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
Nice vibration levels, but I'm afraid removing gnd wires from ESCs on pixhawk is a recepy for disaster due to known sync loss issues especially with low kv high voltage, high pole count motors + SK/blheli ESCs.
Castle are well known for quality they also tend to be rather expensive. Since July I use HW xRotor40a-Pro, with breaking enabled they are as as fast as spiders 40a flashed with blheli on low kv otors, but barelly get warm.
Ah, I didn't notice that change. I've heard this same info from Rob Lefebvre.
Joe,
Yes, that's looking very good. Vibe levels are certainly much lower than on my IRIS (which I think is a decent example of an average well built copter). The z-axis is slightly lower and the x and y axes are much much lower. Nicely done!
This my pids: I'm not an expert but, perhaps give you an idea to begin, Pitch is higher (in my case and yours) because the copter have to do more esford to move on that side, batteries are larger to there and a camera, gimbal etc. first to tune be shure that your center gravity is correct in both sides, set your gimbal as near as the main plates as you can; as Leonardthal recommend, do a first autotune and then a second one to fine tune; if you don't like your results, download them by steps, the axis that you don't feel comfortable, you have an easy basic tunning page, try with it first
PD: here you have an autotune topic with good information and where you can post your tune advances http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/ac-3-1-autotune-support-discussio...
Very similar than my new build http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/optimizing-my-first-cuad?id=70584...
I did autotune but without the gimbal in front, then I lower stab pich and roll and rates pitch and roll but pitch stay higher, then I try a second autotune but abort in roll for a lost signal problem and now waiting a calm day to re do for a fine tunning but the copter is flying well, I have to put a cover, look my post. If you want, I can share my actual pids
Perhaps it's usefull if you share a photo of your build, It's looks strange that you have so higher values in Roll than Pitch, did you complete well Pitch and yaw autotune?
It's usefull for experts if you share your autotune log too.
Ok, there seems to be a problem with the centralised builder which is stopping the release candidate from appearing in the mission planner. It's getting late in Asia so I suspect it will be a 12h+ delay before it's out.
Thank you for the effort Randy!
I had this bug once. i was ready to take off then a storm of birds was passing by so i immediatly abort the take off.
At re arming the iris took off immediatly. I take it down with the rc controller due to the strange fact and then i power cycle the iris. By luck i didn't engage the missions stored on the iris after the strange take off.
@frederico,
yes, you got lucky there. That's the exact case where it gets itself into a bad state.
@Hien,
ok, sorry for the troubles!
To add a bit more detail, internally Copter has an auto-armed flag that should always be true if the vehicle is flying autonomously. It's primary function is to stop the vehicle from beginning an autonomous mission unless the user has raised the throttle. In the case of the take-off being initiated from the ground station we were not checking that flag.
Copter-3-3.1-rc1 has appeared in the mission planner so all feedback welcome.
It actually has some additional changes beyond this fix:
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