I'm delighted to announce the release of ArduPlane 2.50 for your flying pleasure. This release has a lot of advances to some of the core ArduPlane code, and should be a big improvement for many people.
Perhaps the most important change in this release is the new DCM code that does acceleration correction based on the GPS. This improvement is based on work by Bill Premerlani which really advances the state of the art for attitude estimation on small microcontroller based autopilots. The improvement in attitude estimation is very noticable in flight, resulting in significantly more accurate control. Many thanks to Bill for his patience in working with Jon Challinger and myself to bring this improvement to ArduPlane.
Other significant improvements include:
- updates to the barometer driver to sample the pressure and temperature much more rapidly, leading to better altitude estimation
- updates to the AP_AnalogSource driver to be interrupt driven, allowing us to sample all analog sources much more rapidly. For ArduPlane this improves the airspeed sensor on the APM2 a lot.
- updates to the waypoint completion logic, to use a "finish line" algorithm. This prevents the problem of circling around a waypoint when we miss it by more than the waypoint radius. The waypoint is now considered complete when we pass a line that is perpendicular to the track, and passing through the target waypoint.
- improvements to the AP_Mount code, allowing for control of roll/pitch/yaw stabilisation via EEPROM variables that can be set over MAVLink. This allows you to setup the mount once, and it will resume operation as soon as you boot. These changes also fix a number of bugs in the AP_Mount code, so it AP_Mount hasn't worked for you, please try again. Many thanks to Greg Fletcher and Amilcar Lucus for the AP_Mount improvements.
- Lots of improvements to the ArduPlane parameter documentation. This documentation should be the first place you look when trying to understand ArduPlane configuration parameters. Many thanks to Andreas Antonopoulos for his great work on generating these wiki docs based on the source code markup.
- New LAND_PITCH_CD parameter to control the landing pitch when not under airspeed control. Thanks to Jeff Taylor for fixing this!
- New SCALING_SPEED parameter that allows you to set the base speed for scaling PIDs. Previously we assumed a standard speed of 15 m/s, which is too low for fast aircraft. By adjusting SCALING_SPEED you can have the same set of PIDs for both airspeed and non-airspeed flight control.
There is one change in this release which may require some re-tuning. We were using the wrong value for time delta when using the PID controller for navigation roll. This has been fixed by making the PID library calculate the delta time internally, but it means that existing HDG2RLL_I and HDG2RLL_D values will be incorrect. I have fixed the defaults, but if you have your own settings for these, you will need to drop HDG2RLL_I by a factor of 5, and raise HDG2RLL_D by a factor of 5 to get the same result as for the previous release.
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this release!
For the next release the plan is to concentrate on improved stabilisation and navigation controllers, based on the great work being done by Jon Challinger.
Happy flying!
Replies
AWESOME! The parameter documentation is very helpful. Thanks for all your hard work.
Today I tested AP 2.50. Works well, I'm glad with it - seems to be reliable.
Thanks to developers!
But I have only APM1280 and had lots of cuts in code. One of them was GPS_PROTOCOL set hard coded to GPS_PROTOCOL_MTK16. It wouldn't be a problem for me because I still use the same kind of GPS and wont change it in near future, but the AP 2.50 won't initialize it properly - every time after AP starts and GPS is powered too I must reset the APM. Thus it gets GPS lock otherwise will not get it even if the blue led on GPS module is solid. Seems like it can't communicate with GPS right after start and GPS is powered. Reset buton must be pushed and then it start communicate with GPS module ;(
Sad because I mentioned this problem in very earlier versions of AP and nothing changed.
This is but the same problem with ACM. For that I use APM2560 thus I could use GPS protocol set to GPS_PROTOCOL_AUTO. In this case AP starts communicate to GPS without problems. Only when I set protocol to exact
GPS_PROTOCOL_MTK16 AP has a problem and I must to reset it.
Google Earth plots from two lengthy Loiters this morning flying an own-design wing with APM1 & AP2.50. Total flight time was 30mins 9 secs with a 3000mah 3S Turnigy pack averaging around 6A for the whole flight. Up is North, slight breeze blowing WSW. The slight deviations in the green plot were a wind direction change (...I think, as I was changing a few parameters at the time).
Works very well, thanks devs & testers
Today I was testing 2.5, something happened. Suddenly the airplane stop climbing and keep the nose down until he landed violently.
I post the log,
In the KML you can see the airplane flying with the heading fixed in one direction, and the airplane turning without following the flight path.
Can you give me an idea of what was the problem ?
2012-07-30 19-23 35.log.gpx
2012-07-30 19-23 35.log
2012-07-30 19-23 35.kmz
Will increasing the Nav_Roll_P tighten up loiter to track a better circle or is there a separate parameter for that?
.
So excited thanks everyone!
Just one problem - since loading 2.50 I need to press the reset button (after cold starting) before it would function in flight mode (APM 1). Terminal mode is fine, without reset.
Could this have to do with the new change re. the flashing of ram when staring up for the first time?
Is it possible to reset home position? I would like to power it up in the pits and let the GPS get a good lock. Then carry it out and reset home just before I takeoff. Is that possible?
I'm having extreme difficulty tuning 2.50. I never was fully setup so I do not know if it is an issue with 2.5 or just my setup. I've attempted the default skywalker configuration but it did not resolve the issue.
While testing FBW_A mode and I go to fully to the left or right with the aileron it rolls over right past the 45 degree limit. I've hit 75 85 degrees before I've had to recover manually.
FBW_A Pitch works correctly and limits it to the 15 degree max pitch up
I also seem to be having issues with it wanting to yaw/bank to the right or left
The plane flys fantastic in manual mode.
any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks,Ken
myskywalker.param
2012-07-29 20-50-05.tlog
ALT_HOLT_RTL command is limited to a maximum of 327.67 m. how to remove this limit?
I've noticed a new option in advanced params--AHRS_GPS_GAIN. The description text in the Mission Planner says this is used to determine how much of the GPS is used to control the plane's attitude.
Since upgrading to 2.5 this morning, I've been watching my HSI in the mission planner slowly wander all over the place. The plane itself hasn't moved; it's sitting in a rack on the table. Yet the HSI says the plane is rolled 90 degrees left and pitched 50 degrees up. Ha--and during the time I've typed this out, now I'm -35 degrees (and diving).
2.4 held solid and true wherever it was placed. Is this new behavior expected and ok? i was excited to try out the cool new stuff Trige described above, but this HSI business and having to wait 20 minutes for 3D lock gives me great apprehension to test it on the wing!
spag
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