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
Is that not the way, but I wanted to see and I can not find solution: in the apm 1.4 load new V2.3.0 ArduPPM ATMega328p.hex ppm encoder. all loads fine but the blue LED blinks fast, and no radio signal. working correctly before loading the new ppm. ppm loading the old solid blue LED and no radio signal. some solution
Thank you.
a query. is there any difference in the behavior of the dmp quad and # define ACCEL_ALT_HOLD 0 enabled?. I'm currently using it
Thank you.
Be careful with the current version of the geofencing on Arducopter. When the fence is hit, it will cause a yaw towards home during the RTL. It is easy to lose orientation during this yaw. This happened to me during testing and I lost my quad in a crash (and I have 2 years > 400 flights on mine). The current implementation isn't for beginners and I believe is in the process of being rewritten to eliminate the yaw.
Heino
I had an interesting few flights on Sunday with 2.8.1 on a 3DR quad with an APM2, ublox GPS and the 880kV motors. It pretty much just worked following a series of waypoints with minimal tuning (so much easier to get going than it was before the summer). However, one flight didn't quite go as planned. Starting from on ground I selected auto mode on my radio and moved the throttle up to about mid stick. The quad took off, aiming in the right direction, and proceeded to follow the lat/lon of all the waypoints. The altitude, however, kept going up. When it got over 250m I went to RTL and loiter but it kept on going, reaching about 280m. Going back to auto mode started to bring it down - the motor current cut to zero and it started to tumble, losing about 50m of altitude, but it recovered on its own (impressive). I finally ended back in loiter mode with my throttle at minimum and it very slowly descended. After getting it back down I restarted the mission and tried again (ready to cut it immediately), but it worked perfectly, following the 25m altitude it should have had. The first 100m or so are shown in the graph below, and the log file is attached. Any ideas what could be going on?
Thank you,
Andrew
2012-11-11 17-04 7.log
Is GeoFence still in the code? Other than Bounce/RTL modes, I can't seem to find any familiar parameters for it in MP.
I haven't flown since 2.6, been slowly building a HK Talon Hex, so was eager to try 2.8.1. I think a bug has crept in somewhere between these two versions. My esc's won't arm with 2.8.1 unless I either boot from usb or a separate battery before connecting the main battery.
I normally just run a single battery with an external bec, all esc bec's disabled. Pressing the reset button makes no difference. Weird thing is, my old APM1.4 2560 works fine.
Hobbywing pentium 30 / turnigy plush 30 ESC's. Purchased late 2010, stock firmware.
APM 2.5
The long awaited 'ARDUCOPTER TUNING DISCUSSION' is now live, here..
http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/arducopter-tuning-guide
There's a video and everything, and soon updates, and a part two! Enjoy, and please comment, I'd love some input :D
Had a bad day today.
Weather was fine to do some flying and all went great. Loiter was very good with some wind.
I did some nice turns in stab and teste AH.
Suddenly the quad was losing height while I was flying over some water in the park. I gave it some throttle but it wouldn't react (was still in AH :-() Then I gave some more pitch so that the quad would hit the ground instead of the water but still it didn't react. I just didn't reach the border resulting in a splash.
In the meantime dried everything and retrieved the log.
Can someone have a look why the quad didn't go forward, whats still has to work even in AH? It didn't react anymore to my inputs.
I also retested everything and all works!!! Great hardware!!
2012-11-11 16-25 3.log
Wind resistance test, using two fans, stabilizer mode, 1/3 throttle, using power supply 20 amp 275 watt.
1.150 kg weight without battery,
apm 2.5 v8.1 test Octaquad, using Dave C. method PID tuning.
http://youtu.be/e2UOAkWZba8
thanks Dave.
v2.8.1 2.5 8x10 nov.param
I really love Daves' - PID tuning videos!
I still think that indoor or even backyard PIDs are of minor use for real flight. Yesterday i cruised my flyingfield at 40km/h (gps/minimosd readout) and did some sharp turns. On turning at this speed the copter was a little shaky and i had to reduce the rate P a lot. It would be optimal to have different rate_P for different speeds. In loiter the rate_P could be much higher than in fast forward flight. Perhaps some speedfactor(gps/throttle) in the Missionplanner would be nice for rate_P - or being able to define a rate_P range for throttle/speed. For example: rate_P for hovering 0.160 can be lowered down to 0.1 at 90%throttle. A rate_p - throttlecurve would be great but probably overkill. This could be an advanced feature turned off by default. Just an idea.
BTW you already know this Pid tuning video?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNzqTGEl2xQ&list=UU_Dnn29RQCZKUU...
So long
Kraut Rob
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