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
Danny,
I've added that note recently because flying the vehicle first on AC3.2.1 helps separate vehicle build and setup issues (i.e. vibration levels, compass setup, PID values) from the beta firmware issues. If you're using AC3.2.1 and see something strange, because it's such a stable release, you can almost immediately be sure that it's a vehicle frame issue. New vehicles especially those from first time builders often have a lot of small problems and it's best if we don't spend time on this thread investigating these types of issues but instead focus on finding and fixing beta firmware issues.
Thanks Randy, my previous quad was on 3.2.1 it was a home built and worked fine. I will continue this build with 3.3, if I encounter probs I will revert to 3.2.1 as part of the fault finding. That sound OK?
Danny,
Yup, that sounds great, thanks.
@Leonard
Here's the latest AT on the test quad using rc9 with AUTOTUNE_AGGR set at .08; don't know what you'll say but it sure seems to fly good, better than it ever has, including much reduced fast decent wobble. The pitch went from 15 to 5.6 with rc9.
Now I have confidence to put the big Y6 up on rc9 with AT. This will be interesting using TM 15x5 props as rc8 resulted in not so great stability.
Hi DG,
The tune looks good but it is interesting that the Stab numbers came out reasonably low. I would be interested in seeing the Autotune log.
I am glad you are enjoying the copter!!!!
Thanks!!
Leonardt, here are PIDs returned by ATT on AC3.3-rc9
and here is the log: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByNP743-FSrrTGxlcHc5MEtYams/view?u...
all controls feel a bit sluggish and attitude does not track well with the desired.
Hi Artem,
Sorry but that log doesn't have a full autotune. You may need to do your autotune again. It makes a big difference if you can do it in reasonably good conditions.
Hi Randy,
RC9 flies great with a regular transmitter. I did autotune with RC9 - great values. When you descend staight down in the prop wash it is so stable - wow! Many thanks to all the developers.
But I have big troubles with guided mode and with the Tower App.
Normally I use my own followme-box (a Teensy with 433MHz Telemetry) which actually sends guided waypoints with velocity and position targets every second (it uses the mavlink command send_mavlink_msg_set_position_target_global_int), which works well up to 3.3RC8. With 3.3RC9 the copter does not move at all, nor does it turn the yaw axis in the right direction (but it seems to adjust the gimbal pitch which is connected to RCout 7 on my copter). I still can arm, disarm, takeoff and land. Did anything change on the commands to be sent for guided mode? Dataflash logs xxxFollowmexxx.bin attatched
Then I tried the Tower-App, which ended in a crash:
I armed and sent take-off a few seconds later, but the copter did not take off and disarmed instead(or at least stopped the props). A few seconds later I tried arm again, but it not only armed, but also took off immediately (shot into the sky) and loitered in its normal hight (10m). I then switched to followme, but it did not follow, nor adjust the yaw axis. After about half a minute all 4 motors switched off and the copter fell out of the sky. Luckily just the cheap landing gear was broken and the cheap 5.8G FPV antenna badly deformed. I do not understand what happened. I do not see any flight mode change nor any other command that initiated switching off all motors. I have updated the 3DR Services app to v1.3.3 just before the flight (and rebooted the phone). Tower App was v.3.1.6. Normal RC Transmitter was operational at hand, but not used. The dataflash log is attached (xxx_Crash_Tower.bin) and it would be great if someone could help me understanding what happened.
Andreas
2015-08-23 14-56_Crash_Tower.bin
2015-08-23 14-29_FollowMeOK_RC8.bin
2015-08-23 14-51_FollowmeNotOK_RC9.bin
Andreas,
Thanks for the reports. The issue with the vehicle just falling looks suspiciously like a calculation error like a NaN or Infinity crept in somehow. I'm not a big Tower user but I'll try and reproduce this.
As for the follow-me box not working, I think the issue must be caused by this change or this one.
We've started processing the coordinate_frame field from the SET_POSITION_TARGET_GLOBAL_INT and SET_POSITION_TARGET_LOCAL_NED messages. The full list of frames can be found on this page (search for MAV_FRAME) but we only accept a subset.
SET_POSITION_TARGET_LOCAL_NED only accepts MAV_FRAME_LOCAL_NED, MAV_FRAME_LOCAL_OFFSET_NED, MAV_FRAME_BODY_NED, MAV_FRAME_BODY_OFFSET_NED
SET_POSITION_TARGET_GLOBAL_INT only accepts MAV_FRAME_GLOBAL_INT, MAV_FRAME_GLOBAL_RELATIVE_ALT_INT
My guess is that your follow-me box is using the global-int message and needs to set the frame to:
MAV_FRAME_GLOBAL_RELATIVE_ALT_INT (=6)
Randy,
Thanks for your reply. It seems that my followme-box used the very similar frame type MAV_FRAME_GLOBAL_RELATIVE_ALT (=3) and not MAV_FRAME_GLOBAL_RELATIVE_ALT_INT (=6) as you stated. Interresting that it worked until v3.3RC8. I will change my code and test probably tomorrow, when the rain stops.
Regarding the crash with Tower: Here we have to find out if Arducopter or Tower/3DR Service App is the culprit.
I checked again the log and the EV messages state DATA_ARMED, 8.5s later DATA_AUTO_ARMED (I don't know what that means) and 0.6s later DATA_DISARMED, no TAKEOFF or whaterver.
When I armed again on the mobile phone the props were not spinning and the copter was sitting on the ground (normally when armed the props turn very slow, no chance to lift the copter). The message DATA_ARMED was 5.5s after the disarmed message. Was this too short to confuse the FC?
The strange thing is, that 12ms ! after the arming message there is the message DATA_NOT_LANDED. There was never a takeoff and ardupilot seems to think it's flying and shoot up in the air with max power to its normal takeoff hight of 10m. This immediate reaction with full throttle after arming could be quite dangerous, when you expect just slowly rotating motors. In RCout I saw one line with about mid throttle after arming,then close to full throttle until it reached the 10m hight.
Regarding the landing detector I have to say that I often problems problems to land this copter as it jumps around several times until it really settles down.
I thought that the only way to turn the motors off by a GCS during flight, would be to switch to a mode with manual throttle control and RC override the throttle value or an emergency stop command. Would I see these commands in the dataflash log if they were sent to the copter? I haven't found anything.
Unfortunately there is no .tlog on the phone from TOWER for this flight, also not for the previous flight with 3.3RC8 (only for the earlier tests with the earlier versions of the 3DR Services app).
Andreas
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