no pwm output in rover mode

[cookiew]

Describe the bug
I am using px4 in rover mode with 1/10 scale RC cars. After successfully arming and no errors reported in QGroundControl, there is no pwm output in any port.

• hardware: pixfalcon
• Firmware: v1.7.3 and v1.8.0 (tested both and neither works)
• Airframe: Traxxas Stampede vxd 2wd
• Mode: Manual or Stabilized

I also tested Firmware v1.6.5 and everything works fine. The reason I preferred newer version is that I wanted to use pixhawk with mocap system and use EKF2 estimator.

log file:
https://logs.px4.io/plot_app?log=5e97ce09-9c4b-4817-8d5a-38c24bacf376

[cookiew]

related post http://discuss.px4.io/t/no-pwm-signal-out-pixhawk-rover/5920

[Jddl]

https://github.com/PX4/Firmware/blob/master/ROMFS/px4fmu_common/init.d/50002_traxxas_stampede_2wd

# @board px4fmu-v2 exclude

[dagar]

Which flight controller do you have? The px4fmu-v2 binary (original pixhawk) has limited usable flash, so the rover controllers aren't currently included.

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[zlite]

Can we please re-open this issue? Rover is completely unusable because of this bug. It's critical and affects all autopilot hardware in my testing.

[dagar]

PX4 rover isn't currently part of our testing by the Dronecode test team or even the automated system. A good next step would be getting it added to the CI system to prevent trivial regressions like this from slipping in.

[aogrcs]

Hi, I tested PWM output for Rover using CUAVv5, 1.8.2 stable. I found the output of throttle was between 160mv and 240mv. Is this correct? Thanks
@dagar @zlite

[jchillerup]

I have this problem, too. Moreover the configuration flow doesn't let me complete before installing a RC receiver. I don't intend on using a RC for this rover, as it's only going to travel to set waypoints, so that is also kind of a bummer. I'd be happy to help with anything if necessary.

[julianoes]

FYI @ItsTimmy

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. Thank you for your contributions.

[FaboNo]

I have tested V.1.10.0 on a pixhawk2 for a rover ("Generic ground vehicle") and I noticed the pwm output is correct for steering (MAIN2) but nothing is coming out of MAIN4.
How can I know that the rover part of px4 is downloaded?

[hamishwillee]

@Jaeyoung-Lim @dagar What do we have to uncomment to get the rover controllers in?

[FaboNo]

@hamishwillee I can see that there are other pull requests such as
#13314 (relevant to us as we want to go offboard as well). Do you know in which PX4 firmware release we can expect to have rover controllers up and running?

I understand that the priority is on "flying machines" but I can see more and more R&D team (like us) moving on developing swarm of/pairing rover + quad and it is a plus when we can use the same stack for both machines.

[Jaeyoung-Lim]

@FaboNo v1.10.0 should already have the rover control up and running but with limited support in offboard controls. I think most of the tests were done using a differential steering vehicle (aion robotics R1 rover) to be specific.

Current master is in a good shape to use offboard setpoints as written in this doc

[FaboNo]

@Jaeyoung-Lim Nice to see you :) Actually this is the one we are using right now on a pixhawk (PX4 FMU V2) and as I mentioned before one signal (MAIN 04) is missing with the "generic rover". I tried the other rovers and ended up with the same result. Do you have any hint? So that I can dig in the parameters and find out? I will read the link you provided - hope that there are "mavros"-compliant?

Best

[FaboNo]

@Jaeyoung-Lim I just tried again the aion robotics R1 rover setup and I can see it is almost working (cannot move backward) when controlled via Radio.
Do you have any idea when the offboard setpoints will be released?

[Jaeyoung-Lim]

@FaboNo In master it is already there. (and compatible with mavros ofcourse) I believe it will be part of v1.11

[FaboNo]

@Jaeyoung-Lim Good I will have a look - thank for the great job on the rover side. Regarding the R1 rover behavior I will post on discuss.px4.io

[FaboNo]

@Jaeyoung-Lim in the OFFBOARD documentation, I can see that for the copter/vtol SET_POSITION_TARGET_LOCAL_NED (setpoint_position/local for Mavros) only x,y and z are used but actually the yaw is extracted from the orientation quaternion and used by the controllers.

My question is regarding the rover, do you consider only x,y and z (but I am puzzled about the usefulness of z - meaning if we set z=0 does it matter?) only or the yaw is also extracted and used by the controller?

[Jaeyoung-Lim]

@FaboNo Could we move this discussion into maybe discuss? This I see is more of a usage question and is not related to this issue. Please send me the link in discuss so we can continue the discussion

The answer on z: It is simply not taken into account on the l1 controller. yaw is also not used for the rover, since it is nonholomoic it doesn't make sense to define the orientation of the system using the message.

[FaboNo]

@Jaeyoung-Lim yes you are right, better to move this discussion somewhere else but, sorry for that, how to move on "discuss"?

[Jaeyoung-Lim]

@FaboNo you can create a post on discuss.px4.io

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. Thank you for your contributions.

[Jaeyoung-Lim]

This should have been fixed in #16847

[pzxz]

@FaboNo Nice to see you :) I have a problem on with the aion robotics R1 rover setup, the doc shows Specific Outputs are MAIN0 and MAIN1, which one is MAIN0 on Pixhawk?

[DronecodeBot]

This issue has been mentioned on Discussion Forum for PX4, Pixhawk, QGroundControl, MAVSDK, MAVLink. There might be relevant details there:

https://discuss.px4.io/t/status-on-px4-rover/10777/1