Arducopter 2.8.1 is now in the mission planner and in the downloads area! Remember to do your MP configuration again after loading this code, since it erases your EEPROM and sets it to the new defaults.
Note: Issues with APM1 user's level feature not working are now resolved. If you installed 2.8 we highly recommend you upgrade to 2.8.1 as 430 extra bytes of RAM have been freed up which reduces the chance of memory corruption (although we haven't seen any cases of this on the APM2 at least) .
Note #2: this release has not gone out for Traditional Helicopters until they can be tested fully. Flip and Toy mode have also not been fully tested.
Improvements over 2.7.3:
- Improved ACRO mode (Leonard Hall)
- Improved stability patch to reduce "climb-on-yaw" problem (Leonard, Rob Lefebvre, Randy)
- Rate controller targets moved to body frames (yaw control now works properly when copter is inverted) (Leonard/Randy)
- Less bouncy Stabilize yaw control (Leonard)
- OpticalFlow sensor support for APM2.5 (Randy)
- DMP works again by adding "#define DMP_ENABLED ENABLED" to APM_Config.h You can also log DMP vs DCM to the dataflash by adding "#define SECONDARY_DMP_ENABLED ENABLED" (Randy)
- Watch dog added to shutdown motors if main loop feezes for 2 seconds (Randy)
- Thrust curve added to linearize pwm->thrust. Removes deadzone found above 90% throttle in most ESC/motors (Randy)
- More timing improvements (main loop is now tied to MPU6000s interrupt) (Randy)
- GPS NMEA bug fix (Alexey Kozin)
- Logging improvements (log I terms, dump all settings at head of dataflash log) (Jason)
Bug Fixes / Parameter changes:
- fixed skipping of last waypoint (Jason)
- resolved twitching when no GPS attached (Tridge)
- fixed loss of altitude if alt hold is engaged before first GPS lock (Randy/Jason)
- moved Roll-Pitch I terms from Stabilize controllers to Rate controllers
- TILT_COMPENSATION param tuned for TradHeli (Rob)
Code Cleanup:
- HAL changes for platform portability (Pat Hickey)
- Removed INSTANT_PWM (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.
Please note that on this release we've moved the Roll and Pitch I terms from the Stabilize controller to the Rate controller. There's some evidence that says this can lead to flips on take-off if you move the roll or pitch sticks around as you take-off so we recommend you leave these sticks in the middle until you're in the air.
Please feel free to report issues you find in the discussion below and/or add them to the issues list.
Thanks and enjoy!
Replies
Flown 2.8.1 on the Octocopter today and I have to say I'm over the moon. The default PIDs seem almost perfect suddenly.
Just 3 minor problems to mention.
1. On the first load of the firmware motors 7 & 8 would not spin up. Re-loaded the firmware and evrything is ok so I'm putting that down to me loading the wrong firmware to start with.
2. In a windless hover the Octo wobbles gently, not a fast wobble, more like a small boat rocking on a lake. I'm not sure which PID setting to change to get rid of this.
3. Loiter puts in to much command but holds a tight position. Its like a hover but jabbing at the stick to regain position - Is there a setting to reduce this?
Overall very impressed with this release, no more climb on yaw and the yaw seems locked in now.
2.8.1 is now released in the mission planner and the .zip is in the downloads area. The only change over 2.8 is we freed up 430 bytes of RAM (5% of the total 8k) mostly by moving various strings into the program space. The dev team has performed dozens of hours of flying on 2.8 without any problems, especially on the APM2 but we still recommend you upgrade to 2.8.1 because of the additional security the 430bytes provides against memory corruption.
I got my quad back in the air after two weeks waiting for parts and a week of travel for work. I upgraded to 2.8 when I arrived home from work tonight and reset the configuration. I had about 10 minutes of light left to fly. I flew stabilize, alt_hold and pos_hold modes in equal amounts of time. Stabilize was better than it was in 2.7.3 and that was really good. There is much less prop noise too. Alt_hold held well at 15 meters with the media tek GPS. Pos_hold was a little twitchy and it held in about 2 meter accuracy. I didn't get a chance to try the actions in which I crashed a while back. Altitude loss when switching to alt_hold before GPS lock. I want to wait until I'm flying on a softer and more wide open area before I attempt that.. Thanks to all the developers for another step forward.
Hi guys,
Where can I get a more detailed description of all the flight modes and exactly what they do? ACRO, ALT HOLD, AUTO, CIRCLE, GUIDED, LAND, LOITER, OF_LOITER, POSITION HOLD, RTL, STABILIZE and TOY.
Thanks,
First of all, big creds to the team !
Arducopter 2.8 works marvelous in today's test flight.
A question though, with the I term moved to Rate controllers, do I need to adjust Stabilize_I ?
The setting is still in mission planner though the default value is 0.000.
Ok, we've gotten to the bottom of the APM1 level issues. We were running out of memory - the APM1 uses about 70bytes more than the APM2 because on the APM2 we put telemetry and usb connection on the same port.
Led by master Tridge, we managed to save about 420 bytes which is about 5% of our total 8k and puts us back into the safe zone.
I've put a new ArduCopter-2.8.1-rc1 into the downloads area (decided to go with "RC1" for "Release Candidate 1" instead of the regular greek lettering this time).
If testing looks ok, we will push it to the mission planner for both APM1 and APM2 tomorrow.
There are no other improvements over 2.8 besides this memory enhancement.
Thanks all for your patience!
2.8 Flip of death on Auto Mission
First off 2.8 is fantastic. I must agree with others that it just feels more locked in. Great code guys.
Now to todays problem.
The Hexa's I have built are all over powered, and hence I have to tune very carefully.
I now have a Hexa based on the JDrones ready for survey work using an APM1 with 2.7.3 and I have just built 2 more, one for testing new code and add ons, and the other as a heavy lifter.
The test Hexa is a HK H550 with Hyperion motors. Of course it was very twitchy on standard PID's but halving the Rate values did the trick and it was flying fantastically. Even tried Simple mode for the first time, could get to like that.
NOW
I am hoping someone would be kind enough to have a quick look at my logs and settings and tell what stupid settings I have set that caused the Hexa to pitch into a flipping spin during an auto mission.
The strange part is the KML logs end in mid air about 5m horizontally before the impact point.
I downloaded the flash logs but I had not turned on any extra logging and could not really tell much from going through the data.
It was following the mission plan fantastically until it started the long run from WP3 to WP4, and as it picked up to maximum speed for the first time in the mission it just flipped itself into the ground from 20m up.
I had flown it in Stabilise and Alt Hold many times to check the parameters, and it was performing just great, so I am a bit scared to take the heavy lifter up if I don't know what caused the crash.
Luckily I only broke one arm and one prop and buggered a bearing, pretty good I thought.
Nearly forgot to mention I am using APM2.5 boards, separate uBEC, UBlox GPS and 3DR radio, Futaba FASST Rx/Tx
2.8 Flip of Death.zip
Screen shot 2012-10-22 at 5.07.33 PM 2.8 flip of death.png
Mini back square.txt
We've reverted the MissionPlanner to push out 2.7.3 for APM1 users until we get to the bottom of the level issue.
Sorry about that but I suspect we will find and fix the problem within 24 hours.
Is there a problem?. y6 v2.8 apm mission planner directly load in 1.4.
only loaded v2.7.3. in settings y6.
hello
I loaded the firmware 2.8.0 on a APM2 and I did a test flight with the parameters of 2.7.3, it seemed more fluid into the flight, no spasm of the engines, although twice attempted to perform a flip in takeoff.
I think 2.8.0 is more powerful, so I wanted to thank the good work done by the team.
I know that this parameter is in the picture and what it does.
thanks
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