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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Replies

  • do we know when RC8 will be released? 

    • Moderator

      Randy said Monday on pg 193 that he thought it would be out "Later this week".

      Regards,

      Nathaniel ~KD2DEY

    • "we" don't and I am pretty sure the devs don't either yet.

  • So, yesterday i make 3 Flights with HDOP 1.6-1.8 thx Randy the Settings SBAS_MODE and MIN_ELEV help me.

    So i have a new Failure: Droneshare Mission 2

    Tlog

    3702053719?profile=original

    The Altitude Jumps from 0 at arm to 199m this is so strange i flys in 10 meters.

    The other Test Fly same Problem 

    Droneshare Mission 1

    • Your "Altitude AHRS2" reference has nothing common with pressure altitude coming from Baro and that you should look at.

      So I see no failure... maybe a little confusion about the terminology.

      Marc

    • Developer

      Please can you share the dataflash log about this event?
      I haven't found altitude (baro) problem in the tlog, max 10 meters.

  • Hi Randi and all the devs! After giving my tricopters a long rest I came back to one of my birds and decided to update it from 3.1.5 to 3.2.1 needless to say the eimprovement is apparent, however it seems that there is a new minimum value for Stab Yaw - 3.0 For the tricopters I usually like my Yaw at around 1.2~1.4 and MP doesn't allow me to set it lower than 3.0 through the extended tuning and starts to complain that the number is out if range when I change it in the full parameters list. So will something really bad happen to my tricopter if I set it lower than 3.0? I mean will it cause some sort of mistake in the code like dividing by 0 or out of bound array? 

  • Randy,
    Is a repeatable 'error compass variance' condition pose any issue for a ekf system? May it produce any side effects like non smooth mvement at loiter or circle or will system revert to a stable compass and ignore one with a variance?
    • Developer

      Paul,

      I think it could lead to the EKF not using the compass so it could be serious.  I've heard from Rob as well that he often sees this on his TradHeli but it's not clear if his frame is the issue or if the EKF is being too strict about the compass quality.  I suspect it's the latter.  If you've got a dataflash log I think we should ask PaulR to have a look and we may need to adjust the EKF's strictness.

      • 3702711037?profile=originalone more question on same topic that I had for quite some time.

        if we have an internal and an external (in the GPS unit) compasses, which one is which in the parameters?

        I just applied copper foil to the bottom of the AUAV case and same copper foil on top of X8R unit that is right under the FC case and ran compass recalibration, in the same spot where I did it before.

        Compass offsets always change a ton after each calibration and it always somewhat puzzled me, how can it be so?

        look at prior and post results. Obviously an external compass should not have been affected, as nothing was changed on the drone or wires around it. Yet both compasses show new offsets, with first compass showing major change and second just a bit of it.

        So, is it a COMPASS_OFS2_% set of parameters that applies to the GPS based compass?

        BTW, even after this foil around FC and X8R it still pops up same compass variance error when I move drone around by hand.

        as I fly it a lot in the simple mode I can say it is reliable and does not ever confuse its rotation/location, so compass data quality should be quite adequate but I am not sure which data set it uses.

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