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!

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        • I've got two copters with them now.  One is from HK, and the other is from readytoflyquads.  The mini M8Nv2. 
          HK gets a few more sats, but I think that's due to the layout of my copter (650 vs 250). 

          Both have the same behavior.  Great in the clear sky, but jumps around more than previous GPS when lower to the ground. 

          It's raining now, so probably not a good time to get a log.. But, I can certainly make one.  I simply have to arm it outside and let it sit stationary, and we can see MP thinks it's drifting all over.

          I'm not all that concerned, since it's ok high in the air.  Maybe I'm expecting too much, and am unlucky that my flying/testing ground has a few trees. 

      • I've had very good results with the M8N on both a copter (3.3 rc5) and a fixed wing (3.3.0). My quad loiters with (at max) a 50cm drift in any direction. 

        I have experienced the drift you describe above, but only when I've been inside or amongst tall buildings (both times the quad stationary and on the ground), but I attribute this to not having a clear view of the sky for the antenna.

        • Well, I should have been more clear in my description.. 
          Or at least added, the copter is very still when it is up above the trees.  I don't notice much drift at all.  But, down among the trees with a patchy view of the sky, I still have over 15 satellites and a low HDOP, (below 2 with the old pre rc8 hdop numbers) but the copter drifts all over as I described. 

          The old copter with lea-6 didn't drift as much in the same location, with fewer sats and higher hdop..  Sparsely wooded..  Clear sky directly above, but trees nearby.. spaced apart enough to comfortably fly around them. 

          • that is why a best design is to use 2 GPS devices and use 1 m8n and one lea-6 on the same vehicle.

            As Randy stated an effort will apparently take place to minimize position adjustment when one GPS switches with an another dynamically. As of 'jumping' coordinate from same single GPS - it is a different issue, probably.

  • Hey Randy thanks for looking it up. We also found the "step" in the logs with our analysis. As nobody replied here the discussion and possible reasons are being discussed in a Navio's forum thread.

    The build was from the DIYdrones website with the normal image and a custom launch script. The current hypothesis is that 2 instances of the the executable were running at the same time in our setup thus causing some kind of weird race, although in previous versions I have tested this could not happen even if we tried.

    Unfortunately my card got corrupted and I cannot recover it until September. If we have more news and the Emlid forum thread progresses I will update this mini thread.

    Also, can I add a timing glitch check to your LogAnalizer script so that it checks for this condition in the future?

    Thank you for your help

    Paulo Neves

  • I did an auto tune this morning with the default settings.

    Roll came out close to what it did with 3.2, but Pitch was over aggressive- osilating with sharp stick movements. Yaw turned out well also.

    [URL=http://s1239.photobucket.com/user/86burbguy/media/Mobile%20Uploads/6EAEA882-88ED-4E84-90D7-AA2F68FA8BB1.png.jpeg.html][IMG]http://i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff502/86burbguy/Mobile%20Upload...[/IMG][/URL]
    • I know I can adjust the aggressiveness of the auto tune and rerun the single axis, though in a case like this where I have a pretty good idea what the pitch value should be, it would be nice to just enter the desired value in the extended tuning screen or be able to manually tune the axis through channel 6.

      Given that Pitch value is more than twice the normal limit, even the Roll axis which is tuned nicely is over normal limits, I am stuck going through the full parameter tree or rerunning the auto tune.

      It would be nice to see the tuning limits expanded or more easily orveridable than they are right now.

      image.jpg

      http://tune.It/
    • Developer

      Hi Wes,

      I would suggest doing just your pitch tune again. Make sure AGGR is set to 0.05.

  • This reply was deleted.
    • Developer

      Hi Greg,

      It definitely looks like it rolled to the right and pitched up before you hit the ground suggesting the right rear motor gave out.

      What motor smoked?

      • This reply was deleted.
        • Developer

          Hi Greg,

          I like people to log 157693.

          Yes, coming in hot will defiantly cause it to pitch back. The pitch is much less obvious than the roll and that confused me a little. So what you says makes sense.

          Sorry to hear about your crash!!

This reply was deleted.

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