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Flight controller won't connect to QGC

Discussion in 'ALTA X' started by Spencer Graffunder, Jan 9, 2023.

  1. Spencer Graffunder

    Spencer Graffunder New Member

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    Background:
    I have an Alta X that I'm trying to get the flight controller to control a movi gimbal so I can point it at a POI, at the command of a ground station.

    In doing this, I enabled mavlink on the internal UART (where I have a microcontroller receiving gimbal commands and passing them to the gimbal). I also enabled mavlink on the external UART to connect an FRX Pro transceiver. At some point the FRXs stopped working, and in trying to get them working, I enabled a third extra mavlink instance on the GPS2 port.

    Problem:
    Right now, I can't connect the flight controller to QGC through the USB-C connection or any of the telemetry ports. I just saw the out of memory service bulletin and I'm thinking that sounds like it might be my issue since I have 3 or 4 mavlink instances (depending on if the USB-C counts).

    Is there a way to reset the settings to defaults or to a .param file without going through QGC? I already tried reflashing 1.3.6 using these instructions. It seemed to go through successfully but no change in behavior.

    Maybe I could try flashing 1.3.2? Does anyone have the download link to that, or could upload it and share with me?

    Details:
    When I connect the USB-C cable between my computer and the Alta X and open QGC, the boom lights turn blue, then white, then off. QGC just gives the message "your vehicle is not responding...".
    When I connect a USB-UART converter to the GPS2 port and apply battery power, I get the same light sequence and then the following in QGC.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    Since it doesn't show the full parameter interface, it's not letting me disable mavlinks to hopefully fix the issue.

    When I parse the GPS2 port output with pymavlink, I get many "BAD_DATA" packets (from the FC being out of memory?). Here is an example: https://pastebin.com/PSNabVsC

    This link has the boot output that's captured from the GPS2 port on boot. I'm not sure how to decipher this, so if you see anything, let me know.
    https://pastebin.com/a62d33RC
     
  2. Spencer Graffunder

    Spencer Graffunder New Member

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    I found the 1.3.2 firmware through the wayback machine. I'll try flashing that later today.
     
  3. Spencer Graffunder

    Spencer Graffunder New Member

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    Firmware change didn't solve the problem. Still all the same symptoms. One big clue that I think should help someone figure this out is that the boom lights don't go green and red. They do blue, white, then off. Even after a software update.

    Here is the GPS2 port output while performing a software update. Before I updated, the "FMU version" was 1.3.22, after it's 1.3.19. So it seems like it successfully took the older firmware.
    https://pastebin.com/zR7nGK5j
     
  4. Spencer Graffunder

    Spencer Graffunder New Member

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    I emailed Freefly support and got the connection problem resolved. For anyone in the future with this problem, this is how to reset the settings to default when you can't connect to the flight controller.

    1. Create a text file named "extras.txt" with the following line of text in it and put it in a "etc" folder on the root of the sd card.
    param set SYS_AUTOCONFIG 1
    2. Power up the Alta for 30 seconds, unplug power and USB, then power it up a second time.
    3. Check to see if you can connect over USB now. If you can, great! Continue to the following steps.
    4. IMPORTANT! Power off the Alta and access USB mode again, and delete the entire etc folder. If you do not do this, your drone will reset to defaults every time you reboot it!
    5. Follow the steps on our wiki to load default parameters and temp cal parameters
    6. Perform an accelerometer, compass, and level calibration.
     
    Ibrahim Serra likes this.

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