After having some issues relating to Pixhawk and system computer we’ve now fixed all problems.
A new pixhawk and a better spec’d system computer is required. However I downloaded a version of QGC on my MacBook as I wanted to compare how the CPU operated in comparison to my NUC PC which After switching between computers I seen that I was running the latest QGC software on my Mac which is different to what I have on my NUC. It’s prompting me that the vehicle software needs to be updated. Is it ok to do this? Or should we run with the older version.
The reason that is because I’d just installed my new pixhawk and had not calibrated the vehicle.
With vehicle plugged into my system pc I don’t get that prompt but that is running off the old version of qgc. But with my vehicle connected to my personal laptop and newest version of qgc that’s the prompt I’m getting.
I think it’s just asking you to update the ArduSub firmware to the latest version.
Based upon my own personal experiences, I would highly recommend against updating any software on the BlueROV2 (ArduSub or Companion Computer), unless you want a specific new feature that is added in a new version. I have updated the software on my BlueROV2 twice now and both times I have seriously regretted it. In fact, The specific reason why I haven’t posted any new adventures here recently is because I updated it to the stable version of 0.0.26 and 4.0.3 and now my BlueROV2 (running on stock hardware) is unusable. My ROV is basically dead since I ‘upgraded’ to the official software on my official hardware.
I haven’t downgraded in order to get the ROV working since I have either been too busy or too lazy to get a wireless access point established. Obviously, wireless networking has the characteristics of both being incredibly insecure, and also incredibly slow, so my LAN is based on wired 10Gb SFP+ and I especially avoid wireless devices in my purchasing decisions (if available).
Addendum: I would selfishly recommend that you (or anyone who reads this) update their software in order to see if it works or not. Maybe I’m just a BlueROV2 hardware minority who has a defect somewhere.
I tend to agree with you in this and hence why I posted this.
Wether I’ve been unlucky or not or if it’s even related to it or just bad timing but my pixhawk just died other day. It started off being port 5 on main out. Once back in the workshop we seen in the companion that there was an update (I don’t remember the version off top my head). We didn’t think much of it at the time but once we downloaded it we had more issues. Lights would just stay on soon as battery was connected, there was no Comms between ROV and topside and the pixhawk was just dead. We installed a new pixhawk and all is great just hadn’t finished the installation/calibration tests at that point I took picture as I had no sticky tape to secure the new pixhawk so didnt want to be pitch/roll movements etc.
Having all this and realising that our NUC computer wasn’t really up to the task as cpu was maxing out with qgc running (which I posted in a different thread) so new and more powerful laptop been purchased it’s been an expensive month lol
On the flip-side of this, we tend to recommend updating to the latest stable firmware/software as it becomes available, in order to access the latest features and remove any bugs that we’ve found and fixed from previous versions. One of the first things we’ll generally ask people to do when they’re having trouble with a current system is upgrade to the latest firmware and software so that we know more about what we’re working with, and can be sure that X feature indeed exists and should be supported.
Of course if your software does everything you want and never have issues, you don’t need to upgrade if you don’t want to. Just expect that if you want or need help with something from us then we’ll likely ask you to upgrade at that point.
We try to be as open as we can with changes that occur in our software, especially for open-source components like the ArduSub firmware and the companion software, so as per our software setup guide you can access release notes for both to see what features and bug fixes you’re potentially missing out on by not updating, and make an educated decision on whether those are important to you
If it’s of interest we also provide pre-built binaries for all our previous firmware versions on our downloads page, so if you want something in between you and the latest stable/beta/development build then you can choose the version(s) you want. Note that the installation process for companion is a bit more involved if you’re not going to the latest version, since we normally use a script that just performs the relevant changes from your current version to the latest one, whereas a direct version install generally requires flashing a replacement OS onto the raspberry pi SD card.
Corrected now