Pixhawk fails to start problem

Hi,
I have a major problem with a Pixhawk. I loaded the arduplane firmware, all went ok, tones were as expected, the system booted and started as expected. I connected it to 3dr gps/compass, power, 3dr radio telemetry, ppm input from OPtimax receiver and 4 servos, all worked as expected. However, out of the blue the system suddenly failed to start - it stops at the beginning of the little tune with 2 long beeps which I understand means system failed to start. So, I loaded the arducopter firmware then loaded the arduplane to ensure a clean erase and reinstall. After a few ‘failed to start’ tones, on the 4th attempt the system burst into life. Since then the system has now failed to start about 20 times. Reinstalled firmware multiple times, still the same result. Removal of the SD card results in the SOS tones.

Any ideas what to check next and how to resolve this?

Thanks,

Al

Are you getting this tone?

dev.ardupilot.com/wp-content/upl … rmware.wav

copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common … PX4_Sounds

If you are, press the safety button and power on the Pixhawk. It should load the I/O firmware and you should be good to go

[quote=“Craig3DR”]Are you getting this tone?

dev.ardupilot.com/wp-content/upl … rmware.wav

copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common … PX4_Sounds

If you are, press the safety button and power on the Pixhawk. It should load the I/O firmware and you should be good to go[/quote]

Hi,
Ta for the links, I have been following the procedure and noted the tones. I hear the expected ‘new firmware ready’ tones so I have been holding the safety button on and powering up. All proceeds as expected with a repeated set of tones - however right at the very end it seems to start the usual musical riff which is then interrupted by the two beeps to signify ‘startup failed’. Repeating this a numer of times has the same effect. Anything else to check?

Al

[quote=“Craig3DR”]Are you getting this tone?

dev.ardupilot.com/wp-content/upl … rmware.wav

copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common … PX4_Sounds

If you are, press the safety button and power on the Pixhawk. It should load the I/O firmware and you should be good to go[/quote]

Hi,
Thanks for the info, some careful listening revealed further clues. I’m not hearing quite the right tones for ‘New IO board firmware found’ - the last 2 beeps sound more like the ‘startup failed’ tones i.e. the ‘firmware found’ should be low high low tones followed by 4 constant length tones at the same pitch. What I get is low high low followed by one of the 4 constant length tones that is interrupted by the longer 2 tones of ‘startup failed’.

Do these clues help?

Regards,
Al

Hi,
Some more info. After digging around in the file structure I found rc.APM in etc/init.d and ran it - it seems to run the startup script, here is the output:
nsh> sh rc.APM
binfs already mounted
nsh: rm: unlink failed: No such file or directory
Detected FMUv2 board
[uorb] already loaded
uorb started OK
px4io: already loaded
PX4IO board OK
CRCs match
PX4IO CRC OK
Setting FMU mode_pwm
MODE_6PWM
set_pwm_rate 0 50 50
Starting APM sensors
ms5611: already started
ms5611 started OK
adc started OK
Starting FMUv2 sensors
hmc5883: driver start failed
mpu6000: already started
Found MPU6000
l3gd20: already started
l3gd20 started OK
probe failed
lsm303d: SPI init failed
lsm303d: driver start failed
Error in startup
nshterm [35:100]

NuttShell (NSH)
nsh> nshterm [36:100]

This seems to suggest hmc5883 and lsm303d failed to start, can’t seem to start them from the command line either. Is this the problem? Have these 2 sensors packed up? Or is this a symptom of a failed firmware update? I’ve downloaded px4io.bin onto the microsd card but there are no indicators that the firmware has been updated.

Any help appreciated.

Al

suggest hmc5883 and lsm303d failed to start, can’t seem to start them from the command line either

That is a bit curious.

Have these 2 sensors packed up?

I doubt it

Or is this a symptom of a failed firmware update? I’ve downloaded px4io.bin onto the microsd card but there are no indicators that the firmware has been updated.

No need to put px4io.bin on the SD card as the code is automatically loaded out of ROM FS now.

It will automatically load at startup as well, but that relies on having compatible FMU and IO code installed in the first place. If they are not then you have to do the update manually.

Load copter or plane and the power up while holding the safety button. That will force the px4io.bin to install from ROMFS and should resolve the issue.

It will automatically load at startup as well, but that relies on having compatible FMU and IO >>code installed in the first place. If they are not then you have to do the update manually.

Ahhh, now this might be where the problem lies. How do I update FMU and IO code manually, and which versions are compatible?

I have loaded the firmware from QGroundcontroller, but at the end of that I get some very odd behaviours. The Pixhawk starts, but the startup tones are very different to the tones on the wiki page and the main LED is flashing slowly a bright blue. Sometimes it connects to QGC (and can be armed/disarmed) or MissionPlanner, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes the accelerometers work, sometimes they don’t.

Does this need to go back, has something internal failed? Or is it a software compatability issue?

Regards,

Al

Try loading the stable firmware from mission planner and then follow Craig’s instruction:

Try loading the stable firmware from mission planner and then follow Craig’s instruction:

Ta for the info, but yes have tried that many times with no success. Looks like the Pixhawk is now a paperweight, will have to investigate returning it, it would be interesting to find out what went wrong and failed. We have a spare, but obviously don’t want the same thing to happen.

Regards,

Al

I have loaded the firmware from QGroundcontroller

I suspect you have loaded the PX4 flight code not the APM flight code. Sorry the choice of names is a bit confusing.

Load from Mission Planner or APM Planner

Hello, i have the same problem.
the building of my setup finally completed and now the pixhawk won’t boot! it just have worked fine the whole time.
I have found out when i unplug the I2C from the 3dr ublox it will boot…
What could be the problem?

Hi, I have the exact same problem as hangie here I think. Was there ever a resolution to this or did you send it back to manufacturer?

My Pixhawk initially worked well for a couple of days, and then spontaneously started being less functional (it suddenly stopped recognizing the rc receiver for example) and it now doesn’t seem at all happy.

I have tried flashing it every which way in QGC, APM Planner 2, Mission Control, all to no avail.

It starts up with promising tones, but then interrupted by two long low tones. The PX4IO lights no longer come on apart from the green power one. Checking logs on the SD card there is always something along the lines of “PX4IO board not found” or “PX4IO update failed”.

Hardware error? Strange if so because it was working fine a few days ago.

Maybe there is not enough power from the computer USB port. If possible, try a powered USB hub or connecting the power module to the Pixhawk, then flash the firmware using mission planner or APM planner. Finally format the SD card and follow Craig’s instruction.

I have tried that. I Re-flashed arduplane onto it by plugging a battery in as soon as I had connected the USB back into it, and then after it finished, I disconnected, formatted the SD card, inserted SD card, rebooted pixhawk on battery only (not uSB) with safety switch down and started it. It didn’t give successful firmware noise, and inspecting the sd card the APM/boot.log file says “no PX4IO board found”

the sounds it plays on startup are these …youtube.com/watch?v=DBbwSXOg2VA something is not right.

Now i’m with you, on the “Pixhawk startup failed” club… :cry:

Can you post the serial number, please?

you can get it with the command “auth help”

00220035 34324708 31323533

Hi Marco
We have already covered off on this one in another thread. I have sent you replacement and I would be interested to get this one back. I suspect it suffered an over voltage event and the board has been damaged.
Cheers,

Craig

Yes Craig, is possible, i use the new “3DR Power Module” prototype with this Pixhawk, but i’ve check the output voltage before connect the plug to the board and is right.

I’m having a similar problem, when I first got the pixhawk it worked fine with the external GPS, now I keep getting the two beep error tone, only way it will boot up normally is if I diconnect the I2C connection to the gps, I have tried different cables, used the I2C splitter and even tried to update firmware and the startup with button trick. Can’t get the pixhawk to start up, note I did leave in the gps connection when I disconnected the I2C cable and it does boot, so looks like in the I2C…

Any suggestions?