Developer

Copter-3.3 beta testing

Warning #1: an issue has been found with Tower's Pause button which can cause the vehicle to fly to an old position if the vehicle has not sent a position update to Tower in some time.

Warning #2: Copter-3.3.2 fixes a bug found in Copter-3.3.1's desired climb rate initialisation which could lead to a sudden momentary drop when switching from Stabilize or Acro to AltHold, Loiter or PosHold.

Warning #3: Copter-3.3.2 fixes an issue found in Copter-3.3.1 which could lead to hard landings in RTL or AUTO if the WPNAV_SPEED_DN was set too high (i.e. >400 or 4m/s) and/or the WPNAV_ACCEL_Z was set too low (i.e. <100 or 1m/s/s).

Warning #4: a bug was found in Copter-3.3 which could cause a sudden crash if you abort a Take-off initiated from a ground station.  Video description is here.  The bug is fixed in Copter-3.3.1 so we recommend upgrading.

Note #1: AC3.3-rc8 corrected a long standing bug in the HDOP reporting.  HDOP values will appear about 40% lower than previously but this does not actually mean the GPS position is better than before.
Note #2: if upgrading from AC3.2.1 the vehicle's accelerometer calibration needs to be done again.
Note #3: set SERIAL2_PROTOCOL to "3" and reboot the board to enable FrSky telemetry like in previous versions.
Note #4: the wiki will be updated over the next few weeks to explain how to use the new features

Copter-3.3.1 is available through the mission planner.  The full list of changes vs AC3.2.1 can be see in the ReleaseNotes and below are the most recent changes since AC3.3.

Sadly this version (and all future versions) will not run on the APM2.x boards due to CPU speed, flash and RAM restrictions.

Changes from 3.3:

1) Bug fix to prevent potential crash if Follow-Me is used after an aborted takeoff

2) compiler upgraded to 4.9.3 (runs slightly faster than 4.7.2 which was used previously)

Changes from 3.3-rc11:

1) EKF recovers from pre-arm "Compass variance" failure if compasses are consistent

Changes from 3.3-rc10:

1) PreArm "Need 3D Fix" message replaced with detailed reason from EKF

Changes from 3.3-rc9
1) EKF improvements:
    a) simpler optical flow takeoff check
2) Bug Fixes/Minor enhancements:
    a) fix INS3_USE parameter eeprom location
    b) fix SToRM32 serial protocol driver to work with recent versions
    c) increase motor pwm->thrust conversion (aka MOT_THST_EXPO) to 0.65 (was 0.50)
    d) Firmware version sent to GCS in AUTOPILOT_VERSION message
3) Safety:
    a) pre-arm check of compass variance if arming in Loiter, PosHold, Guided
    b) always check GPS before arming in Loiter (previously could be disabled if ARMING_CHECK=0)
    c) sanity check locations received from GCS for follow-me, do-set-home, do-set-ROI
    d) fix optical flow failsafe (was not always triggering LAND when optical flow failed)
    e) failsafe RTL vs LAND decision based on hardcoded 5m from home check (previously used WPNAV_RADIUS parameter)

Thanks for your testing!

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        • +1. It would be very logical. we have 850, 1000 and 1200.. so that would be a very welcome "new" parameter.

      • Here is the log. I'll do another try on Wednesday when it should be less wind here and of course I can do another test when the next RC is out.

        39.BIN

        https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3702693408?profile=original
        • I restarted the Autotune since the quad descended really low the first two times and I didn't remember it doing that on the previous version.

          • Developer

            Hi Maciej,

            The release went out with AUTOTUNE_AGGR set to 0.05. This tends to be a little sensitive, the default should be 0.1.

            I suspect we will get a lot of failed autotunes until the next release candidate because of that default value.

            Thanks!!

            • Great, thanks for the info :-)

  • Loaded 3.3 today, previous 3.2.1 flies fine in PosHold but with 3.3 I got error (Flightmode err 16) and PosHold is not working
    Loaded 3.2.1 back and it is rock solid in Poshold.
    I did not change anything between the 2 versions
    Did this (Note #1: because of the accelerometer range change (see 6b below) this upgrade will require the vehicle's accelerometer calibration to be done again.)
    Log from 3.3 attached 2015-04-13 19-18-15.log
    Log from 3.2.1 attached 2015-04-13 18-38-21.log

    Logs zipped

    I tried to upload the logs, zipped and plain but it will not work.

    How to upload logs??

  • Tested 3.3 today using Stabilize, Position Hold, Auto and Guided.

    Test was done in 20 to 25 mile per hour winds.

    If it weren't for the new tones between modes and landing I wouldn't know the difference.

    The Altitude is still moving around.

  • just a feedback...I flashed the firmware, I haven't changed anything on my setup, just the firmware. Upon flashing, I cannot control my Alexmos gimbal's pitch. The Alexmos board is connected to the Aux1  port of Pixhawk which is programmed for the tilt control. It was working on AC3.2.1 before, but after flashing, the problem was there. I reverted to AC3.2.1 and again I can control the pitch. I tried to reflash AC3.3rc1 afterwards, but the problem persists. I used to control the pitch via RC6, the Gimbal is configured before in AC3.2.1, Can you help me please?

    • perhaps I need to rewire my gimbal to pixhawk... Can somebody enlighten me about the serial interface? i believe I am using the PWM setup, with RC9 (Aux1) connected to the Alexmos gimbal RC_pitch.. 

      Or it would be better if I can still use PWM for the RC pitch of the Alexmos BGC..

      • Anyone else having this problem?

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