[Bug] VOXL2 Upgrade to 1.16 resets EV_CTRL parameter

[afwilkin]

Describe the bug

https://forum.modalai.com/topic/4156/px4-1-16-no-local-position

When you upgrade between PX4 ver. 1.14 or 1.15 to 1.16 the vehicle doesn't get a valid local position.
EV_CTRL changed from 15 in 1.15 and earlier to 0 in 1.16. Either check this parameter is set to 15 or run "voxl-configure-px4-params -p MRB-D0006" for Starling V1 or "voxl-configure-px4-params -p MRB-D0005-V2" for Starling V2.

To Reproduce

Upgrade PX4 on VOXL2 starling to 1.16 release

Expected behavior

Expected behavior is that this parameter stays the same. Stays at 15. The ACTUAL behavior is that it is reset to 0 and gives a "No valid local position" when trying to fly the drone.

Screenshot / Media

No response

Flight Log

Since it flies fine after manually setting the parameter there is no follow up log

Software Version

1.16

Flight controller

VOXL2

Vehicle type

Multicopter

How are the different components wired up (including port information)

No response

Additional context

No response

[DronecodeBot]

This issue has been mentioned on Discussion Forum for PX4, Pixhawk, QGroundControl, MAVSDK, MAVLink. There might be relevant details there:

https://discuss.px4.io/t/px4-sync-q-a-mar-04-2025/44169/3

[DronecodeBot]

This issue has been mentioned on Discussion Forum for PX4, Pixhawk, QGroundControl, MAVSDK, MAVLink. There might be relevant details there:

https://discuss.px4.io/t/px4-sync-q-a-mar-04-2025/44169/1

[beniaminopozzan]

For standard boards you would normally add a rc.board_defaults in the board init folder (https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/blob/main/boards/holybro/kakuteh7/init/rc.board_defaults as an example) to set board-specific default parameters.

However, the modalai_voxl board does not use the usual startup procedure. The PX4 entrypoint for that board: voxl_px4 do not call the rcS script therefore it is not able to run any of the rc.* configuration scripts.

Modalai board is heavily offboarding parameter configuration from PX4 main code and it primarily uses https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/voxl-sdk/utilities/voxl-px4-params/-/blob/master/scripts/voxl-configure-px4-params?ref_type=heads. Changing that just for a single parameter seems too an overkill in my opinion. Modalai users could just be pointed by the documentation to the importance of running voxl-configure-px4-params after flashing 1.16.