Issues establishing a network connection between Waterlinlked's UGPS and BlueROV2

[eri3t (Eric Ruiz)]

Hi,
I have a WL UGPS G2 system with the U-1 locator. I want to display the ROV’s position on the QGC/Cockpit map and have lat-lon subtitles (ultimately, I’d like to overlay the ROV’s route on a map).

I’ve been having issues creating the network bridge between the UGPS and the ROV. After following WL’s instructions for my locator type, I get the message: “An unexpected error occurred while setting up the network bridge” when attempting to create the bridge. Below is my IP configuration, which I confirmed with WL’s support staff:

I believe I have to select both Ethernet (UGPS) and Ethernet 2 (ROV) checkboxes in the “adapters” section of the Bridge Network “Properties” page (see photo below). This is not the default configuration and I haven’t read this in any documentation, so I’m not 100% sure I have to do this.

Before, when entering in QGC, a “No GPS lock” message always appeared, but not anymore. Still, I don’t have lat-lon subtitles and no position in the map. I know the UGPS is working (position is correct over WL’s GUI). I can also see GPS_INPUT, GPS_RAW_INT, and GLOBAL_POSITION_INT MAVlink messages, and I’ve configured NMEA steam UDP to port 14401 (see photos). I belive, after reading the BlueOS-UGPS extension functionality README that this is the way to go (I also have the BlueOS-UGPS extension installed).

I guess there’s some extra configuration I need to do. What am I missing?

Thanks in advance,
Eric.

BlueROV2 R3 (pixhawk1)
BlueOS: v1.4.0
QGC: v4.2.4
Ardusub: v4.5.3
Operating System: Windows 10

[EliotBR (Eliot)]

Hi @eri3t,

@eri3t

After following WL’s instructions for my locator type, I get the message: “An unexpected error occurred while setting up the network bridge” when attempting to create the bridge.

From some looking around online, it may work to just try creating the bridge again, possibly after rebooting your computer. It may also help to rebuild the windows management instrumentation database:

@Microsoft Support - An unexpected error occurred while setting up the network bridge

1. Click on Start; in the start search type cmd.
2. Right click on cmd.exe and “run as administrator”.
3. Execute the following commands.

   net stop winmgmt
   cd /d %windir%\system32\wbem
   ren repository repository.old
   net start winmgmt
   

4. It may take a minute or so to complete while WMI rebuilds the database.
5. Restart the computer and then try creating a network bridge again.

although those instructions are quite old, so I’m unsure whether they still work for modern Windows versions.

@eri3t

I believe I have to select both Ethernet (UGPS) and Ethernet 2 (ROV) checkboxes in the “adapters” section of the Bridge Network “Properties” … This is not the default configuration and I haven’t read this in any documentation, so I’m not 100% sure I have to do this.

Water Linked’s documentation does show that both networks in the bridge should show as selected in the bridge configuration, so if your bridge failed to create properly then it does at least make sense to try this, and see whether it succeeds.

@eri3t

Before, when entering in QGC, a “No GPS lock” message always appeared, but not anymore.

That should only show up if there is a recognised GPS or positioning device connected but no stable position (so it disappearing could just mean the positioning system is not being detected by the autopilot OR that there is in fact a valid position lock).

@eri3t

I know the UGPS is working (position is correct over WL’s GUI). I can also see GPS_INPUT, GPS_RAW_INT, and GLOBAL_POSITION_INT MAVlink messages …

From your screenshots, it seems like 0 values for the position are being sent to / forwarded from the autopilot. Did you take these while it was reporting a valid position in the UGPS interface?

[eri3t (Eric Ruiz)]

Hi @EliotBR ,
thanks for the input. I’ll try tomorrow what you’re suggesting.

@EliotBR

From some looking around online, it may work to just try creating the bridge again, possibly after rebooting your computer

I’ve already done this a bunch of times, always with the same result. Nevertheless, when selecting both networks in the bridge configuration, the message doesn’t show up and both ROV (Ethernet 2) and UGPS (Ethernet) have a “enabled, with bridge” status. When creating the bridge this way, the “No GPS lock” pop-up dissapears from QGC, and I start seeing GPS_INPUT, GPS_RAW_INT, and GLOBAL_POSITION_INT MAVlink messages that didn’t show up before in QGC.

@EliotBR

From your screenshots, it seems like 0 values for the position are being sent to / forwarded from the autopilot. Did you take these while it was reporting a valid position in the UGPS interface?

Yes, while taking the screenshots I was able to see accurate position in the Waterlinked’s GUI.

[eri3t (Eric Ruiz)]

@EliotBR

It may also help to rebuild the windows management instrumentation database:

This didn’t change anything. I’m attaching the WaterLinked’s UGPS extension logs, hoping that you understand what’s happening. The following error appears every now and then: ugps_connection:get:40 - Got HTTP Error: 500 Internal Server Error
extension-waterlinkedblueosugpsextensionv107.log (3.6 MB)

[EliotBR (Eliot)]

If the GPS_INPUT messages are appearing in QGC then the network bridge seems to be working.

From your log it looks like a server in the UGPS is having some issues, so this is likely something to raise with Water Linked.

You can try going to http://192.168.2.94/api/v1/position/global to see whether there is a more specific error message than is included in the log.

[eri3t (Eric Ruiz)]

Hi Eliot, the problem was solved. The network bridge was working, but position in QGC/Cockpit is only avaible when the UGPS has a valid position. For that, the locator must be in the water and detected by the antenna. This differs from what I experienced when running Companion software, where the topside box position would appear despite not having this “valid position” status.

It looks like I only had to do the tests in water!

Thanks for the input,
Eric.