Magni gets into Unrecoverable State

#1

Hi folks,

I appologize if this discussion has happened before, but I wanted to learn more about the “running into things safety feature” - Not sure if this is related to the deadman timer either . Right now, when my Magni gets stuck on something (furniture etc…), and cannot move forward - it seems to “kill everything”. I loose connection and the system never recovers. At that point I’m forced to power off Magni, and restart.

I expect this may be a safety feature, but I was wondering if there was a way to just stop the movement and not have Magni enter into this unrecoverable state.

Thanks,
Kris

#2

Does the robot hit the front power button when it hits the furniture? If so then the power to the Pi is immediately cut and as such the robot stops working. It’s supposedly by design for safety, but that doesn’t make it a good design.

If that’s really what’s happening I’d suggest moving the switches somewhere else or adding a front bumper in front if them.

#3

Thank you for the quick response.

I wish it were that simple! Unfortunatly, it definitely does not hit any power buttons.

When it hits, the motors kind of make a grinding sound as it tries to push through, and then everything gets cut and we then loose communication for good.

#4

The #1 suspect here would be as it hits something the amount of current used goes way up to push against that thing. If your batteries are weak or not charged highly that could easily trip the cutoff and all power would stop.

On all my units I put on a low cost voltmeter and watch voltage.
look on ebay for ‘DC 0-30V LED display digital voltage’ and you will find these for under $5.

Our current software with rev 5.2 or later MCB board uses an OLED display and shows voltage on that and soon will show a blinking ‘LOW’ indication however that is not ready yet.

If you are certain it is not battery weak or lower on charge than required then please do this:

Please supply to us here the version of your main MCB board and the firmware version you are running. Find firmware version and daycode using the following command is easiest:

rostopic echo /diagnostics | grep -A 1 ‘Firmware [DV]’

If not 5.2 or later board the board rev is not big white letters on left edge of board.
I am curious if you have rev 5.2 or 5.3 and if it is before that identify the version from this page: