OpenMower v1 Documentation – Troubleshooting Guides

Docs: Troubleshooting GPS-RTK

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

We assume that you at least followed documentation of GPS setup. If mower is already assembled - open the top cover.

Get your Windows PC and connect to GPS module directly with microUSB cable (as if you were uploading the configuration).

Make sure that Protocol of received messages in bottom status bar right shows UBX, not NMEA. If not - upload configuration again. Then disconnect/connect power of GPS and make sure it stayed UBX.

Connect the antenna to the board and go outside to check if general GPS is working. If the mower is already assembled and an antenna is plugged in - just take it outside with the mower. Even indoors next to the windows with antenna connected, you should see satellites and other info start appearing in u-center. In few minutes GPS Fix led will start blinking on GPS board.

Deviation map (View -> Deviation Map, F12) should stay in a ~1m, that what you expect from average GPS. If you got some existing garbage there already, clean it via File -> Database clean.

Now let’s connect NTRIP. We assume that you either found a suitable NTRIP node somewhere nearby (<30km) or running your own base station.

Go to Receiver -> NTRIP Client... and configure your NTRIP settings. This will be the same settings that you will use in configuration file later.

NTRIP client should display green connection in the status bar. Deviation map (View -> Deviation Map, F12) should stay dead center. No RTK led will start blinking or go away completely.

Test GPS on Mainboard

We have checked that GPS works alone, let’s see if it would together with the mainboard. Plug the GPS into the mainboard. Everything should light up and start flashing.
Wait until the LED lights up GREEN or GREEN/RED.

🔋 Powering the mainboard

If you don’t have dock station assembled and want to save the power in the main mower battery, you can power it from the Pico Dev board MicroUSB port, right below the GPS board. Use a 1A+ power bank, because computer USB port’s 500mA might be not enough.

Then SSH into your OpenMower.
In the home directory (~/) there is a scripts called start_ros_bash.sh.
Run the start_ros_bash.sh script by executing ~/start_ros_bash.sh which should take you to a bash inside the container.

There you can run rostopic list to list all topics and rostopic echo --clear -w 5 /ll/position/gps to look at the GPS data.
You will get some lines of data:

header:
  seq:    44
  stamp:
    secs: 1708328554
    nsecs: 51810942
  frame_id: "gps"
sensor_stamp: 114172000
received_stamp: 1711341013
source:     1
flags:     3
orientation_valid:     0
motion_vector_valid:     1
position_accuracy: 0.024
orientation_accuracy: 3.141
pose:
  pose:
    position:
      x: 1.975
      y: 4.819
      z: 114.9
    orientation:
      x: 0.000
      y: 0.000
      z: 0.201
      w: 0.979
  covariance: [88.21, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 88.21, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 88.21, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 10000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 10000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 9.869]
motion_vector:
  x: 0.045
  y: -0.05
  z: -0.01
vehicle_heading: 1.570
motion_heading: 0.405
---

The important lines here are:

flags: 3
you want a 3 here since that means your rtk state is “fixed”
3 is “fix”, 5 is “float” and 0 is “single” (classic non-rtk GNSS gps only)

position_accuracy: 0.024
this value is in meters so the example has a accuracy of ~2,5cm and that is great.
It can be the case that this value is ok but the rtk state is not yet “fixed”

Docs: Troubleshoot mapping/recording areas

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

We assume that you at least followed Record a map.

Making a backup and/or removing a map.

The default location of the map can be found under

/root/ros_home/.ros/map.bag

You can always back up your current map by logging in via SSH and copying the .bag file.

If you want to retrieve the file, you can use an SFTP client like WinSCP or Cyberduck.

sudo cp /root/ros_home/.ros/map.bag /root/ros_home/.ros/map.bag.backup

To delete the map

# stop the openmower service so that it doesnt access the map anymore
sudo systemctl stop openmower
# check, if the map file is indeed there.
ls /root/ros_home/.ros/map.bag
# delete map
sudo rm /root/ros_home/.ros/map.bag
# restart OM
sudo systemctl start openmower

Map Editor

There’s a WIP map editor made by Nekraus, JavaBoon and Eddi using Python, which you can try and use to fix your map or add in obstacles.

Map editor

Docs: Raspberry Pi 4

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Follow the SD Card preparation step and insert that card into Raspberry Pi 4, then, without plugging anywhere, power it from USB-C port.

Then follow the Wi-Fi Configuration.

The board will connect to your Wi-Fi and will start downloading ~3GB container image which will definitely take some time.
While waiting, I recommend figuring out IP of the mower from router DHCP leases and opening SSH connection.

🔑 Default SSH credentials

Username: openmower, password: openmower.

Running sudo systemctl status --no-pager --full --lines 1000 openmower should display something reassuring.

Click to see sample cold start startup log

● openmower.service - OpenMower service
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/openmower.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Sun 2022-12-11 17:38:46 GMT; 1min 56s ago
   Main PID: 1539 (start_open_mowe)
      Tasks: 9 (limit: 4164)
        CPU: 295ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/open-mower.service
             ├─1539 /bin/bash /root/start_open_mower.sh
             └─1540 docker pull ghcr.io/clemenselflein/open_mower_ros:releases-testing

Dec 11 17:39:58 openmower bash[1540]: 69ea1fadf775: Verifying Checksum
Dec 11 17:39:58 openmower bash[1540]: 69ea1fadf775: Download complete
Dec 11 17:40:00 openmower bash[1540]: 15e1b3c068e4: Verifying Checksum
Dec 11 17:40:00 openmower bash[1540]: 15e1b3c068e4: Download complete
Dec 11 17:40:01 openmower bash[1540]: 4f4fb700ef54: Verifying Checksum
Dec 11 17:40:01 openmower bash[1540]: 4f4fb700ef54: Download complete
Dec 11 17:40:38 openmower bash[1540]: ebf4cb1b6e8d: Verifying Checksum
Dec 11 17:40:38 openmower bash[1540]: ebf4cb1b6e8d: Download complete
Dec 11 17:40:48 openmower bash[1540]: 0acc91bc6454: Pull complete
Dec 11 17:40:48 openmower bash[1540]: c2b7ae792e5c: Pull complete
Dec 11 17:40:48 openmower bash[1540]: ffd8732fa33d: Pull complete
Dec 11 17:40:49 openmower bash[1540]: f77cf07a1833: Pull complete
Dec 11 17:40:49 openmower bash[1540]: c2e28204415f: Pull complete
Dec 11 17:40:50 openmower bash[1540]: d20c270f7c57: Pull complete
Dec 11 17:40:50 openmower bash[1540]: 88fa587d1506: Pull complete
Dec 11 17:40:50 openmower bash[1540]: cdca27d2d0cc: Pull complete
Dec 11 17:48:13 openmower bash[1540]: 67f58a6eff2a: Verifying Checksum
Dec 11 17:48:13 openmower bash[1540]: 67f58a6eff2a: Download complete
....
Dec 11 17:51:30 openmower bash[1540]: Digest: sha256:dafdce282bf6963a07dc391c2cc06119ac5a5ca5a9ecaac8b97204f81922635c
Dec 11 17:51:33 openmower bash[1540]: Status: Downloaded newer image for ghcr.io/clemenselflein/open_mower_ros:releases-testing
Dec 11 17:51:33 openmower bash[1540]: ghcr.io/clemenselflein/open_mower_ros:releases-testing
Dec 11 17:52:18 openmower bash[3156]: [48B blob data]
Dec 11 17:52:18 openmower bash[3156]: [62B blob data]
Dec 11 17:52:19 openmower bash[3156]: ... logging to /root/.ros/log/8ed2c83c-797c-11ed-a3ba-e45f0178e709/roslaunch-openmower-85.log
Dec 11 17:52:19 openmower bash[3156]: Checking log directory for disk usage. This may take a while.
Dec 11 17:52:19 openmower bash[3156]: Press Ctrl-C to interrupt
Dec 11 17:52:19 openmower bash[3156]: Done checking log file disk usage. Usage is <1GB.
Dec 11 17:52:19 openmower bash[3156]:
Dec 11 17:52:20 openmower bash[3156]: started roslaunch server http://openmower:39419/
Dec 11 17:52:20 openmower bash[3156]:
Dec 11 17:52:20 openmower bash[3156]: SUMMARY
....
bunch of PARAMETERS/NODES and view exception due to missing literally all the hardware

If you are lazy, just wait 5-10 minutes and check that http://openmower.local:8080 or http://<your-openmower-IP>:8080 is accessible.
If it’s not, you need to SSH and check the logs with sudo journalctl --follow --unit openmower.
Usually a problem would be bad config file.

If you got to the webapp - you are good. Plug the Raspberry Pi back to mainboard.

Docs: Troubleshoot Sound

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

All sounds get played infinite

This is most likely because your OpenMower’s mainboard miss R7 and/or R13. See DFPlayer Module.

But also happen if you use an old or damaged SD-Card which take loooong for getting the file allocation table.

Howto increase or decrease volume?

This depend on the type and version of your CoverUI:

Volume	Custom CoverUI Stock C500(A/B)	Alternate CoverUI	RM-ECOW-V1.0.0 (NX80i, …)	RM-EC3-V1.1 (NX100i)	SA/SC-Pro (240*160 Pixel)
up	`Mon`	`Sun`	`4H`	`1`	`↑`
down	`Tue`	`Mon`	`6H`	`2`	`↓`

I decreased my volume via volume-down button, but sound get still played at full volume

This is a known issue with DFPlayer-Clones in mainboard version 0.9.x up (and incl.) 0.13.x. Read here how to fix.

I do hear one or two more adverts as before, but no GPS-Pings, no “Bidaa bidaa” emergency, …

First off: “Bidaa bidaa” emergency signalling or similar, is an optional ‘background-sound’ feature, which is disabled by default. You need to enable it via export OM_BACKGROUND_SOUNDS=True in your mower_config.

If it still doesn’t play after changing export OM_BACKGROUND_SOUNDS=True in your mower_config, this is most likely because your DFPlayer’s SD-Card is still in the old format. See Sound SD-Card,

I do hear some new sounds, but they do not match to what happen

You mixed up DFPlayer’s SD-Card by adding the new files on top of the old ones. You need to remove all old files before copying the new ones. See Sound SD-Card.

Sound worked for a couple of weeks, but then my Pico suddenly died

This happen because you enabled full sound support by signalling it via OM_DFP_IS_5V=True flag, but didn’t switched it in real. See Change DFPlayer’s V_CC to 5V.

Don’t worry. A new Pico is cheap (~ 4$). Happy desoldering 😶!

Docs: Troubleshoot Wi-Fi

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wi-Fi Disconnects and unstable Wi-Fi with external dongle

The Raspberry Pi tries to powersave on the Wi-Fi, which causes high latency or even packet loss on the Wi-Fi connections.

Please check which chipset your Wi-Fi dongle uses. You can solve this by editing the modprobe as following:

Realtek RTL8192cu

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/8192cu.conf
# Change the following lines
rtw_power_mgnt=0
rtw_enusbss=0

Realtek RTL8821CU

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/8821cu.conf
# Change the following lines
rtw_drv_log_level=1
rtw_led_ctrl=1
rtw_vht_enable=1
rtw_power_mgnt=0
rtw_enusbss=0