ModalAI Forum

Hi,

I was doing already autonomous mission again and again succefully with two drones.
later I also encountered few crashes some of them prety harsh. but I was able to recover. also sufered from px4-param being deleted/corrupted.
Now I test everyting and I cannot get the first drones to work with my code. when I switch to offbaord it immidiatly lands:
VOXL-FC] heartbeat: armed=0 mode=OFFBOARD
[VOXL-SVC] authority revoked (pilot takeover / link loss) — standing down (no re-request).
[VOXL-SVC] WAIT_VIO: VIO velocity unstable (VIO backend converging) (65 s)
[VOXL-SVC] WAIT_VIO: VIO pose stale (70 s)
[VOXL-SVC] WAIT_VIO: VIO pose stale (75 s)

with a new drone out of the box it works great.
I suspect it has something to do with with overwritten params that I am not aware of. tried pulling the params from the good drone by px4-param show -a and compare them. without a good conclusion.
my second guess is that somehow the cameras or other elements are oscilating and make the vio speed estimation not good and that is why these two drone fail to start the mission.

can you help with a step by step procedure to eliminate the prorblem. I have tested the services, the cameras and it all looks fine.

BR,

Roy

Hi,
We have 4 strling2-max drone all with 1.6.4~alpha2 from factory.
One of the drones beacame a brick and I was doing the unbricking procedure.
The only release available in developer site is 1.6.3 so now not all my drones have the same version.
my goal is to make 1.6.3 - > 1.6.4~alpha2 and align all drones
1.6.4~alpha2 is not available in developer site.
what can I do ? it tried apt update && apt upgrade on drone with connction to internet it failed.
MRB-D0012-4-V3-C28-T8-M36-X0
MRB-D0012-4-V2-C28-T8-M36-X0

see sku is v3 in 1.6.4~alpha2 and V2 in 1.6.3

another important question. we intend to assemble the depth camera and change configuration to C29. We noticed the front cameras are moving to a new location with offset regarding the symetric axes. do we need to somehow update vio intrinsix files ? if yes how should it be done ?

Thanks,

Roy

out of the box version:
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
system-image: 1.8.06-M0054-14.1a-perf
kernel: #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Oct 22 04:29:38 UTC 2025 4.19.125
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
hw platform: M0054
mach.var: 1.2.1
SKU: MRB-D0012-4-V3-C28-T8-M36-X0
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
voxl-suite: 1.6.4~alpha2
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

after unbric version:
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
system-image: 1.8.06-M0054-14.1a-perf
kernel: #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Oct 22 04:29:38 UTC 2025 4.19.125
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
hw platform: M0054
mach.var: 1.2.1
SKU: MRB-D0012-4-V2-C28-T8-M36-X0
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
voxl-suite: 1.6.3
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
no current network connection
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

@RoyAzriel
Hi Alex,
I have done the full procedure of unbricking. everything went well and the system was flashed with image M0054(154)-2.zip downloaded from you developer site.
After switching back SW2 to edl off and restarting the device wont enumerate the usb.
for a minute after booting again I was able to see:
Bus 003 Device 027: ID 18d1:d00d Google Inc. Xiaomi Mi/Redmi 2 (fastboot)
I think this unit is faulty. ABL is not succeding to boot slot A.

how can we do RMA ?

BR,

Roy

Hi,
We have bought 4 units of starling 2 max - C28.
2 units booted fine and we are working with them on daily basis.
3rd unit booted succefully. After connecting adb shell and configuring wifi station 5Ghz everything was working fine.
using voxl-portal I tested all 4 cameras. after a while I notices wifi connection is gone.
later I have made a power cycle by disconnecting and connecting battery. the beep sound and the 3 blue leds are blinking as always.
it seems the system is not loading. the usb adb connection is not discorevable anymore in the host machine.
what can be done in such a state ?

BR,

Roy

@Eric-Katzfey thanks. before I did sdk reflash I found out the px4 params were somehow corrupted. I have tried to reproduce these values without success.
what made it work is taking a similar drawn read the params usign px4-param show -a and writing the to the corrupted one.

@Eric-Katzfey where can I find 1.6.4_alpha2 it is not present in https://modalai.filecloudonline.com/ui/core/index.html#expl-tabl./SHARED/downloads/VOXL 2 Platform Releases

Thanks,

Roy

@Eric-Katzfey what do you mean by "fresh SDK install" ?
run apt install voxl-suite on target ?

@Eric-Katzfey by Dev drone I mean starling2 max. We have 4 units. We have never made changes except aligning the px4 of the sitl with the version of the px4 you are shipping the product with.
Is there a way to diagnose the dsp operation? Some logs to send to you to understand better. Like I said we deploy same software to one drone that behaves well. Second drone was working fine with same deploy was working well until suddenly it started saying battery level is not available. After digging in into it we realized it has something to do with dsp boot.

Waiting for your guidance.

BR.
Roy

@RoyAzriel no.

Hi,

this is my dev drone info.
after working with it quite a bit it started to fail with power issues in prefight. later I noticed battery level is not available. and learned that the dsp is not working good after boot.
I have another drone with same FW there is no problem. can I somehow fix this issue. see below some information.

Thanks,

Roy

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
system-image: 1.8.06-M0054-14.1a-perf
kernel: #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Oct 22 04:29:38 UTC 2025 4.19.125
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
hw platform: M0054
mach.var: 1.2.1
SKU: MRB-D0012-4-V3-C28-T8-M36-X0
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
voxl-suite: 1.6.4~alpha2
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Symptom

  After a session of repeated power-cycles/reboots (while troubleshooting unrelated Wi‑Fi/adb and flight-mode params), PX4 stopped functioning. The apps-side voxl-px4 launcher runs stably (NRestarts=0,
  stable PID), but no PX4 flight modules run — commander reports not running, battery_status is never published, preflight checks can't run, and voxl-px4 -s hangs.

  Root cause observed

  The journal shows the apps↔DSP bridge is dead:
  ERROR [muorb] Keep alive timeout from DSP: ~1009000 ms
  repeating continuously. So the SLPI/DSP-side of PX4 isn't responding — everything that runs on the DSP (commander, sensors, ekf2, battery) is absent.

  What we ruled out

  - SLPI hardware/firmware is healthy — dmesg shows the subsystem loads fine: slpi: Brought out of reset, Power/Clock ready interrupt received, adsprpc: slpi subsystem is up, opened rpmsg channel for slpi.
  FastRPC to the DSP is up.
  - Not a version mismatch — /usr/bin/px4 and /usr/lib/rfsa/adsp/libpx4.so are the same build (both Mar 24 2026), and this exact build flew successfully earlier in the same session.
  - Not the apps side — apps launcher runs stably, no crash loop.

  Recovery attempts that did NOT work

  - systemctl restart voxl-px4 (restarts only the apps-side launcher)
  - voxl-reset-slpi -t 5000 (DSP "recovered after 800ms" but PX4-on-DSP still didn't come up)
  - Manual px4-commander start — "succeeds" on the apps side but nothing actually executes on the DSP
  - A warm/adb reboot — fresh boot (uptime ~6 min, new PID) but commander still absent

  Question for ModalAI

  Why does libpx4.so fail to start/communicate on a healthy SLPI (FastRPC channel open, subsystem up) when the apps-side launcher and the DSP .so are the same build that worked earlier? Is this a known
  FastRPC/qurt PD-restart state that survives voxl-reset-slpi and a warm reboot, and is the recommended recovery a full cold power-cycle and/or a voxl-px4 reinstall to restore the signed/known-good
  libpx4.so?

@Alex-Kushleyev
Hi Alex,
I did few steps to find our the problem.
after running voxl-configure-cameras 29 I have validate with dmesg camera is probed.
confirmed with voxl-camera-server -l the are 5 cameras.
When running the voxl-camera-server manualy I was able to see a lot of drops and it complains about broken pipes and even had segmentation fault.
When I disabled hires_down and hires_front the voxl-inspect-cam -a it run cleanly.
I guess currently there is a problem to run 5 cameras. for now I disables hires_down in the conf file. I can see the depth camera.
I am not sure how this will effect the vio (is it using it ?). I wonder how it works well when you ship out C29 from the factory ?
Another question it seems the pmd sensor position is that the 105 deg fov is vertically and not horizontal. Am I right ?

BR,

Roy

@Alex-Kushleyev
I have done the procedure after installing depth sensor and backing up.
when running voxl-inspect-cam -a I get the message below. prbobly this procedre left something out.
I have overwritten the conf file and the camera directory with the original backup and everything retruned to work fine.
can you help understand what is missing ?
I can see the pipes that used to work named tracking_front_misp_grey tracking_front_misp_norm are missing after running voxl-configure-cameras 29

thanks

Roy

Pipe Name | bytes | wide | hgt |exp(ms)| gain | frame id |latency(ms)| fps | mbps | format
| hires_down_large_color |
| hires_down_large_encoded |
| hires_down_large_grey |
| hires_down_small_color |
| hires_down_small_encoded |
| hires_down_small_grey |
| hires_down_snapshot |
| hires_front_large_color |
| hires_front_large_encoded |
| hires_front_large_grey |
| hires_front_small_color |
| hires_front_small_encoded |
| hires_front_small_grey |
| hires_front_snapshot |
| tof_conf |
| tof_depth |
| tof_ir |
| tracking_down |
| tracking_down_bayer |
| tracking_down_misp_encoded |
| tracking_down_misp_grey |
| tracking_down_misp_norm |
| tracking_front |
| tracking_front_bayer |
| tracking_front_misp_encoded |
| tracking_front_misp_grey |ng request pipe: No such device or address
| tracking_front_misp_norm |ng request pipe: No such device or address
ERROR in pipe_client_open opening request pipe: No such device or address
Most likely the server stopped without cleaning up
Client is cleaning up pipes for the server

Hi,

I have got a new staling2 max rev3 few days ago.
when connecting to voxl portal there is a new tab called VIO I am unable to see vdeo image with the pattens and upper and lower bars like seen in older version and bootcamp.
see below my version:

see below what I expect:

please help me understand or direct me where can I read how the new tab in voxl portal is supposed to be operated to get odometry relevant info for testing.
also the pointcloud is not dispalying anything in C28, myabe after changing to C29 with the depth camera I will see there somthing ?
where can I see the VL53X facing down information ?

Thanks,

Roy

@Alex-Kushleyev
HI,
We purchased M0177 seperatly.

apart of mounting it what are the steps to configure it to be part of the system. what changes need to be made in configuration file to enable the driver and get the data from your mpa service ?

Thank,

Roy

Hi,
You are offering C29 configuration but it is grayed out.
Is it for a spacific reason ?
We have order Starting-2 Max with C28 with M0177 kit to upgrade the drone ourself.
I hope my approach is ok.

Thanks,
Roy

Hi,
We are about to place an order of 4 drones.
Our goal is to develop autonomous robot for a narrow dark tunnel.
We are contemplating between Starling-2 max and Starling-2 indoor slam.
We prefer the starling-2 max because its time of flight and ability to have some payload like lidar and lighting.
Before we order we would like to know if you have any thought what devkit can do a better job for the task of exploring/mapping of dark narrow tunnel?
Another question:

1. For the selected platform do you have and suggestion for recomended accessories (cabling/addons) to be able to add lidar.
2. Do you have a recomended led ilumiation that you know fits best the images sensors on board ?

BR,

Roy Azriel
System Engineer - Rogat