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
I have seen Many requests for log analisys, and even decided to expand my knowledge by analizing a few, but This morning I came accross Randy's Videoson youtube.
This one and This one especially are extremely helpful, and I learned so much.
Teach a man to fish.....
GREAT job Randy
I will recommend that ALL beginners and experts alike subscribe to his channel.
Guys,
I want my copter to climb very fast to certain height and then go back quickly. I have set WPNAV_SPEED_UP to 1000(cm/s), but from the log I can see after switching to AUTO mode it climbs only 4.6 m/s whole the way (300m up).
What should I increase/adjust to make it climb faster in AUTO mode (like declared in WPNAV_SPEED_UP)?
It definitely is not poor motors power because when in STAB mode turn full throttle it climbs like a rocket (much more then only 1000 cm/s). There must be some constraining factor in control loop.
For users with compass drift/error:
These things have already been said hundreds of times and should be included in the "bible of multirotor".
Connect only the essentials to the flight control, for example only the PWM signal of the ESC, do not connect the "red/black" wire of the internal bec output.
Always use an external bec to power the flight control (i prefer 5.5V instead of 5), taking the connection cables short as possible.
Twisted all the cables, including those that go to the telemetry and gps.
Do not put too close the telemetry to the flight control, the antenna must be at least 15 centimeters from the fc, even better than not to the horizontal axis of the compass.
Do not use metal spacers or screws near the flight control, prefer the plastic ones.
Have you done all this? No?! Well, it's time to do it! :-)
Also use an external compass without first having done all this is useless.
Using all these little tricks I solved a problem with compass on a S800 with VR Brain, where the error before all this trick was over 110 degrees (measured with "compassmot"), after this little tuning went not over 10 degrees.
3.1-Dev still needs small fix for release but it is wonderfully stable.
I'm sorry but those who have problems with APM Copter I depend only bad hardware or wrong tuning, the code works super well.
Marco
(APM Copter Dev Team)
Hi All
Thanks Guys for all the hard work you have done and are doing and the for email support ..I think we finally have a serious competitor to DJI WKM
It can only get better from here!
Just to report I have had great success in test missions run yesterday. I ran 4 missions and landed within a 1m of launch every time!! It was great ..I also performed and simulated radio loss by switching off the radio during a 5th mission and the Machine came home and landed beautifully in the right spot ..It took me a while to figure out to put Takeoff and land points in the correct place in MP and also learned to Arm Copter and switch to Auto Mode then apply a little throttle before she took control and performed great unassisted takeoffs and continued with the mission.
Just need to tame it in the wind now :o)
Settings currently :
Firmware 3.0.1 quad
PID 3.5
Loiter 0.5
The rest of the param setting are standard for 3.0.1 quad
Take off altitude set to 20m
Air Speed stock at 6m per sec
Mission altitude set to 40m
Using APM 2.0 Std Config ( mounted on a thick Ali plate stuck to small soft rubber squares, with the wires to and from APM fixed to ali plate too , Black tape on leds and black foam on Baro)
Ublox Neo 6M GPS
Hobby king 660mm Quad (cheap for testing before using on my large expensive Octo and Hexa frames)
I'm seeing lots of people with problems here with last firmware version. I'm mounting a Hexa with 3.0.1 firmware. So I ask: Is that version safe to fly or it's safer go for 2.9?
Regards,
Daniel
Strange things happens to me yesterday with Arducopter 3.0.1 and I am thinking about "jamming" my quad by someone else, maybe this is just in my mind. See logs and TLogs attached.
APM2.5, AC 3.0.1, Tx Spectrum 2.4Hz, 433MHz telemetry, no FPV/
I was playing with my quadX yesterday for some testing (Loiter, RTL, Stab), was little windy.
First 2 flight were normal, no issue. On 3th flight, when I was on the "air" I did notice a guy behind me with playing (I believe) a Tx remote control with extended antenna (not 2.4GHz), but longer antenna. At some moment, from stabilize position at 6 m altitude, my copter starts to drift and loose altitude and crash in field. I was in Stabilize, I did check that 2 times and see on log also. During this time, I had not any control on my Quad, I did try to roll/pitch and increase altitude, since was loosing altitude fast. No control!.
After the crash I did ask the guy what is he doing there, is an empty field and always I was alone.
He said he crashed his RC copter one day before and did come for finding it. But I was wondering why you need your Tx with extended antenna, when you are looking for your copter.
I do suspect 3 scenarios: brown-out, mechanical-failure, or "jamming". From the log I did not notice any brownout, HW voltage was OK, battery voltage was 12v after crash (I did check that).
Could someone please try to see which of those 3 scenarios could be the answer?
I did parse all the situation from link below regarding the diagnosing.
http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-diagnosing-problems-using-l...
2013-08-19 16-17-00.tlog
2013-08-19 19-49 27.log
2013-08-19 19-48 26.log
Hi all
I have been crashing my quad now four times after I uploaded the newest firmware, 3.0.1. This is quite scary and when it happens, it goes into a really fast spin and I have very little control. This did not happen to me before on this quad with the older firmware. I thought first this could be realated to the compass, but not sure now. I have done the compassmot test in CLI and the interferance is around 29% which I believe is acceptable. What can cause this behavior? for example today it was rock solid in the air and on the fifth battery this suddenly happens. I have no idea what can be wrong and it doesn't help that I am not sure how I could use the log to solve this. Has anyone experienced something similar?
What could be wrong?
Attached is the rlog and tlog, can you use that or do you need the .log file? It was to large to upload.
2013-08-20 10-38-08.tlog
2013-08-20 10-38-08.rlog
Hi all
I have been crashing my quad now four times after I uploaded the newest firmware, 3.0.1. This is quite scary and when it happens, it goes into a really fast spin and I have very little control. This did not happen to me before on this quad with the older firmware. I thought first this could be realated to the compass, but not sure now. I have done the compassmot test in CLI and the interferance is around 29% which I believe is acceptable. What can cause this behavior? for example today it was rock solid in the air and on the fifth battery this suddenly happens. I have no idea what can be wrong and it doesn't help that I am not sure how I could use the log to solve this. Has anyone experienced something similar?
What could be wrong?
Attached is the latest log
Just had something odd happen.
I haven't been flying much and decided to go goof around in the yard to test out a new Mobius camera. Took off and hit alt hold then loiter and it seemed fine. Hit Land and it started coming down but seemed sort of wobbly/ Was gradually moving it back toward me as it came down when it took off directly away from me. It was headed for the trees, so I just cut all switches (set up so it should go to Stabilize when all switches are off) and dropped throttle so it dropped before it went into the woods.
Went to grab the log and the log download tool shows none of the previous logs that should be on the flash. It looks like there is a file with a large numeric name, but it cannot be downloaded.
Any ideas?
I wonder why people are still advised to buy an external HMC5883. Everybody knows that this ship is replaced by a better part, the HMC5983. It has an build in automatic temperature compensation for a more precise readout. The breakoutboards sell for less than 10$ (http://www.ebay.at/itm/UPgrade-HMC5983-temperature-compensation-tri...) and the chip is below 2$ (http://www.newark.com/honeywell-m-ps/hmc5983-tr/3-axis-digital-comp...).
So whats the point in choosing HMC5883 today when a better alternative is already available? A quick glance at the datasheet reveals that the adjustments are very little for the driver.
Where is the downside of HMC5983 for Arducopter??
Cheers
Kraut Rob
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