Motors won't spin

Blue Robotics Vehicles BlueROV2
1

ROV is using a raspberry pi 4B with the Pixhawk. It is connected throught the fathom-x interface and can be seen on qgroundcontrol and control in the blueos web server. In QgroundControl, the Automatic motor direction detection works and all 6 thrusters are found. But when trying to manually test motor control and direction none of the motors will spin. Additionally, when armed and the controller is used to move around, the visual ROV on the qgroundcontrol will move around but none of the thrusters will make any noise or spin in any way.

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Hi @Perry500, welcome to the forum :slight_smile:

Can you confirm that the Pixhawk is actually being detected in the BlueOS Autopilot Firmware page? It’s possible it’s currently running the SITL simulation, in which case the hardware is not being communicated with at all.

Does the vehicle move when you’re trying this? The test requires the vehicle to be in the water, so if it’s succeeding while on land and without the thrusters moving then that’s further evidence it’s not actually communicating with your vehicle’s flight controller board, and is instead connected to an alternative autopilot (e.g. a simulated one, or some other vehicle on your network).

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It is using the SITL. No other option is visible when using private mode and selecting change board.

It is succeeding on land without the motors spinning because of the SITL. So how should I select the correct board to put the Ardupilot firmware on because no option is visible?

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Hi @Perry500 -
It seems like the Pi isn’t recognizing the attached Pixhawk. It’s plugged in via USB? Have you verified your USB cable is working (and the pixhawk too) by plugging it into a computer and seeing if QGround Control recognizes the Pixhawk?
If that works ok, please navigate to the terminal in BlueOS and share a screenshot after doing the following:

  1. type “red-pill” and push enter to go to the root user
  2. type lsusb (with pixhawk connected.) - share screenshot
  3. Unplug pixhawk, type “dmesg -w” and push enter, then plug in the pixhawk - share screenshot

That should let us see what’s happening with it!

5

Turns out the micro usb connector to the board was disconnected. So when I opened it up I was able to force it back into place so the connection was made which solved the issue. Thanks y’all.

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