Posts made by Eric Katzfey

@linmur02 When you say "latest", which version, specifically, are you using? Yes, the FC V2 does have an internal magnetometer, but in both the ModalAI fork and on mainline the internal magnetometer is not enabled so any mag issues should be related to the mag on the GPS unit. Is the GPS being seen reliably? The barometer is on the board and shouldn't have any issues. If you disconnect that GPS unit do you still see occasional barometer missing errors? Also, can you start swapping out hardware to see if the issues are related to a hardware problem?

@Alex-Kushleyev The IMU is being configured with an 8K ODR so by increasing IMU_GYRO_RATEMAX you are reading the FIFO more often but reading less samples each time. So you are mainly increasing the overhead of context switching. Can you characterize how much the load increases just by increasing IMU_GYRO_RATEMAX and not doing any of the extra UART IO? Unfortunately we don't have a lot of control over the low level implementation of the IO drivers that are in the Qualcomm code. And there is no DMA that could help lower IO overhead. One idea would be to lower the ODR to 1K so that you are only reading one sample from the FIFO at each interrupt.

@nitinpatil Regarding question #3, both ArduPilot and PX4 are supported. Since most of our customers are currently using PX4 we have much more experience with that.

@adiprin1 Can you please start a new forum topic for this? And please include information about the device that you are looking to attach? Thanks!

@oiler251 You should be able to arm with the arm gesture (e.g. moving the left stick to bottom right). But since that isn't working I suggested to configure an arm switch. I do see that the RC2_TRIM parameter is set to 1000.0 which is odd. Normally it is around 1500.00. When you look at the QGC radio configuration screen and you move the sticks around do they look normal? And when sticks are centered are they all showing that they centered on the graphics? You could try setting RC2_TRIM to 1500.0 and see if that allows you to arm with the gesture. Please make sure you have the propellers removed when doing this testing!

@oiler251 The PX4 User Manual has some documentation here: https://docs.px4.io/main/en/advanced_config/prearm_arm_disarm. QGroundControl User Manual has some documentation here: https://docs.qgroundcontrol.com/master/en/qgc-user-guide/setup_view/flight_modes_px4.html#flight-mode-settings

@oiler251 ModalAI does not provide free phone or video conference support. You can reach out to Ascend engineering if you desire paid consulting. https://www.ascendengineer.com/

@oiler251 Please be aware that the Starling 2 Max is a development drone and it is targeted for experienced developers who already are comfortable with using PX4, QGroundControl, Linux, and embedded systems. Drones can be extremely dangerous and should only be setup and flown by personnel with the required knowledge. Safety must be everyone's first priority.

@oiler251 For arming I would configure an arm switch instead of using the arm gesture (moving throttle to bottom right).

@oiler251 It seems like in QGC you cannot just change that value directly, you have to uncheck all of the boxes instead of the satellite count one. Then it will go to 1. Then you can save, reboot and try to arm. I think before doing that, however, you should first try to change EKF2_REQ_HDRIFT to 1.0 as suggested. That is a more precise way to make the adjustment.

@oiler251 Here's what ChatGPT says:

The pre-arm message “GPS Horizontal Position Drift too high” is gated by **EKF2_REQ_HDRIFT**.
If you truly need to relax that check, raise **EKF2_REQ_HDRIFT** (default is often ~0.5 m/s). For example, set it closer to **1.0 m/s** so the EKF will accept more horizontal drift while on the ground and allow arming. The related on-ground GPS checks are toggled by the **EKF2_GPS_CHECK** bitmask (bits **5** and **7** cover horizontal drift and horizontal speed, respectively), but changing the threshold via EKF2_REQ_HDRIFT is the usual tweak. ([PX4 Documentation][1])

Quick steps in QGroundControl: Parameters → search “EKF2_REQ_HDRIFT” → increase slightly → write & reboot.

⚠️ Note: loosening this check masks a real reception problem (antenna placement, multipath, EMI). If possible, fix the root cause instead of weakening safety checks. ([discuss.px4.io][2])

[1]: https://docs.px4.io/v1.14/en/advanced_config/parameter_reference.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Parameter Reference | PX4 User Guide (v1.14)"
[2]: https://discuss.px4.io/t/pixhawk-4-preflight-gps-horizontal-pos-error-too-high/21010?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Pixhawk 4 preflight gps horizontal pos error too high"

@oiler251 Why can't you set EKF2_GPS_CHECK to 1? What happens when you try? Your last screen shot shows 2 errors. The high throttle error just means you have to put throttle to lowest position before arming.

@oiler251 How many satellites do you see with GPS? What if you set EKF2_GPS_CHECK to 1. Does that then allow arming? There are a bunch of parameters that can be set to tune how sensitive it is to various GPS statistics.

@oiler251 Ah, okay, so the RC errors go away when you calibrate with QGC? Now you have a different error with GPS? Based on the parameters it looks like channels 1 through 4 were calibrated correctly but 5 through 8 look messed up. Those are channels associated with switch settings.

@oiler251 Yes, you would need an IP connection of some sort, WiFi is usually the easiest. If that's not available then I suppose you should just stick with voxl-portal. I was just trying to get more information to help troubleshoot the issue you are having. That's why I asked for the parameter values. Is it possible for you to provide those values?

@oiler251 Do you get the same result when calibrating with QGroundControl? What are all of your RC<x>_MIN, MAX, and TRIM values after the calibration?

@oiler251 Are you using QGroundControl to calibrate the RC? When on the calibration tab and you move the sticks around does everything look okay? What do all of the RC<x>_MIN, MAX, and TRIM values look like? Is it just channel 8 that has strange values?

@oiler251 Yes, definitely looks like something went wrong with your calibration. That error is saying that your channel 8 trim value is 1030 (default is 1500) and max is 0 (default 2000). Those values are completely messed up. Does it always do that when you calibrate RC?

@holmeslice Regarding having the external flight controller, it's really only needed if the I/O limitations of VOXL 2 are a problem. For example, if you need CAN bus then you should probably use the external flight controller since VOXL 2 has no CAN bus support.

@mkeyno You need to work with the PX4 community on this project, not ModalAI.