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
Randy,
I just last test loiter high altitude 95 meters and had a little headwind about 2-3 knots. It had error position 1 meter only.
2013-01-11 18-11 3.log
AC2.9 Release candidate #3 is out in the downloads area. The biggest change should be for APM1 users because we increased the speed of the baro updates and also added some performance improvements.
The other big change is that "surface tracking" is now on by default for people with a sonar enabled. When a pilot is flying Alt-Hold or Loiter, when we first detect an object below the copter we grab onto it's distance and for as long as we maintain sonar contact we try to stay at that distance. If we lose sonar contact completely we just stick at our current altitude. This surface tracking is not used in auto missions.
In general we hope this works better than the blended sonar+baro altitude hold we had in 2.8.1 because it will allow you to climb hills or flights of stairs even if that takes you far above your home altitude. Still, it could lead to some unexpected behaviours..for example if your friend hovered a quad below your quad as he/she adjusted his altitude your copter would also move up and down. If you fly overtop of a tree you may also find that your copter jumps up and down as it detects the different heights of the branches.
Ah, the sonar is also used when landing so if you go into LAND mode above a roof for example, you should do a gentle touch-down on the roof.
List of changes over 2.9-rc2:
1) alt hold with sonar improvements - now on by default
2) performance and memory useage improvements
3) increase APM1 baro pressure read from 5hz to 8.3hz to improve alt hold
4) bug fix: altitude error reported to GCS
5) limit inertial nav's max accel offset correction to 100cm/s/s to speed up recovery after hard impacts
6) moved rate controllers to run after imu read
Hello,
I am having some issues with APM 2.5 & optical flow sensor! The sensor will not stay enabled. In CLI the sensor shows disabled. I just upgraded my Y6 from APM1 to 2.5 & realized this issue is there any support for optical flow sensor and 2.5??
With the easy performance monitoring we have in 2.9 (the dataflash PM message includes info on the # of slow running loops) we've stumbled over some performance issues on the APM1. These issues have actually been there from even before 2.8.1 but in any case, we're working to resolve this before pushing out release candidate #3. Hopefully won't be more than another 24h or so..
Today, I test 2.9 rc2 by used GPS MTK3329 removed battery backup again. it's loiter mode very good and hold on the air and test Guided mode very nice and no oscillate.
2013-01-09 00-28 2.log
2013-01-09 00-29 3.log
i test 2.9rc1
both xbee and minimosd connected to apm2.5
xbee connected rx tx lines
minim osd apm-tx to osd-rx only
when xbee link is not connected osd dont move horison line
how to make sure that the horizon worked regardless of the link state?
Has anyone tried using the Channel 7 (opt) for the RTL mode?
I'm experiencing issues on my tricopter when using the channel 7 (opt) for RTL mode. When the RTL mode is activated via the channel 7, the tricopter bounces up and down and does not return to launch.
Today I came up with a little problem, after doing some paramater changing.
The motors of my Y6 did not spin up. When I push throttle up, they did not spin. At full throttle and then puch throttle down, some of the motors did spin up slowly. First I thought, ther must be something wrong with ESC calibration, because I did a new bind to my receiver to programm RTL to failsafe.
But ESC Calibration changed nothing.
Then I thought on a strange thing I saw in the Missionplanner. The Params thr_min and thr_max have default values of 130 for min and 1000 for max. As this values are described as percentage values and the entryfields in the mission planner are orange, I changed them to 50 and 100, so that the fields got green. After saving and refresh, the sliders could not be set to above 100 any more, what is o.k. for percentage sliders.
After that, the motors did not spin up any more.
Then I changed them back to 130 and 1000 and all workes well now again.
So what I am wondering ist, why this values are that high in the 2.9 (could not remember where theay were in 2.9.1) and why there is a hint in the mission planner that it is percentage and hast to be between 0 and 100.
This is a little bit confusing.
My last test 2.9 rc2, I take out battery for back up from MTK3329. It no have problem about out of position and drift. But I see new problem sometime i used RTL when go to home and wait for auto landing. It not land and hold altitude. And HUD, it show land mode but not climb down.
2013-01-07 11-15 8.log
Very nice work Marco.
Did you use inertial nav xy?
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