Developer

ArduCopter 2.7.2/2.7.3 released

Arducopter 2.7.2 is now in the mission planner and in the downloads area Some positive reports on testing can be found in this discusssion by John Hanson.

Note: just as the release was going out an issue was found re support for the all Camera Gimbals on the APM1s (it doesn't work) and with 3 axis gimbals on the APM2 (2-axis works ok but not 3).  If you're one of these people, please wait for 2.7.3 which will be out shortly. 

 

UPDATE: 2.7.3 is now in the Mission Planner

 

Functional Improvements over 2.7.1:

  • Fast waypoints (Jason) - if the turn angle between two waypoint the copter is less than 60 degrees it does not slow down
  • Navigation improvements and logging including switching to filtered location for distance calculations (jason)
  • Flip improvements - more aggressive and flexible flip code based on attitude instead of timing (Jason)
  • Improved camera control - you can now control any axis (roll, tilt, pan) with any rc channel.  it probably makes most sense that you will use 6 but others are possible too.  Unfortunately these changes required we change the set-up procedure so the mission planner gimbal set-up screen needs to be modified again.  Please refer to the AC_Camera wiki page for how to manually set-up the gimbal (Amilcar)
  • Flybar acro mode for TradHeli (Robert)
  • "Fast gains" - allows strong correction of attitude using accelerometers while the quad is stationary on the ground but relies more on gyros while flying (Tridge, Jason)
  • Baro filtering improvements (Tridge)

 

Bug Fixes:

  • DMP timing fix (Randy) - the MPU6000's dmp unit was inadvertantly turned on and caused timing delays in the main loop- xbee bricking issue (Craig / Tridge)
  • Dataflash fixes (Jason)
  • Engine ticking - was a combination of roll/pitch rate D term being too high and the dmp timing fix above (Randy, Emile)
  • Faster heading correction on start-up - resolves issue with simple mode getting incorrect heading if you took off very soon after start-up (Tridge)


Code Cleanup:

  • Increased maximum number parameters (Tridge)
  • Formatting changes to code (Pat)
  • Replaced "int" with "int16_t" everywhere (Randy)


As per usual PIDs are optimised for the 3DR/Jdrones quad with 850 motors and 10" props. If you're using more powerful motors/props and are seeing bad flight behaviour in stabilize, start by turning down Rate Roll P in 25% steps.

There is still some question on whether the default Roll/Pitch Rate P (0.175) is high enough (it was 0.185 in 2.7.1) and also some people feel the Throttle Rate should be higher (currently 0.300 but some say 0.330 or even much higher would be better).

Please feel free to report issues you find in the discussion below and/or add them to the issues list.

Thanks and enjoy!

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Replies

  • Here is a very short clip v2.73, loiter & alt_hold in windy conditions.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev8vx_DEYYA&feature=youtu.be

  • Absolutely stunning update - Thank you devs!

    Running on a two month old 3DR hexa with 880's and 11x4.7 props, this is the best it's ever flown before PID changes.

    Alt hold over 25 feet looks to be within 2 feet or so. Below 15 feet looks to be even tighter.

    Loiter isn't overly solid yet, but I'm sure I just need to hit some PID's..

    Oh how I wish 3DR would post good PID's for each of their frames they sell (with both motor options) when new versions come out..

    Will be testing gimbal goodness tomorrow once my goggles get here..

  • I just put 2.7.3 on my hexa.  So far I'm very impressed with this release!

    I simply loaded the code on it.  I didn't alter any pid's whatsoever and the hexa is flying rock solid.  In my backyard it has very steady althold and loiter works within 3 feet. 

    I look forward to enabling the gimble and testing auto flight.  Thanks!

  • Hi guys,

    Well done on the hard work.  As you can see from my earlier post however I'm having problems with the gimbal configuration as of 2.7.3

    After a lot of erasing eeproms, uploading from Arduino and the MP and testing on different laptops I resorted to setting all variables individually as described ain the wiki camera instructions

    Everything works OK until I change RC11_FUNCTION to 7 (tilt) at which point my serial connection drops and becomes so unstable as to be unusable.  I have to putty onto the board to factory reset in order to be able to reconnect with the the MP.  Strangely the RC11_FUNCTION setting to 8 (roll) works OK.  I've now run out of ideas.

    Can anyone help?

  • OH!

    MY!

    GOD!

    What have you guys done?!?! This is fannytastic!!!

    Dumped my Y6 and rebuilt a hex. The difference is night and day!

    WOW well done!!!!!

  • Question regarding camera mount. Where do we adjust gain for pitch and roll?

    And the mount centre point?

    Thanks

  • Chris I've now noticed that after I've connected my APM and it starts to lag my CPU usage for MP sits at 50% and it doesnt even show the Google maps screen.  Only once I disconnect from the APM everything comes back to life.  Any thoughts perhaps?  Thanks

    3692500987?profile=original

  • Hi!

    After tuning my quad (http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/arducopter-2-7-2-released?comment...) in the backyard by just changing rateP and stabP (rest on default). Althold worked well in the backyard. I did a test in the field. On althold my quad went 156m up in the air with a constant climbrate of 3m/s. LOL! I never dared to fly that high. At this hight i got slight jitter on my videoline so i switched back to stab mode and landed. I have the whole flight on my groundrecorder with minimosd overlay. The data in osd is correct, because after landing the groundhight is reported as 0m. Back home i adjusted throttle P and alt P from 0.3 down to 0.250. Perhaps my next field test will be better. I don't know what happened for sure but i suspect my mix for the flightmodes 3 position switch with another switch for RTH (set to 30m) inside my transmitter could have been the problem perhaps the rth switch was on and the other one on althold - so in the sum it produced a crazy signal so the apm20 didn't know that i wanted althold. In my opinion the problem is to 95% on my side, but i just wanted to report it because there is a slight chance of a software glitch as well. I will try to read out the log file as well.

    So long

    Kraut Rob

  • in nmea gps mode i have up to 2km error
    detail in issue 740
    please accept this path

    http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/issues/detail?id=740

  • Just put a quick video together showing the loiter I got out of 2.7.3 with a bit of a breeze.  Hoping to eventually be able to recreate the gail force loiter performed by Wookong....

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