# ModalAI VOXL Flight

WARNING

PX4 does not manufacture this (or any) autopilot. Contact the manufacturer (opens new window) for hardware support or compliance issues.

The ModalAI VOXL Flight (opens new window) (Datasheet (opens new window)) is one of the first computing platforms to combine the power and sophistication of Snapdragon with the flexibility and ease of use of PX4 on an STM32F7. Made in the USA, VOXL Flight supports obstacle avoidance and GPS-denied (indoor) navigation fused with a PX4 flight controller on a single PCB.

VOXL-Flight

Note

This flight controller is manufacturer supported.

# Specifications

# System

Feature Details
Weight 26 g

# Companion Computer

Feature Details
Base Operation System Linux Yocto Jethro with 3.18 kernel. Additional Linux Operating Systems can be used by running Docker on VOXL, details here (opens new window)
Compute Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 w/ 4GB LPDDR4 1866MHz, Snapdragon 821 Datasheet (opens new window), Docs (opens new window)
CPU Quad-core CPU up to 2.15GHz
GPU Adreno 530 GPU at 624MHz
Compute DSP Hexagon compute DSP (cDSP) 825MHz
Sensor DSP Hexagon sensor DSP (sDSP) 700MHz
Video 4k30 Video Capture h.264/5 w/ 720p FPV
Camera Interaces Support for MIPI-CSI2, USB UVC, HDMI
Wi-Fi Pre-certified Wi-Fi module QCNFA324 FCC ID:PPD-QCNFA324 (opens new window), QCA6174A modem, 802.11ac 2x2 Dual-band, Bluetooth 4.2 (dual-mode)
4G LTE Optional add-on module (opens new window)
Microhard pDDL Optional add-on module (opens new window)
GNSS WGR7640 10Hz
I/O 1x USB3.0 OTG (ADB port), 1x USB2.0 (expansion port), 2x UART, 3x I2C, additional GPIO and SPI can be configured
Storage 32GB (UFS 2.0), Micro SD Card
Software Docker, OpenCV 2.4.11, 3.4.6, 4.2, ROS Indigo, Qualcomm Machine Vision SDK, see GitLab (opens new window) for lots of open source examples!
IMUs ICM-42688 (SPI10), ICM-20948 (SPI1)
Barometer BMP280

# Flight Controller

Feature Details
MCU 216MHz, 32-bit ARM M7 STM32F765II (opens new window)
Memory 256Kb FRAM
2Mbit Flash
512Kbit SRAM
Firmware PX4 (opens new window)
IMUs ICM-20602 (opens new window) (SPI1)
ICM-42688 (SPI2)
BMI088 (opens new window) (SPI6)
Barometer BMP388 (opens new window) (I2C4)
Secure Element A71CH (opens new window) (I2C4)
microSD Card Information on supported cards
Inputs GPS/Mag
Spektrum
Telemetry
CAN bus
PPM
Outputs 6 LEDs (2xRGB)
8 PWM Channels
Extra Interfaces 3 serial ports
I2C
GPIO

Note

More detailed hardware documentation can be found here (opens new window).

# Dimensions

FlightCoreV1Dimensions

3D STEP File (opens new window)

# PX4 Firwmare Compatibility

VOXL Flight is fully compatible with the official PX4 Firmware from PX4 v1.11.

ModalAI maintains a branched PX4 version (opens new window) for PX4 v1.11. This includes UART ESC support and improvements in VIO and VOA that are planned to be upstreamed.

More information about the firmware can be found here (opens new window).

# QGroundControl Support

This board supported in QGroundControl 4.0 and later.

# Availability

# Quick Start

A quickstart from the vendor is located here (opens new window).

# voxl-vision-px4

The VOXL Flight runs voxl-vision-px4 (opens new window) on the companion computer portion of the hardware serving as a sort of MAVLink proxy. For details, the source code is available here (opens new window)

# Connectors

Detailed information about the pinouts can be found here (opens new window).

# Top

VOXLFlightTop

Note: 1000 Series connectors accessible from the STM32/PX4

Connector Summary Used By
J2 Hires 4k Image Sensor (CSI0) Snapdragon - Linux
J3 Stereo Image Sensor (CSI1) Snapdragon - Linux
J6 Cooling Fan Connector Snapdragon - Linux
J7 BLSP6 (GPIO) and BLSP9 (UART) Snapdragon - Linux
J13 Expansion B2B Snapdragon - Linux
J14 Integrated GNSS Antenna Connection Snapdragon - Linux
J1001 Programming and Debug/UART3 STM32 - PX4
J1002 UART ESC, UART2/TELEM3 STM32 - PX4
J1003 PPM RC In STM32 - PX4
J1004 RC Input, Spektrum/SBus/UART6 STM32 - PX4
J1006 USB 2.0 Connector (PX4/QGroundControl) STM32 - PX4
J1007 8-Channel PWM/DShot Output STM32 - PX4
J1008 CAN Bus STM32 - PX4
J1009 I2C3, UART4 STM32 - PX4
J1010 Telemetry (TELEM1) STM32 - PX4
J1011 I2C2, Safety Button Input STM32 - PX4
J1012 External GPS & Mag, UART1, I2C1 STM32 - PX4
J1013 Power Input, I2C3 STM32 - PX4 (powers whole system)

# Bottom

VOXLFlightBottom

Note: 1000 Series connectors accessible from the STM32/PX4

Connector Summary Used By
J4 Tracking/Optic Flow Image Sensor (CSI2) Snapdragon - Linux
J8 USB 3.0 OTG Snapdragon - Linux, adb
J10 BLSP7 UART and I2C off-board Snapdragon - Linux
J11 BLSP12 UART and I2C off-board Snapdragon - Linux
VOXL microSD Snapdragon - Linux
PX4 microSD 32Gb Max STM32 - PX4
Wi-Fi Antennas Included Snapdragon - Linux

# User Guide

The full user guide is available here (opens new window).

# How to Build

To build PX4 for this target:

make modalai_fc-v1

# Serial Port Mapping

Note: mappings shown are for the PX4 controlled interfaces only

UART Device Port
USART1 /dev/ttyS0 GPS1 (J1012)
USART2 /dev/ttyS1 TELEM3 (J1002)
USART3 /dev/ttyS2 Debug Console (J1001)
UART4 /dev/ttyS3 Expansion UART (J6)
UART5 /dev/ttyS4 UART between PX4 and Companion Computer
USART6 /dev/ttyS5 RC (J1004)
UART7 /dev/ttyS6 TELEM1 (J1010)
UART8 /dev/ttyS7 N/A

# Support

Please visit the ModalAI Forum (opens new window) for more information.