Hello @Chad-Sweet @Eric-Katzfey @tom @Alex-Kushleyev ,
I'm using VOXL2 as a compute unit and need to connect a external flight controller for port availability and other feasibility needs. In my application, I'm using Pixhawk standard Cube Orange as external FC.
For hardware integration, I'm referring to the documentation as listed here as a model reference.
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I'm integrating the the USB3/UART Add-On Board (M0125) to VOXL 2 (M0054) which giving a 4 pin JST GH connector with a UART available at /dev/ttyHS1 from the applications processor.
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I'm connecting the 4 pin JST type Output to the Cube Orange's Telemetry (TELEM1) port using 4 Ping JST GH connector to 6 pin GH Connector.
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In VOXL2, under /etc/modalai/voxl-mavlink-server.conf
, I set external_ap_flight_controller paramater to true instead of default.
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In QGC, once I check by connecting the debug port of Cube to host PC through a USB data cable, under mavlink console upon checking using mavlink status, I receive the following outputs,
mavlink status
instance #0:
mavlink chan: #0
type: GENERIC LINK OR RADIO
flow control: OFF
rates:
tx: 487.3 B/s
txerr: 0.0 B/s
tx rate mult: 1.000
tx rate max: 2880 B/s
rx: 0.0 B/s
rx loss: 0.0%
FTP enabled: NO, TX enabled: YES
mode: Minimal
Forwarding: Off
MAVLink version: 1
transport protocol: serial (/dev/ttyS4 @57600)
instance #1:
mavlink chan: #1
type: GENERIC LINK OR RADIO
flow control: OFF
rates:
tx: 601.9 B/s
txerr: 0.0 B/s
tx rate mult: 0.306
tx rate max: 1200 B/s
rx: 0.0 B/s
rx loss: 0.0%
FTP enabled: YES, TX enabled: YES
mode: Normal
Forwarding: On
MAVLink version: 1
transport protocol: serial (/dev/ttyS0 @921600)
instance #2:
mavlink chan: #2
type: GENERIC LINK OR RADIO
flow control: OFF
rates:
tx: 817.9 B/s
txerr: 0.0 B/s
tx rate mult: 0.306
tx rate max: 1200 B/s
rx: 12875.7 B/s
rx loss: 125.2%
Received Messages:
sysid: 1, compid:197, Total: 47361 (lost: 5999736)
sysid: 1, compid:196, Total: 568 (lost: 24)
FTP enabled: YES, TX enabled: YES
mode: Normal
Forwarding: On
MAVLink version: 2
transport protocol: serial (/dev/ttyS1 @921600)
instance #3:
GCS heartbeat valid
mavlink chan: #3
type: USB CDC
flow control: ON
rates:
tx: 32408.2 B/s
txerr: 0.0 B/s
tx rate mult: 1.000
tx rate max: 100000 B/s
rx: 20.9 B/s
rx loss: 0.0%
Received Messages:
sysid:255, compid:190, Total: 1196 (lost: 0)
FTP enabled: YES, TX enabled: YES
mode: Config
Forwarding: On
MAVLink version: 2
transport protocol: serial (/dev/ttyACM0 @2000000)
ping statistics:
last: 34.42 ms
mean: 17.87 ms
max: 426.75 ms
min: 0.28 ms
dropped packets: 0
nsh>
Is this the recommended method of integrating an external FC with VOXL2? How do I verify further to know that my external FC is being used instead of VOXL's internal FC?
Assuming, I'm having a custom Starling drone setup on my hardware build and integrating external FC, how do I do vehicle actuator setup in QGC once I'm done setting up external FC?