Embedded Developer

This sensor has one of the worst documentation on the internet. It took me too long to start I2C communication with it so I decided to write the notes here. My initial goal was to write a driver for PX4 Autopilot, so here are my findings. I2C address The address 0x52 mentioned in VL53L5CX documentation is the one shifted to the left. So the real address is actually 0x29 . i2cdetect PX4 If you going to use the i2cdetect application from PX4 you will not be able to read any address because VL53L5CX doesn't respond with the ACK for some reason that I didn't investigate. Connecting the wires To connect wires you need to connect AVDD and PWREN to 5V.   The board has a 3.3V voltage regulator that turns 5V to 3.3V. You can reuse it to connect it to the EVK_IOVDD pin, so you don't need to wire an extra pin and it is very useful for a PX4 I2C standard connector. With this setup, you will be able to connect VL53L5CX to Pixhawk without the need for a 3.3V wire. If this saves you some...

Copy this configuration in file /platforms/posix/Debug/launch_sitl.json.in   Link to gist https://gist.github.com/Igor-Misic/d59c2f7eda52d4596358cbbb4583e883 or config file in ugly text format here: {             "name": "SITL Attach (Gazebo Classic Typhoon_h480)",             "type": "cppdbg",             "request": "attach",             "program": "${command:cmake.launchTargetPath}",             "args": [                 "${workspaceFolder}/ROMFS/px4fmu_common"             ],             "stopAtEntry": false,    ...

 This is a short tutorial that will explain how to build PX4 Autopilot, flash and debug it at the PX4 FMU (Flight Management Unit) without a debugger. Everything in this tutorial is tested and reproduced at Kubuntu 22.04 LTS (It works the same for Ubuntu as well). Preparation Let's start with cloning PX4 Autopilot > git clone https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot.git After the repository is cloned make sure you initialize all submodules. You would like to keep using this GIT commands when you jump between branches in PX4, otherwise, you can experience issues like missing modules while building. > cd PX4-Autopilot > git submodule sync > git submodule update --init --recursive And that is it we are almost ready to build our PX4 firmware. You need to know what board (FMU) you possess. Let's guess you have Pixracer. Pixracer is fmu-v4 board. Figure 1 - px4_fmu-v4 board source tree

Ascent AeroSystems , Wilmington, MA    

 This is a demonstration GUI application and second stage bootloader for SP Racing H7 Extreme board PX4 version.  It is designed as cloner protection for STM32 boars so if you are looking for a solution on how to protect your board you can contact me. For now, this is an application that can help PX4 developers or any other developer using the H7 Extreme board. It works with IMFlasher GUI and console applications. 

A couple of days ago I have written a blog post for embeddedrelated.com with a brief overview of drone flight controllers. If you are interested in BetaFlight, PX4, Ardupilot, Paparazzi, CleanFlight, etc,  go and check this post: https://www.embeddedrelated.com/showarticle/1260.php

This took me some time to fix it so I decided to write a short blog post about it. The story goes in this way. Because I found out it could also work for Pixracer I bought the power supply for APM2 on eBay.  After I received it, I connected it to the battery and after to Pixracer. At first, everything seemed fine for the first 3 sec. Soon, I start smelling smoke. I unplugged the battery and find out that one small piece is burned out. You can see this part in the image below. I had trouble to find out what is the name of the part because it was burned out. Then I opened the schema and used some debugging technics on board and I found out it is the AP7365-33WG-7 linear regulator. From schema, I realized it supply power for ESP. Even with a burned regulator,  the Pixracer was still working but without ESP. The easiest way to figure out if this regulator is not working is to check ESP power led. If it is not turned on it means that the regulator is dead. With some hot...