Pixhawk Intermittent Connection in MP

Ground Control Software Mission Planner
1

Hello,
I’m having trouble with my first Pixhawk build. I’m able to install firmware, but beyond that I’ve been unable to maintain connection or calibrate the pixhawk. I’ve been trying for a few hours each night this week but no luck (see my post in the pixhawk hardware forum). At first I was able to connect to MP for a couple minutes at a time. I’ve tried reinstalling drivers, swapping Micro SD cards, Powered USB port, going into terminal, setup, erasing EEPROM, and reinstalling firmware, installing beta firmware, reinstalling normal firmware, but no luck.

This evening, I tried to start from scratch on a new build but was unsuccessful.

I’m using a Powered USB port and 8GB Class 10 micro SD card since I didn’t have luck with the old SD card and read there may have been problems with it. For the following steps I was NOT using a LiPo and the ground station 3DR telemetry was unplugged.

I followed the First Time Setup here:
copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/initial-setup/

Here are the steps I tried this evening:

  1. I Installed Mission Planner 1.2.93 build 1.1.5131.36508 on my laptop running Windows 7. At the end of the installation, 3 drivers were installed.
  2. Ran the Setup Wizard
    • Selected Quad and Plugged in Pixhawk using the powered USB hub. Pixhawk has everything installed (Motors, ESCs, External GPS/Compass, 3DR Telemetry (base station is not connected), Buzzer, Button, X8R RX module w/ Taranis).
    • The Pixhawk driver automatically installed “PX4 FMU (COM7)”.
    • Unplugged the USB and plugged it back in. It tried to connect to the pixhawk but encountered an error “Error uploading Firmware”.
    • The pixhawk status Lights show:
      • Main Light: Flashing Yellow.
    • FMU: PWR: Solid Yellow, B/E: Flashing Red.
    • IO: PWR: Solid Yellow, B/E: Solid Red, ACT: Blinking Blue
    • Power cycled board and tried again. The current firmware is already loaded. I received the following message. “No Need to upload. Already on the board”.
    • Main Light: Flashing Yellow.
    • FMU: PWR: Solid Yellow, B/E: off.
    • IO: PWR: Solid Yellow, B/E: Flashing Red, ACT: Blinking Blue
    • After pushing OK, the wizard tried to connect but timed out with the following message “No Heartbeat Packets Received”. At this point I closed the wizard.
  3. I attempted to load AdruCopter V3.1.1 firmware via the “Install Firmware” tab. “No Need to upload. Already on the board”
  4. Next, I Installed ArduPlane V2.78b software in an attempt to re-write the firmware. After power cycling the board, the pixhawk played the “firmware updated successfully tone” followed by two long beeps, “Startup Failed”. Power cycled the board and heard “Startup Successful” followed by “Startup Failed” sounds.
  5. Next I tried reloaded ArduCopter V3.1.1. ERROR: Failed to read OTP.
  6. Tried a second time. This time it worked and played the “Firmware Update Successful” sound. Next, I power cycled the board and heard the “Startup Successful” sound.
    • Main Light: Solid Yellow
    • FMU: PWR: Solid Yellow, B/E: off.
    • IO: PWR: Solid Yellow, B/E: Flashing Red, ACT: Blinking Blue
  7. Pushed the “Connect” Button (COM7, Baud Rate: 115200). The connection tined out. “Timeout waiting for autoscan/no mavlink device connected.” Tried a second time “No Heartbeat Packets Received”.
  8. Attempted to Open up terminal window. The terminal told me to reboot the pixhawk. Once I did, Windows reported a driver was trying to install. At this point I received the “Device driver software was not successfully installed”.
  9. Pushed the reset button on the side of the device. Same light status as step #6, except a flashing yellow light.

Help! What should I do next?

2

Hello,
I see from your pictures you are using a USB hub. It clearly states in the pixhawk documentation you should not. Maybe a cause for your connection problems?

3

You should have stopped after step 3:

  1. I attempted to load AdruCopter V3.1.1 firmware via the “Install Firmware” tab. “No Need to upload. Already on the board”

The firmware is there an is verified to be correct.

Select the correct Com port and Connect from the flight data screen

4

Thanks for the tips everyone. I finally figured out what was wrong! :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

Before fixing this, no matter what I did I couldn’t maintain a connection (with USB or 3DR telemetry) longer than 30seconds - a minute. Sometimes, such as in the instance above I couldn’t connect at all. On step 3, I didn’t write it down above but I tried to connect after the firmware verified but it didn’t work.

The problem was that I was using the 6pin-5wire-to-5pin cable with the GPS instead of the 6 pin-6wire-to-6pin connector. As seen in the pictures below, I plugged the 6 pin connector into the GPS, but and the 5 pin connector shifted 1 to the right (plugged in to the 5 pins closest to the outside edge of the board - the innermost pin on the GPS connection was not connected).

After I plugged in the new 6pin to 6 pin cable with the GPS, I no longer had all of the problems I was having before. No more intermittent MP connections… no more flashing main yellow light! This evening I finish all of the calibrations and did a small flight!

I recommend updating the instructions or WIKI page to clarify that the 6pin-6wire-to-6pin cable be used with the pixhawk as I can see this being an easy mistake to make. (Although I should have known better since there were 6 pins on the board duh! haha). A couple friends of mine were working on putting their pixhawk together this weekend. I pointed this out to them and they had made the same mistake as me except they plugged into the 5 InnerMost pins and it seemed to be working. Not sure if they would have had problems with that configuration or not but they switched it out for the 6 pin connector.

The pictures attached show the WRONG wiring configuration that I had all the issues with. The 6 wire cable is not shown.

5

Hello,

I have read your solution however it looks like the 5th pin on the GPS is not connected to a wire and I am guessing that the 5th pin on the pixhawk gps connection is not connected too? I have exactly the same issue and I am using a 6 wire, 6 pin to 6 pin connector…

Many regards.

6

[quote=“ejay_01”]Hello,

I have read your solution however it looks like the 5th pin on the GPS is not connected to a wire and I am guessing that the 5th pin on the pixhawk gps connection is not connected too? I have exactly the same issue and I am using a 6 wire, 6 pin to 6 pin connector…

Many regards.[/quote]

If you’ve verified your using the 6 wire connector, I recommend trying a different USB port to make sure your supplying the pixhawk with enough power.

At least in my case, the two main problem’s I was having is not using the correct cable (6 wire), and using a USB port that supplied sufficient power. Hope this helps!

Another thing you might try is disconnecting all of the cables from your pixhawk and trying to main connection with nothing else attached. If that doesn’t work I recommend creating a new post so others can help.