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 @rapit ,

OK we validated that a USB3 device can show up, here's a "guide", but there's no new info really, just an example: https://docs.modalai.com/voxl-as-usb-host/

-Travis

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 @gauravshukla914 let us take a look at this and get some info for you. Nice pictures, I always love seeing these

Hi @gauravshukla914 ,

This looks to be supported in a new feature that is in our 'beta' system image release version 3.2.0 (available at developer.modalai.com for download).

It requires an unreleased version of voxl-hal3-tof-cam-ros, see here
https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/ros/voxl-hal3-tof-cam-ros/-/blob/release/v0.0.5/source/launch/tof.launch#L31

We haven't merged this into a release yet, so we don't have a packaged release for this, but you could build from source if needed until then if you're up to try it out.

@gauravshukla914 yes we'll get an email going, I'll use the email that's tied to your account here.

@Andrew-Keefe how much current are you looking to source from it? It's likely OK to use, but we put that message there to prevent trying to drive some heavy load.

Hi @abdullah ,

Was the PX4 FW version changed at any point? We have seen some performance issues with PX4 1.11 and the position controller. I see in your logs you have v1.11.2 going.

Is there anyway to load the ModalAI 1.10 FW as a data point and see if the flight performance changes?

https://docs.modalai.com/flight-core-firmware/#px4-v110

Thanks!

Hey @Sébastien-de-Pret-Roose-de-Calesberg , I sent out a message to the email associated to this account.

Thanks!
Travis

@Sébastien-de-Pret-Roose-de-Calesberg ,

I'm trying out on more thing on my end, if it works I'll take a video of the process and share it and see if it works on your side.

If not I'll get an email out to you with next steps.

I have a hunch there's a small window (couple seconds) that we can communicate with the device, fingers crossed.

Thanks!

OK, how about this now:

• get the device to show up using sudo fastboot devices like above with the same method
• quickly thereafter, run sudo fastboot reboot to see if the device get's out of fastboot mode

If above works, this 'should' bring it out of fastboot mode if it's operational and if so, it should then show up running adb devices.

My hunch right now is, adb doesn't require require to be ran as sudo whereas fastboot does.

Hi @Sébastien-de-Pret-Roose-de-Calesberg ,

Sorry to beat this subject, and appreciate your patience, but we're trying to find root cause on these kind of issues.

What about running sudo fastboot devices instead of just 'fastboot devices'.

Hi @Sébastien-de-Pret-Roose-de-Calesberg ,

OK, so the installer is halting at:

        while [ "$(fastboot devices)" == "" ]
	do
		echo "[INFO] Waiting for fastboot..."
		sleep 2
	done

We somewhat recently moved from python to bash for the installer, and not tested on Ubuntu 20 at all.

Can we do one last check? and then I'l' get an email going to see what to do next.

Instead of using the install.sh script, can you just run fastboot devices from the terminal quickly after you bootup with the debug board attached with fastboot switch enabled?

Thanks for the patience.
-Travis

Hi @Voxlady ,

You are talking about the audible beep/sound correct?

If this is the case, it's a bit of a "feature" with PX4, namely telling you that you have been on battery power for some time and haven't armed yet (at least this is what I think it means).

If you are doing benchtop development and want to disable the beeping, you can change the SYS_AUTOSTART parameter through QGC to 0. This disables the output (and also the airframe type so you can't fly).

The beeping sound is actually generated by the motors (which I think is cool, but annoying for sure!)

We calibrate the stereo sensors before shipping on the Flight Decks and m500s. Not sure if you have that or the VOXL + image sensors.

Without stereo calibration, yes there's likely to be issues.

How about trying this and seeing how things look?
https://docs.modalai.com/voxl-vision-px4-collision-prevention/#debug-tools

Hi @Sébastien-de-Pret-Roose-de-Calesberg ,

Do you have fastboot installed on your development system? What OS are you using? Sometimes, without running fastboot with sudo prevents the system from proceeding.

We do occasionally get a VOXL to "brick", there's an unbrick procedure here https://docs.modalai.com/unbrick-voxl/.

Most notably, is an edge case where you want to switch the fastboot switch off quickly after power up and running the ./install.sh script.

Basically:

• have debug board attached, fastboot switch enabled on
• have USB cable attahed between VOXL and computer
• have a terminal opened up, with the ./install.sh command ready to be pressed (wait to press it...)
• power on VOXL and then QUICKLY turn switch off and then hit ENTER to run the ./install.sh script

Let us know if this helps.