I’m trying to get PX4 running on my new betafpv 75X whoop drone. I am following the instructions found here https://docs.px4.io/v1.9.0/en/complete_vehicles/betafpv_beta75x.html but QGroundControl is unable to detect my drone. I’ve flashed the bootloader onto the drone following the omnibus_f4_sd instructions. I’ve done it both through betaflight software, as well as from source. I’m fairly confident the boadloader is on the drone. However, when I plug the drone into my laptop and open QGroundControl, nothing happens. I’ve tried the newest version of QGC, as well as the newest daily builds version. Same outcome. I’ve also tried flashing the PX4’s firmware directly using make omnibus_f4sd_default upload and it just hangs and says it is waiting for the bootloader. Any ideas?
I am running Ubuntu 18.04. I’ve tried multiple USB cables. When I connect the drone dmesg doesn’t show anything new. However, if I hold down the boot button on the drone while plugging it in, (like I did when I flashed the bootloader) I get the following output. Should I be getting something even without pressing the boot button when I plug it in?
[136259.587553] usb 1-1: new full-speed USB device number 26 using xhci_hcd [136259.736535] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0483, idProduct=df11 [136259.736536] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3 [136259.736537] usb 1-1: Product: STM32 BOOTLOADER [136259.736538] usb 1-1: Manufacturer: STMicroelectronics [136259.736538] usb 1-1: SerialNumber: 347638753437
Yes once the bootloader is flashed, and replugged, it should show up as PX4 device.
Not sure what’s wrong then. I assume you don’t have the battery connected?
I’ve tried both with and without the battery connected and dmesg still doesn’t show anything. So it sounds like the bootloader isn’t flashed correctly. Here are the steps I took to flash the bootloader.
git clone --recursive https://github.com/PX4/Bootloader.git
cd Bootloader
make omnibusf4sd_bl
and then I flashed it with:
dfu-util -a 0 --dfuse-address 0x08000000 -D build/omnibusf4sd_bl/omnibusf4sd_bl.bin
Which gives me the following output:
Copyright 2005-2009 Weston Schmidt, Harald Welte and OpenMoko Inc.
Copyright 2010-2016 Tormod Volden and Stefan Schmidt
This program is Free Software and has ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY
Please report bugs to http://sourceforge.net/p/dfu-util/tickets/
dfu-util: Invalid DFU suffix signature
dfu-util: A valid DFU suffix will be required in a future dfu-util release!!!
Opening DFU capable USB device...
ID 0483:df11
Run-time device DFU version 011a
Claiming USB DFU Interface...
Setting Alternate Setting #0 ...
Determining device status: state = dfuERROR, status = 10
dfuERROR, clearing status
Determining device status: state = dfuIDLE, status = 0
dfuIDLE, continuing
DFU mode device DFU version 011a
Device returned transfer size 2048
DfuSe interface name: "Internal Flash "
Downloading to address = 0x08000000, size = 9740
Download [=========================] 100% 9740 bytes
Download done.
File downloaded successfully
Which makes me think it worked successfully. However, when I unplug and replug the drone back in, dmesg still doesn’t recognize anything. Any other thoughts?
The part where they say it’s an upgraded FC makes me think that they changed something and that PX4 is only compatible with the Beta75X 2S version and not the Beta75X 3S. Could that be why the bootloader isn’t working properly? Is there anyone who can confirm this? If that is the case, is there any way to modify the drone or change the bootloader so that it would be compatible with the Beta75X 3S?
Great. I’ll look into it. I appreciate your help. As a comparison,
in that repo you linked to, does the beta75X 2S use the OMNIBUS, OMNIBUSF4, or OMNIBUSF4FW target?
I haven’t had much time lately but I’ve started a little on porting the 3S to work with the PX4 bootloader. This is all new territory to me but I think I’ve added the MatekF411 target into the Makefile correctly, I’m just not sure how to edit the “hw_config.h” file in the bootloader repository. I’ve mainly just copied the Omnibus section. I’ve tried referencing https://github.com/betaflight/betaflight/blob/master/src/main/target/MATEKF411/target.h for the pinout information but I just don’t have enough experience here to know what needs to be changed/added. This is what I have so far.
Like I said, I really haven’t changed anything from the omnibus section in this file. I believe this is the last thing I need to update to make it work. Any pointers on how to correctly define each of these settings for the beta75X 3S?
Now when I flash the bootloader the LEDs come on (Thanks!), But dmesg still doesn’t show anything when I plug the drone in. I must be missing some other crucial things here. The only files I’ve changed are “board_types.txt”, “hw_config.h”, “Jenkinsfile”, and the Makefile. (I can send you my changes if that would help). I don’t feel like I changed anything board specific except for the LED pins that you just recommended. Are there a lot of steps I am missing?
I tried both and still no luck. I’ve tested the same USB cable with a pixhawk4 mini and dmesg shows that it’s connected, so I know my USB cable isn’t the issue. Here is my updated “hw_config.h” file
Do I need to change the APP_LOAD_ADDRESS? USBPRODUCTID? BOARD_TYPE? Im just not sure.
This is the command I am using to flash the drone and it completes “File downloaded successfully”.
dfu-util -a 0 --dfuse-address 0x08000000 -D build/matekf411_bl/matekf411_bl.bin
I was also reading through the datasheet for the STM32F411CEU6 https://www.st.com/resource/en/datasheet/stm32f411ce.pdf and I think the “OSC_FREQ” param should be set to 16? Can you confirm that? I tried changing it to 16 and it still doesn’t work, but now the blue LED is flashing instead of solid. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not.
No, nothing else that you need to change. OSC_FREQ should be 8 from what I have seen (there is typically an external oscillator), but a blinking LED is expected and correct.
At this point you should consider using jtag to see what’s going on.
Currently no Whoop quad is available that uses F405 which is needed (at least 1Mb flash space). Most Whoops use F411 with .5Mb flash so PX4 doesn´t fit into at all …
If you leave out a lot of modules with PX4, it will just fit into the constrained flash of 1Mb.
Therefore no F411 works and F405 is the lowest possible denominator.
As soon as a STM32F405RGT6 is on the board, the bootloader and the FW upload process will also work.
I´m still searching for a long time for a controller or a whole small brushless ducted fan vehicle that is able to run PX4
Mamba F405Mini seems currently to be the best alternative fc that runs perfect as PX4 OB F4 target it fits into the most 75 … 85 Whoops as a direct replacement of the in the meantime mostly used Matek F411 that´s not compatible to PX4 at all. Scorpion 80 is a vehicle that can be upgrated with this fc
I’m currently also looking for a tiny drone that can run PX4.
You mentioned you were looking for a board that could run PX4 and fit into a small drone. As you mentioned, a sort of requisite is that the board uses, at least, an F405 processor.
I know it has been some time since your post, but I guess this board should do the trick, since it is an OMNIBUSF4SD target on a 20x20 mounting: https://geprc.com/product/gep-stable-v2-f4-35a/.
could work with the standard Omnibus F4 target cause flash based parameters are used, so a sd slot isn´t needed anymore to store settings. There are now many 20x20 mm fc that would run PX4, but most lack the right breakout pins to connect all peripherals.
