Parameter saving functionality

[andre-nguyen]

If I recall correctly,
there isn't a driver written yet to use the on board eeprom (microchip 24FC128??) to be able to save parameters. I would be interested to try my hand at writing it now that I'm back from competition.

Any tips would be appreciated.

[LorenzMeier]

Hi,
Rather than going for the EEPROM, I suggest using the flash:
https://github.com/pavel-kirienko/px4esc/blob/master/firmware/src/config/flash_storage.c
https://github.com/pavel-kirienko/px4esc/blob/master/firmware/src/config/config.c

@pavel-kirienko Could you maybe provide some additional guidance? @dominiho This is the flash based param storage I was referring to.

[andre-nguyen]

I think you meant to tag @pavel-kirienko.

[LorenzMeier]

Thanks, indeed!

[pavel-kirienko]

It's quite easy. Add the files to the project and make sure this condition handles your MCU correctly.

Then use it like that:

• https://github.com/pavel-kirienko/px4esc/blob/master/firmware/src/motor/realtime/motor_rtctl.c#L187
• https://github.com/pavel-kirienko/px4esc/blob/master/firmware/src/motor/realtime/motor_rtctl.c#L209
• https://github.com/pavel-kirienko/px4esc/blob/master/firmware/src/uavcan_node/uavcan_node.cpp#L138

[andre-nguyen]

Cool, I'll see what I can do. Hopefully this isn't too critical and I can take my time on this.

[andre-nguyen]

Just to be sure I'm going down the right path with this. So the px4esc uses ChibiOS so I can't just shove those files into the px4flow code as is. But I should be able to implement a similar structure using the functions defined in https://github.com/PX4/Flow/blob/master/lib/STM32F4xx_StdPeriph_Driver/inc/stm32f4xx_flash.h is this correct?

[pavel-kirienko]

Yes, you'll need to replace the calls specific to ChibiOS, which is easy to do. I think you only need to replace these:

• chMtxInit() - inits a mutex (can be removed if thread safety is not required)
• chMtxLock() - locks a mutex
• chMtxUnlock() - unlocks a mutex
• chSysLock() - disables IRQ
• chSysUnock() - enables IRQ

But I should be able to implement a similar structure using the functions defined in https://github.com/PX4/Flow/blob/master/lib/STM32F4xx_StdPeriph_Driver/inc/stm32f4xx_flash.h is this correct?

I highly recommend you to stay away from STM32's SPL, it's virtually unusable. You can use https://github.com/pavel-kirienko/px4esc/blob/master/firmware/src/config/flash_storage.c if you provide needed register definitions, like https://github.com/ChibiOS/ChibiOS-RT/blob/stable_2.6.x/os/hal/platforms/STM32F1xx/stm32f10x.h#L916.

[LorenzMeier]

@andre-nguyen Any news on this? 8). Seems like a popular feature request.

[andre-nguyen]

Sadly no :(
So busy with the start of the school year with all the funding reports I have to write and the recruitment of new team members. It's still in the pipeline though since were investigating the possibility setting up a project for someone to attempt to fuse two optical flows. I can also say that there won't be progress for probably the next 2 weeks.

[angelsantamaria]

Hi guys,
I was dealing with the same problem, and finally in my case I changed the firmware with the parameters that I want and I flashed the sensor with the bootloader (i.e. in the "settings.c" file). In my case, it works because I don't need to change too much those parameters once set.

[LorenzMeier]

@jgoppert In case you're tired resetting parameters all the time - could be actually quite quick.