Topics created by Ender

@Ender , the UART-based communication offers many benefits over traditional PWM.

Just as few examples, we can use bi-directional communication to monitor and tune performance in real time and for offline analysis, take a look at some of the tools we have to analyze the ESC performance:

If you are not used to such protocols, it may take a bit longer to figure out how to properly tune and use our ESCs, but digital communication is the standard of many new ESCs and even hobby ESCs try to achieve similar protocols using DSHOT (which is essentially a UART-style digital communication protocol, which can be implemented using PWM pins that do not support UART on the microcontrollers). In addition to UART communication, our ESCs offer closed-loop RPM control, which helps with maintaining consistent ESC response across different conditions and battery charge levels.

If you don't want to add any more variables to your project, you should definitely try the voxl2-io solution that Zachary suggested, so that you can use it in PX4 just like traditional actuators and connect your favorite ESCs to voxl2-io. voxl2-io board will connect to VOXL2 and will communicate with PX4 (running on VOXL2) via UART. voxl2-io will send out the desired PWM signals to the individual ESCs that you have connected to it.

Alex

@Ender said in General inquiries about Starling 2 Max Outdoor GPS-denied Development Drone:

@Ender please fine responses below:

What are the specifications of the different cameras available? Thermal or RGB? Especially the tracking one.

You can find all specifications on the cameras in our documentation here: https://docs.modalai.com/image-sensors/

We have seen that the drone comes with an PX4 integrated flight controller. We would prefer working with Ardupilot. Is it possible to use an external flight controller? Or use your flight controller with Ardupilot?

Mainline ardupilot on the PCB is still in progress - unsure if it is mainlined yet but I believe this is still in development - as for using a external flight controller that can absolutely be done and then you can leverage the voxl2 for onboard compute capabilities - however you would be in charge of figuring out how to MOUNT it to the starling 2 max. Documentation on how one can leverage an external FCU can be found here: https://docs.modalai.com/voxl2-external-flight-controller/

If yes to the response above, could you provide indications on how to do so? What would be required (changing some parameters or something similar?)

You can follow the documentation here: https://docs.modalai.com/voxl2-external-flight-controller/ - NOTE: the documentation reflects usage of PX4, however you can use ardupilot as well with the same hardware and software setup as they both leverage mavlink.

Our environment is very bright and therefore challenging regarding camera exposure. We are thinking of using some extra cameras compared to your initial setup. How complicate would it be to add extra cameras?

The starling 2 max has the option of 3 tracking cameras - I am a bit unsure why you would need to add more into the mix in order to capture the exposure in the environment. I would not recommend adding more cameras in this ecosystem as three should be plenty.

Zach