Old Heavy BlueROV2 commissioning issues

Blue Robotics Vehicles BlueROV2 Heavy
1

TLDR version:
Something about autopilot (I think) firmware V 4.5 kills my unit. How do I recover properly?

Also Issues with thrusters- I get 3beeps/3lights at esc, but can’t bump the motors. Some motors beep at me roughly every 3 seconds.

This is going to be a bit long:

Forgive me that I haven’t mastered the terminology just yet, I’ve got about a week’s experience at this point. I’m totally new to this.

I have a very old (pre March 2017) BlueROV2 heavy that came to me with all its parts piled into the frame with a series of unknown and undocumented modifications.

I put it all back together in ‘stock’ form and got it running under Companion. By running, I mean powered up and communicating with the browser interface and showing video on the bench top. I noticed here that if I choose to upgrade to the latest ‘stable’ firmware- I think it’s the ArduSub- I would have problems. In ground control, I got a message about Pixhawk M flash error.

Companion had a nice little button to go back to ‘vehicle default’ or something similar under firmware and that would fix the problem.

Fine, feeling good about my progress I then upgraded to the BlueOS and got it set up. Mind you, I’m a total novice so this is all my recollection of what I did.

By step up, I mean I completed the wizard, could connect using cockpit and see video, and could click around in the BlueOS interface. In doing this, I now realize that I- I don’t know the exact terms- applied the heavy parameters and that crashed the system.

Now here, I did what you would expect of total novice and made a complete mess of it by poking around and changing/deleting everything I could get my hands on. It was ugly.

In desperation, I reflashed the Companion operating system and got it working again by some miracle. Then I went to BlueOS again, and vowed not to mess it up again.

At this point, I hooked up the thrusters to the terminal blocks and was intending to bump the motors. It’s here that I was poking around and managed to apply the V4.5 version and now I’m dead. I know it was the ‘apply parameters’ again. I don’t remember exactly which tab I was on to describe it better. I got the same M flash error (I had ground control open at the time). I was having issues with my attempt to spin any motor (and deal with that beeping……).

It failed in the update and said to restart the unit. It didn’t come back after restart.

I am confident that I can recover from this the long way again- flash Companion, set up unit, flash BueOS and then can get to a stable system. I suppose there is a more elegant way to do this? Could someone offer some advice on I might do that. Or confirm the ‘brute force and ignorance’ approach is my course of action.

1 Like
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Hi @Zuhow
Welcome to the forums!
I would steer clear of Companion - it is ancient and unsupported!

Loading the default heavy parameters is not “crashing” the system! The beeping you hear prior to this is likely thrusters 7 and 8 not receiving an initialization signal, because the vehicle is not configured to use them.

Have you connected BlueOS to WiFi (with internet) via the icon in the upper right?
Can you confirm what version of BlueOS you’re using?

Currently, v4.5 has some issues with Pixhawk - it’s best to stick with stable 4.1.2. If you’re unable to flash successfully from the Autopilot Firmware menu, open the housing and connect the USB cable directly to your computer, and open QGroundControl. From there, you can flash the autopilot.

Best of luck!

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Thank you.

Well as far as Companion, I’M ancient and unsupported, so that’s not necessarily a draw back…

I’ll try flashing the autopilot with your directions. I tried before without any idea of what I was doing.

Have you connected BlueOS to WiFi (with internet) via the icon in the upper right?

  • Yes, I have.

Can you confirm what version of BlueOS you’re using?

  • version 1.3.1

I’m certain this is a 1d10t error. When I try to run the BlueOS set up wizard, it fails on the last step “install stable sub firmware” with an error code 500.

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I kinda feel like I’m getting somewhere. Here is the vehicle page:

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I really want that beeping to stop. Whne I try to detect the motors I get this, and don’t know where to begin trouble shooting:

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Hi @Zuhow -
The motor direction test only works with the vehicle floating in water, so it can sense how it moves with motors pulsing!
The Vehicle Setup page shows a 6 thruster vehicle, so you’ve not successfully loaded the heavy parameters, including frame-type. This should be done before configuring motor direction. Click the Configure menu at top center left, and load the default heavy parameters to move forwards!

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Click the Configure menu at top center left, and load the default heavy parameters to move forwards!

If it were only that simple…I’ve tried this a bunch of times and not had success.

Let’s deal with the motors first- I need to confirm that these thrusters spin on the bench top (are actually functional) before I button this all the way up and make it sea-worthy. If I need new thrusters, I prefer to know that now. That’s my goal at this stage of commissioning. If I can do that another way, please let me know- I don’t care how I get there.

Back to the frame type and parameters. I’ve set the frame type in QGC and loaded the recommended parameters there, and tried it in BlueOS. It hangs up here:

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Edit:
This is why I first said the parameters are nuking my unit. When I reboot the unit after the hang up (i’ve given it 30minutes to go the last less than 1%- do I need to wait longer?)

When I reboot my firmware is gone

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Hi @Zuhow -
It seems like your autopilot is having difficulty communicating consistently with BlueOS - it is likely a pixhawk based on the age of the hardware?
Please connect a micro-usb cable (that can handle data and power) to the pixhawk, and connect this directly to your computer running QGround Control. You should then be able to flash Ardusub 4.1.2 as linked previously.
If you continue to face issues getting the configuration loaded after doing this and reconnecting the pixhawk to the Pi in the ROV, and can’t load parameters as you’ve shown, you may need to replace the short USB cable that links the unit to the Pi USB port, or replace the pixhawk itself.
We are encouraging users to upgrade to the Navigator, as the pixhawk can often cause issues…

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Can you send me a link to the V4.1.2 please. I only found the V4.0.1 here:

I grabbed the parameters from the same link.

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You can find all versions here, you want this one.

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I think that 4.1.2 was the magic bullet. I am here, and this looks right. I don’t have a gripper.

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So now where do I go?

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Hi @Zuhow -
The gripper is shown only because a PWM output is configured, it shouldn’t cause you any issues.
You’ll want to calibrate the motion sensors and complete the ROV setup now, per our documentation! It’s being updated currently, it is possible to complete the sensor calibration in BlueOS or QGroundControl - but only one at a time! If using BlueOS, make sure QGC is closed. You can find the recommended software versions to use here.

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I just wanted to bring an update to this and thank Tony White for his help.

I’m not exactly sure what made the difference. I borrowed an esc/arduino/pot set up and wired each motor up and spun it. After that, all the problems were solved. Maybe it was just coincidence, but after each motor had been spun, it never beeped at me again and it just worked when I put it together.

So thank you, I couldn’t have done it without you and this vehicle is back in service.

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Hi @Zuhow -
That’s great news! I would guess that the beeping motors were not correctly plugged into your autopilot- if the connector is reversed, they beep to indicate they have not received an arming signal. By checking each one, and then reconnecting it to the autopilot, you likely fixed whatever ones were reversed!