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
Is it possible to code "Auto Land" as an option for Channel 7?
For those people who have had troubles with the voltage or current read by the APM being incorrect, I've created a video and put it on the bottom of this wiki page which shows how to calibrate it so the values match a hand-held voltage monitor or a turnigy power analyzer. If you're using a 3dr power module then you'll find that the voltage and current are normally pretty accurate but sometimes they're a bit off and if you enable the low-battery failsafe it can come home prematurely (or too late) which is no fun.
If you didn't tell the Mission Planner what kind of batteries you were using, it probably was going with the defaults. It's best to set up battery failsafe as part of your initial setup process.
I confess I fall in love with AC 3.1-rc2. Thanks devteam! Bring in ac3.1-rc3 now! :D :D :D
In ArduCopter 3.1-rc2:
- should I do the compass mot as per 3.01? (or not?)
- on a "Medium size quad" ( 750 mm or 29.52 inches in between motor centres ), can I use the default parameters from Mission planner 1.2.80 build 1.1.5016.13386? Or should I change some? {Which ones?}
Quad runs on 4S with 4x 70A ESC and 330 x 102 props. (13 x 4 inches).
Motors are 600 KV 800Watts each motor thrust: 1520 grams (1.520 kilogram) (53.61642216 ounces oz)
Thank you in advance.
Henri
Anyone using ultra ESC with their APM board?
Please share the result..
Thanks.
I did start to have next message on Mission Planner when flying my arducoper quad:
"Failed to update home location".
I do fly also arduplane, but never had that error.
What is the cause of that, what exactly means.
I notice message also appears when I run tlog reply after flying.
Has anybody got a theory about this (power?) problem.
JP1 removed and using all opto ESCs. Nothing else is on the APM output side, just 8 ESCs.
RX (hitec optima9) is powered with the SPC (high voltage) input. RX 5v rail supplied from APM.
APM is supplied from a 5A ubec plugged into input8.
All works great UNTIL I plug a small (HS81) servo into the RX (yes directly into RX).
After about 1 minute the APM stops listening to the radio inputs. It still seems to be alive as Im getting telemetry with attitude and GPS etc, also the orange APM LED goes off.
I have turned off logging due to the overworked octa issue but the telemetry suggests Vcc does not fall below 4.8v and it looks smooth. 5A for a mini servo should be OK?
I can see I will probably have to use another ubec for the servo (camera zoom) but I cant see why it needs it.
Cheers
Vince
@ MHA
Re. TBS Discovery geometry - take a look at the Discovery manual. The angles you want (55 deg and 125 deg) are the angles between the centre line and the motor axis to CoT point.
Max Levine did an earlier post re the set-up.
Hope this helps.
I'm in the process of designing a similar frame to accommodate a 3-D printed brushless gimbal and want to ensure that the props are out of the field of view, so have been down this route recently.
Further to my problem with my external magnetometer working but the APM not seeming to recognise it's output.
1) The onboard-magnetometer-disabling-trace is cut, ext mag (HCM5883L) is mounted 10cm above the frame, compass-dance done.
2) The magnetometer is giving valid magnetic field strength in x,y, and z directions (Mx, My, Mz), visible in the status tab in MP and apparent in both the logs (attached) and the pics below.
3) Sometimes the APM sees this data, sometimes it doesn't! No discernible pattern.
Is there anything in code that could cause this oddity intermittently with an external magnetometer?
Pic1: Rotating just the Mag, 'Y' value changes but yaw/heading (red) does not. (incorrect)
Pic2: Rotating the Mag, 'Y' value changes and yaw/heading changes. (correct)
Ext_Mag_working_2013-09-29 18-16-19.tlog
Ext_mag_not_working_2013-09-28 12-01-44.tlog
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