ArduCopter-3.0.1 released!
ArduCopter 3.0.1 has been released and is now available in the Mission Planner, firmware.diydrones.com, GitHub and the new Downloads Area.
Warning #1: Compass calibration and reducing interference is far more important than with 2.9.1b
Warning #2: GPS glitches can cause sudden and aggressive position changes while in loiter mode. You may wish to reduce the Loiter PID P to 0.5 (from 1.0) to reduce aggressiveness (see image below of where this gain can be found in mission planner).
Warning #3: optical flow is not supported but will be back in the next release (AC-3.0.2 or AC-3.1.0).
Warning #4: loiter turns does not maintain altitude. This bug will be fixed in AC-3.0.2.
Warning #5: This release has only been lightly tested on Traditional Helicopters.
Improvements over 2.9.1b include:
- Inertial Navigation for Loiter and Auto meaning much more accurate control (Randy,Leonard,JonathanC)
- 3D navigation controller follows straight lines in all dimensions between waypoints (Leonard,Randy)
WPNAV_SPEED, WPNAV_SPEED_UP, WPNAV_SPEED_DN, WPNAV_ACCEL allows configuring speeds and acceleration during missions
- "compassmot" to compensate for interference on compass from the pdb, motors, ESCs and battery. (Randy,JonathanC) (Set-up video here)
- Safety improvements:
- simple Tin Can shaped Geo Fence
- pre-arm checks to ensure all calibration has been performed before arming (can be disabled by setting ARMING_CHECK to zero). (video description here)
- GPS failsafe - switches to LAND if GPS is lost for 5 seconds
- stability patch improvements to stop rapid climbs in very overpowered or overtuned copters
- Circle mode improvements including "panorama" when CIRCLE_RADIUS set to zero (Randy,Leonard)
- SONAR_GAIN parameter added to allow better tuning of sonar surface tracking
- CH8 auxiliary switch (same features as CH7)
- works on PX4 (some minor features still not available) (Tridge,PatH)
How to upgrade:
1. Make sure you are using Mission Planner 1.2.59 or newer (get it here)
2. Click on the MissionPlanner's Hardware, Install Firmware screen. The version numbers should appear as "ArduCopter-3.0.1", then click the appropriate frame icon and it should upgrade as per usual.
3. Reduce the Loiter and Alt Hold PIDs if you have modified them from the defaults. The modified PID values for the 3DR frame can be seen in the image below.
Note: Nav parameters have been combined with Loiter so do not be concerned if you can't find them.
4. Although not directly related to this release, if you purchased an APM prior to March of 2013, update your PPM encoder to the latest firmware (instructions here).
5. Try out the new version in stabilize mode first, then alt-hold, then loiter and finally RTL and Auto.
Numerous How-To videos are available:
Special Thanks to Marco, DaveC and the large number of testers on the pre-release thread who put their copters at risk during the extended testing period. Some of their videos can be found here, here, here, here, here and here. Thanks also to MichaelO for the MP changes required for this release.
All feedback welcome. Please put your questions, comments (good and bad!) below.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Vince Hogg on
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Nice one Leonard.
Would it be possible to split the firmware so that not everything is loaded all the time?
For instance, the auto tune feature would probably only be used during setup so it could be separate firmware that tuned the PIDs and then replaced by ‘operational’ firmware.
I don’t suppose many people use ‘acro’ on anything bigger than quad so the stressed hex and octa layouts don’t need this loaded. Likewise, I prefer to use all my camera controls direct from the RX so never use ‘mount’.
On my big camera ship I only use STAB, and LOITER and have RTL backup and Telemetry running. It seems a shame that things I have never even tried (TOY & simple) are taking up precious headroom, especially on octas.
When a large program is installed on a PC you often get a ‘features to be installed’ tickbox. Perhaps the APM continued development could go a bit further by optionally leaving things out?
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Permalink Reply by Alex O. on
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I think that is pretty much what they are doing Vince. There will be an option to turn On & Off certain features.
Some features may be abandoned for good. I think Toy Mode and Gimbal stabilization are two that were pronounced already. I don't think these are very important. All the good camera gimbals come with their own controllers these days so if removing the gimbal control (and some other less likely to be used functions) will increase the reliability, I can certainly live with it.
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Permalink Reply by Jay Galleno on
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+1 on this. I think it's time to separate the APM FW from Pixhawk.
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Permalink Reply by raefa on
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Hello! I build Hexa X.
Now i see problem in mission same as: http://diydrones.com/xn/detail/705844:Comment:1330767
(small time for turn more) But now RTL_LOIT_TIME is 5000. I try RTL_LOIT_TIME = 5000 and no result.
Or problem with TX (failsafe from throttle)? But in NOT auto mission all good.
Than is this??? Please see my log and help.
- Attachments:
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20131008184932.tlog, 1.2 MB
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Permalink Reply by Magnus Pettersson on
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Is it ok if the quad moves during compassmot?
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Permalink Reply by Chris on
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I have a Hexa with APM 2.5. Was happy with 3.0, then tried the beta's 3.1 -rc1 and rc2, of which all was fine and good. Decided to load AC 3.1-rc3 today, mostly for the GPS glitch function that was added, not that I had a problem with it. Anyway, I was just bench testing, was planning to fly the Hexa tomorrow.
One problem though, as soon as I arm, on MP HUD it says armed but also failsave. Everything seems to work as it is supposed too, but the failsave stayed on. I went as always through the initial setup, all the way though I just can't figure out what is causing it to display failsave. Any idea where I can check what exactly is causing this?
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randy
it will be great to erase some useless features on the code like gimball features(almsot all gimball are their own board),position hold(almost nobody use it..),toy mode is useless for 90% of us...
but autotune mode is a real good feature for everybody
so i think we could get more cpu freedom without useless features
arducopter code is almost perfect and all dev team are made an incredible working on it!
only some iimprovement about mission planner stability, and bug fixes are necessary now
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Hi Greg,
be happy!
Intel has just announced an open board designed with Arduino team.
Already available for free to universities, next month to the market (60$)
This microcontroller card is 400Mhz 32 bit Intel Pentium class system
on a chip, IT IS FULL SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE COMPATIBLE WITH ARDUINO.
So very soon loading the new board with APM will be a must and other system, like PX4/PIXHAWK,
will become obsolete.
The microcontroller name is GALILEO
More information on INTEL site.
Franco
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good new but the size of their board is not for us
we need to create a new board with this intel socket
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Permalink Reply by Stone1295 on
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Not trying to derail the 3.01 discussion..
More information on the Intel Galileo board can be found here:
http://arduino.cc/en/ArduinoCertified/IntelGalileo
-Mike
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