VOXL PX4 User Guide

Table of contents

1. Introduction
   1. Block Diagram
   2. Supported Devices
   3. Key PX4 Differences to Note
   4. Quickstart Video
2. Requirements to Use this Guide
   1. User Type
   2. Minimum Setup
   3. Setup to Connect to Ground Control Station
   4. Setup for Bringup and Manual Flight
3. Connections and Sensors
4. Quickstart
   1. Known Issues and Limitations
   2. Desktop Use Case
   3. Connect to Ground Station Use Case
   4. Flight Use Case

Introduction

Block Diagram

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Supported Devices

The voxl-px4 package is supported on the following platforms:

• VOXL 2
• RB5 Flight

This guide is geared towards someone trying to use the PX4 system, and not necessarily interested in all the bits and bytes that make it work. If you want to know the inner workings, please see the VOXL PX4 Developer Guide

Key PX4 Differences to Note

• PX4 installation and updates are installed on the companion computer via the apt package manager (not QGroundControl)
• Currently, the USBC connection does not support a connection to QGroundControl
• Natively, ESCs are control is via UART, if you need PWM, check out voxl2-io

Quickstart Video

Requirements to Use this Guide

User Type

Although we are striving to remove this requirement, the user following this guide should have some minimal command line skills. This means you should be semi-comfortable opening up a terminal and running some basic commands to use this guide.

Minimum Setup

Minimum requirements are (e.g. to play around at your desk)

• VOXL 2 Development Kit (MDK-M0054-1-01)
  • VOXL 2 (MDK-M0054-1-00)
  • VOXL Power Module (MDK-M0041-1-B-00)
  • Power cable (MCBL-00009-1)
• Power supply 12V 3A ((MPS-00005-1), XT60) (or 2S-6S battery)
  • Note: inrush current on bootup requires 30W power supply min, nominally ~8W at runtime in beta
• Host PC with Android Debug Bridge
• USBC cable

Setup to Connect to Ground Control Station

Addtionally/Optionally (e.g. to connect to Ground Control Station):

• Add-on board for networking:
  • USB Expansion Board (M0017) + JST-to-USB cable (MCBL-00009-1) + Ethernet or Wi-Fi dongle
  • 5G Modem Add-on (M0090-3-01) + your own VPN (or email devops @ modalai.com if interested in possible beta programs)
  • Microhard Modem Add-On (M0048-1)

Setup for Bringup and Manual Flight

Addtionally/Optionally (e.g. to fly manual modes, testing and bringup):

• ModalAI 4-in-1 UART ESC (M0049)
• GPS/Mag/Spektrum RC input wiring harness (MSA-D0006-1-00) - or make your own 12-pin JST GH connector (pinouts)
• the actual GPS/Mag/Spektrum RC* receiver hardware
• Frame/Motors/Props/etc

Note: only Spektrum receivers supported in beta

Connections and Sensors

For detailed pinouts, please see the VOXL2 datasheet

• J4 - Power Input and battery monitoring
• J9 - USBC, adb connection to host computer
• J18 - Connects to ModalAI 4-in-1 ESC using MCBL-00029

For detailed pinouts, please see the VOXL2 datasheet

• J19 - GPS Input (GNSS UART, Mag I2C) Spektrum RC Input, spare I2C (future, SLPI)
• J10 - future, external SPI
• J2 - fan, 5VDC, controllable in future
• IMU0 - U16 - ICM-42688p, accessible from PX4 (slpi_proc)
• IMU1 - U17 - ICM-42688p, accessible from Ubuntu (apps_proc)
• BARO0 - U18 - BMP-388 (0x76h) (not currently used)
• BARO1 - U19 - ICP-10100 (0x63h) (PX4, slpi_proc)

Connector colors are not blue…

Quickstart

Known Issues and Limitations

• the MAVLink shell available through QGC doesn’t currently work on VOXL 2. Instead, use the USBC connection and adb to access the shell if needing to run commands

Desktop Use Case

TODO

Connect to Ground Station Use Case

TODO

Flight Use Case

TODO

Next: VOXL 2 PX4 Developer Guide