Developer

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.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Stott on October 26, 2013 at 10:32pm

Randy

So no idea what happened to my RED? How do I start a cycle of the LEDs? Was that the old AutoTune with the left stick down and right for ~20 seconds?


DeveloperPermalink Reply by leonardthall on October 26, 2013 at 10:59pm

Yeh, that shouldn't be a problem at all. However, generally speaking you should be able to tune the copter in your lightest setup and that should be fine for any of the heavier setups. Just don't do it the other way round!


DeveloperPermalink Reply by Randy on October 26, 2013 at 11:27pm

Brian,

     If it's an APM2 then the red light should always be either flashing or solid (depending upon whether it's armed or not).  If it's always dark then it doesn't sound good.  Yes, you could test the cycling of the leds by doing autotrim but it's not really testing anything different that what you're testing by simply powering the board.


DeveloperPermalink Reply by Randy on October 26, 2013 at 11:51pm

WPNAV_SPEED_DN will be used for the portion of the landing that is above 10m.  Below 10m it should use the LAND_SPEED parameter.  Best to provide a dataflash log.

You can check the maximum speed of your copter by flying it at top speed while maintaining altitude in stabilize mode and then looking at the dataflash message's GPS lines.  Try graphing the ground speed.  Most copters are between 13m/s and 18m/s maximum.


DeveloperPermalink Reply by Randy on October 26, 2013 at 11:55pm

Looks like the twitches are coming from the radio input.  If you're using a high speed futaba and the APM is running an outdated ppm encoder you should upgrade it using these instructions.  If it's an official 3dr board purchased before Mar 2011 you could have this problem.


DeveloperPermalink Reply by Randy on October 27, 2013 at 12:05am

The logs look like the yaw is being controlled reasonably well.  Maybe your compass orientation is incorrect.  Did it work fine on AC3.0.1 but suddenly it's drifting in AC3.1?


DeveloperPermalink Reply by Randy on October 27, 2013 at 12:09am

Steve,

     Modifying that parameter should take-effect immediately and yes, you can set it to any value you like.  I can't comment on it not sticking.  That sounds like a mission planner issue...if it's reproduceable you can stick an issue in the mission planner's issue list.  Make sure to include detailed directions on how to reproduce the issue.

Permalink Reply by Fabio on October 27, 2013 at 12:17am

hi,
I am able to compile the code with Arduino.
tell me what to do.


DeveloperPermalink Reply by leonardthall on October 27, 2013 at 12:32am

Cool,

go to config.h on line 786 you should see this:


# define STABILIZE_RATE_LIMIT 18000

Change it to this:


# define STABILIZE_RATE_LIMIT 9000

then recompile and reload onto the APM. Depending on which compiler you are using you may need to go to APM_Config and uncomment the following lines like so:


#define OPTFLOW DISABLED // disable optical flow sensor to save 5K of flash space
#define MOUNT DISABLED // disable the camera gimbal to save 8K of flash space

So once you are flying retest the limit to limit roll and pitch command (working up slowly) if all is fine do roll and pitch simultaneously. I know you have done this a couple of times but take it easy, I don't want to have another crash on my conscience. :)

Cool, let me know how you go!!!

Permalink Reply by Bartek Wawrzynkiewicz on October 27, 2013 at 1:03am

Hi Randy,

truly, i didn't remember. But probably on 3.01 it didn't drift so much.

Heres my settings in MP:

And how is MAG oriented: 

I've also have question, are there different motor rotation patterns between :

Permalink Reply by Bartek Wawrzynkiewicz on October 27, 2013 at 1:24am

Checked, didn't fly 3.01 because there isn't available RCMap function.

Permalink Reply by Andre Kotze on October 27, 2013 at 1:35am

It's been a while since I've actually flown my quad (been mostly just playing with the last few rc codes and not actually flying them) and I managed to do a quick hover test in my room - it's raining (again) this weekend.  ACC values look pretty good to me.  X and Y appears to be within -1 and 1 and Z within -9 and -11...

Hopefully next weekend I'll be able to check ALT_HOLD and then attempt an AUTOTUNE... :-)  I've attached my log files if anyone might want to have a quick look at them to see if they can spot anything I havent noticed...

Thanks,

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