The official product documentation is located at https://docs.modalai.com/

The purpose of this forum is to supplement that documentation, and to update the official docs when we find information missing.

Little more detail, we've validated with FrSky X8R reciever and Taranis X7 transmitter with the following setup:

We have a new cable about to come out to assist with this wiring as well:
https://docs.modalai.com/cable-datasheets/#mcbl-00018

Hi @gauravshukla914,

If voxl-vision-px4 is setup for VOA it will connect to the stereo and 'take over', if that's the case can you try the following before launching?

systemctl stop voxl-vision-px4

FYI for the future, the MPA architecture (https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/modal-pipe-architecture) will provide 'fan out' and allow multiple clients for a given camera.

Hi @gauravshukla914 ,

Our flight controller is a little unique in that it can't be powered off USB so yes, it will lose power and connection during the standard process. (The reason being our Flight Controller shares the 5V rail with the companion computer and 500mA off USB won't suffice!)

To get around this, we have a tool that has a user guide here:
https://docs.modalai.com/flight-core-pwm-esc-calibration/

This allows you to keep the battery connected during the ESC calibration process.

Hi @gauravshukla914 ,

Thanks for the help with this. We've released a new beta version of the voxl-hal3-tof-cam-ros that supports auto detection of ToF and defaults the persist.camera.modalai.tof setting properly.

It will be in out next voxl-suite release, but is available from our dev channel here if you are interested in using this link

The updated readme is here.

Thanks!

Hi @Daniel-Gauthier ,

Partial answers here but hopefully can git things moving. Also, I'm making assumptions here that you are OK "opening up the hood" and modifying code

Consider voxl-imu-serverand the two IMUs on VOXL as not accessible via PX4/QGC. Let me reach out to a colleague who's more in this area and I'll get back to you.

We have some tools in the works for logging VOXL IMUs (and other) data easily on the VOXL side. I'll need to touch base on timeline, we are looking for a mid-end Feb release but have a developer channel that you could use if you're OK with pre-release SW (e.g. not ready for prime time...).

OK for the PX4 side I'm more versed on. The 42688p driver is here:

At least in v1.10 and v1.11, PX4 uses a single IMU as input to EKF2.
Whatever has the highest priority and is functional.... A little silly, but the two extra IMUs on there are from the v5x design spec which we were asked to try to implement, but are used as 'backups' basically.. and thus far I don't believe the backups have been used.... So it's really based on a sensor priority (which ICM42688 and ICM20648 share the same) and what sensor is started first (right now, 20602).

--> https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/blob/master/boards/modalai/fc-v1/init/rc.board_sensors#L13

You can change the order here/comment out sensors, and it will change the default IMU being used. For validation testing, I commented out the 20602 line.

So, to make the 42688p default, make it startup first in that script.

Here's the 42688p driver for PX4:
--> https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/tree/master/src/drivers/imu/invensense/icm42688p

Here's the 42688p driver for VOXL:
-> https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/modal-pipe-architecture/voxl-imu-server/-/blob/master/server/src/icm42688.c

Keep questions coming and we'll get to them!

Hi @Daniel-Gauthier ,

The VOXL-Flight PCBA is really the VOXL + Flight Core.

The Flight Core side has 3 IMUs that PX4 uses (really, only a single IMU at a time in PX4 v1.10/v1.11, the other are backups. This is the 'flight controller' portion of the hardware, and QGC should be able to use the IMUs for logging in a standard way.

The 2 IMUs on the VOXL side are used basically for the computer vision features (e.g. VIO). These IMUs are basically unknown to PX4 in this setup, so you won't be seeing this data in QGC.

Is your goal just to log data? Is QGC a requirement?

Thanks!

Hi @Daniel-Ryu ,

Yes you are correct it should find the satellites after power up (within a minute or two...).

So this is strange. Are you inside or outside? Inside our office, we have a hard time getting signal occasionally.

Next, can you validate the GPS_1_CONFIG is default ('GPS1')?

Here's what I see with the same setup on my end as a reference:

Thanks!

Hi @Vũ-Văn-Long ,

In order to better understand the setup, are you flying in offboard mode or manually through RC in position mode?

Thanks!

Hi @gauravshukla914 ,

Thanks for the help with this. We've released a new beta version of the voxl-hal3-tof-cam-ros that supports auto detection of ToF and defaults the persist.camera.modalai.tof setting properly.

It will be in out next voxl-suite release, but is available from our dev channel here if you are interested in using this link

The updated readme is here.

Thanks!

Hi @SHAURYA-PANTHRI ,

We don't have a model for Gazebo, but the frame is essentially a Holybro s500, and there may be some out there.

I've used JMAVSim a bit and it works well. We have a HIL tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uoIxAkiYtk

That might be a little overkill and software in the loop might work: https://dev.px4.io/v1.11/en/simulation/#sitl-simulation-environment

I'm actually pretty new to flying still. The m500 at first was intimidating for me (I'd come into the office early before everyone else so I could fly without any pressure haha ;). I bought a little toy $25 USD drone off amazon and flew that at home for a while, and then moving to the m500 was actually pretty easy!

Hi @scottesicdrone ,

Does the flashing process start at all? You'd see text spitting out to console. I'm trying to see if it's choking on fastboot commands.

The system goes into the fastboot mode after a adb reboot bootloader command is issued (after which point running fastboot devices would show the device).

I've seen on some systems, that the adb commands work, but fastboot commands don't work without running with sudo.

If needed, I could get a TeamViewer session going (I'm in PST).

@gauravshukla914 ,

I'm not aware of any calibration required for ToF.... This procedure should work out the box so I'm confused: https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/ros/voxl-hal3-tof-cam-ros#visualization

I'm sure you have this correct, but where have you attached the camera? It should be connected to J3 here: https://docs.modalai.com/camera-connections/#camera-ports

Hi @abdullah-sorathi ,

The only items 'lost' would be the stereo and tracking camera calibration, which is actually not stored right now by default to /data (it will in the future)...

We have two approaches:

• calibrate following this: https://docs.modalai.com/calibrate-cameras/
• or, provide me the serial number (on a small barcode, starts with "M2", near the front/top of the Flight Deck close to the camera backs). I can pull the info from our database and we can update the files on the device.

Side notes:

• voxl-backup can be used to save/restore to/from /data if needed in the future

What do you see after running voxl-configure-docker.sh ?

Should be something like:

yocto:/# voxl-configure-docker-support.sh
Stopping original docker service
Enabling our own services docker-start & docker-prepare
starting docker-start.service
loading hello-world docker image
successfully loaded hello-world
starting docker-prepare service

done configuring voxl-docker-support