Loading Open Solo direct to stock pixhawk

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So I posted here a while about my issues with level calibration fails. I had upgraded the Solo to Open Solo right before that. I have recently picked up a stock Pixhawks from a nice forum member here to replace my current one.

So here's my question... My controller should be running Open Solo now, so will it cause issues to install the stock Pixhawk with stock firmware? Is it better to go ahead and upgrade the Pixhawk outside of the Solo? If so, should I just swap the card from my old one to the new one, or is there a way to do the upgrade via the USB port on the cube with some kind of downloadable image file or something? If no to all of these, is there a way to take the controller back to stock?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

A few things:

• The SD card in the cube only stores logs and terrain data. Nothing to do with firmware so don't bother swapping it.
• The copter's IMX companion computer has Open Solo on it already, so nothing needs to change there. You do not need to run the whole installation procedure.
• The cube you bought probably has the old 3DR version of ArduCopter on it. So you only need to update this firmware.

If you install it and everything boots up, connects, and works, this is easy. Just run the ArduCopter 4.0.1 FW Only package in Solex. It will probably not complete with all the usual tones and lights, and may require an additional reboot after a few minutes.

 

[BRBpromotions]

A few things:

• The SD card in the cube only stores logs and terrain data. Nothing to do with firmware so don't bother swapping it.
• The copter's IMX companion computer has Open Solo on it already, so nothing needs to change there. You do not need to run the whole installation procedure.
• The cube you bought probably has the old 3DR version of ArduCopter on it. So you only need to update this firmware.

If you install it and everything boots up, connects, and works, this is easy. Just run the ArduCopter 4.0.1 FW Only package in Solex. It will probably not complete with all the usual tones and lights, and may require an additional reboot after a few minutes.

Thanks! Is this the better route versus flashing the cube directly before installation?

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

If you already have Mission Planner and are familiar with flashing firmware over USB, then that would be the most reliable and fail-proof way to do it. If you'd like to do that, you'll want grab the ArduCopter.4.0.1.CubeSolo.apj firmware file off the Open Solo 4 release on our github. And use the load custom firmware function in Mission Planner.

 

[webbbn]

A few things:

• The SD card in the cube only stores logs and terrain data. Nothing to do with firmware so don't bother swapping it.
• The copter's IMX companion computer has Open Solo on it already, so nothing needs to change there. You do not need to run the whole installation procedure.
• The cube you bought probably has the old 3DR version of ArduCopter on it. So you only need to update this firmware.

If you install it and everything boots up, connects, and works, this is easy. Just run the ArduCopter 4.0.1 FW Only package in Solex. It will probably not complete with all the usual tones and lights, and may require an additional reboot after a few minutes.

I should probably figure out how to recover if I mess something up, since I'm planning on installing an updated kernel on my companion computer...

If the sdcard is only for logs and terrain, how does one flash an image on the companion computer if it will not boot? From uboot on the serial console?

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

The Cube and IMX companion computer are two different things with two different SD cards. One is operationally separate from the other, connected together by serial. You can read about the IMX firmware on the open solo github.

 

[webbbn]

The Cube and IMX companion computer are two different things with two different SD cards. One is operationally separate from the other, connected together by serial. You can read about the IMX firmware on the open solo github.

I forgot about the sdcard on the Cube. That makes more sense then

 

[just_bruce]

I should probably figure out how to recover if I mess something up, since I'm planning on installing an updated kernel on my companion computer...

If the sdcard is only for logs and terrain, how does one flash an image on the companion computer if it will not boot? From uboot on the serial console?

To be a it more explicit the iMX.6 loads it's OS from it's MicroSD card. So if you pooch it, power down and load up your known-good copy of the Golden Image and you should be good to go. This assumes your new image doesn't do anything stupid like blowing e-fuses or attempting to overwrite sections of the EEPROM, of course

 

[BRBpromotions]

If you already have Mission Planner and are familiar with flashing firmware over USB, then that would be the most reliable and fail-proof way to do it. If you'd like to do that, you'll want grab the ArduCopter.4.0.1.CubeSolo.apj firmware file off the Open Solo 4 release on our github. And use the load custom firmware function in Mission Planner.

Flashing scared me a bit so... I went for the Solex route. One thing I forgot to mention earlier, it was on Open Solo 3, so when I did the firmware check, the clean upgrade 4.01 packages for both came up. I ran those, it completed the update a little faster than I thought, but it took the compass calibration right away, and the IMU calibration was successful on the first attempt. It's dark out so I don't want to test it right now, but I will fly it tomorrow, weather permitting, and see how it works. Looks good so far though, thanks for the help. I'll let you know whether it actually flies.

 

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Finally had some time off today to test it, IT FLIES! Just had it up for a couple minutes and it started to snow, but looks like everything is good. Thanks for the help.