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
It looks like the WPNAV_SPEED and WPNAV_LOIT_SPEED have been set to zero somehow.
By the way, the .bin files are actually better to provide than the .log files. The .log files are bigger and they're converted from the .bin files by the MP on the machine that does the download. It looks like your MP might be slightly out of date so it's been unable to convert the .log file completely correctly so for example the flight mode strings are not provided, I can't see the flight code version that's being used either. The TUNE variable is strangely missing as well - so I can't see if it was the ch6 tuning that is the cause of the zero WPNAV_SPEED param value.
So, although the analysis is not complete, I'm pretty sure that this WPNAV_SPEED is the problem.
Thanks Randy. I'll send the .bin files next time. I was using the .log files, converted via apmplanner 2.0.17-58 with a quick and dirty awk script to find the GPS gaps. I guess I should do a fresh conversion using the latest missionplanner before I trust the data then. I routinely use apmplanner, missionplanner, and tower to change parameters. I don't remember which GS I used this weekend when I adjusted my YAW PIDS a bit (The autotune left it a little sloppy for 2D gimbal use), but I didn't change the WPNAV*SPEED parameters and I can't see why anything would change them randomly. I'll compare to my last saved parameters and see if anything else changed! Any idea how they could get set to zero without explicit action on my part?
Thanks!
--Brad
Brad,
It sounds like an issue in one of the GCSs. I'd guess the mostly likely culprit is AP2 followed by Tower but that's purely a guess based on how much testing and how many users the platforms get. It could be MP. If you can reproduce it or narrow down which GCS did it then we should file a bug report in the issues list for the offending GCS.
Brad,
Thanks for the report. Do you have a dataflash log? If it loses GPS it should enter pilot-controlled Land so it should descend slowly but the pilot should have control over the roll and pitch as if in AltHold.
Tower may report "Lost GPS" when the GPS goes into a new state, "4" which means it has SBAS. This is actually very good quality signal but Tower may not recognise that state yet. I've noticed this once I think so we need to get the Tower guys to sort that out before AC3.3 goes out.
Randy,
Thanks for the quick response. I thought I had it figured out, but now I'm just confused. :-)
I do see the GPS status changing from 3 to 4 about the time I might have heard one of the lost gps messages. But I do also see a big gap of GPS reports in one of the logs, but now, i realize the gap is in the flight where it started out bad and the flight where it went bad later doesn't show a gap.
--Brad
I've taken the liberty of sharing a link to the logs via google drive to your email. I hope that's OK.
Yesterday, I tested this new release (rc8) , in Stabilise, Posholt, AltHold, etc….
And I’m surprised with results. Really, really good (for me J ).
Looks like the commands are more “precise”, in stabilize looks like AltHold….
Telemetry over 4g works fine too with Mission Planner.
My motors are very “strong” but I never flew with so strong wind,
attached only I short video in stabilize mode….very good flight even with strong wind.
Congratulations, this new release looks very good
I’m running this new release with Navio+ board from Emlid, really good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8rd4Mmn...
Robert,
Nice to see the Linux boards (NAVIO+) being tested here. There's been a lot of improvements in the Linux code over the past couple of months. Besides the contributions from the Emlid and ErleBrain teams Intel (a member of DroneCode) has one of their open source developers helping us quite a bit now. Glad it's paying off!
Randy,
Very good job!!!... really thanks.
Regards
HI Devs,
Has something changed with MAVLINK from 3.2.1? I have a an app that works perfectly on an APM3.2.1, but on my PIXHAWK running 3.3rc8 it doesn't get the correct descriptions for the flight modes; although it will still switch them.
Any thoughts?
Cheers, Mike
I wanted to report that after using OF, the pixhawk refused to acknowledge the existence of a GPS device, as well as refused to output FRsky Telem on SERIAL_2. Had to reflash to 3.2.1 for normal, non-OF flight. Also, it seems that the ARM warnings (Accel, gyro, compass health) are all triggering for no apparent reason, even after re-calibrations. I will attempt to post dataflash logs and telem logs later. Just be wary that there are oddities after using Optical Flow.
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