Blueboat PreArm check failed. Check Mag field and other minor issues

Blue Robotics Vehicles BlueBoat
1

Hello,

We just acquired our first BlueBoat and we are having some issues. First of all, we followed all the steps in the guides and we found no problems up to the motor directions checkup. In this step, for some reason the port side motor continued spinning slowly after the slider was put back at 0 and it wouldn’t stop even if we disarmed the motors. Only way to stop it was to turn off the BlueBoat. After we reset the BlueBoat we tried again and it worked fine.

We decided to proceed and we put the BlueBoat inside our water tank. For some reason our water tank is the Bermuda Triangle and every single vehicle we put inside has problems with the compass. We thought that this only affected underwater vehicles but after a couple of minutes the alarms went off and the following error popped up (also is a roofed water tank, so no GPS):

blueboat
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After this the BlueBoat motors were unresponsive, we couldn’t arm the vehicle or move the Boat. Only way we could make the motors move was to do the “check motors directions” procedure. When we recovered the vehicle we found out that the left motor was still slowly spinning again after doing the “check motors directions” procedure.

Also, during all this process (calibration included), even after putting the Boat in manual mode, arming, disarming it, and playing with it a few minutes before the compass failure the NavLight status was Solid ON

Questions:

  • What causes the left motor to sometimes continue spinning after doing the “check motors directions” procedure? Any way to stop it without needing to reboot the vehicle?
  • Is there any way to override the compass/mag field error so we can operate the vehicle in our tank?
  • What happens if the compass fails in open waters? Is there any procedure to recover the vehicle? In this case we could recover it easily cause it was a controlled scenario.
  • Why is the NavLight status always Solid ON?

Best regards

2

Hi @Alex_UJI1 -
Happy to help!
In answer to your question -

  • The left motor trim can be adjusted to get it to stop rotating on its own - the exact 0 throttle signal can vary between ESC units due to the variability in their clock. The left, port motor should be Servo1, so adjust the Autopilot Parameter for Servo1_trim to a slightly lower value than 1510.
  • Yes, you can disable the failsafe parameter (in the same menu) so that compass is not checked.
  • A compass failure in “open waters” is *extremely *unlikely, but if it were to occur you could drive the vehicle in Manual mode (with failsafes disabled.) It would sort of be like your car windshield failing!
  • It sounds like the lua script that controls the NavLight flashes has not loaded correctly. Complete the vehicle setup wizard, and select the Lua script for the BlueBoat during this process.

Let us know if you continue to have issues!

3

Hello @tony-white ,

Thanks for your help, I followed your suggestions and now the issues are solved. I have another question.

Is there any way to change the gain/speed of the motors using the Logitech controller (just like the BlueROV)? If it is not possible, which parameter should I modify in order to do this “manually”?

Best regards

4

Hi @Alex_UJI1 -
ArduRover does not have “gain” like ArduSub - the unit will always operate at 100% gain. If you need to limit the throttle, you could change the Servo# 1 & 3 min/max to reduce the value sent.

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