Basic Tools and Utilities

This page demonstrates some basic utilities and tools that you will likely use to interact with VOXL’s services.

Note: For an extensive list of all tools, utilities, and commands available in the VOXL SDK, type voxl-{TAB}{TAB} to see all auto-complete options.

voxl-list-pipes

voxl-list-pipes is a simple tool to list all of the MPA (Modal Pipe Architecture) pipes currently available in the system. Running the command alone is identical to the command ls /run/mpa, but when giving it the -t or --mode-types flag, it will sort the pipes by type, allowing you to easily see which cameras/imus/etc are available in the system.

Example Output:

voxl2:/$ voxl-list-pipes -t
camera_image_metadata_t
    hires
    qvio_overlay
    tof_conf
    tof_depth
    tof_ir
    tof_noise
    tracking

cpu_stats_t
    cpu_monitor

imu_data_t
    imu0
    imu1

mavlink_message_tf
    vvpx4_gps_raw_int
    vvpx4_mavlink_io
    vvpx4_sys_status
    vvpx4_vehicle_gps

point_cloud_metadata_t
    tof_pc

pose_vel_6dof_t
    vvpx4_body_wrt_fixed
    vvpx4_body_wrt_local

qvio_data_t
    qvio_extended

text
    vvpx4_shell

tof_data_t
    tof

vio_data_t
    qvio

voxl2:/$

The source code for this can be found here

voxl-inspect-imu

voxl-inspect-imu is a tool to check the imu measurements of the imus on voxl. It requires that voxl-imu-server is running in the background, which can be checked with voxl-inspect-services.

Arguments

Required

IMU: Which IMU to display data from. Available IMUs can be seen by typing voxl-inspect-imu {TAB}{TAB}.

Note: for VOXL 2, you should see available IMU’s as imu_apps. For VOXL and VOXL Flight, you should see imu0 and imu1

Optional

Parameter	Description	Example
-a –all	Show all imu data, not scaled down for screen performance (this will print lines at ~1khz)	`voxl-inspect-imu imu_apps -a`
-h –help	Print help message	`voxl-inspect-imu --help`
-n –newline	Print each sample on a new line instead of updating the current output line	`voxl-inspect-imu imu_apps -n`

Example Output

voxl2:/$ voxl-inspect-imu imu_apps

Acc in m/s^2, gyro in rad/s, temp in C

gravity| accl_x accl_y accl_z| gyro_x gyro_y gyro_z|  Temp |
  9.63 |  0.12  -9.57   1.08 |  0.01   0.02   0.00 | 35.03 | 

Source code available on Gitlab.

voxl-inspect-cam

Note: only applicable if you have cameras connected to your VOXL.

The utility voxl-inspect-cam is a tool to check image metadata coming from MPA services that are publishing camera data. It requires that a service like voxl-camera-server is running in the background publishing camera, image, or video data. It can also be used to check non-camera images, such as the overlays coming out of VOXL TFLite Server or voxl-qvio-server.

Arguments

Required

Cam: Which image to display data from. Available images can be seen by typing voxl-inspect-cam {TAB} {TAB}. Options that will regularly be available are: tracking, stereo, hires, tof_depth, tof_conf, tof_noise, tof_ir, dfs_disparity, qvio_overlay, tflite_overlay.

Optional

Parameter	Description	Example
-h –help	Print help message	`voxl-inspect-cam --help`
-n –newline	Print each sample on a new line instead of updating the current output line	`voxl-inspect-cam tracking -n`
-t –test	Test mode, simple pass/fail test after two seconds of waiting for a frame	`voxl-inspect-cam tracking -t`

Example Output

voxl2:/$ voxl-inspect-cam tracking

|size(bytes)| height | width  |exposure(ms)| gain | frame id |latency(ms)|Framerate(hz)| format
|   307200  |    480 |    640 |        3.8 |  100 |   71976  |      18.6 |     30.0    | RAW8
voxl2:/$ 

Source code available on Gitlab.

voxl-inspect-battery

This tool subscribes to the /run/mpa/vvpx4_sys_status pipe published by voxl-mavlink-server which provides a copy of all SYS_STATUS mavlink messages received from a PX4 flight controller. Among other things, this packet contains battery status information.

Also note that voxl-portal subscribes to the same pipe and also shows battery percentage in the top right corner of the webpage.

Use

voxl2:/$ voxl-inspect-battery

 Voltage |  Charge | Current |
  12.22V |    89%  |   0.49A |

Troubleshooting

If no data is displayed, then either voxl-px4 or voxl-mavlink-server is not running (run voxl-inspect-services to check) or PX4 is not connected or operating.

Source code available on Gitlab.

voxl-inspect-cpu

voxl-inspect-cpu is a tool to check the CPU/GPU utilization and temperature of the various voxl components. It is part of the VOXL CPU Monitor package and subscribes to the cpu_monitor pipe. If you don’t get data using this tool, make sure the voxl-cpu-monitor systemd service is running using voxl-inspect-services. Additionally, to get a breakdown of CPU and memory utilization by process, use the linux command top instead.

Use

voxl:/$ voxl-inspect-cpu

voxl-inspect-cpu output

Source code available on Gitlab.

Next: Check Calibration