          32000.000000
k_i_ns:                          20.000000
max_i:                           250.000000
p_good_thresh:                   3
exposure_period:                 1
gain_period:                     2
display_debug:                   no
exposure_offset_for_gain_calc:   8000
=================================================================

Writing new configuration to /etc/modalai/voxl-camera-server.conf
Created pipe: hires_preview channel: 0
Created pipe: stereo channel: 1
Created pipe: tracking channel: 2
Starting Camera: tracking
SUCCESS: Camera module opened
----------- Number of cameras: 0


------ voxl-camera-server INFO: Camera server is now stopping
		There is a chance that it may segfault here, this is a mmqcamera bug, ignore it

------ voxl-camera-server INFO: Stopping tracking camera
Fault address: 0x68
Address not mapped.
Segmentation fault

I do have the J3 and J2 ports using the MIPI extension cables if that might be causing problems

ModalAI Forum

DillonAllen

Posts