I had the BlueROV out in the field a couple weeks ago, and in between deployments, we completely lost connection between the vehicle and our computer. Last week, we tried to do some troubleshooting by connecting to a different computer, and we experienced the exact same connection issues.
We are seeing the flashing yellow and green lights on the ethernet port connections, and we have tested the cable connections to ensure there’s no break inside the cable. However, even after ensuring the IP address and subnet mask are assigned as instructed (192.168.2.1) and (255.255.255.0), we are still having communication issues. Trying to ping 192.168.2.2 results in a timed out connection, so we’re not sure where the issue is arising.
In reading over issues that other people have experienced, I found one thread that specified the ight patterns we should be seeing on the pixhawk and the Raspberry Pi. I now suspect that the Raspberry Pi is the source of our issue, since there’s no red power light indicator. I’m also observing a flashing yellow light on the pixhawk, which according to this website (Pixhawk LEDs · Large Quadcopter Build) indicates that the RC failsafe has activated.
Can anyone confirm whether the absence of a red light from the Raspberry Pi ca help diagnose or issue? I’m hoping that the yellow blinking light on the Pixhawk would be caused by the lack of a signal from the Raspberry Pi, and that replacing our Raspberry Pi could get everything working again. Thank you for your advice!
Hi @emahan716 -
It sounds like your Raspberry Pi indeed has an issue. A couple things to check -
- Are both green LEDs on the Fathom X tether interface illuminated, indicating a link, when the vehicle is powered up? The link LED will be off initially, then come on and stay on if your tether is connected properly.
- Is 5V present on the Raspberry Pi power connection? It likely is, since the same power supply connects to the Pixhawk on earlier versions of the BlueROV2 like yours
- You can monitor the Raspberry Pi bootup process by plugging an exernal monitor in via HDMI adapter. If you don’t see any output, the Pi has likely failed.
It should be easy to popthe microSD card into a replacement Raspberry Pi and get things back up and running!
Hi Tony,
Thanks so much for your response. To answer your questions:
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I do have green LEDs on the tether interface to indicate connection. I can also see the lights on the ethernet port that indicate connection. between the computer and the interface.
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If you’re asking whether the Raspberry Pi has at least 5V of power, the answer is yes. After posting yesterday, I opened up the ROV to plug the Raspberry Pi into a monitor, and just by jiggling the cables the red power indicator light came on, as well as a blinking green one.
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I hooked up the Raspberry Pi to a monitor and all the startup processes show “OK”. It is asking for a password, which I didn’t have available at the time (nor a means to enter it), so I don’t know if it’s possible that the password might be where I’m running into an issue.
I also have a blinking yellow light on the PixHawk which I believe indicates a bootup issue.
Thanks for chiming in!
Hi @emahan716 -
After jiggling the connection to get the red light on the Raspberry Pi back, did you re-establish communication by pinging the vehicle at 192.168.2.2?
The light on the Pixhawk may indicate it has failed, plugging it (with the same USB cable) into your computer with QGroundControl open will detect if the unit is ok, and allow you to re-flash the unit with the latest ArduSub.
If it is an older ROV, you may be running Companion. If you open your web browser and go to 192.168.2.2:2770 you should encounter the Companion web interface. You may want to consider upgrading to BlueOS!