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 Randy
With reference to this paragraph...
"You must be using a 3DR Pixhawk and there was a manufacturing problem between June 2014 and Feb 2015 (I think those dates are correct) so it might be possible to do an RMA. When you talk to 3DR you could point them at this post and tell them you heard it was related to how the boards were being cut that led to a high number of MPU6k failures. I'm not sure if they'll replace your IRIS+ or Pixhawks of course, a long time has passed since that manufacturing problem was found and fixed.
This is not aimed at you but a product sold in the EU is covered for 2 years under warranty (Directive 99/44/EC ). I believe i have this very issue with the IMU's and was very disappointed to be told 3DR warranty is 90 days !
Naively i assumed the suspect imu is the 2nd one and turned that one off. Have i made a mistake ? I'll try the other way around.
TriTran,
Yes, amazingly, you have the same problem as Vesselin in that IMU1 (MPU6k) has failed. So you could likely get around the problem by setting INS_USE1 to 0 but a better alternative would be to replace the flight controller. You must be using a 3DR Pixhawk and there was a manufacturing problem between June 2014 and Feb 2015 (I think those dates are correct) so it might be possible to do an RMA. When you talk to 3DR you could point them at this post and tell them you heard it was related to how the boards were being cut that led to a high number of MPU6k failures. I'm not sure if they'll replace your IRIS+ or Pixhawks of course, a long time has passed since that manufacturing problem was found and fixed.
By the way, the reason this problem appears in Copter-3.3 and not Copter-3.2.1 is that we make use of both IMUs in Copter-3.3 while in Copter-3.2.1 we only ever used one. As a side note, Paul Riseborough tells me that the new EKF (EKF2) coming with Copter-3.4 would have done a better job of picking which IMU to use. Still, that's a software solution to a hardware problem - it's better to replace the flight controller.
Randy, TriTran,
I know what caused your z accel divergences. It's from your buzzer/speaker causing imu1 to get an aliasing offset due to the frequencies involved. I had the same problem a while back. I looked at your df to make sure I got the time scale right.
1) The problem happens concurrent to a mode change.
2) It last for about the time of the mode change beep.
3) The problem wasn't present with 3.2, but started with 3.3 ....3.3 was the first to use the mode change beep...mmm?
I had the exact same thing and thought my imu1 was failing. Turns out my buzzer was way to close to the pixhawk, but wasn't causing a problem until the hot glue securing the buzzer gave up and some how this made it louder ?
Unplug the buzzer and do a test flight and you will see :)
Ya, saw the exact same problem. Is your buzzer close to the pixhk ? Ya I'm pretty sure. Took me a while to figure out. When you know, all the seemingly unrelated changes become obvious.
It is strange, that buzzer generates signals after ARMing.
My Mariner copter is closed body design, and never hear the buzzer.
I do not think that anybody will listen it in the flight! For security reason is better to disable the signals after takeoff.
Right of course! Sorry, we've seen this before, it just slipped my mind. Thanks for that Greg!
@Randy
Is there a way we could check pixhawks not yet integrated in a system for this fault?
It would help a lot
Thanks
Duffy,
The divergence should be visible through the mission planner's Status tab (go to Flight Data screen and look on the bottom left) and then compare az vs az2. The difficulty is that the problem is intermittent. So for much of the flight above the numbers are very close. In fact, we have a pre-arm check that will warn, "inconsistent accels" if there's a problem before takeoff.
Randy,
Every day in every extent I am learning something more.
Thank you for the graph and the explanation of the problem source.
I must confess I noticed it but didn't know how to interpret the sudden separation.
This one goes into my knowledge book.
I am no log expert, but here are my 2C
Your vibration levels seem reasonable for me, so I don't think it's a vibration issue.
But when I checked you CTUN.ThrOut it has a mean value arround 510, and your THR_MID is set to 700.
So when you switch to one of the altitude mode your throttle jumps to 700 and your IRIS+ fly's to the skies.
Try setting your THR_MID to 510 and see if that helps.
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