Warning #1: PX4/Pixhawk users upgrading from AC3.1.5 (or earlier) may need to re-do their compass and accelerometer calibration because AC3.2 also uses the backup compass and accels. Pre-arm checks have been added to ensure this has been done.
Warning #2: on the APM2.x the logs must be downloaded using MAVlink instead of the terminal.
AC3.2-rc14 is now available for BetaTesters through the mission planner’s Beta Firmwares link. The full release notes can be found in ReleaseNotes.txt and changes from -rc13 can be seen below.
Feel free to raise issues found during testing on this discussion or in the new support section in the APM Forum.
It’s a big release with “the onion” restructure and a bunch of new features (including these 57 closed items) so we need to re-test almost everything including all flight modes, all mission commands and all the new features. Marco and I will be maintaining (and adding to) this testing list. Issues reported will first be checked by Jonathan, Marco and I and then confirmed bugs/issues will be put on the github issues list (and then hopefully fixed).
Thanks especially to the beta testers who put their copters at risk testing each release. Enjoy!
Changes from 3.2-rc13
1) Safety Features:
a) fail to arm if second gyro calibration fails (can be disabled with ARMING_CHECK)
2) Bug fixes:
a) DCM-check to require one continuous second of bad heading before triggering LAND
b) I2C bug that could lead to Pixhawk freezing up if I2C bus is noisy
c) reset DCM and EKF gyro bias estimates after gyro calibration (DCM heading could drift after takeoff due to sudden change in gyro values)
d) use primary GPS for LED status (instead of always using first GPS)
Replies
What was there to say, I was happy with the way it was. To be fair, I haven't tried the new method, I've only read what others have been complaining about. Someones added some arrows and a bit of explanation to the wiki compass calibration explanation that make things a bit clearer, but there is still room for improvement. It might be nice if there were some values displayed in MP for X,Y and Z convergence values that gave the user some idea when the calibration was beginning to stabilize (converge). In any event for those of us using Pixhawk there isn't a reference to let us know weather or not our values look good.
I understand that once the values converge there is little if any point to adding additional points, however it's simple to explain that you just need to fill the globe with points, then your done. That's all I was saying. So maybe it takes you five minutes to fill the globe, compared to a minute or so. Do you think it's possible to fill the globe and still not achieve a good calibration? It sounds like a number of people are completing the calibration cycle with the latest MP in a very short time and are getting very different results if the do the process a second or third time. To me this would just make me doubt my compass calibration.
A lot is riding on the accuracy of this process, for many their aircraft represent $1500 or more, sometimes much more. I for one would like to be able to compare my results with something that tells me a range of values that are expected to be acceptable.
Regards,
Nathaniel ~KD2DEY
Craig,
Frankly I liked method 2 best. Yes it took more time, but let's face it, if done right you only need to do it once. I think the bigger problem was that the Mission Planner side of the process was not very well documented which led (or leads) to people not knowing what to expect from the process. Nor is there a really good explanation of what are acceptable numbers when calibration is finished. leading to people flying with poorly calibrated compasses.
For that reason I think filling the whole globe is simpler, though more time consuming, for people to complete correctly. Randy's video is very helpful for understanding what must be done with the aircraft, but doesn't adequately explain what's happening in the mission planner, nor does it explain what are acceptable values for X,Y and Z offsets. Good offset values are well documented for APM 2.5/6, but not for Pixhawk.
Regards,
Nathaniel ~KD2DEY
Michael has just pushed a new stable version of Mission Planner a few minutes ago. It has a fix for re-calibrating the second GPS. It has Pos Hold listed as a mode and it has a check box for the auto-complete function so you can collect as many points as you choose. We will continue to test the auto complete criteria and threshold in the Beta version.
Thanks for the reports.
The compass calibration is all done in the Mission Planner so it's not directly related to the AC3.2 release.
It seems the underlying algorithm hasn't changed since earlier chase-the-dots versions it's just the auto-complete that has been added and is perhaps a little disturbing because it can complete very quickly. MichaelO has tested it and believes it's correct. We're going to do some more before-and-after tests to make sure it's accurate.
Hi Randy,
I took some flights after doing the compass calibration with the latest mission planner, when I ran the log analyzer the logs from the 3 fights all had a big fat FAIL next to compass. I can tell you with the auto-complete, I never get past 1-2 axis rotations.. I can't imagine it's enough..
I then re-did the compass calibration on my laptop which had a slightly older version of MP(1.3.10 i believe), where I did the compass dance until I had 800+ samples. 3 more flights today and no complaints when running the log analyzer.
I don't know if it's related, but I'm also getting an "IMU mismatch - fail (Mismatch: 1.52, WARN: 0.75, FAIL: 1.50)" now which I did not have before - yes I re-calibrated accel.
Hi,
I was flying today with my quad and had strange issue with RTL, as soon i switched into RTL the copter descent fast and landed (nothing broke but i cannot find the reason why this happend. (it is the second occurrence on this quad) tried afterwards few times but RTL was normal !!!)
could someone have a look at the attached log and tell me whats wrong ?
Thanks
Thomas
Thomas,
Logs??? Did you forget something??
upps.. file was too big and no error message :-(
2014-11-15 15-51-43.rar
nobody :-(
Thomas,
Sorry, I should have replied earlier. When I try to download your .rar file I get an access denied error. :(
Regards,
Nathaniel ~KD2DEY
-
32
-
33
-
34
-
35
-
36
of 262 Next