TiM351 - Failed to init scanner: 2

[alduxvm]

Hi all!

I have a TiM351 connected via Ethernet to a network, I modified the launch file sick_tim551_2050001.launch and when launching I'm getting this error:

roslaunch sick_tim551_2050001.launch 
... logging to /home/aldux/.ros/log/793f2cd0-c4a2-11eb-812a-5c5f67f52409/roslaunch-x1-24824.log
Checking log directory for disk usage. This may take a while.
Press Ctrl-C to interrupt
Done checking log file disk usage. Usage is <1GB.

xacro: in-order processing became default in ROS Melodic. You can drop the option.
started roslaunch server http://x1.local:40467/

SUMMARY
========

PARAMETERS
 * /robot_description: <?xml version="1....
 * /rosdistro: melodic
 * /rosversion: 1.14.11
 * /sick_tim551_2050001/hostname: 85.85.85.50
 * /sick_tim551_2050001/port: 2112
 * /sick_tim551_2050001/timelimit: 5

NODES
  /
    robot_state_publisher (robot_state_publisher/robot_state_publisher)
    sick_tim551_2050001 (sick_tim/sick_tim551_2050001)

auto-starting new master
process[master]: started with pid [24837]
ROS_MASTER_URI=http://x1.local:11311/

setting /run_id to 793f2cd0-c4a2-11eb-812a-5c5f67f52409
process[rosout-1]: started with pid [24848]
started core service [/rosout]
process[robot_state_publisher-2]: started with pid [24855]
process[sick_tim551_2050001-3]: started with pid [24856]
[ WARN] [1622748767.273517043]: The root link laser_mount_link has an inertia specified in the URDF, but KDL does not support a root link with an inertia.  As a workaround, you can add an extra dummy link to your URDF.
[ INFO] [1622748767.291158025]: Waiting 5 seconds for device to connect.
[ INFO] [1622748767.294964160]: Succesfully connected to 85.85.85.50:2112
[ERROR] [1622748767.303363087]: This scanner model/firmware combination does not support ranging output!
[ERROR] [1622748767.303408781]: Supported scanners: TiM5xx: all firmware versions; TiM3xx: firmware versions < V2.50.
[ERROR] [1622748767.303422934]: This is a TiM351, firmware version 2.61
[FATAL] [1622748767.303437322]: Failed to init scanner: 2

SOPAS - Stopped streaming scan data.
sick_tim driver exiting.

I read in another very old issue that the TiM351 is a read only device, is this still the case? there is no chance of using this lidar with ROS?

[mintar]

Yes, firmware version > 2.5 don't support ranging output, so our driver refuses to work with it here:

sick_tim/src/sick_tim_common.cpp

Lines 281 to 285 in 200a3e1

	ROS_ERROR("This scanner model/firmware combination does not support ranging output!");
	ROS_ERROR("Supported scanners: TiM5xx: all firmware versions; TiM3xx: firmware versions < V2.50.");
	ROS_ERROR("This is a %s, firmware version %d.%d", device_string, version_major, version_minor);
	return false;

You can disable this check, but then it probably still won't work.

You'll have to contact SICK directly (e.g. @SICK-NorthAmerica) for a different firmware. Alternatively, there was one report of somebody who got it working with 2.61, but you'll have to figure it out yourself: #33 (comment)

I don't have a TiM 351 with firmware 2.61 available for testing, so I can't help.