Question: timeout parameter to `System.connect()`?

[DRMPN]

Hello!

Currently, System.connect() blocks indefinitely when attempting to connect to an unavailable drone. This causes applications to hang without failure feedback. For example:

drone_address = "udp://0.0.0.0:14550"
drone = System()
drone.connect(system_address=drone_address) # stuck here

Is there any way to set a timeout for 10, 15 or 30 seconds?
Should it be a feature request?

Thank you for your great work on this project! ❤️

[julianoes]

Thanks for the note!

I don't believe it should block, at least not for long:

MAVSDK-Python/mavsdk/system.py

Lines 92 to 123 in 7ae6753

	async def connect(self, system_address=None):
	"""
	Connect the System object to a remote system.
	Parameters
	----------
	system_address: str
	The address of the remote system. If None, it will
	default to udpin://0.0.0.0:14540. Supported URL formats:
	- Serial: serial:///path/to/serial/dev[:baudrate]
	- UDP in: udpin://bind_host:bind_port
	- UDP out: udpout://dest_host:dest_port
	- TCP in: tcpin://bind_host:bind_port
	- TCP out: tcpout://dest_host:dest_port
	"""
	if self._server_process is not None:
	# a mavsdk_server has already been launched by this instance:
	# --> clean all before trying to reconnect
	self._stop_mavsdk_server()
	# add a delay to be sure resources have been freed and restart mavsdk_server
	await asyncio.sleep(1)
	if self._mavsdk_server_address is None:
	self._mavsdk_server_address = 'localhost'
	self._server_process = self._start_mavsdk_server(system_address,self._port, self._sysid, self._compid)
	await self._init_plugins(self._mavsdk_server_address, self._port)

E.g. in this example, it waits later to actually discover a system:

MAVSDK-Python/examples/takeoff_and_land.py

Lines 9 to 14 in 7ae6753

	drone = System()
	await drone.connect(system_address="udpin://0.0.0.0:14540")
	status_text_task = asyncio.ensure_future(print_status_text(drone))
	print("Waiting for drone to connect...")

Can you check you're not chasing some connection problem?
http://mavsdk-python-docs.s3-website.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/#debug-connection-issues

[SabrCat]

I can confirm that calling await drone.connect() with settings that makes a connection not work is indeed indefinitely blocking. The code just gets stuck, never throws any errors either even for an invalid address.

[julianoes]

I tried to address this in: mavlink/MAVSDK#2631

And I've added an example to check if the error/debug statements are properly displayed: #803

Closing this for now, let me know if it is still broken for you.