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!

Replies

Greg Fletcher May 23, 2015 at 4:09pm

I have been having one small issue ever since 3.3 RC-1. I have yet to see a landing detector disarm. I have been landing in loiter mostly. I just go to stabilize and disarm. I remember it working before with 3.2.

I am also getting the vert ekf error, but the bad ahrs warning went away with rc5. Will test rc5 shortly. Yesteday was rc4.
DG May 23, 2015 at 4:02pm

I am very much convinced at least one EKF error is a result of the recently updated MP. My large Y6 which is on r3 had zero errors after many flights. Today I connected to MP and right away a EKF error pops up.
UAS_Pilot May 23, 2015 at 10:31am

I was recently flying my quad with 3.3 RC3 and it suddenly flipped into the ground. I have attached the log. I ran the auto analysis and it failed the brown out test. I never had this issue prior to the 3.3 update.

Here is the log.

Any help to determine the failure would be appreciated so that i might avoid this is the future.

It is using a PixHawk with 3DR Power Module

Thanks

Joe

2015-05-12 18-38-29.bin

2015-05-12 18-38-29.log
- Developer
  
  leonardthall > UAS_Pilot May 23, 2015 at 9:46pm
  
  Hi UAS_Pilot,
  
  I can confirm looking at the logs that the autopilot wasn't running when you crashed. It looks like you lost power to the pixhawk.
  
  Sorry about your crash!!
  - UAS_Pilot > leonardthall May 24, 2015 at 10:19am
    
    All connections were good on the airframe. Not sure why the brownout. I will be rebuilding it. I don't think vibration caused any issues, during this flight I was flying pretty hard whil in stabilize mode.
    
    Thanks for the information I will look over the system really good during the rebuild.
    - This reply was deleted.
      - UAS_Pilot May 26, 2015 at 7:37pm
        
        Thanks for the info. I will replace the PM and the cables.
    - Marco Paggot > UAS_Pilot May 24, 2015 at 10:40am
      
      In my case I had brownout because of APM power module. As funny as it sound it just had not enough power. 7.5A BEC resolved problem.
- Greg Fletcher > UAS_Pilot May 23, 2015 at 4:03pm
  
  I haven't looked at your logs, but if it was indeed a brown out reboot it is not a software issue. That's hardware. Check power connectors that could be intermittent with vibrations. If the log just stops, it reset for what ever reason.
  - UAS_Pilot > Greg Fletcher May 23, 2015 at 6:16pm
    
    I get that, But why would this start when I updated the firmware. I have flown it with 3.2.1 for 3 months with no problem. Just wondering. I will look over all parts on the PM and cables when I rebuild.
    
    Thanks
    
    Joe
    - Cala > UAS_Pilot May 23, 2015 at 6:50pm
      
      Perhaps vibrations affect a connection?

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Copter-3.3 beta testing

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