ACRO bug (fixed in 2.9.1b): while doing flips in ACRO mode, if you switch to Stabilize while inverted your throttle will go to minimum. To regain throttle control you need to switch back to ACRO then back to Stabilize again (i.e. switch to stabilize twice). You never lose control of roll/pitch/yaw.
Loiter/AltHold/Auto/RTL bug: if you switch into these modes with throttle at zero motors will go to minimum until you raise the throttle.
Auto mode altitude bug (fixed in 2.9.1b): setting a waypoint altitude greater than 320m over home altitude may wrap around and instead be interpreted as a low altitude.
ArduCopter 2.9 is now in the mission planner and the downloads area!
The major improvement is we use inertial navigation to improve altitude hold. This increased reliance on the accelerometers means you must do some additional set-up before flying:
1. Perform the new accelerometer calibration in the mission planner (video). The auto-trim metho has also changed (video).
2. Add vibration dampening foam between your frame and the APM. Some suggested materials: DuBro, gel, hk foam.
3. If upgrading from 2.8.1, modify the throttle and altitude PID values:
- Increase your Throttle Rate P, reduce I to zero, increase D
- Increase Altitude Hold P, reduce I to zero
- Tune Throttle Accel P and I terms but try to keep P about 1/2 the size of I
Here is the list of major changes (a more detailed list can be found in the release notes):
- Alt hold using inertial navigation (Leonard, Randy, Jonathan)
- AUTO_VELZ_MIN, AUTO_VELZ_MAX parameters control the max climb/descent rate for the autopilot (cm/s)
- PILOT_VELZ_MAX controls max climb/descent rate for the pilot (in cm/s)
- Landing improvements (Leonard/Randy). Copter will descend to 10m or until an object is sensed with the sonar. Then slows to 50cm/s descent (speed can be adjusted with LAND_SPEED parameter). (video).
- Surface tracking with sonar (Randy/Leonard). Copter will attempt to maintain current distance from objects in front of sonar regardless of altitude. Only used in alt-hold and loiter, not used for missions. Sonar can be enabled/disabled with CH7 switch. (video)
- Failsafe improvements (Randy/Craig/John Arne Birkeland) including bug fixes, additional check for PPM encoder failure and implementation of battery failsafe. Set-up instructions are here.
- Mediatek gps driver accuracy improvements and use of SBAS [Craig]. Instructions on upgrading your mediatek to firmware 1.9 are here.
- Traditional Heli improvements (Rob) including (a) bringing heli code back into the fold, (b) enabled rate controller (previously only used angle controllers). (c) fix to rotor speed controllers - now operates by switching off channel 8. (d) allow wider collective pitch range in acro and alt hold modes vs stabilize mode (e) bug fix to allow collective pitch to use the entire range of servos
- Acro trainer (Leonard). Copter will return to be generally upright if you release the sticks in acro mode.
- ACRO_TRAINER : set to 1 to enable the auto-bring-upright feature
- ACRO_BAL_ROLL, ACRO_BAL_PITCH : controls rate at which roll returns to level
- Camera control improvements (Randy/Sandro Benigno): (a) AP_Relay enabled for APM2 (b) Trigger camera with CH7 or DO_DIGICAM_CONTROL command (c) Allow pilot override of yaw during missions and fixed CONDITIONAL_YAW command.
- PPM sum support for transmitters with as few as 5 channels (Randy/Tridge/John Arne Birkeland).
- Performance and memory useage improvements (Tridge).
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.
Special thanks to our testing team lead Marco and the dedicated bunch on the 2.8.1 release thread who put their copters at risk while testing the pre-release version. Some of their videos are here: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Please feel free to report issues you find in the discussion below and/or add them to the issues list.
Replies
Failsafe issues.
Yesterday I had a problem with (part of) my RC transmitter that reduced the range to about 100m. (I had just installed a FPV TX so this lead to a wild goose chase before the problem was found.)
Anyway I had about 5 ‘events’ while trying to sort the problem. 2 of them were RTL as you would expect and 3 were auto mission reset. Fortunately as WP 1 was takeoff to 35m and WP2 was at same position 35m, the effect was much the same as RTL.
A while ago on arduplane, at the limit of range, it went to loiter for a few seconds. I had set APM failsafe (RTL), no RX failsafe (other than teaching it low throttle). I did lots of tests to simulate the edge of range. I think that a brief CH3 drop triggered RTL but then random PWM on CH5 caused a mode change – could be to anything.
My RX had a favourite PWM while it was thinking so I changed the RTL range to correspond with this. The only work around was to set an RX failsafe – CH3 low, CH5 RTL, roll, pitch to neutral.
I think after a low CH3 triggers RTL it stays until there is some pilot intervention on the TX but unfortunately CH5 is probably also giving rubbish.
Finally got there – How about a parameter to ignore any inputs for ‘x’ seconds after a RTL is triggered?
I know this could be contentious with those who have had fly-aways but they could set it to zero.
The data transfer speed has reduced substantially between my APM 2.5 Mega & my computer. Same on USB & wireless link. The baud rate is OK & my APM 2.0 board works OK too.
Is there a setting in my parameter list that'll cause this?
I reset my boards firmware & only happened again after loading my config file.
Tried 2.9.1 on my rebuilt Quadcopter (APM2.0) Sonar disabled. The most steady version yet for me too !. Loiter and Alt hold is very good. Great work ! . Its been a while since I’ve done anything with it, and I have noticed lots more adjustable perimeters. When in Alt hold, in previous versions of arducopter, I could race the machine in any direction and as soon as I let go of the controls the machine used to stop almost on a sixpence. Now it seems to carry on 5 or so meters before it stops. Please could you remind me what perimeter I have to adjust?
The only thing I really don't like about this version, is the leveling procedure. The mini USB lead moves when I turn the machine on its axis and disconnects the signal to and from the pc everytime. Guess the only reliable way is with Telemetry.
Still having a tweak at my waypoint tracking.
Did a little zig-zag route with almost 180deg turns at the ends. In one direction it was fine, turns in the spot and tracks right down the line. In the other direction it heads about 40deg off and gets about 10m off track and snakes really badly until it sorts it out (it that what you guys call a ‘toilet bowl’?). There was no wind at all.
As far as I can tell my compass is spot on. I often do a log cal and check the difference. They are all below 40.
Is this right? When it gets to a waypoint it uses the compass to point at the next one and moves in that direction, then corrects the cross track error.
If thats what happens I guess it must be a compass thing. Whats the best thing to graph to see whats going on?
Hello every one!!!
Yesterday I have received my PX4 kit with GPS. I Also tuned my Apm2.5 quad – removed almost all vibration. So I’m ready to be a beta tester of new 2.9.2 on both platforms.
Does anyone know when 2.9.2 as beta or RC? Is it will available on both platforms at same time? Or px4 version comes some time (what time?) later.
Thanks a lot for you work.
Arducopter drifts up when in loiter mode.
I've been enjoying flying the arducopter (APM 2.5 with FW 2.9.1) on my tricopter; however, lately I noticed that the arducopter has been doing something I have never seen before.
When I put it in loiter mode in GPS lock, it now has a tendency to drift up and not lock in like it used to be.
Has anyone experienced this before with their arducopter?
Sometimes the copter loose the yaw, it twisted to left for about 90 degree. I flow in alt hold mode and did not touch to throttle & rudder stick but sometimes it lost its direction. Could someone tell me where is my issue?
Thanks,
-Duy
Did a couple missions today, using auto-land each time.
It was a beautiful thing to watch. Kudo's guys.
Couldn't possibly be more perfect than this.
Randy and all
I have altitude hold is problem in new board. i just order new and flight test APM 2.5 is ok, But when I changed to altitude hold is had jiggle on the air and I seen on APM Planner is had Altitude lag update (at 3 meter, but on APM planner is show 10 meters) I don't know is that. Help me please....
P.S. Hold position is very stable on loiter mode. Altitude still not good.
Thank you
Balloon
2013-03-10 18-37-15.tlog
2013-03-10 18-38-26.tlog
2013-03-10 18-21-16.tlog
PPM encoder firmwares / ArduPPM:
I am posting this here, since this thread get a lot of traffic. Many people are wondering if they should upgrade the ArduPPM firmware for the PPM encoder chip. In general it does not hurt to be running the latest version (the latest V2.3.16 has some F/S improvements), but the saying "if it works, don't touch it" also applies. :)
To check if you need the latest PPM encoder there is a new RC Jitter test in the source repository.
https://github.com/diydrones/ardupilot/tree/master/libraries/AP_HAL...
Either compile and upload it yourself using Arduino 1.0.3 (Autopilot version) or use on of the pre-compiled files that I have included here, and upload using the "Load custom firmware" option in the Mission Planner.
The jitter test is a APM application, not a PPM encoder firmware. Do NOT try and upload it to the PPM encoder chip using the DFU bootloader.
After a successful upload, connect to the APM board using the Mission Planner Terminal window (CLI) and let the test run for about 30min. Make sure you do not touch the R/C radio while doing the test.
After a while your test should look something like this.
< 00:08:24> -------------------------------------------
ch1: center:1520 min:1516 max:1522 delta:4
ch2: center:1542 min:1539 max:1545 delta:3
ch3: center:1934 min:1930 max:1936 delta:4
ch4: center:1520 min:1516 max:1522 delta:4
ch5: center:1851 min:1849 max:1854 delta:3
ch6: center:1520 min:1517 max:1522 delta:3
ch7: center:1521 min:1519 max:1523 delta:2
ch8: center:2074 min:2069 max:2076 delta:5
If no channel show delta changes above 10, you do not need to upgrade the PPM encoder. If they are much higher (and you are sure you did not touch any of the sticks during the test), you definitively need to update to the latest version (V2.3.16).
Also, you have problems with jitter delta greater then 10, please send me a PM with some details about your radio setup.
RCJitterTest_APM2.x.hex
RCJitterTest_APM1.x.hex
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