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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        • Developer

          Thanks for pointing people at the wiki page.  I've added a bit more information below the graph on that page saying how the number is calculated and providing a link to the short function in the code that does it.

          We're not sure yet how high the vibration levels can be before it starts causing problems with control.

          I think if you're not getting clipping the vehicle will be kept under control - i.e. it won't do any rocketing into the sky.  It's also likely though that the higher the vibes, the bumpier the alt hold will be.

  • Hi,

    is it okay to use the autotune values for pitch and roll in arducopter 3.2.1? 

    which parameter changes the new autotune?

    • Developer

      SpeedyHulk,

      Yes, the PID gains from AC3.2.1 should work fine on AC3.3.  I tested with my IRIS using the standard parameter definition file from 3DR and it flew a-ok.

      • Good morning ,

        sorry for bad english. my Problem is,with 3.2.1 and tbs style Frame i have very aggressive "rate" d  and p values on pitch. there a many wobbles at full Speed. i read that with 3.3 i can make autotune less agressive. so i thought, i test 3.3 and use this values on 3.2.1. the reason is, i´m not sure how stable the 3.3 rc´s are. my first test was with rc5 and i had the Problem in Mission planner that baro alt was after arming very strange. sometimes it was minus 15meter. so i didn´t test in the air.

        yesterday i flashed the copter with rc7 and this Problem was away. perhaps i have time to test today.

        i like arducopter since two years. but on bad days i hate the pid tuning;)

        best regards

        edit: Change autotune in 3.3 only the "rate" values or something more (for example ATC)?

  • Randy,

    Flew my Y6B last evening just prior to a squall coming through the area.  Test was mostly in PosHold and Loiter to evaluate GPS accuracy and RC7.  Flight went well at low altitude so I pushed it up to 100-150ft and hovered her in the winds.  She preformed quite well.  After I landed I downloaded the logs and took a look at the vibrations.  Both X/Y and Z were well within limits but I when I zoomed into any particular area, I noticed approx. every second or so a dead zone where date dropped out for a very short period of time then picked up as if nothing happen only to drop out again a second or so later.

     

    Has this been discussed in this blog and if not, what is causing this to happen.  I never saw or heard any motor cut outs or irregularities so I think this is in the software side of things.

     

    I will later this evening post a screen capture of this and provide a URL to the log file.

    • Doug, this could be caused by your Dataflash microSD card not being able to keep up with the data rate.  For rc7, the dataflash rate has been increased to 400Hz, so we can gather more data on the EKF performance.  You should notice that the log files are also really big now. This is probably just going to be a temporary thing for rc7.

      This should be no problem for the flying ability of the system, it's just missing data log data.

      The standard microSD cards that come in the Pixhawk can't keep up.  If you want to see all the high rate data, you need a better dataflash card.  Apparently something with the UHS-1 label should work.  But even that seems a bit variable. Some brands work, some don't. I'm using an 8GB Adata UHS-1 card I got for just $7, and it seems to be able to keep up.

      • Thanks Rob.  I will look for a better performing micro-card. 

        • I use the Samsung EVO 8gb microSDHC UHS-1 for bought it for 9 Euro.

          It work on Pixhawk and AUAV-X2.

    • What GPS is it? I have tons of Data drops on m8n units that are set to 5Hz. When I lower to 2Hz they go away.

      • This is related to vibration testing.

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