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
What else would be cause interference for the compass - the battery? LED wiring? the RC Rx? RC Rx wiring?
I've moved my main power cable away from the APM and given the cable a good amount of twist and my interference has gone up from 167% to 173%!
How can I shield the APM better?
I've noticed in recent versions of MP/Terminal/Log Download that it has a checkbox "is arducopter"
It's necessary to check that when downloading logs or is it for something else?
this morning it happend to me again...CRASH... everything was perfect...and then i lost control...i am suspecting that conecting my 6th chanel to AlexMos brusshles gimbal controler (signal and ground wire only) for controlling pitch made a mess to radio...one of this logs i guess..can someone please help
2013-06-25 07-20 1.log
2013-06-25 07-20 2.log
2013-06-25 07-22 3.log
Looking to try 3.0 on my H8 Octocopter "Pulsar" soon. How do these vibes look?
The Z-axis is a bit more than I'd like, but the X and Y seem to be pretty good. I'm not having any problem with Alt_Hold, though it's a bit less smooth than I'd like. I suspect that might because I'm running Raw logging on 2.9 with an Octo?
Good to go for 3.0 Loiter?
No reply yet to my logs from thismorning, but I've decided it was probably the magnetometer. I've moved to an external magnetometer which only records 16% in compassmot, so hopefully my test tomorrow will be much improved. I have a Udrones Hexa-C, and boy is its stock magnetometer terrible: the APM is sitting just 1 cm above the power distro board.
Randy, some pages back I had a sudden uncommanded switch to stable from alt hold but I didn't have a log to show. Today after flying some 8 minutes without a problem in alt hold I switched to stable and flew around some more and at one point, for less than a second, all the motors almost shut off. If they shut off, they came back on so fast that it only lost less than a foot in altitude. In the logs you can see the z spike near the end. I wasn't near the computer to hear if it switched to some other mode causing the drop. Can you see from the log what caused the motors to semi shut down?
I'm running v3 that was in MP a couple of days ago. I guess it's rc5 but terminal just says 3.0.0
APM2.5 in ppm sum mode with upgraded ppm encoder, xbee900, ezuhf, sonyhad.
2013-06-24 16-01-05.tlog
2013-06-24 16-32 31.log
I love the fence feature. Really makes fun to limit the area for flying.
That would be even more fun, if AC would support a minimum alt as well.
Based on that teaching other to fly copters could be much more safe.
Moreover, what if instead of auto Land or RTL another option could be to just Loiter when hitting the boundaries?
Means the copter will just not pass the fence and rather than that "stick" in the virtual fence until one will control it accordingly into the allowed area.
Just some ideas for making an amazing software even more perfect....
To try get rid of interference, how high above the props can we raise the APM before it affects flying?
Alright, here's my flight log. I'm seeing my copter fly curvy lines in auto and not achieving the desired velocity. My compassmot gave back 88%, but I thought it wasn't an issue since loiter is rock solid (there's a 2 minute loiter at he beginning of the log. It goes auto takeoff, loiter 2 min, auto, then auto land.) So is my problem in compass interference, or PIDs? Thanks for your help.
2013-06-24 11-33 5.log
2013-06-24 11-33 5.log.gpx
2013-06-24 11-09-44.tlog
Ok, lots of flying today, couple of things that came to mind....
a) can we change the disarm time to say 5 seconds or add it as a variable?
b) I like to switch off the TX on high altitude flights (photogrametry,..) I would REALLY like to be able to arm and go to auto on mission planner with the tx off.... And take off.... Unless I arm and add a little throttle to start the motors spinning, they seem to lock and there is a error build up so if you wait a few seconds AFTER going to auto then it leaps into the air. i am guessing this is not a trivial thing to fix....but would be nice.. might try it with the tx off and see if it is the same behavior as I see with the tx on,.. But i'll do it with my crash test dummy!!
c) I love this version release. It has made a few of my friends with Naza'a quite unhappy!! and envious!
Thanks again to the Dev team. Awesome job!!
Cheers
Steve
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