Week of January 11th, 2021

rroche · January 18, 2021, 10:25pm

Last week on the PX4 community.

Important updates from the PX4 community.

Community meetings

PX4 Dev Call (January 13th)

Dronecode BMS WG (January 12th)

Featured PRs

rc/dsm: remove system field check, add new validity checks - Fixes for RC/DSM telemetry

github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot

rc/dsm: remove system field check, add new validity checks

PX4:master ← PX4:pr-dsm_taketwo_simple

opened 03:19AM - 01 Jan 21 UTC

dagar

+7443 -124

Here's a quick DSM parser fix take 2. - unfortunately we can't depend on the… system field due to potential external binding and non-genuine Spektrum equipment - reject any DSM frame with duplicate channels - add 16 channel mask - tighten valid PWM range 990-2010us (±100% travel is 1102-1898µs) - update RCTest rejected frame count and 2nd data set which actually has 16 valid channels Checking the DSM system field was added in https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/pull/15430 when @mcsauder discovered sporadic invalid RC data with a Spektrum quad race serial receiver (visible once the filtering was removed). We should verify that this change accomplish the same improvement without the problematic system field dependency.

Signed boot - Preventing unauthorized firmware from running on a drone

github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot

Signed boot master

PX4:master ← tiiuae:signed_boot_master

opened 01:58PM - 16 Nov 20 UTC

ghost

+378 -2

**Describe problem solved by this pull request** This *draft* PR continues the …work by @dinomani to add signature to the px4 binary. This is very much a framework, even though a working sample is implemented on fmuv5 target. This PR fulfills the following requirements/properties: - The generated images are compatible with existing px4 (i.e. the signed images boot normally if the device has got a bootloader that doesn't support image signing check) - The signing tool can be switched without code modifications (environment variable SIGNING_TOOL for makefiles) - The signing algorithm can be freely selected (related to above) - There is a way to add certificates (e.g. R&D certificate unlocking specific functionality for a single device) The provided signing script is a working example, interesting parts are the structures (toc, certficates...) When building the software with SIGNING_TOOL environment variable pointing to the signing script, this creates a signed image. For example: SIGNING_TOOL=Tools/cryptotools.py make px4_fmuv5_default This is compatible with bootloader implementation in https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Bootloader/pull/179

Camera follows vehicle on Gazebo simulations

github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot

Following vehicle on startup in Gazebo SITL when using make targets

PX4:master ← PX4:pr-camera-gui-plugin

opened 02:41PM - 16 Jan 21 UTC

Jaeyoung-Lim

+4 -5

**Problem Description** When running SITL Gazebo simulations, very often you en…d up clicking the follow target through the gazebo GUI, and this is cumbersome. To prevent this, gazebo provides you an interface to predefine your visual follow target in your `world` file. However, this makes it complicating if you want to use a single world file for multiple vehicles(as we do in PX4/PX4-sitl_gazebo) or if you have multiple vehicles in your world. **Solution** This commit starts a `user_camera_plugin` which has been added in https://github.com/PX4/PX4-SITL_gazebo/pull/691 Since this interacts directly with the gui API, this would help on further optimizing the viewpoints in the future. (e.g. Simulating view point from the ground) Note that the plugin is loaded on the `gzclient` side and not `gzserver`. Therefore this does not influence any setups that are in headless mode or running the simulation in a different way(e.g. not using `sitl_run.sh`) **Alternatives** We can also try templating `.world` files, but I see this blow up for maintenance since there will be too many configurations. **Tests** ``` make px4_sitl gazebo_standard_vtol ``` ![ezgif com-video-to-gif](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/5248102/104814427-18471f00-580f-11eb-8dcf-c0d33c84f31d.gif) **Additional Context** - This depends on https://github.com/PX4/PX4-SITL_gazebo/pull/691

PX4 cannode fixes - Brings back to working state the PX4 cannode for UAVCAN

github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot

The PX4 cannode bootloader resurrection

PX4:master ← PX4:pr-cannode

opened 11:50PM - 13 Jan 21 UTC

davids5

+230 -142

This makes the uavcan bootloader that was added back in tree functional. **UP…DATE For current master: The bin file only need to be place in the root directory of the SD card, naming in <board_id Decimal>.bin, E.G. 34.bin, 1001.bin** ~~Place the image on SD card in `/fw` folder~~ ![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1945821/104525979-39610300-55b6-11eb-80f5-539372259aca.png) uavcan start uavcan start fw plug in GPS. This is what the lights mean. ---------------------------------------------LED -- R ------ G ------- B (blink freq in Hz) ![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1945821/104526139-90ff6e80-55b6-11eb-90bd-2efff95586ea.png) What is left on To-do TODO: - [ ] flash based parameter storage - [ ] safety button UAVCAN node support - [ ] RGB LED UAVCAN node support - wip - [ ] WS2812B? - wip - [ ] check mag orientation - [x] bootloader