ModalAI Forum

Hi @electroAJ, thanks for the detailed writeup and follow-up SKU info.

From a hardware standpoint, the 200mV droop you are observing on VDC_5V_LOCAL and VDC_5V_LOCAL_USB1 during ToF activity is not a concern at the rail level. That kind of transient is most likely localized contact/pin loss at the connector interface rather than a bulk supply issue. On a 5V rail, 200mV is well within normal operating margin. The eFuse on that rail does not assert until approximately 4.4V, so a 200mV droop from 5V puts you nowhere near that threshold. Downstream logic is regulated from a 3.8V VBAT rail that has demonstrated margin well above the minimum needed, and that rail is permitted to droop past 3.3V before any real issue occurs. The ToF-induced droop is not your RC dropout culprit.

Additionally, the M0129 VOXL Mini ESC power stage has been proven to the same load capability and test rigor as our standalone M0041 power module, using the same parts, so the supply itself is not a suspect to me. Would hate to see you chase a red herring.

The I2C errors and UART dropout sequencing are worth looking at together as they may share a common upstream cause. Beyond that, this one is likely better handled by our software team who can dig into the dmesg and service state in more detail. I will flag this thread for them.

Great to hear @mikhail-mayers . I tested the module you sent back and it baffles me... must be some internal silicon damage to the IC since it had all in-spec inputs, and no faults on any outputs, but it was just not turning on... so, it is now one of my Mechanical Samples

Glad we could get that resolved for you and thanks for your patience.

Hi @jemyers
Great question, and one we get fairly often.
Across all of the components you listed, our published operating and storage temperature specification is 0°C to 70°C. This applies to the MCBL-00084-180 cable, VOXL 2 flight computer, MDK-M0155-1-00 image sensor adapter, and MDK-M0062-3-00 Ethernet and USB Hub Adapter.
One component worth calling out specifically is the MSU-M0161 EO camera, which uses the Sony IMX412 image sensor. Sony only guarantees image performance between -10°C and 60°C, so camera-equipped configurations are particularly sensitive at temperature extremes and should be considered the limiting element in your system thermal budget.
As another data point, our M0041 power module has been internally qualified by ModalAI at -40°C to 100°C operational, which gives a sense of the headroom available at the power input stage when the rest of the system is not the limiting factor.
Our 0°C to 70°C published spec is a conservative bound driven by limiting components throughout the system including crystals, connectors, and image sensors as noted above. That said, the underlying platform has demonstrated capability well beyond these limits. VOXL has been selected for and qualified on the JPL CADRE lunar mission, passing qualification well outside any commercial temperature spec. VOXL 2 has similarly undergone rigorous external environmental qualification for customer programs. A final integrator who performs their own system-level thermal profiling and qualification can reasonably expect operation outside the published range depending on configuration and use case.

Hi @adam These claims remain true.
We are exploring some items in the future for individual certification to ease downstream efforts by integrators, but as of today, the efforts still largely fall on the end-product integrator (which is unavoidable no matter what certifications we employ) and we can help where needed if any requests are specific and actionable.

Hi @muqing-cao Correct, M0213 does not have a USB hub on it like M0090.

Hi @markdelo,
Is your question similar to this recent post?
https://forum.modalai.com/topic/5309/m0213-wifi-board-pinout-and-availability
The info you provided are serial numbers, not product numbers.
If you can provide product numbers, that would help us better understand your question.
If the linked post is indeed similar in request, then I do apologize we do not have a ready-made solution for that.

Thanks!

Hi @awagner
Apologies for the delayed response. It looks like this post slipped through during our recent forum and documentation site refactor.
Are you still experiencing issues with your M0041-4?
A few clarifying questions will help:

When you mention "that is dead too", can you please clarify what exactly is no longer working? The M0041-4 power module, the VOXL 2 Mini, your power supply, or some combination of the three?
Can you share more details about your ESC, make, model, and how the battery pads are connected to the power module? A photo of your wiring connections would be very helpful here.

On the spark at plug-in: direct battery connection is the standard way to power up a drone, so that in itself is not unexpected. The spark on connection is not uncommon with a 6S pack due to charge balancing and inrush transient at the moment of contact (especially with our FPV ESC with near 1,000uF of capacitance). That said, we do include protection on the M0041-4 for this reason, so something unusual may have happened in your specific setup, which is why we'd like to see the connections.
As a general note, we typically see XT-30 used up to 4S and XT-60 up to 6S. Running 6S on an XT-30 is outside the more common usage pattern and worth flagging as a potential factor. We had some folks mistake a 4S ESC for 6S due to exactly that on early Stinger models. We've since remedied that.

One practical note: depending on what has failed, a replacement power module may be a faster and cheaper path than a full debug effort. That said, we do want to help you identify the root cause so this does not repeat. Replacing hardware without understanding the failure just puts the next module at the same risk.
Let us know and share photos if you can.
Again, sorry for the long delayed response.
Thanks!

Hi @muqing-cao I am glad you like the M0213, as it does offer more power than most USB-A dongles, which is why we went to it.
The Only thing I can think of is to buy an MCBL-00022 and when plugged into the M0090 5G Modem Board USB 10-pin JST port, you have a standard USB host port, and maybe Bots Unlimited makes a USB-A version you can use. We just do not offer a clean/direct solution to accomplish what you are asking for.

Hi @muqing-cao The M0213 board is not meant to plug into any other board than VOXL 2 directly. The best bet is to use a USB WiFi dongle connected to the 5G Modem Plug-in board. We provide several USB connections and cables to help that use case.
https://docs.modalai.com/cable-datasheets/

Reference this forum link in the RMA.

@mikhail-mayers I was asked to have you fill this form out;
https://www.modalai.com/pages/rma?_pos=1&_sid=54677f88c&_ss=r
Please reference this link so we know to credit you anything for the parts/service. This should be free given your order is in April.
Note our address has changed, so we'll be sure to include the correct new address for you in the forms.

Thanks @mikhail-mayers I sent a request up. I asked for a return label for your power module when you receive the replacement so I can debug this. Very odd to me since these all go through load and burn-in testing.
Apologies for the disruption to your testing, so I hope we can resolve this quickly for you!
Thanks!

Thanks @mikhail-mayers. We'll get you a replacement Power Module. That is pretty clear cut to me. I'll have someone from our Operations team reach out to you to ship a replacement Power Module. Do you happen to know your order #? Thanks!

Hi @patkirkmartin

1. We do not support >6S ESCs or Power Modules at this time.
2. Your suspicions are correct. For 3rd Party ESCs, you are unlikely able to use our voxl-esc tools which use UART based communications. The IO Expander is one way to get you there.
3. For Dshot, we have some guidance here: https://docs.modalai.com/fc-configure-misc/ since it is baked into standard PX4 support as far as I can tell.
   We completely revamped our Tech Docs with improved search functionality, so try to search for Dshot and see if any of those other posts help you along.
   Otherwise, what I would do once you decide on a specific ESC, create a new post just based on that for Dshot support and one of our SW engineers will be able to respond.
   Hope this helped.

Hi @mikhail-mayers Wow, ok, that is very odd...
Do you have a DMM to measure voltages out of the power module?
You should see 5V +/-0.1V. If not, work your way back to the 12V wall adapter.
I'm thinking most likely the wall adapter is the culprit here as that is a COTS item, whereas the Power Module and the VOXL 2 have been tested by our staff and procedures.

Hi @muqing-cao Sorry we are lacking in the docs here, but the M0213 was a direct replacement to the M0141 board. So the 12-pin connector (J3) directly matches the info for J5 here: https://docs.modalai.com/usb2-type-a-breakout-add-on/

Hi @mikhail-mayers
Pictures here will be very useful. How are you powering the VOXL 2? Battery? Wall Adpater?
Thanks!

@Raiyan-Alam said in Is there a way to power this Wi-Fi Adapter + Radio using this specific ModalAI UART adapter board?:

rfd900x

Hi @Raiyan-Alam,
My suggestion: keep the Wi-Fi adapter on USB and feed the RFD900X separately.
You can pull an extra 5V feed using this power module cable, which splices off a 5V red JST SFHR connector:
https://docs.modalai.com/cable-datasheets/#mcbl-00095
Splice from that into the RFD900X's 5V input. For the M0151, don't power the RFD900X off USB but pull it directly from the power module supplying VOXL 2 instead.

Hi @PatkirkMartin
If you have a more recent ESC with this 11 in the SKU, then the VTX regulator has been upgraded to 1A support.

We originally only did have 500-600mA support at the time before all the VTX units in the market went crazy with 2W+ output options.
If you need 600mA, I am confident this will work fine for you. We still publish the 500mA spec since we did sell a lot of the -1 unit with 500mA for the first year or so before we upgraded that part.
Hope that helps!

Hi @isagmz
That is indeed a cap. It is a 4.7uF 25V 0603 in support of the 5V input rail when sourced by J5.

We have so much margin on the 5V power rail, I would not worry about one cap missing. My best advice is to clean up that area to make sure there is no FOD or ripped up pads that can cause a short on that 5V rail from the broken cap, and just keep developing.
Let us know if you have any other issues.
Thanks!