I have been using the BlueROV Heavy Configuration for awhile now with an Xbox controller, however a new problem occurred yesterday where the xbox controller was not being read correctly by cockpit or qgroundconotrol. I have never seen anything like it, only the triggers on the controller were being read by cockpit and qground as throttle controls? I bought a new controller today and tried it out but haven’t had much luck. I messed with some settings in cockpit and got really weird directional issues with the ROV, but have not been able to get things back to normal. I’ve also tried changing controller drivers, 3 different controller including the new one, the paramaters on the bluerov, uninstalling and reinstalling both qgc and cockpit. Before this issue occured, I did not update the laptop, apps, or ROV. It just happened seemingly out of nowhere.
Ardusub verison 4.7.1
BlueOS version 1.4.6
QGC verion V5.1
Cockpit verison 1.19.0
If possible I woud like to chat about this over zoom or such, if thats possible please let me know.
Hi @awilliams -
Sorry for the issue! I’d guess your controller configuration in Cockpit has gotten a bit weird. You can restore the default control layout in Cockpit, under joystick, with the “Import default mapping for this vehicle” button.
Yes I had done the default mapping, played around further with those settings but cam up with noting. The controllers are responsive to the tester website as well.
Hi @awilliams -
Can you share a .BIN log file from a previous sucessful mission, as well as one from a recent test where the issue is present? I’d suspect either the hardware- stuck thrusters, damaged ESCs, or a change you made to parameters as the root cause. The log files will let us check the parameters before and after, and what control messages the autopilot is dealing with.
Hey Tony,
Apologies for the late reply, but I was able to get those .bin files. How can I sedn them to you? Each are larger than 20 MB, so I cannot attach them to a comment.
The BIN 241 is the older file from 10/21-ish when the ROV and controller were working properly, the BIN 242 is from 10/29 when the controller was no longer being read.
Hi @awilliams -
Looking at those logs, there are no parameter changes made, so nothing that would explain your joystick not working. It would seem the problem is in the network path or the software around the autopilot, not in its parameters. Can you install and run the tether-diagnostic extension to verify you’re getting a good link?
You may find swapping to a different tether pair in the ROV and topside FXTI can help resolve the issue - I’d suspect a poor connection somewhere is making the connection to the vehicle very intermittent, which keeps joystick position telemetry from reaching the system…
Hi @awilliams -
Ah hah!
The blue and pink lines need to be nearly on top of each other - the sharp seperation in your screenshot indicates that there is a bad connection between one of the wires in your twisted pair. I’d double check the Fathom-X green screw terminal in both the topside FXTI and inside your main electronics enclosure. There is also a header pin link in the ROV that can get corroded or come undone.
If you’re not able to improve the tether diagnostic graph, try another pair like the orange / orange white, making the change on both ends.
Did you happen to pull hard on the tether between when things were working nominally and when they broke?
Hi @awilliams -
Can you share a screenshot of your Cockpit joystick configuration? Go to menu>general>joystick, click the table view, and share that image. It sounds like your axis aren’t mapped to the default, or, your autopilot has some mapping of thruster locations/directions wrong. How does the vehicle behave when in stabilize mode?
Apologies, when I said the ROV moves to the horizontal axis I mean that it is behaving as it should, making the leveling the horizontal plane of the vehicle, the sticks movements are whats incorrect. Here is a video of the calibration menu reactions to me moving the controller stick up , down, left, right for the left and right sticks respectively:
And here it is on the axis menu:
What should I look for in the autopilot thruster orientations?
Hi @awilliams -
Your mapping matches the default table, however that controller seems to have its axis outputs numbered in a different order somehow! I’ve never encountered that…
Could you simply move the Axis Function to the expected place? So if you want Z travel on the right stick, up/down, move that, and then set it to axis Z (noting that it has a different min/max to set than all other Axis.) You’d follow the same procedure for each axis - move the one you want to be fwd/reverse, set that to x, yaw left right is axis R, and strafe side to side is Axis Y. Once you have moved them to the axis you prefer, it should work as you’d like. Please share what this mapping works out to be - as your screen recording is quite unusual behavior, at least to me!
Hey all, I finally gave up and hooked the ROV to a different/new computer that has never been setup for the system. Works just as before. I am factory resetting my field laptop now and hoping this will solve the issue. I will update later!
Hey all, turns out factory resetting the computer did work. I assume something happened to the controller drivers but I didn’t mess with them before this whole mess started? Strange overall. Anyways case closed here. Appreciate all the help!
