Turtlebot4 Lite configuration problem

[adityadabas1008]

First-Time TurtleBot4 Lite Setup – Many Issues and Unclear Differences to TurtleBot4

Hi everyone,

I'm currently working on a small university project during my semester, and I'm setting up the TurtleBot4 Lite for the first time. I have no prior experience with ROS2, so I’ve been following the official TurtleBot4 user manual step by step — both for configuring the robot and the connected Ubuntu PC.

While I was able to complete some of the steps, many parts of the setup did not work as expected, and I’m hoping to get some guidance from the community.

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What I managed to do so far:

• I successfully flashed the SD card for the Raspberry Pi and updated the iCreate3 firmware.
• I was able to boot the TurtleBot4 Lite and SSH into it.
• I configured the ROS2 environment on both the Pi and the PC (ROS2 Jazzy on Ubuntu 24.04).
• I could list and inspect nodes and topics.
• I verified the pub/sub counts for /cmd_vel and confirmed communication between the PC and the robot.
• I connected a PS4 controller and got it partially working — I could send movement commands, but control behavior was inconsistent.
• I was able to read LiDAR data from the /scan topic in the terminal.

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What is not working:

• I could not control the robot with the keyboard (teleop_twist_keyboard).
• The PS4 controller only worked partially – axis values often freeze or are not passed through correctly.
• I have multiple /cmd_vel types, causing errors like Cannot echo topic '/cmd_vel', as it contains more than one type.
• I was unable to get any camera output, even though multiple /dev/video* devices are listed.
• I kept encountering missing package errors like:
  • turtlebot4_bringup not found (on both Pi and PC)
  • rviz2 and turtlebot4_viz missing
• I could not launch RViz to visualize the robot or sensors.
• I am unsure what packages need to be installed where (on the Pi vs. on the PC).
• The documentation leaves unclear what steps are TurtleBot4 Lite specific, versus full TurtleBot4.

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My main questions:

1. What is the recommended setup sequence for TurtleBot4 Lite with ROS2 Jazzy?
2. Are there additional steps needed that are not included in the default user manual?
3. How is the TurtleBot4 Lite configuration different from the full TurtleBot4? (in terms of bringup, visualization, camera support, etc.)
4. Is there a minimal working setup (teleop + lidar + camera) for Lite I can follow?
5. How do I properly launch RViz and view the robot/sensor data in Jazzy?

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Any help or clarification would be really appreciated — especially from those who have worked with TurtleBot4 Lite under ROS2 Jazzy. I’d love to get my bot running correctly before the end of the semester.

Thanks a lot in advance! 🙏