Developer

ArduCopter-3.2 beta testing

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)

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        • I was playing with these Parameters but I can set what ever i want, there is no change.

          Same with the PHLD_BRAKE_ANGLE and PHLD_BRAKE_RATE.

          I´m using EFK enabled!

        • Developer

          I agree, i've already reported this problem many times to the dev group.
          Personally I always leave "ATC_RATE_FF_ENAB" enabled, without is too sluggish.

          • I guess it's all about Props weight and inertia. APC SF 1038 are heavier than APC SF 1047 and have more inertia but less air resistance for turn, so there should be additional settings (maybe curve) for such props to fix overshoot problem.

  • Hi, I have been away from the scene lately. I have a quad that I use as a test bed. It has an APM 2.5 with ublox GPS and external compass. The current firmware on it is 3.1.1 and I use Mission Planner (MP) 1.2.95

    Seems things changed a lot lately. I wanted to do a compass calibration the other day and saw videos that explain different methods. 

    I did the compass calibration (old style). Now I wonder what happens if I upgrade to latest MP or go to AC3.2. Which one brought the new style compass clibration? Is it the MP or AC3.2?

    If I upgrade to AC3.2 with my current MP 1.2.95, then do I need to perform the new style calibration? Or the new calibration is as a result of new MP regardless of AC firmware?

    Could someone care to explain?

    Thanks

    • Update all, 3.2 is great and you need new MP to have pos Hold mode, it's impressive.

      • Thanks. I will update eventually but I would like to do a few test flight with 3.1.1 first. 

        It is always better to fly older version so you can feel the difference when you update.

        If I update the firmware to AC3.2, do I need to use new compass calibration or it comes after the MP update?

        Do you know the answer to this?

        Just my curiosity...:)

        • Warnings recommend compass for Pikhawk but I clear all params and tune again all because many things change in this firm, I suppose that isn't mandatory to update the MP if you don't want to recalibrate or use the Pos Hold but I prefer to update all. 

  • Developer

    Swift,

    It's not about the firmware being loaded.  The parameter descriptions and range limits are held in an xml file that we publish on ardupilot.com.  It's up to the ground station to parse that xml file and display the descriptions and enforce the limits.

  • I was trying out circle mode and ROI for the first time with my tricopter.  My test was simply circling a tree.  I couldn't set the circle radius greater than 1500 using Mission Planner 1.3.10.  1500 was still a bit too close to make interesting video of the tree.

    I also noticed that Mission Planner stated that a few other parameters were out of range.  I'm thinking that maybe the current released Mission Planner has not be updated for 3.2 yet.

    Other than that, everything seemed to worked ok.  Sometimes a jerk happened between waypoints which I think has already been mentioned.

    Of course this may be user error since this is the first time I'm trying to use Loiter_turns in a mission.

    • Developer

      Brian,

      Thanks for testing.  If you can give me the names of the parmeters that show up as out-of-range I can have a look.  The most common cause of these problems is an out-of-date mission planner.  So Mission Planner caches the parameter ranges so even when we update them on the ardupilot server, Mission Planner doesn't automatically pick them up.  If you go to the Flight Data screen and press "Ctrl-F" then click the "paramgen" button, wait a couple of minutes, then restart it it might pick up the updated parameters.  This is really a mission planner issue and although I can pass it onto MichaelO I don't have any control over this really.

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