ArduCopter 3.0 is ready for widespread use. To make the transition easier, this time we are asking people to voluntarily upgrade from 2.9.1b for the next month or so before we make 3.0 the default firmware downloaded by the mission planner. The new version can be found in the Mission Planner's Beta firmware's link, firmware.diydrones.com, GitHub and the new Downloads Area.
Warning #1: A bug was found in the FENCE in which if you lost GPS it could lean at extreme angles as it tried to maintain an invalid position. This is fixed in AC3.0.1-rc1.
Warning #2: This release has not been fully tested on Traditional Helicopters
Warning #3: GPS glitches can cause sudden and aggressive position changes while in loiter mode. You may wish to reduce the WPNAV_ACCEL to 100 and Loiter PID to 0.2 (from 1.0) to reduce aggressiveness.
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.
http://ardupilot.com/downloads/?did=63
2. Click on the MissionPlanner's Firmware screen and click the "Beta Firmwares" link on the bottom right. The version numbers should update to "ArduCopter-3.0.1rc2", 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. If you purchased an APM prior to March of 2013, update your PPM encoder to the latest firmware.
http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-ppm-encoder/
http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-ppm-encoder-apm2x-atmega32u2/
5. Try out the new version in stabilize mode first, then alt-hold, then loiter and finally RTL and Auto.
Special Thanks to Marco, DaveC and the rest of the beta testers for putting 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.
Added by Craig:
Please watch Randy's videos on setting up and flying APM-Copter 3.0 before you go flying. They are excellent!
Replies
Hello,
yesterday i tried mission in auto and when copter reached WP1 it's started more or less fall down.By may understanding to meet 15m. of altitude, which was set in Way point. there was a ~30m. difference of altitude comparing home pos and WP. Could somebody help me to find reason why it happens and how to solve that (maybe to adjust some parameters).
logs Attached.
thank you .
2013-06-18 19-30 21.log
Randy,
Could you please clarify the Rate and the Stabilize P values for the new v3.0.0 version?
I watched your video on how to adjust the stabilize P with channel 6. I am using 2.9.1 and about to switch to 3.0.0 My rate and stabilize P values are working fine for me.
Now do I need to reduce any of them? If so which one(s): Rate P or Stabilize P?
Someone mentioned by 10%. Is it pretty much right?
Currently Rate P = 0.1120; Stabilize P = 3.3
Thanks
I made a mistake when doing the release and accidentally released out of our master branch instead of the special purpose ArduCopter-3.0 branch. The effect is that an untested feature called RCMAP (which allows the pilot to configure which input channel is used for roll, pitch, yaw and throttle) got into the release.
I've just updated the version coming out of mission planner so that the feature is removed. I don't believe there is any real danger but if you've loaded AC3.0 between now and when I created this thread (about 1.5days ago) I'd like you to reload AC3.0 at a convenient moment.
Sorry!
Hi Guys,
Thanks for the hard work and new killer release. I've tried rev.3 since rc2 and have flown every rc up to rc5 on my big H quad(Galactica).
I took up rc5 yesterday(not sure what has changes to release 3.0.0) and experienced the great stability in alt hold and loiter. I set the quad in loiter for a few minutes. I then performed a few yaw's whilst in loiter. She did the yaws without event, but a few seconds later dropped about 5meter. Recovered, and dropped again. I went back to stabilise and did a manual hover and alt hold for another 12 minutes(battery issue ruled out).
Would this behaviour be part of warning 2?
(Warning #2: GPS glitches can cause sudden and aggressive position changes while in loiter mode. You may wish to reduce the WPNAV_ACCEL to 100 and LOIT_SPEED to 400 to reduce aggressiveness.)
Thanks, Antonie
All,
I am having trouble with telemetry now that I upgraded to 3.0 on my quad.
It works fine and allows me to change the parameters, gains, and view its location, but the left side of the 'flight data' display is not working. It does not show GPS lock (even though it is), the horizon does not work, and no battery data. The rest of telemetry seems to work fine.
Ideas?
Thanks! V3 is looking good!
Randy, is there any special PID adjustment for 880kv motors?
previous version we were suggesting this: (one more time again, this was pre 3.0)
While some testers have reported very good flights with the default PIDs, some have reported that this release is a little "sharper" due to the DCM improvements and have found they needed to:
reduce stabilize P by 10% (i.e. 4.5 -> 4.2)
reduce stabilize D by 30% (i.e. 0.15 -> 0.10)
increase rate D from 0 to 0.001
Greetings all.
Just sharing my "backyard" test flights with varying results spanning 4 flights using UBLOX NEO 6M (1st 3 flights) and UBLOX LEA 6H (last flight). Must say that my flights with UBLOX LEA 6H have been consistently stable and uneventful.
Kudos to all the devs..
commit 757adacf8a025726a62f9e0b88ac3cc4966620e2
Date: Tue Jun 18 17:01:31 2013 +1000
autotest: added $HOME/APM to PYTHONPATH
APMVERSION: ArduCopter V3.0.0
T30b-es-QC01, 8 min. flight
2.125 Kg UAW 750mm quad, 2x3S t5 A Lipo for ESCs/motor, 3s 1.3 A Lipo for other elect. system, GoPro on
UNDER TRIAL UBLOX NEO 6M GPS
Weather: occassional mild wind, generelly calm
Location: Backyard, modes: stabilized, alt-hold and loiter
- stabilize throttle altitude control stable and very linear
- alt-hold mode also very linear with throttle alt control, no altitude drift during calm moments
- loiter locked in once engaged, stops firm and strong switched from alt-hold fast movement
- loiter mode locks 3D strong, full stops accurate hardly with any drift, from full stick relocations,
blender turns, varying snap yaw turns and fast up-down altitude change
- yaw in all modes locks in firm, did not observe drift in the turns, even in the 360 deg. blender turn
- 1 occurrance of twitch after 6-7 min of flight
Notion: recalibrate accelerometers
T30b-es-QC02, 8 min. flight
2.125 Kg UAW 750mm quad, 2x3S t5 A Lipo for ESCs/motor, 3s 1.3 A Lipo for other elect. system, UBLOX NEO 6M GPS, GoPro on
Weather: occassional mild wind, generelly calm
Location: Backyard, modes: stabilized, alt-hold and loiter
- stabilize throttle altitude control stable and very linear
- alt-hold mode also very linear with throttle alt control, slight altitude drift (<.25 m)
- loiter locked in once engaged, stops firm and strong , occassionally with < .5 m drift
- loiter mode locks 3D strong, full stops accurate, from full stick relocations, blender turns, varying fast yaw turns and
up-down altitude change
- blender turns intermittently cause very slight < .25 altitude loss
- yaw very stable in all conditions
- no occurrence of any twitch throughout the flight, recalibration (using leveler) seem to have eliminated this completely
Notion: change-adjust throttle trim parm to try eliminate blender turns altitude loss
T30b-es-QC03, 8 min. flight
2.125 Kg UAW 750mm quad, 2x3S t5 A Lipo for ESCs/motor, 3s 1.3 A Lipo for other elect. system, UBLOX NEO 6M GPS (final try), GoPro on
Weather: occasional mild wind, generally calm
Location: Backyard, modes: stabilized, alt-hold and loiter
- basically same as above with improved altitude hold
- 1 occurrence of twitch and 2 occurrences of fly-away-fast (aggressive) pitch-forwards, crash (grab peripheral trees ;-)
averted with quick switch to alt-hold mode
Notion: change GPS from UBLOX NEO 6M to LEA 6H
T30b-es-QC04, 8 min. flight
2.125 Kg UAW 750mm quad, 2x3S t5 A Lipo for ESCs/motor, 3s 1.3 A Lipo for other elect. system, UBLOX LEA 6H GPS, GoPro on
Weather: occasional mild wind, generally calm
Location: Backyard, modes: stabilized, alt-hold and loiter
- stabilize throttle altitude control stable and very linear
- alt-hold mode also very linear with throttle alt control, no altitude drift
- loiter locked in once engaged, stops firm and strong switched from alt-hold fast movement
- loiter mode locks 3D strong, full stops accurate hardly with any drift (< .25 m), from full stick relocations,
blender turns, varying snap yaw turns and up-down altitude change
- yaw in all modes locks in firm, no drift in the turns-stops, even after 360 deg. blender turns
- consistently no twitching or erratic pitch forward behavior observed
Notion: seems like UBLOX LEA 6H gives much better stability, eliminates aggressive pitch forwards as compared to to UBLOX NEO 6M per these test observations.
Cheers.
Daniel
2013-06-18 20-33 2-T30b-es-QC04.log
2013-06-18 19-51-13-T30b-es-QC04.tlog
2013-06-18 19-00-48-T30b-es-QC03.tlog
Hi guys,
So cool the 3.0 is finally ready, and congratulations to all the dev team for the job you have done so far !
I currently fly with a Cinestar 8 on APM 2.5 with 2.9.1b firmware, it does fly pretty good but I will try the 3.0 tomorrow !
Just one thing before I go, could someone tell me is the vibrations on this log looks good or not ? In my opinion it does, but I just would like to have someone else opinion's :) It was a short hovering flight without wind.
Z accel is same kind as X and Y accel ;)
Thanks !
Tristan
Capture d’écran 2013-06-18 à 23.57.28.png
Hi great work.
I m new with arducopter and i ve got one question. I used a quad with multiwii, and when i arm, motors turns at low speed. But with the version 2,9b and 3 of arducopter. When throttle stick is at bottom position and quad is armed, nothing happen.
Is it normal?
Thanks for your answers
I've quickly just tested the release on my Hex and loiter held well for a few seconds and then I noticed it started to "orbit". This gradually increased in circumference until I took it back to stabilise.
Any ideas what coul be causing this please so I know where to focus my attention.
Well done again.
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