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

- Jason McCarthy > Mike Dixon June 11, 2015 at 1:32pm
  
  Excited for when the stable release is out. Im a bit scared to run the beta on my quad, am £ being silly worrying?
  - Mike Dixon > Jason McCarthy June 11, 2015 at 1:50pm
    
    Hmm tough one, personally I thrust the RC5 release. There is no guarantee though as most builds are different, but as I said it works for me! ;-)
    - Jason McCarthy > Mike Dixon June 12, 2015 at 12:22am
      
      Hey Mike. Upgraded to Rc5 this arvo. Installed my lidar-lite in PWM mode and carried out a autotune. All went perfect.
    - Geert Pirens > Mike Dixon June 11, 2015 at 2:06pm
      
      Mike,
      
      What Hexa frame do you have, can you give some more info on your entire setup?
      
      Thx!
      - Mike Dixon > Geert Pirens June 11, 2015 at 2:10pm
        
        Yeah sure; I have a Tarot 680Pro with Emax 3510's and 13CF props, HK 30A SimonK ESC's, 3DR Pixhawk (2 x GPS M8N & 3DR) and FrySky radio gear. I run 4s Batteries.
        
        Cheers, Mike
        
        Geert Pirens > Mike Dixon June 12, 2015 at 3:22am
        
        Mike, thanks for the info.
        
        Have you also done an Autotune or do you fly with Default PID's?
        
        Either way can you make a screenshot of your PID's?
        
        Thanks in advance!
Henri June 10, 2015 at 5:51pm

Pixhawk 3.3 RC5 and Mission planner 1.3.28.4

Trying to use RC6 channel on AUX output to command a gimbal.

I can see clearly that RC6 is active on the radio calibration screen. So pixhawk "sees" correctly this channel

trying to use RC10:

Connecting an oscilloscope on RC9 10 11 12 to "see" what pixhawk is sending on these channels. Trying to map Rx RC6 to RC10 using the Mission planner camera setup as follows:

And checking in mission planner that everything is ok:

Everything looks ok... But it does not work. Surely I'm doing something wrong but what?

I tried 1 for pass through.. Doesn't work either..

Thank you in advance

Henri
- Developer
  
  Randy > Henri June 10, 2015 at 8:26pm
  
  Henry,
  
  Probably just need to set the MNT_TYPE parameter to "1". This is new for AC3.3. In the next release candidate this will be defaulted to "1" if people have been using a servo gimbal in AC3.2.1 so people shouldn't hit this problem.
  - Henri > Randy June 10, 2015 at 9:13pm
    
    @Randy: Thank you for answering. Could you please indicate which (or where) can I find MNT_TYPE?
    
    Thank you in advance.
    
    Regards
    
    Henri
    - Henri > Henri June 10, 2015 at 10:19pm
      
      AND... At the bottom *is* MNT_TYPE..

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Copter-3.3 beta testing

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