Motor calibration menu in QGC disappears, lots of "parameter missing" errors occur

Blue Robotics Software QGroundControl
1

hello,
We are faced with a very weird problem- when we connect the pixhawk to our computer (via serial or via raspi-companion software), we get the expected behavior of seeing the motor direction configuration section in the vehicle setup menu. But, when we return to the vehicle setup section after going back to the “video and vehicle telemetry display section(?)” the motor directions section completely disappears. The “frame” section also goes missing. They are replaced by the “flight modes” and “Tuning” sections. I feel like it switches from accommodating subs and rov-type vehicles to accommodating drones and stuff. All the settings seem to change to drone related stuff. GQC suddenly starts displaying “parameter missing” errors. and the whole gui become unbearable because everytime I change a menu, qgc displays a different set of supposedly missing parameters.
When I restart both the vehicle and qgc, everything turns to normal for once and then the problem above happens again.
How can I fix this issue?

I am using a custom 8 directional custom motor configuration with a pixhawk and 8 T200s.

2

Hi @VioletCheese,

  1. Which ArduSub version did you base your custom firmware off?
  2. Which QGroundControl version are you using, and on which operating system?

Your issue sounds similar to (but potentially more severe than) this one, where QGC doesn’t fully register the vehicle as Sub.

  1. Do the workarounds in the Detailed Description section of that issue work for you?
  2. Does it help to use BlueOS instead of the Companion Software?
3

I will test the vehicle again with the newest ardusub and QGC versions and keep you posted. I am using a Linux computer.
We were using the companion software, I will change to the BlueOS too.
Because we are using a Jetson Nano for our onboard computer (because of the GPU), we use the Raspberry just to connect to QGC to calibrate.
Regarding your first question:
I downloaded and built the firmware on March 23, 2022. I don’t know how I can check which version of ardupilot I am using. Is there a git command or a file somewhere that keeps track of the version? I used the git checkout Ardusub-stable and created a new branch at the time.
I will write an update after further testing to see if our problem persists.

By the way, we were selected to compete in the Singapore AUV challenge (the Calrov team). I still remember finding the competition out from the competitions section on this site. Hopefully, we can share more good news with you guys.
Have a nice day :slight_smile:

4

The version is specified in version.h, but given the timeline and branch that will almost certainly be 4.0.3.

We’re just about to make 4.1 the new stable, which will likely help with system stability in general. It will take a bit of time to go through the automatic build system, but should hopefully be available tomorrow. We’ll be making a post about it in the next few days :slight_smile:

Nice work!
Glad we could provide some useful information, and keen for any updates you can share as you progress :slight_smile: