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
Hello Randy,
I have a problem with my APM2 with the calibration of accelerometers use the M.P. 1.2.67, and when I do the calibration, as wiki procedures, it gives me the following error "Calibration Failed", I run both in MP mode in the CLI.
What might be the APM2 defective?
APM2 fw 3.0.1
MP 1.2.67
Thanks Randy and the development team.
New to arducopter, mildly experienced but getting stronger with arduplane. Sorry if this has been asked and answered but I did some autonomous missions for the first time with my qav500 just to test it out. I had 4 waypoints, and when it got to the third, it then decided it was time to go to waypoint 65335 and then loiter for a bit and land. I've read that this was fixed in 2.8.1 / 2.9, but I'm running 3.0.1. I then did the trick where you insert a "blank" waypoint right after the last waypoint, and then before that insert the "DO_LOOP" command back to waypoint 1. That didn't work either, the copter tried to go to the fake waypoint which was apparently, according to it, somewhere off to the east. Oddly, Mission Planner shows no evidence of waypoint 6 in the flight plan (the last, "empty" waypoint" being over there.. but its off to find it anyways. I've uploaded my tlog for reference. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong, or is this a bug?
2013-08-08 19-03-27.tlog
First up, great work! I'm really enjoying arducopter 3.0.1 on my discovery frame. The only issue I have left is the occasional loiter flyaway. I understand this is caused by GPS glitches (as noted in the warnings section of this post).
I hope this hasn't been asked a million times yet (I've read as many of the last 100 pages as I can) but I would like to know if there is going to be some kind of software filter in the next release of Arducopter to prevent this?
I think this is what DJI is doing in the naza, when the GPS jumps the naza will temporarily rely on the ACC data until it can confirm wether the multi has actually moved (I assume by averaging the GPS data over a period of time).
This may not be the right place to ask but it deals with 3.0.1. I've gotten good results with loiter and alt hold but in normal stabilize mode my quad will not follow a straight path. Starting in a stable hover if I pitch forward it goes forward and off to the right or left. Is there a PID tuning that would keep the heading better or am I expecting too much? I did compassmot and only had 6% interference.
Today I tested AUTO mode, very simple mission - three way points, all of them near to each other cca 30m but the hight is 40m, 300m and back to 40m. When switched to AUTO quad reached soon point 1, then climbed very nice to point 2 and then started descent to point 3 but it never reached it and stayed at around 190m at the position. I had to switch to stabilize and bring it down manually.
When browsed the log i was really confused. Graphed only two values - baro alt and WP alt. Honestly i dont understand what WP alt means, but it seems like the copter is controlled by it concerning the hight of WP.And where comes from the value of this WP alt?
So can please somebody explain me how should I create such simple mission and copter just climbs very high and then descends safely to next WP, because i need to measure temperature and humidity profile.
See the graph :
2013-08-07 15-04 3.zip
Hi Randy,
I was looking at my logs for MOT messages, and I saw that the maximum PWM is cropped at 1865. My ESC are configured to run from 1100 to 1900, but I can change them to have a max PWM at 1865 instead of 1900, but I was wondering why is there a such limit and where is it set.
Is it configurable ?
Thanks,
David
2013-08-03 11-32 1.log
Biggest issue for me is why i get a huge change in performance of my flight stability ..in windy conditions copter is unstable and in less or no wind it is dam near perfect .. and makes me feel like we finally have a wookong slayer ..until i fly on windy day ..
ArduCopter code on VR-Brain:
Other photos here.
Given the enormous reliability and impressive stability of the APM Copter code I started to use it for professional use, the results are excellent.
After the unremitting work of all members of the dev team now I can safely say that we have reached levels that were unthinkable a few years ago.
Here the little clip at full quality, not compressed with the poor Youtube codec: http://www.marcopter.com/media/hv1_gimbal_eosm_02.m2t
I slightly stabilized with After Effects, but I assure you that even the original clip is almost vibration free.
Many people ask me where I am, I'm diligently testing the reliability of our system, now that debugging is almost non-existent.
Thanks to all the Dev Team, finally our system is a milestone... ;-)
Bests, Marco
Could you please confirm the tuning parameters for the stock 3dr quad running 3.0.1 , mine even with 13 satellites , is not even close to stable on loiter mode , alt.hold works fine .
Is this latest version which parameter should I tune first ?
Thanks
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