VOXL 2 Mini Power
Table of contents
Hardware Options
VOXL Power Module
The main power input is J1 and can be paired with a VOXL Power Module, which provides the up to 6A momentary inrush current and provides two I2C based power monitoring ICs, providing PX4 the battery status.
Note, for VOXL 2 Mini, the MDK-M0041-4 (note the -4) version is required, that has a 3.8VDC output instead of 5VDC.
M0104 J1:
- Connector on board: Molex 2059-72-0041
- Mating connector: 2059792041
VOXL Mini ESC - 4-in-1
The main power input is J1 and the 3.8V and GND pins can be paired with the output of the VOXL Mini ESC’s regulated output.
The battery status information is sent over UART to either the voxl_esc (SDK 1.1.1+) or modal_io through J19 instead of the I2C bus on J1.
For bi-direction UART communications, connect VOXL 2’s J19 connector to the VOXL Mini ESC’s (M0129) J1 using MCBL-TODO or building your own following this.
LEDs
The D1 LED illuminates green when the 3.3V regulator is reporting “good”.
The D2 LED illuminates green when the 5.0V USB bus regulator is reporting “good”.
More info about the other LEDs can be located here
Software
Checking Battery Status
With the VOXL PM attached, you check the battery using px4-listener battery_status command after getting a shell to VOXL 2.
Here’s an example from a 2S battery:
px4-listener battery_status
TOPIC: battery_status
battery_status_s
timestamp: 1080175258 (0.059704 seconds ago)
voltage_v: 7.2224
voltage_filtered_v: 7.2224
current_a: 0.1758
current_filtered_a: 0.1791
average_current_a: 0.0000
discharged_mah: 51.6742
remaining: 1.0000
scale: 1.0000
temperature: nan
cell_count: 2
voltage_cell_v: [3.6662, 3.6662, 0.0000, 0.0000, 0.0000, 0.0000, 0.0000, 0.0000, 0.0000, 0.0000]
max_cell_voltage_delta: 0.0000
capacity: 0
cycle_count: 0
run_time_to_empty: 0
average_time_to_empty: 0
serial_number: 0
manufacture_date: 0
state_of_health: 0
max_error: 0
interface_error: 0
connected: True
source: 0
priority: 0
id: 1
is_powering_off: False
warning: 0
voxlpm PX4 Driver
The voxlpm PX4 driver monitors both battery and companion computer regulated voltage.
The driver runs in PX4 on the DSP, and interfaces through SSC QUP2.
You can’t get to this I2C bus through Ubuntu at this time.
voxl_esc PX4 Driver
The voxl_esc PX4 driver monitors both battery via the VOXL Mini ESC.
The driver runs in PX4 on the DSP, and interfaces through SSC QUP2.
modal_io PX4 Driver
The modal_io PX4 driver monitors both battery via the VOXL Mini ESC.
The driver runs in PX4 on the DSP, and interfaces through SSC QUP2.