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
Leonard,
Was out flying today, first proper flight since the repairs to the crash damage. My first flight (about 10mins) went perfectly, no issues, no pre-arm errors, no EKF issues etc - perfect! Changed to 2 x new LiPos and went for second flight. Immediately got errors on Mission Planner HUD during pre-arm, showing bad gyro health (never had this in 3.3 until now). I re-powered the craft, this time bad accel health. Tried to do accel calibrate, and got popup calibration error message. Reset the power again. This time compass mismatch error! So some very strange goings on, especially given I'd just carried out a perfect issue-free flight on the first set of batteries. I re-powered again and this time was able to do the accel calibration without error. Eventually got it to the point where it would arm - this time the front left motor (motor 3) did not spin (this brought back thoughts to Leonard's suggestion (earlier in this chain) that there might have been a motor issue which caused a crash in an earlier flight (specifically front left motor). I re-powered several times but couldn't get the front left motor to spin after arming. So packed up and headed home. On getting home I tested the arming again and the motor issue was still there. I swapped servo connectors for motors 2/3 and the motor in the same position remained stopped, so that ruled out the FC output. Then I happened to push the cable tie holding the ESC on this faulty motor and the ESC chimed into life and initialised - after this the motor span upon arming! So I have orderd a new ESC (x-rotor 20a).
My concern however is with regards to all the pre-arm issues reported on my second flight attempt (detailed above). I used to see similar issues with 3.2.1 where the first flight would be fine, then on connecting new batteries and attempting second flight, I'd get a bad IMU issue on IMU2 (it was discussed in this thread: http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/pixhawk-bad-accel-health-apm-3-2-...). Until now I had not experienced this same issue on v3.3 (any rc revision) with the same Pixhawk FC (even though somone in that other forum post suggested my FC has a physical issue). I have attached what I think is the correct log for this last attempted flight.
Any insight would be awesome. Thanks, Paul
224.BIN
Once I had a situation like you did: motor either will start than would stop midflight as soon as I'll give it more throttle, or won't start at all. Of course I thougt it is a bad ESC first, but ESC turned out to be actually great, the problem was a tiny fracture of the motor lead after they enter the Bell. Also, regarding the bad accell health, the issue is in the hardware, I've actually did a good deal of research about powering LSM 303D and it appears many people from other projects not pixhawk have the same issue with it, because they do not power it down properly. A great and safe fix is to actually put 4.7k resistor on the PM power output. This takes care of it, but I'm lazy to dig out the PMs from some copters, so I just short their PM input leads.
The one I have actually ordered is this:
http://www.banggood.com/New-Pixhawk-PX4-Autopilot-PIX-2_4_6-32Bits-...
It is an exact pixhawk pin to pin compatible spinoff. I call this a clone, as it's not made by 3dr, so maybe just semantics. It is however built to 3dr specs.
Yes Paul, I recall. The issue is in the proper Vcc filtering sad to say, but a friend of mine nas exactly the same issue on a 2.6 board. also why buy clones when there are plenty about $100 dollar legitimate pixhawk pin-to-pin compatible spinoffs made in EU and having a local US distributor with great CS? And even a ~$65 pixhawk Lite version from China, which I heard works good for a 270 sized racer. About the last one, I think they are violating a TM though.
Artem, It was actually you who responded to my enquiry regarding this issue in 3.2.1 in this thread http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/pixhawk-bad-accel-health-apm-3-2-...
As I didn't see the same issue (until now) in 3.3rc5 I presumed that the new EKF routines had found a way around the hardware issue, but given my latest experience it seems not! I just ordered another Pixhawk clone from banggood - it is built to the latest v2.4.6 3DR hardware spec. The description says "Our products use imported ultra compact MIC5332-SSYMT Power Supply IC is consistent with 3DR The chip also with output enable, POR, CSET, and other functions", and "Improvements on v2.4.5(added the second PMEG2005CT and 350ma ResettableFuse)". Do either of these improvements possibly provide a potential solution for these pre-arm accel/gyro issues would you think?
Hi Paul,
Great news that you found your issue with the front left motor. I hate issues like that!!!! All good until they aren't, then crash!!!
On the pre arm checks. I am personally still getting up to speed on the EKF and we don't have log when disarmed turned on most of the time so we don't see what is going on here normally. So I am not the best person to help you there. (I had a look)
One of the problems is we are trying to warn the users about possible problems with their autopilot earlier. We may be simply being too picky or the EKF maybe starting from a less than ideal starting condition. I am not sure yet.
My 1st flight on 3.3-RC5 had no real issues on my X8 but like you, when I changed batteries I started getting all kinds of warnings in mission planner. Bad EKF variance, Bad Gyro Health, Compass Mismatch.
I unplugged the lipo and let it sit for about 5 minutes. When I plugged it in I still got a ton of EKF variance mixed with BAD AHRS [or something like that] and it was repeating like 2 times a second. All of the hud displays were also kind of frozen while it was repeating over and over these errors. Then after about 2 or 3 minutes they all stopped [the errors] and everything went back to working well.
I'll give it a shot, but this was on a 2.4.6 so it's not going to make a dif where you buy it from :(
Here's a thought, a previous forum topic (linked in my previous message) put this issue down to a psu issue in the Pixhawk - specifically the PSU/voltage regulator powering the IMU2 chip. They suggested a workaround to the issue being that when you disconnect the battery after your first flight, short out the battery cable (the cable from the drone of course, not the actual battery cable!) ..to drain capacitors on the flight controller, and then when connecting a fresh battery for the second flight this would hopefully prevent the IMU2 issue. I havent tried it personally, but I have just ordered another Pixhawk clone (built to latest 3dr hardware spec - it says v2.4.6) from banggood, so hopefully this will resolve the issue.
Had a crash today v3.3 rc5 almost immediately as I started an Auto Tune. I had done a couple of short flights and all seemed to be working well. Installed fresh batteries climbed to about 30' went to Alt hold after a few seconds flipped the switch for Auto Tune. the Hex immediately rolled to the right and found the only chain link fence within a mile. If possible, I'd like some help understanding the log attached.
2015-06-07 09-10-02.bin
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