20200722 Dev Meeting

Agenda

General:

Daniele/Lorenz extend param_ext protocol by adding messages to start and commit a parameter transaction #1428
- Extended discussion about the need for generic solutions for problems that come up regularly and that can easily be mis-implemented. For example, anything requiring confirmation. Using params already gets you robust resending etc.
- Further discussion of other options for this sort of thing - settings files, metadata files, UI metadata.
- General feeling that moving files around has benefits for some cases, including things like easier factory provisioning.
- End result was that there is no problem with implementing this particular PR but needs mechanism for transaction to define the mechanism used, and also good to take opportunity to fix up param mechanism for more efficiency.
COMPONENT_INFORMATION
- FYI only, param parser in Generate param metadata as MAVLink-compatible JSON component info #15389 but need better schema from Done to progress. So file metadata passing around coming more real.
mavgen.py: correct handling of includes (updated) #436 - allow nesting. Needs review.
- James is chasing this with PeterB
JamesP: Check out Ardupilot Alerts
- Currently software alerts, but could be hardware or regulatory as well.
- Have a think about it.

Not discussed

Julian Gimbal manager extension: add status of a tracked object #1418
common: add note about lan and lon = 0 #1426 - Can we do the right thing?
FTP protocol extension in ardupilot

"To facilitate more efficient file transfer over commonly used SiK radios I have added an extension to the ftp burst protocol where the 'size' field in the burst read request sets the block size of the burst replies. This helps as SiK radios do badly with very large packets. I have found that the best results with SiK radios is achieved with a burst read size of 110. If the size field is set to zero then the default of the max size (239) is used."
- Can we get more info on this, so we can formalise into the spec? Note the burst protocol not properly documented.
#1166 Add helper function for routing - Ollie Points
- Incompatibility flags to indicate target address field presence (and remove from payload). - why/costs/benefits?
- Can we separate out CRC somehow into valid message vs corrupt message?
FYI From last week merged MAV_CMD_DO_SET_ACTUATOR, BATTERY_STATUS.voltages_ext (10 cells to 14 cells), ESC_INFO/ESC_STATUS
FYI Terrain protocol docs 259 in progress.
Hamish using with pymavlink with dialects
FYI Cellular modem config - may withdraw.

Attendees: HamishW, JulianO, JamesP, Lorenz, DanieleP