PX4 Maintainers Call: August 15, 2023

rroche · August 8, 2023, 4:01pm

August 15, 2023

The maintainers meeting is a meeting for the developer team to coordinate on pressing issues and to plan the development of the PX4 Autopilot project, the community is welcome to join and listen, but won’t be able to speak unless specific access is granted ahead of time.

Meeting Link

Agenda

v1.14 Testings
DO_SET_ACTUATOR and DO_SET_SERVO usage problems

Meeting Notes

v1.14 Testings

Any updates?

DO_SET_ACTUATOR / SERVO problems

This is currently not supported in PX4, and users are asking for the support:

github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot

Support for DO_SET_ACUTUATOR and DO_SET_SERVO MAVLink commands

opened 01:16PM - 15 Aug 23 UTC

junwoo091400

feature-request

### Describe problem solved by the proposed feature I have noted that a lot of …users (e.g. https://discuss.px4.io/t/using-do-set-actuator-to-releasing-the-payload/28686) were asking for ways to control the servo, or an actuator via the DO_SET_ACTUATOR/SERVO messages coming from an external entity (e.g. onboard computer). This definitely sounds like a basic feature that we should support, as it can be used for all kinds of applications that controls *any sort of actuator onboard the drone, As we now have the `Actuators` and `Servos` concept in place with control allocation, it should be pretty straightforward to implement, I think. ### Describe your preferred solution Add the logic in `mavlink_receiver.cpp` like was done in v1.13: https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/blob/1c8ab2a0d7db2d14a6f320ebd8766b5ffaea28fa/src/modules/mavlink/mavlink_receiver.cpp#L554-L586 ### Describe possible alternatives None ### Additional context I have posted a bit of history behind the support for these commands here: https://discuss.px4.io/t/using-do-set-actuator-to-releasing-the-payload/28686/3, however, to summarize: 1. This feature was supported in v1.13 ([related comment](https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/pull/18265#issuecomment-923681920)), and was utilizing control groups convention (which was removed after complete switch to control allocation in v1.14) 2. It was then removed when purging old mixer system (using control groups, etc): https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/commit/13f9eabd70de2038330e89ab46d5cb3f1cde38ec Therefore, I would say this was an accidental deletion and the feature should be put back in place.