ModalAI Forum

@Alex-Kushleyev Thanks. I
suspect the sensor is broken. In QGC I can see the distance_sensor value not making sense, lower values for some things that are further away, etc. I tested it against a second drone, and those values made much more sense, so I believe the Lepton is broken.
Plus, there's a visible discoloration one of the lenses, about 1/3 of it looks green rather than amber.

@Alex-Kushleyev Thank you for the link, but none of those parts appear to be what is on my drone. It should be this board
https://docs.modalai.com/voxl2-mini-d0013/#flir-lepton
with this component
https://www.st.com/resource/en/datasheet/vl53l1x.pdf

Hello,

I have reason to believe that I need to replace the ToF sensor on my drone. It has been getting inconsistent height estimates from that sensor, VIO says 1m and the ToF sensor says 0.01m, which has lead to the drone rising higher than desired. Additionally, looking at the ToF sensor there appears to be a discoloration on a portion of the sensor.

Where can I get a replacement Starling 2 Max ToF board?

Hi,
I am using a drone with a qualcom qsms8250 500 chip that gets extremely hot, especially over prolonged use. What are the normal operating temperatures of this chip (and others onboard), so I can compare to ensure my chip is not overheating?

What are you relying on for normal cooling? Propeller motion? Will hovering for prolonged times provide enough cooling, or does the drone need to be moving laterally?

What recommendations do you have for keeping the electronics cool during bench testing?

Thank you!

@zauberflote1 Also, thank you for your quick responses!!!

@zauberflote1 Is there an approximate cutoff for how much can be masked before performance starts getting iffy? I have the ability to modify the payload to allow more camera view, but the more I open it, the worse it is for the application. So, finding the minimum opening is helpful, and I'm hoping that I don't have to just try different sized masks and test until it becomes reliable.

@zauberflote1 Hi, we figured out how to create and import masking files. I created 2 masking files, one each for the front and bottom tracking cameras. I tested it by removing the payload but keeping the masking files in place, then trying to fly a simple script (go up 1 meter, hover 10 seconds, land). However, the drone is exhibiting inconsistent behavior, sometimes rising far too high and running into the ceiling of the cage around it, another time it got to the right height then immediately started slowly lowering before hitting the ground and trying to go up again.

The front mask file only masks out a shape about 20% of the pixels, but the bottom masking file masks about 90% of the pixels. Could the drastic masking be causing this?

@Alex-Kushleyev Thanks Alex. I did a search for masking and found this:
use_mask Masking configuration moved to OpenVINS YAML configs

But I have been unable to find more information about YAML or masking within it. Do you have instructions somewhere for this?

Hi @Alex-Kushleyev,

The main visible differences are:

• The GPS has been moved to a vertical mount above the downward facing cameras rather than behind them
• The USB antenna has been removed from the bottom of the drone
• The top handle/battery mount has different dimensions, it is deeper (front to back of drone dimension)

@Alex-Kushleyev I can't seem to upload pictures of the drone here. Is there somewhere else I can send them?

Hello,

I am trying to attach a payload to a Starling 2 Max. I started having flight control issues (specifically the drone shooting higher than its designated hovering height, and going in random directions instead of down for landing), and tracked it back to VIO and obscuring some of the forward cameras' downward view. Which view is critical for flight stability, the tracking camera or the other camera? Approximately how much of the view of the relevant camera can be obscured before it impacts flight stability?

Is more information needed? Is there an issue with my request?

@Myles-Levine Nevermind, I got it working through the voxl interface instead of Qgroundcontrol. Thank you.

@Eric-Katzfey How do I check?

@Eric-Katzfey Thanks, just tried that, but got this error:

Hello,

I am trying to perform some tests, for which it would be much easier to hold the drone sideways (rather than propellers pointing down). However, I am unable to get the propellers to spin, even in manual mode, when the drone is in this orientation. It makes perfect sense for a drone to throw an AHRS error when like this, but is there a workaround so I can spin the propellers in manual mode?

Thank you!

Hello,

I recently got a Starling 2 Max which does not match either of the Max CAD models available on your website's assets page. Can you please give me the CAD for this model?
SKU: MRB-D0012-4-V3-C28-M36-T7-K0

Thank you!