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!

Randy,

Today I flew the Y6B in Loiter for most of the flight. There was a small breeze with minor gusts.

I powered up the drone and let it sit until I heard the GPS tones, then lifted off initial in Alt Hold but noted it was drifting so I selected Stabilized and forgot the throttle was up around 80-90 percent. So she launched upward and into the breeze which I jumped on and steered it back to my yard. At this point I brought her down to just feet from the grass and put it into Loiter. For the most part the copter stay in the yard area, but I noted it drifted off and on, probably due to GPS accuracy. I also noted that she wouldn't hold altitude and a couple times I had to give more throttle to get it off the grass and back into a higher altitude (roughly 10ft). The remainder of the flight time, she behaved and landed without incident.

But the is questions pertaining to the amount of errors I saw when I downloaded the log (see attached). I'm not sure how to read this part but I noted Err codes.

Err: EKF_CHECK-2

Err: FLIGHT_MODE -5

Err: FLIGHT_MODE -16

Err: EKF_CHECK-0

Note sure what to make of these codes. Could you explain what I'm seeing and if this is of help to you Devs?

2015-04-20 17-01-32.zip

Replies

- - Igor > Randy April 22, 2015 at 4:43am
    
    In my opinion, the fact that it runs only on fast CPU boards is enough to make it a new major version.
    
    So it would be clear for everybody, versions up to and included v3 are APM and PX compatible, v4 and above are only for PX boards (any future fast CPU board).
Łukasz April 21, 2015 at 3:02am

HI!!
AC test 3.3 rc1 continued. I changed the parameters of the ATC and Autotiun the following
ATC_ACCEL_P_MAX, 110000
ATC_ACCEL_R_MAX, 110000
ATC_ACCEL_Y_MAX, 36000
ATC_RATE_FF_ENAB 1
AUTOTUNE_AGGR 0.1
I waited for nicer weather and turned autotiuna. This time is flying almost perfectly, yet I did not have as nice a flying koptera after autotiunie without making changes to the settings, the yaw no jumps, no overshots in pitch and roll. In Poshol is flying nice does not swing when falling. I do not know if I now fly on these new parameters ATC if I change them to Basic? I have a problem with the compass do not know why I Large change in mag_field. I use GPS Drotek Ublox M8N, HMC5983 compass. Calibrations passes, nicely years well, compassmot made, have any ideas on what I am doing wrong ?. For earlier versions of AC was this error sometimes and sometimes not

And my Log for inspection Log

2015-04-21 10-47-42.log

Shared with Dropbox
- gervais > Łukasz April 21, 2015 at 11:30am
  
  I´ve tried the 3.3 rc1 (5a4039d9) with AUAV-X2 and Drotek GNSS M8N XL @ my F450 and its working great in Stabilize, Althold, PosHold and Land. Used my former settings of 3.21 and did a new ACC Cali. No complaints so far. Mission Planner Log Analyser (1.3.24) didn´t show any errors anymore like it used to @ former versions, despite normal behavior.
  
  Surprizingly, the shown values for the MAGFIELD are low as they never were, despite same MAG and Copter location, without even doing a new MAG calibration... Used to be around 520- 550 , now slightly below 400, well...
Doug Walmsley April 20, 2015 at 3:05pm

I performed all axis test individually and the image above shows the end product.
- Developer
  
  Marco Robustini > Doug Walmsley April 21, 2015 at 12:35am
  
  Which hardware setup?
  - Doug Walmsley > Marco Robustini April 21, 2015 at 8:31am
    
    Hi Marco.
    
    I'm assuming you're asking what type of airframe and flight controller?
    
    It's modified 3DR Y6B with Pixhawk. The motors are 690kv running both 1247 and 1347 props. Also have two GPS units on it. Primary is the Neo-M8N GPS only with the Secondary on mast of the Lea-6H and compass. There is also a FPV camera and transmitter on the frame.
Doug Walmsley April 20, 2015 at 2:45pm

Randy,

Today I flew the Y6B in Loiter for most of the flight. There was a small breeze with minor gusts.

I powered up the drone and let it sit until I heard the GPS tones, then lifted off initial in Alt Hold but noted it was drifting so I selected Stabilized and forgot the throttle was up around 80-90 percent. So she launched upward and into the breeze which I jumped on and steered it back to my yard. At this point I brought her down to just feet from the grass and put it into Loiter. For the most part the copter stay in the yard area, but I noted it drifted off and on, probably due to GPS accuracy. I also noted that she wouldn't hold altitude and a couple times I had to give more throttle to get it off the grass and back into a higher altitude (roughly 10ft). The remainder of the flight time, she behaved and landed without incident.

But the is questions pertaining to the amount of errors I saw when I downloaded the log (see attached). I'm not sure how to read this part but I noted Err codes.

Err: EKF_CHECK-2

Err: FLIGHT_MODE -5

Err: FLIGHT_MODE -16

Err: EKF_CHECK-0

Note sure what to make of these codes. Could you explain what I'm seeing and if this is of help to you Devs?

2015-04-20 17-01-32.zip
Rob_Lefebvre April 20, 2015 at 9:50am

It should be fairly easy to get this working unless you have a setup that I have not considered.

You want to set your Ch7_OPT (or whichever channel you want) to 29. 29 will not show up in the Mission Planner parameter description until this firmware goes stable unfortunately. Then, you use that channel to control the gear exactly the same as with any other ChX_Option function. There is absolutely no connection between the incoming channel value, and the outgoing channel value. The RCX input PWM is converted into a Boolean "gear up or gear down" command.

Then, you need to choose which Output channel you will use for the landing gear. Say you are going to use Channel 9. Go to RC9_FUNCTION, and set it to 29, which is the Landing Gear function. (it's just coincidence that these have lined up on 29, normally this doesn't happen).

Then find LGR_SERVO_DEPLOY and LGR_SERVO_RETRACT. These are the PWM values that correlate to landing gear up and down. Set these to suitable values for your mechanism.

Now, when you set the input switch high, the landing gear should go up. Switch the switch to the low position, and the gear should come down. There is also a semi-automatic function, where the gear will lower automatically in Land mode or the final landing stage of RTL. So if you lose radio control and it does an auto-landing, they should drop automatically. There is also protection such that, if your gear switch is in the retract position when you boot up, the gear will NOT raise soon as the system is booted. It will be locked in the down position until such time as you lower the switch, then raise it adiydrones.com
- Rob_Lefebvre > Rob_Lefebvre April 20, 2015 at 10:47am
  
  Sorry for the messy post guys, I'm trying to work out some internet problem on my computer. I'll fix this up so it makes sense when I can.
Emin Bu April 20, 2015 at 8:42am

thx for clarification...

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