ArduCopter 2.4 released

PACEFE March 9, 2012 at 4:22pm

Hi,

my APM 2 has turned my xcopter unflyable.

It was perfect with APM 1.

It start to drift dto one side and never stops.

I can compensate with stick input.

I have exchanged propeller position to see if it leans on other direction but not.

I have exchanged for diferent propellers, still leans to the same side.

I have changed from X 2 to same effect.

Mounted APM on rubber band same effect.

If stays on the desk there is no drift.

If it would be vibration as mentioned on other post, any of the test above should have solved / change the effect but not.

Tested with 2.4.1 and JNL versions.

Any advice?

Pablo

APM2.jpg

Developer

Marco Robustini March 9, 2012 at 1:44pm

ArduCopter V2.5.0 Alpha - Yaw issue in a fast turn:

(Tridge "dcm-wip" branch, revision "74e16b81b771")

Hello everyone. Unfortunately the latest patch not yet solved the problems inherent the yaw, in my daily video i show that the error is at times quite "dangerous" for pilot with poor experience of flight.
Unfortunately it's not my hardware problem, because with an older version of AC (like 2.3) the yaw is not affected by this issue.
The problem comes when you fly fast enough, then for lovers of automation is virtually absent, even if it worsens the quality of loiter in windy conditions.
I explain with my daily video, with timecode reference:

0:16<->0:44 - I run the fastest paths straight without touching the yaw, which is facing the bottom of the track, you can see how often changes its state to some degrees, both right and left

0:44 - the yaw bounces after a small drop, and this is unfortunately very often, yaw dancer

1:47 - after a quick right turn are forced to slow down to recover the yaw drift before continuing with the turn

2:00<->2:05 - I do a quick turn to the left and at the end the quad will not turn, tends to keep the yaw frontally

04:00<->4:05 - very fast tack, same problem

04:37 - the quad moves excessively in loiter, over 20 meters of radius (but today there's biggest solar flare)

Unfortunately, these inaccuracies occur often on one side only, because our quads have always tended to side with a rotating worse than another.
I hope that we can implement a better command queue before releasing the upcoming 2.5.0.
Apart from the problem with yaw the dcm is perfect for me now, rock solid and stable!

Bests, Marco

Todd Hill March 9, 2012 at 6:50am

Adam, I got a little frustrated and had to step away from it for a bit. This morning I had my moment of clarity and realized that I was still using the old IDE (Derrrrr!). Logged on this morning and sure enough, you had posted that it compiled fine with the relax patch. Anyway, I tested it several times this morning and it was only off by -.44. Close to what the dev team was getting, but out of the three goes -.44 was the greatest deviation from what it should be. Left image is Auto-Declination, right image is actual declination. This is very promising non-the-less.

John Campen March 9, 2012 at 6:16am

Where can I find a good instruction for setting up 2D camera stabilization for APM 1/ The wiki only shows pitch and not roll. Also how to trigger the camera using APM?

John Campen March 9, 2012 at 5:57am

Field Flight Manual For Beginners

http://www.diydrones.com/forum/topics/feild-flight-manual-for-beginers

umberto marchi March 9, 2012 at 2:14am

Fantastic video Marco ...when you can try the new version of firmware?

ciao Umberto

Hans Miller March 8, 2012 at 1:17pm

lols. I have yet to be persuaded to leave my trusty 2.2b2.

Moderator

Graham Dyer March 8, 2012 at 9:20am

To whet the appetite a bit further regarding v2.5, I've just got back from having 2 fantastic flights in my local park in dead calm conditions with v2.5 Alpha on APM2. The 'copter is super smooth, very stable and flies great. The 'leans' that I have been plagued with seem to be gone and although there's still some work (or maybe my tuning) to be done regarding Loiter, overall very well done to the devs and testers!

My PID tuning was approached slightly differently in that I got it to fly pretty well in Acro mode, tuning Rate PID's only, then sorting stabilize PID's after. Acro mode though is a bit hairy to fly with as the accelerometers are not used.

Over the weekend (using cheap props) I'm keen try a 360° flip/roll in acro mode (lots of height though)

Congrats again to all involved.

Developer

Marco Robustini March 7, 2012 at 11:26am

ArduCopter V2.5 Alpha - Daily test (Tridge GIT - APM1):

Hello everyone!
I want to make partakers of the evolution that the dev team is doing on the AC code.
There I copy text from a thread I wrote on the dev list, I hope you will please stay up to date on the hard work "behind the scenes", I understand why it might seem that we're not working for you...
We are trying to crank out a version that will give its best... stay tuned and be patient.

Cheers, Marco

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi all!
I'm back from the airfield, I tested the latest version of AC with the latest fixes Tridge (GIT of today), Jason and Randy, aligned with the master repo.
Here is the list of problems and improvements i've found:

1) very poor accuracy of the yaw in hard maneuvers but also in normal flown, easily loses the position by rotating the quad in a clockwise direction, and recovers as soon as it exits the maneuver abrupt, sometimes the quad I remained however rotated by at least 20 ° with respect to the initial position. Yaw work much better with the release 2.4.1 in the planner
2) very good dcm stability, only one issue with horizon, although for once I found that the artificial horizon was moving too slowly compared to the actual movement of the quad in my hands, I resolved simply by disconnecting the lipo and then rejoining (see tlog)
3) the throttle hold (i think now dynamic) is perfect with sonar and orrible with baro (see video and logs), some motors overshot in loiter. If i write a different value in the planner the throttle hold and refresh i see different value (i write 0.200, refresh and i see 0.485), and this also to engines with disarmed
4) loiter is fantastic, much better thank 2.4.1, i tried for comparation the JL version (2.4.1xp2) and there is no comparison, this works much better, obviously you see the error of gps, that never fails, but is very stable (the video speaks for itself)
5) the repositioning of the loiter, both in height and in position is PERFECT, even dear Jason was better though "250" instead of 200 "(you know what I mean,, but I can change alone, LOL)
6) about the "tune function" in the planner: the "tune high and low" work fine if i write this value in the left column, but if i write high value "7000" and low "2000" then i see in the right side of the tune parameters "2000,0" and "7000,0"....?!?!

DCM is very stable, but there are still many things to fix before releasing.
I have not done tests with my X8 because first I want to see the small quad flying as it should... :P
The video of my test is in progress, post it here as soon as it is on my channel.
In attachment all the logs.
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John Campen March 7, 2012 at 8:14am

Any update when the next release will be out?

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ArduCopter 2.4 released

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