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 can confirm that Octocopter is flyable running 3.1RC4 and Alt-Hold, Loiter and RTL work with no problems. Great work.
However, I somehow got another problem when upgrading from RC2 to RC4 - Octo tends to drift to right. I've done ACCEL calib twice. I have to hold the Roll stick halfway left to make it hover. If I let it lose, the copter starts flying right. Radio is calibrated. i'll add log picture of ROLL and ROLL IN. What am I missing?
ROLL_ROLLIN.png
Hi all, I read this forum every day to try and keep up to date, and learn something new every day but seldom have anything intelligent to post. Reading all the troubles people have had has really helped me in my build though.
I recently completed my 3rd build, but my first Tarot 650 quad, spent a lot of time making everything as perfect as possible. Meticulous wiring, good components attention to detail ect. I was extremely happy with the build the last few days, vibs <2, compassmot 1% at full throttle, all calibrations and checks went well, the manual is awesome, 1000% better than a year ago when I started with APM. Alt.hold was great and Loiter was rock solid, simply amazing. Loaded 3.1 rc4 and flew with no issues at all, beautiful. (I stole some PID’s from another user here with a similar setup).
So today I smashed it up pretty good and am not sure exactly why it happened. The GPS failsafe was enabled (default) and fence was enabled. I wanted to see if it drifted much in a windless environment and maybe use “save trim” if required. So decided to fly it indoors (aircraft hanger, lots of empty space). Since I could not get a GPS signal in the hanger I simply disabled pre-arm checks, set the quad in the middle of the hanger, cleared a couple spectators and armed (in stabilize). Well holy sh#$, it powered up and went full power (I think) up into the ceiling without any commands from me. Every beautiful 15”carbon fiber prop busted off and it dropped to the concrete floor like a rock and snapped 2 arms off. What the heck happened?
Looking a the logs I can only tell that when armed it immediately we went into a failsafe condition (GPS?) and was trying to “Land”. I see “Error”, subsystem 7, error code 1, just before the land command. But I don’t understand why it took off and flew 5m up into the ceiling? Don’t know where it was going in such a hurry but it sure didn’t get far.
I believe that I caused this to happen by not disabling the GPS failsafe first, but I can easily see others making the same mistake, it’s an easy one to miss. I don’t think having the copter launch into the air upon arming is cool…EVER. I hope maybe something can be done to prevent others from doing this.
Randy/Leonard, does this sound right with the current code:
GPS failsafe enabled + Prearm checks disabled + No GPS signal = Copter takes off immediately when armed.
Logs are attached, nothing actually happens until the end so there is only about 1 sec of action before the battery is ejected. I hope someone can tell me why it launched when it got a Land command.
Thanks
2013-10-15 14-49-57.rlog
2013-10-15 14-49-57.tlog
I just flew 28 minutes in loiter with AC3.1 RC4 and is great, with max Hdop 300 and GPSGLICH_RADIUS 700.
I was testing 3.1-rc4 auto tune on a HAL Quad to see what difference it made having the weight of a small Lumix FT1 camera or not .
with camera
without camera
Riding Auto tune on-board video from the Lumix camera, when auto tune is over I switch to loiter then slowly land it, that loiter is rock solid, congrats to the dev team
If posible in 3.1 release. I see have problem about motor spin when arm. If it have bad landing or crash when have motor spin and propeller have cut to the ground is maybe damage. I think it should don't spin when armed in stabilize and arco mode. Because, If we have problem it. We will can change to Stabilze and cut throttle for low damage.
where is the cli terminal - setup - level ???
Is this removed with rc4?
With rc2 there still was the level cli command but with rc4 it's gone
Any other way to do a level?
Can someone please explain how the "verify height" checkbox works now?
on the previous mission planner it used to show differences in alt when you clicked different way points,
now different waypoints which i know have different altitudes above sea level are the exact same when entered?
how does it work now?
thanks
With the new GPS glitch protection are we limited to aircraft sub 100km/h?
i have just completed my hexa, \rafter all calibrations , performed a test and it flies ok, but it randomly does a \"yaw glitch\" , allway on the same direction,(clockwise) very short , less than half a second , but it rotates probably 10 deg each time .
I would like to know , what can i look for in order to understand what is causing this fault
Copter conciguration
frame .flamewhell hexa 550
\rmotors 2212/13 1000kv
Esc 30a Simon k
apm 2.5, 3dr telemetry\rspektrum 8channels receiver\rsonnar
3dr power module
internal compass
external gps
rmode tested : simple stabilize
Update on the Octocopter performance issue:
I just flew a couple of packs with code compiled from trunk today, so it should have all the latest changes that Randy and Tridge have done recently to resolve this issue. I compiled as Octo-Quad, and I flew in Loiter, Simple mode, with Mount running, and I flew it around in Loiter, spinning it continuously as it flew in circles and changed altitude, and it performed just about flawlessly. Telemetry did slow to a crawl, but I occasionally got updates. I should have stopped and held position to see if telemetry came in, but didn't think of it at the time. Alt Hold felt pretty good, and I was getting telemetry in AH. I could hear a bit of motor pulsing, but it's WAY better than before.
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