Diagnostics from Orange Cube

[john_gj (John Lintern)]

I want to read the diagnostics from the flight controller into my own microprocessor, which will act as a supervisor and handle fault reactions to certain diagnostic errors.

What interface does the Orange cube use to send diagnostic information, is it MAVLINK or DroneCAN or both ?

[Yuri_Rage]

Generally, MAVLink. See my response to your other topic.

Is the software that runs on Orange Cube open source ? If so, where can I find it?

It runs whatever you flash to it. Since you are on the ArduPilot forum, I’ll assume you’ve flashed ArduPilot, whose codebase can be found here: And documentation here: https://ardupilot.org/ardupilot/ Instead of posting a mile a minute on the forum, perhaps do some searching in those locations.

[john_gj (John Lintern)]

Thanks Yuri_Rage

Which connector is MAVLINK sent out on ?

Is it the USB connector or one of the TELEM connectors or something else ?

[amilcarlucas]

Both Telem and USB connectors talk MAVLink.

[john_gj (John Lintern)]

Is there a list of parameters that can be accessed from the Orange Cube ?

I have a Pixhawk 6C mini and when I connect it to Mission Planner it shows me lots of status parameters…

Are these status parameters defined by the Pixhawk or Misison Planner ?

Surely the parameters available will depend on which flight controller is connected ?

Does MAVLINK need to request each of these parameters and if so how does it do this ? e.g. is there an ID for each parameter ?

Does each parameter need to be continuously polled by the MAVLINK receiver or does the flight controller cyclically send all these parameters ?

I have experience with standard industry protocols such as CAN, UART SPI, I2C etc but no experience with this bespoke MAVLINK protocol, so Im just trying to get a basic understanding of how it works.

[john_gj (John Lintern)]

Also, is it possible to get the diagnostic parameters on DroneCAN instead of Mavlink ?

Mavlink uses UART as the transport layer, but UART is much slower and much more susceptible to EMI compared to CAN. CAN has been around for decades, but UART is ancient !

I am already having EMI issues reading the telemetry from the APD ESC, because that uses UART and comes directly from the processor pin via a series resistor. It has virtually no protection and no resilience to EMI.

For an application where there is EMI from the ESC, motor and servos I am surprised such an unsuitable interface is used.

We even have EMI issues on the PWM commands sent from the flight controller, which is seen as servo twitch and seems to be a common issue. These interfaces should be more robust and use differential signaling techniques etc

[amilcarlucas]

@john_gj

Are these status parameters defined by the Pixhawk or Misison Planner ?

No, those are status defined by the MAVLink protocol.

@john_gj

Surely the parameters available will depend on which flight controller is connected ?

Yes, they do. Bus those are not parameters, those are statuses from MAVLink messages.

@john_gj

Does MAVLINK need to request each of these parameters and if so how does it do this ?

Yes and no. There are MAVLink message streams that you configure and do not need to request.
And additionally you can request each message individually.

@john_gj

e.g. is there an ID for each parameter ?

There is, but again those are not parameters.

[john_gj (John Lintern)]

How can I find what diagnostics are available on Mavlink and how to address them ? I cant find anything on the Mavlink website

I just need to be able to read the diagnostics from the Orange cube using this controller (which has a UART interface)…

S32K146 UAVCAN V1 and MAVCAN Development System