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
Gleb,
1. If you power off GPS1 it should switch to GPS0.
2. No. It simply relies on the number of satellites to determine which GPS to trust.
3. No, it's only fed the data from one GPS based upon the simple satellite check above. What you're implying is correct though, a better method would be for the EKF to look at both GPSs and determine more intelligently which one is better. That'll be an enhancement in some future firmware I expect.
Thanks Randy,
test :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpd6HZchtH4
Gleb,
Ok, thanks for that. I'd never seen how it responds in practice.
So it's a slightly messy transition as it switches from one GPS to the other. The sharp move is probably exactly the difference in position reported between the two GPSs. So clearly what we should do is when there's a transition we should move our target position as well.
-Randy
P.S. Slightly dangerous testing - it always makes me nervous when I see people that close to a flying copter. Maybe wear gloves next time or a suit of armour. Thanks for the data though!
+1 @gleb, many thanks for the test!!
Hi Randy,
Thank you in advance if you could make it more smooth since I had similar situation but ended with crash since it was switched to GPS1 from GPS0 right before I landed around 50cm above ground in Loiter mode when GPS Glitch occur.
Thanks
Waladi
Spotted in 9) b) : "Allow control of camera zoom for upcoming IntelEdison/Sony QX1 camera control board"
I haven't managed to find any information on this. Has anyone got any details? It sounds very interesting!!!
Tobias,
This is something that Jaime Machuca has been working on (with some input from me). It's basically an intel edison with the sparkfun serial block and console blocks. It runs MAVProxy which has a new module allowing control of the Sony cameras using their wifi interface. I have one and it seems to work and I'm expecting Jaime will do a blog post in the near future.
Thanks Randy! I'm really looking forward to this blog post. Using the sony QX1 or QX10 will be awesome for high quality aerial photography with relatively small size copters.
What signals this new feature accepts (PWM/IO..)?:
"5) Aux channel features:
a) Emergency Stop - stops all motors immediately and disarms in 5 seconds"
I'm planning to try 3.3. parachute functions this week. 3.2.1 version parachute function didn't work.
Henri,
The emergency stop feature is controlled with a ch7/ch8 (up to ch12 now actually) auxiliary switch (i.e. set CH7_OPT to "31"). I think Rob or I will do a little video showing the difference between the emergency stop, the interlock and the stop/brake flight mode... Rob's away this week though.
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