Arducopter 50 is our first fully Software in the Loop tested version. Special thanks to Tridge for developing the test suite!
Here is a quick video of the testing in action:
You can see the copter takes off, flies a simple square in manual and records the square with CH7 toggles at each corner. It then loiters and switches to AUTO to fly the recored WPs.
Once that's done it lands and loads a mission via mavlink. The mission is intended to test all commands including conditional commands and the jump command. The last two commands are RTL and land.
What else else is new:
More aggressive Alt hold control - You can now achieve rapid ascents & descents in alt hold. The throttle acts like a large dead zone with the upper and lower 20% being a proportional control. Adjusting the throttle resets the new target altitude.
Added the ability to log arbitrary data for better debugging.
Recording WP in normal flight with Channel 7. This is a great way to get WPs recorded in the field. Just toggle ch7 High for 1 sec and it will save the WP to memory building a WP list on the fly. Switching to AUTO mode will fly the WPs. Rebooting will allow you to start over on a new mission.
Added separate Acro PIs for people to tune Acro mode.
Z dampening - Alt hold now has an optional Z accelerometer dampening system. You need to compile it yourself to test. I'm eager to hear user's feedback on this so we can make it on by default. You can enable it in APM_Config.h by changing the '0' to a '1' like this "#define ACCEL_ALT_HOLD 1"
Y6 now has top and bottom missing ratio enabled. It's 1.0 for the top by default, but many users set it to 0.9.
Crosstrack correction is now enabled for WP navigation. Thanks to the SIL, we could test this properly. This makes the copter hold a very tight line to the next WP. The default gain is 4.0.
RTL now defaults to return at the current altitude.
Improved Circle mode performance.
Changed the Mission scripting execution order to be more intuitive. Conditional commands now execute after navigation commands are complete, not just loaded.
Various mission scripting bug fixes.
Removed some tests in the CLI for memory savings to fit the 1280.
Added precautionary safety preventing the user from entering flight modes that require GPS lock. If home has not been set you will get a stabilize mode instead of Loiter, or Auto, etc.
There were also many small bug fixes and code cleanups performed - too many to list.
If no one has any major issues, I'm going to call this the final stable release!
What's next in version 2.1 (target release early January):
- complete Mavlink 1.0 upgrade, ensure better Mission planner support.
- exploration of learning algorithms for auto-tuning.
- sensor/register level software simulation for testing more code.
- expanded test suite with more scripted scenarios
- secret cool stuff regarding the DCM
- ideas?
If you run into any issues, please post them to the issues list.
Jason
Replies
What will happen on failsafe?
I too have the issue that for the first two minutes it will work nice alt-hold and then it start surging.
Jason, did you see my log? I'm still not able to enter Loiter mode or other modes when flying as I described in an earlier post. Is this possibly a bug. I've NEVER had this problem before. Only after upgrading to .50
Today was my first great experience with Loiter. Before I would always end up in bigger and bigger circles. Now in a small breeze it held very well and was enjoyable to watch.
Besides turning down alt hold throtle to .3, two things helped: 1) moving to 2.0.50 from .49 2) I calibrated my mag with a reliable compass. Though the magnetic dec for our area is -5.7, with the compass calibration I had to entered -8. My last try for example, the wind pushed the quad down field but it slowing came back to dead center, no circling.
I would be interested in knowing which loiter or WP term would help it be a little more quick in returning.
I also have not learned why many of the I terms are now 0.
I am enjoying .50 and have a very good alt hold, many thanks.
I noticed that in both Rate and Stabilize the I term is now 0, I have not heard much said, did I miss something? Should we adjust this or not?
Also my yaw issue with my Y6 is all gone, I wonder if the 1:1 ratio did this.
Again thanks for a quickly advancing project
I just upgraded to 2.0.50 and am having a problem with Loiter. If the quad is unarmed and I change to loiter on my transmitter it says so in MP (i have voice enabled). If I arm motors I get the same result. All ok but when I fly and switch to Loiter MP doesn't say and continues to report Stabilize. So then I open up the modes setup screen to see if the radio is outputting the right value and I see it change to Loiter on the mode setup dialog but the voice doesn't say anything and I assume the main screen doesn't say Loiter either.
So what would cause it not to enter loiter mode when it's flying? I've even throttled up the props while holding it and it enters Loiter with no problem and MP correctly reports it and I can even move the throttle and see how the new throttle change altitude works or at least tries to work since I'm holding it.
Any ideas?
Ok I am having the same problem wit 2.0.50 as i had with 51. When i engage alt-hold from a hover it will first climb 2m and the hold. And i am having spikes in which the copter starts climbing real fast. I also included my log. Will load 51 again and try to make a log.
2011-11-23 11-42 4.log
I want to make sure I'm understanding the new Set WP option using ch7 for 1 second. Does this have to be turned on or enabled and then uploaded via arduino or is this already enabled in 2.0.50?
I assume this means using ch7 to activate simple mode will not be possible?
What happens if you leave switch in enabled position for more than 1 second? Does it activate some other mode? If not then that would be a nice way of activating auto mode. Toggle for 1 second to set your way points but leave it on when you want to go to auto mode. Just to free up a flight mode position on the other channel.
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