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!
Replies
So given that I've been proved correct on this issue I'm tempted not to reply, but there are some assertions you make that I'm not sure I understand so I'll dig a little.
I'll note in passing that I did not start the thread in drones-discuss I merely followed up with a report, patch and pull request that highlighted the issue. If that was not on topic enough then IMO your bar is too high. I would kill for that sort of customer feedback to my own software development team.
So back to the GPS, so I think I was under a misapprehension here - assuming that the gyros are calibrated when the accels are calibrated, but of course they are not. Why is the GPS used in the calibration at all? I can fly without a GPS, and I'm guessing I always need gyros so its certainly possible to calibrate without it - so what is the GPS adding to the equation? Also, when the Gyros calibrate at power up there is never a GPS lock, so using the GPS seems erronous, so why would you?
Andy, I'm really impressed that you actually went and made some effort to fix a problem and then went and made a pull request.
Thank you. I really appreciate your effort and your contribution.
I didn't realize the group was for developers. Are my issues with 3.3's autotune and gps health off topic? Don't want to bog you guys down lol! At least there's answers unlike to olds days of flying DJI : )
Shaun,
The drones-discuss@googlegroups email group is mostly for developers but this thread is all about AC3.3 beta testing. So this is the best place to raise issues related to AC3.3's autotune.
Thanks for your testing!
AC3.3-rc4.
Quad with Pixhawk RFdesign telemetry, clean power to Pixhawk (no switching power supply). M8N external GPS/compass.
Arming is ok but then..
Got EKF variance message..
then Bad gyro health..
then these messages go away.. Not sure if it is a real problem or not..
(perhaps not the right spot to ask but just in case: Is it possible to return home instead of launching {arming} spot?)
Thank you.
Henri
Craig,
thanks for the info! Makes sense!
Can you give some value/threshold of the velocity error allowing gyro calibration?
I can't reply to my branch so I'm forced to start another...
To recap. 3.2.1 works great. The Pix I'm having a problem with came with the IRIS. The IRIS is one of the Dev editions were an early release of the IRIS that were used to iron out issues before the general release. I've flown the IRIS many times and mostly used it as my test bed for beta software releases. Beginning with 3.3 I can no longer use it for this purpose. The firmware loads fine but once it's on there I can no longer connect to the Pix. I've used both radios and USB to attempt to make the connections. 1 of 2 things end up happening, either it does attempt to connect and it doesn't, or (rarely) it does connect but it is extremely slow in downloading the parameters. Anyway...
No change in the behavior for me loading up 3.3 on my Pix.
This time I took my SD card out of the Pix and formatted in my pc and then attempted to load up rc4 on it.
The firmware loads but I can no longer connect,.
-Mike
When I downgrade back to 3.2.1 and fire up MavProxy I have 100% signal with no packets lost.
This is using the same computer and cable as from when I reported the 47% signal loss... though that may actually be a 53% signal loss now that I'm looking at what a clean signal looks like.
-Mike
I went ahead and installed MAVProxy so I could look for information about the MAVLink stream and found that I'm experiencing a 47% loss right now.
I upgraded this Pix to 3.3rc4 and then fired up MavProxy to see what would happen and I'm getting messages like: APM:PreArm:RC not calibrated and MODE Stabilize so obviously some level of connection is occurring but I'm guessing that the 47% loss is where the trouble lies. :-)
I've tried 3 different cables now too and the problem remains.
I've never used MavProxy before so if anyone has any ideas on what to actually test for please feel free to toss out suggestions and I'll see what I can do.
-Mike
Tarrot 680 Pro (hex), Emax 3510's and 1355 Carbon on 4s flew faultless 'out the box'. Ahead of the flight I redid the compass, flights modes and accelerometer, that's it - everything else I as stock as I had completely erased everything from before. I noted on the bench the Altitude seemed very accurate, I am yet to review the logs from the flight but by eye it all seemed great - Stab, Althold, Loiter and PosHold. I didn't do an auto tune as it was very gusty.
Brilliant work, thank you!!!!
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