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!

You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!

Join diydrones

Email me when people reply –

Replies

        • Developer

          Igor,

          I think Zeal pads are probably ok as well.  I haven't used them personally but I've heard some good things.

          • Can you have over damped solution? I have $_12.JPGand zeal under it and flight controller attach with hobbyking Flight Controller Mounting Pad

  • This reply was deleted.
    • Developer

      Andrei,

      We've seen these "whiskers" in a few logs including on one of my IRISs.  They only appear on the MPU6k accelerometers and only on AC3.3 (i.e. not on AC3.2.1).  There's a growing sense in the dev team that we've got either a software bug or a weird physical effect.  We're going to need to get to the bottom of this issue before we release AC3.3.

      Thanks for these logs.

    • I'd say something is loose due to all 3 axes exhibiting vibration same order harmonics, also high Z compass offset. Note high RCout as well.

       

  • This morning I tested 3.3-rc3 in Guided mode for the first time.  I used dronekit-python and an Iris+.  I was able to arm and takeoff, however, despite giving an altitude of 5m in the takeoff command, the Iris climbed to only about 10cm.  On a second attempt, it climbed to about 1m.

    We then reverted to 3.2.1 and ran the same script.  During takeoff, it climbed to ~5m as instructed (and as it always had before when testing).

    Any ideas why it isn't climbing properly using 3.3-rc3?  I should mention that all three tests were done in the same location with a clear view of the sky and large numbers of sats.

    Our need for 3.3-rc3 at the moment is the SET_POSITION_TARGET_LOCAL_NED message which isn't supported in 3.2.1.  We would really like to get this figured out so we can move on with our project.

    Thanks for any insights.

    • Developer

      David,

      I'll answer this over on the drones-discuss or gitter threads 'cuz you've posted there as well and it's really more of a developer question,

      • Randy, et.al., We are experiencing same rc3 issue. Lawnmower mode. :) Looked at drone discuss and gitter, cannot find the discussion. Note we are using Lidar Lite but not flow, we did not do the Lidar prearm because we thought it only applied to flow. Any hints? Thanks!
        Mike
  • This reply was deleted.
    • This reply was deleted.
      • This reply was deleted.
        • Developer

          Henri, I'll reply at the latest part of this thread rather than back here on page 42.

  • This reply was deleted.
    • I had similar problem and received the following reply yesterday: 

      http://diydrones.com/xn/detail/705844:Comment:1985502

      in essence: 

      EKF check gives the same pre-arm messages (need 3D lock) but it refers a different, newly introduced pre-arm check.

    • Did you power and an wait for a GPS lock tone before arming and lifting off?  That is something new to version 3.3.

This reply was deleted.

Activity

Jose Araujo liked Jose Araujo's profile
Aug 29
spencer harvey liked spencer harvey's profile
Jul 9
More…