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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  • RC7. 

    This hexa aircraft act like an angry mosquito on steroids!

    It did starts this ekf-2 error. Don't know (what it is) or why.

    bin file included.

    Just for info: Flew without any vibration on 3.21.

    Did not even take off. As soon as a bit of throttle is applied, it want to go up very very nervously!.

    Thank you in advance.

    3702038199?profile=original

  • I flew 2 batteries on rc7 today with no issues other than some altitude jumping in althold and poshold. I don't think that is firmware related but I do think the jumping is hardware related on my auav-x2.
    • Sorry for so many posts. Here is the download link to the log mentioned. It was just outside the native upload limit.

      http://1drv.ms/1Hr8iaR

      • Developer

        Just to compare Artem's (correct) interpretation of the IMU data, I checked out the new VIBE message.  It also shows the vibes are many times higher than my IRIS and more seriously there's a lot of clipping on both the primary and secondary accelerometers.

        3702706904?profile=original

      • no wonder your copter jumps up and down :) your vibes are waaaay over the head.... check all the bolts, make sure that your frame is structurally intact and that your props are balanced. 

        3702706783?profile=original

        If using case, make sure your board is not "dancing" inside or if the whatever mounting option you use did not come undone. 

        • My props are well balanced and everything seems secure, but I will give it a good once over to see if I can find anything that would be contributing to vibes. I guess there is no reason delving into this further until I can get the vibes in line.

    • please elaborate on the alt jumps on x2....  are you using foam/case or not..... 

      I though it only was my old x2.... 

      • I have x2 on 2 systems with rc7 and other than certain altitude drop during fast flying it has no jumps or unexpected movements.

        If I let it be on its own it recovers altitude to what it supposed to be. Drop of altitude is usually apparent when it is lower than 3m or so, may go down 2m or so, then crawl back up. there is foam on the baro, on both cases.

        I also believe all parameters should be left exactly as autotune sets them, for best performance. there is one parameter people were writing about here - ATC_ACCEL_Y_MAX - boosting it up from autotune value resulted in extremely sensitive vertical movement in stabilize mode and it made practically impossible to set drone to sit on a constant altitude in stabilize, in my case I moved it from 17000 value to 27000 value.

        But it did not affect behavior in the alt hold at all.

        • Developer

          Hi Paul,

          Especially with rc7 I think people should generally only drop the ATC_ACCEL_X_MAX values unless they want to have very aggressive handling.

          The parameters 

          MOT_THST_BAT_MAX
          MOT_THST_BAT_MIN
          MOT_THST_EXPO (0.65 to 0.75)
          MOT_THST_MAX

          should be set by the user before autotune.

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