Hi @RV_Zephyr, sorry to hear you’ve been having connection consistency issues.
Given you seem to have had a consistent connection to the onboard computer (Raspberry Pi + BlueOS), but an inconsistent connection to the flight controller (Pixhawk + ArduSub), the potential causes are effectively
- bad/faulty software on the Raspberry pi, that’s struggling to communicate with the flight controller
- software bugs that are preventing proper communication
- unlikely, since it’s sometimes working, but if you want you can turn on Pirate Mode and try out a recent beta (or development) image (you can always roll back if it’s not helpful)
- a corrupted SD card
- very unlikely, both because BlueOS is designed to avoid that, and because if corruption occurs it generally requires re-flashing the SD card to get any connection to work at all
- software bugs that are preventing proper communication
- damaged/faulty connection hardware (should show up with no autopilot connected on the
Vehicle/Generalpage of the BlueOS web interface):- Raspberry Pi USB port is unlikely - they don’t fail commonly
- you could try a different port if you want
- Pixhawk micro-USB port is possible if it’s been jiggled/strained excessively (they can be torn off)
- if this occurs it’s quite probably that the accompanying PCB traces have also been torn off, in which case the flight controller will generally need to be replaced
- there is an alternative port that can be worth trying if you’re short on time but have access to crimping tools or a spare cable with the right connector
- USB to micro-USB cable is possible, and is probably the first thing I would check / try to replace
- make sure to replace with one that supports data transfer, not a power-only cable
- Raspberry Pi USB port is unlikely - they don’t fail commonly
Was this the USB-B to USB-A cable at the topside, or the micro-USB to USB-A cable in the vehicle? If the topside connection was causing issues it should stop all communication, not just some of it. If that is the case then I’d recommend trying a different USB cable, and/or trying a different ethernet to USB converter in the FXTI box (or just using an ethernet cable from the Fathom-X in the FXTI to your computer, if your computer has an ethernet port).
There are several members of the marine robotics community who use our ROVs (and components more generally) for commercial and research work (many of which post on our forums, and are featured on our social media), including a variety of service providers around the globe. Having used lower quality vehicles previously I can assure you that our development, documentation, and support efforts aim to (and generally succeed at) making our products enabling and broadly usable by hobbyists and commercial users alike.
That said, our aim is enabling the future of ocean exploration, not to placate people into falsely positive opinions. You’re of course free to form your own opinions on our products and company, based on your lived experience, and we’ll do our best to provide products and services that meet and support the needs of our community, and try to rectify any mistakes we make along the way.