Mission Planner got stuck downloading parameters when there are DISTANCE messages from a companion computer

Adolfo_Cobo · January 5, 2022, 3:57pm

Hi all,
I am using latest version of MP and the download of parameters works fine (I think it is using mavftp becasue it takes a very short time). But … I have a companion computer (using Maverick image) with a D435i realsense 3d camera that sends OBSTACLE_DISTANCE messages trough the mavlink serial link. If the camera is already up and running, the downloading of parameters in MP got stuck and takes for ever, it never ends.
I have reduced the message rate to 7.0Hz just in case, but still does not work.
At the same time, I have tried to run mavproxy in the companion computer and it is able to retrieve all the parameters (see the next screenshot, mavproxy is in the windows to the left, the MP window is shown to the right. There are continous messages “get param 1 by 1 - got 0 of 1”. forever.

Any help with this issue will be much appreciated.
Thankyou!
Adolfo.

Eosbandi · January 5, 2022, 11:48pm

Are you trying to connect via the companion computer or via a separated link?

ppoirier · January 6, 2022, 1:17am

I guess your CC is connected at high speed like in the 900kbps, try reducing to 115200 so it does not overload the traffic

Michael_Oborne · January 6, 2022, 6:08am

my guess is you have one way traffic, traffic from MP to the MAV is going missing

Adolfo_Cobo · January 6, 2022, 8:56am

Thankyou all for your replies!
The cube black FC (rover 4.1.1) is connected via a serial link (921kbps) to a Raspberry pi 4 running the “maverick” image, it has a mavproxy instance running and I connect to the FC through a 4G/LTE connection, using a TCP port of the companion computer.
The thing is, it works flawless, it connects quickly and download the parameters (using the FTP method) very fast. It works both ways because I can arm , change modes …
I don’t think the link is overloaded because I can see the message rate in the mavlink inspector and it is ok.
When I run the camera script, which injects OBSTACLE_DISTANCE messages at a rate of 7 Hz , everything keeps working, I can see the messages in the mavlink inspector window. However, if I disconnect MP and tries to connect from MP while the script is running, the download of parameters does not work. This issue prevents having the camera script running after boot, i have to run it mannually after connecting MP.
if, at the same time, I run another instance of mavproxy from the command line of the companion computer, and connects to the FC through the same TCP port , it works, the mavproxy terminal shows that it has downloaded all the 849 parameters very fast.
Could it could be related to the way that MP download the parameters? can I tune that?
Thankyou for your help,
Adolfo.

Michael_Oborne · January 6, 2022, 10:05am

agh, sounds like your running out of ram on the cube black… i would suggest an upgrade to an orange.

ie the script is using memory, so mavftp is failing to send params after the script has allocated memory.

Ardupilot should be atleast responding with the failure, would need to check the logs

Eosbandi · January 6, 2022, 10:06am

What are the TargetSysID and TargetComponentID of the obstacle_distance messages sent by the companion computer ? Normally you should not see those messages in the GCS Mavlink Inspector… unless the TargetComponentID is zero instead of 1.

Adolfo_Cobo · January 6, 2022, 8:24pm

Thankyou @Michael_Oborne for your reply. I explained myself badly, the script is run in the companion computer, it is an included python script in the Maverick image which connect to a D4xx Realsense camera and sen the OBSTACLE_DISTANCE messages. I not running any script inside the pixhawk.
I keep looking for possibilities.
Thankyou!
Adolfo.

Adolfo_Cobo · January 6, 2022, 8:56pm

Thankyou @Eosbandi for your reply. I don’t know how to know those IDs, but here it is the screenshot of the mavlink inspector, the messages appear under “comp 93”, those from the FC are under “comp 1”

What I have done is recording the debug window from the start of MP WITH and WITHOUT the OD messages in the mavlink link. I can see there things like:

INFO MissionPlanner.MAVLinkInterface - ID sys 1 comp 93 ver3 type ONBOARD_CONTROLLER name GENERIC

which I guess are from the script in the companion computer. At some point, MP decides to get the parameters “get param 1 by 1” or using “GetFile 1-1 @PARAM/param.pck”, but I don’t know why.

Do you suggest that it could be related to the IDs the script is using? I have have a look to the source code:

github.com

thien94/vision_to_mavros/blob/master/scripts/d4xx_to_mavlink.py

#!/usr/bin/env python3

######################################################
##  librealsense D4xx to MAVLink                    ##
######################################################
# Requirements: 
#   x86 based Companion Computer (for compatibility with Intel),
#   Ubuntu 18.04 (otherwise, the following installation instruction might not work),
#   Python3 (default with Ubuntu 18.04)
# Install required packages: 
#   pip3 install pyrealsense2
#   pip3 install transformations
#   pip3 install pymavlink
#   pip3 install apscheduler
#   pip3 install pyserial
#   pip3 install numba           # Only necessary if you want to optimize the performance. Require pip3 version >= 19 and llvmlite: pip3 install llvmlite==0.34.0
#   pip3 install opencv-python
#   sudo apt -y install python3-gst-1.0 gir1.2-gst-rtsp-server-1.0 gstreamer1.0-plugins-base gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly libx264-dev
# Only necessary if you installed the minimal version of Ubuntu:
#   sudo apt install python3-opencv

This file has been truncated. show original

but I don’t see a clue. I see the script has a heartbeat message, I am wondering if, depending of the Id or the presence of the heartbeat message, MP tries to download the parameters from the wrong “vehicle” ???
Thanks again for your help!
Adolfo.

P.D.: text files with the starting messages of MP WITH and WITHOUT the OD messages in the link:

starting MP with mavlink OD messages.txt (32.7 KB)
starting MP WITHOUT mavlink OD messages.txt (29.4 KB)

Adolfo_Cobo · January 6, 2022, 9:12pm

SOLVED!
I just removed the heartbeat message from the python script d4xx_to_mavlink.py and now the parameters are downloaded perfectly. It seems that MP tried to get the parameters from another ID when the heartbeat is present.
Thankyou all for your insights!
Adolfo.

Eosbandi · January 7, 2022, 12:04am

Another solution could be adding conn.target_component = 1 after line 628 in d4xx_to_mavlink.py

Adolfo_Cobo · January 7, 2022, 8:02am

Thankyou! this is very helpful, as I guess that all scripts in that image (for example for dead reckoning with a T265 camera will suffer the same problema.
thanks!

Eosbandi · January 7, 2022, 8:09am

It is missing a conn.waiting_for_heartbeat() call after connecting. That should set the target_component id correctly.

Heritier_Maka · January 11, 2022, 4:31am

Hi, how are you doing? I’m looking for a way to deactivate the Wone Restructuring on the ALTI 100 drone

ppoirier · January 26, 2022, 12:16pm

@LuckyBird could you remove the heartbeat from master as it is not used at the moment and it has Mission Planner getting stuck on this device , hence blocking the main vehicle access to MP.

I tried a different definition according to MavLink definition:
# send a heartbeat msg
conn.mav.heartbeat_send(mavutil.mavlink.MAV_TYPE_ONBOARD_CONTROLLER,
mavutil.mavlink.MAV_AUTOPILOT_GENERIC,
0,
0,
0)
But mission still waiting for this device.

@Michael_Oborne do you filter connection by controller types ?