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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        • Does the baro show the altitude is correct in the log or tlog?

          • The log shows the same fluctuation I see on the taranis telemetry.

  • For my purpose Acro and fun Copter use this release RC3 is the best ever. Handles very stable and precise.

    I just have one remark concerning YAW. This issue occurs only when  ATC FF  is turned "on".

    Autotune sets following values

    ATC_ACCEL_P_MAX 95414.84
    ATC_ACCEL_R_MAX 116621.5
    ATC_ACCEL_Y_MAX 14070.54

    What i noticed is that YAW seems to accelerate much lower then Pitch and Roll. Therefore interaction between Roll,Pitch and Yaw has very poor performace, For example, when i'm peforming a dynamic turn Yaw is to slow to interact with PItch and Roll. At the end of the move Pitch and Roll are at the end point and yaw is half of the way.

    • Hi Leonard,

      looking on the DesYaw / Yaw logs, i don't see differences between the new logs and the old one's without ATC FF.

      but ok, i'll do some testing. Basically interaction between Roll,Pitch and Yaw is pretty important on 3D.

      This are the newest Autotune values. Starting from AC3.3 RC3 i use the Anti Vibration Mount.

      "AC3.3 RC3 I" is the newest one which i've done today on open field, "AC3.3 RC3" was a quick one from yesterday in the garage. There are some difference in STB.  i will do more testing soon.

      AC3.3 RC3 I AC3.3 RC3 AC3.3 RC 1 III
      RATE_PIT_P 0.056 0.05 0.074
      RATE_PIT_I  0.141 0.126 0.185
      RATE_PIT_D  0.004 0.004 0.0053
      RATE_PIT_IMAX  200 200 200
      RATE_RLL_P 0.065 0.061 0.098
      RATE_RLL_I  0.163 0.152 0.247
      RATE_RLL_D 0.0042 0.004 0.005
      RATE_RLL_IMAX 200 200 200
      RATE_YAW_D 0 0 0
      RATE_YAW_I 0.045 0.048 0.073
      RATE_YAW_P 0.45 0.488 0.734
      STB_RLL_P 11.659 14.422 9.319
      STB_PIT_P 15.84 8.101 7.403
      STB_YAW_P 6.954 5.462 7.822
      ATC_ACCEL_P_MAX 95414 95432 90272
      ATC_ACCEL_R_MAX 116621 114359 99212
      ATC_ACCEL_Y_MAX 14070 16228 14105
    • Developer

      Hi Poraroli, 

      You can safely increase the ATC_ACCEL_Y_MAX until you are happy. All that will happen is it starts to bounce back as it stops.

  • I appear to be unable to calibrate the accels, every time Bad AHRS and the horizon is wandering. Board and settings are working fine on 3.2.1.

    My board (AUAV-X2) is installed upside down, and as the accelerometer is backwards I normally use AHRS_orientation = 8. I have tried a few orientations now, all with the same result. is it possible AHRS_orientation is not being honored correctly?

    • I see this issue has been encountered by others and is being worked on, see https://github.com/diydrones/ardupilot/issues/2266. Hopefully the fix will make it into rc4.

      • I've recently seen the behavior you are describing as well, but I don't believe it is related to the problem I reported here.   The issue I reported in 2266 only causes small constant errors in roll or pitch.  I did submit a pull request for 2266 last night.  If you can't find the cause of the erratic behaior, you may want to file a separate bug.

  • Tryin 3-3-rc3 on small 600mm CF quad.

    - Could not calibrate accelerometers on the table using radio link. Was successful using USB link first go. ??

    - Compass calibration even with 2,500 + points didn't "auto accept" (using radio link)

    - Radio calibration using Taranis and "native" channel order (e.g. Throttle on channel 3 instead of normal 1) was easy through radio link.

    Using Quanum telemetry, I did disable on board failsafes related to battery..

    Flying test:

    Take off was smooth and easy in stabilize.

    Moving on to ALT Hold was very good.

    As soon as I changed to loiter, the quad decided to go where he felt better and crashed. 

    Perhaps someone could tell me more about it looking at the attached bin file?

    Thank you in advance.

    Henri

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