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
Hi Leonard
The flight today ended in crash. EKF_GPS_TYPE set to 0 but cannot see much improvement in altitude control. Like the other day it was light wind with some gusts. One gust of wind maybe 5-6m/s and the controller did not manage to keep it stable and down it went. It flies well in stabilize though despite the wind. I guess the autotune parameters from version 3.2.1 are not good for 3.3RC4.
-Arni
2015-05-22 21-47-05.bin
Hi Arni,
Yeh, there are a number of changes that mean some people may need to retune.
Hi Leonard
EKF_GPS_TYPE in the MP full parameter list page is set to 0. But the log shows 1. I guess this must be a bug. Before I installed RC4, I installed the ArduPlane firmware in attempt to get rid of any old parameters.
You can do a full parameter reset if you go into the Advanced Parameters list and click on Reset to Default.
I don't know if that will yield different results from what you did but it might be worth a try. You will have to redo all of your calibrations again with this procedure.
-Mike
Thanks guys,
I will test again with new settings and report back.
Hi Arni,
There seems to be a lot more noise on IMU 2 compared to IMU 1 in the z axis. Funny thing is it is the opposite way around with gyro noise..... Strange.
There also doesn't appear to be any innovations of the vertical gps velocity and the position estimate in the vertical seems a little large.
I am sorry but I can't see any obvious problems. I will have to wait and see if Paul sees something.
Is the DCM Bad Heading warning I keep getting in 3.2 fixed in 3.3 or better? Was / is this a code related issue? I've searched the forum and it seems it wasn't all just set up or calibration issues.
I don't think this is software. Probably either compass or vibrations. I would heartily recommend you try 3.3 because you can get a log of compass health and eliminate that. Do you have an external compass? Do you have a log with this problem in?
I'll try 3.3 next weekend when I get a chance. It's not at my current location. I'll save a log from 3.2 first though. Vibrations are very very low. Alt hold is excellent. I do have an external compass on a mast. This entire set up flew without this issue before but after I re-flashed 3.2 it started giving me the DCM bad heading. Perhaps I should re-callibrate the compasses? Do compass mot again? My offsets are low all except one on the internal is 525. But the external is real good nothing over 80. It's not reliable now,,,, several times I've had to flip modes to stop it from landing. Not good. Thanks Andy
I would redo the calibration. If 3.3 shows the health is bad it may be something simple like a loose connection. Your issue sounds very like mine where the external would go unhealthy and then the FC would flip over to the internal which was less accurate. 3.3 won’t do this, but of course if your compass isn’t working properly then you will soon know about it!
-
480
-
481
-
482
-
483
-
484
of 558 Next