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
Good to know thanks Bill
Does this mean GPS_HDOP_GOOD should be set to 230-92=138 or is it just a display issue in 'Flight Data' ?
The new default is 140, so you should set it to something like that if you are still seeing 230. 230 is now too high for true HDOP, was ok for PDOP. The 140 figure comes from Randy comparing before and after and scaling 230 appropriately, so I don't think anyone really knows if 140 is the "Right" value, but its a lot more right than 230!
Indeed the value should be lower then the original 230..., so reduced to 140, which doesn't prevent arming, and is allowing me to take off in Loiter.
Did see the fast flashing green indicator as well, so is fine during flight..
Be careful with this setting for HDOP_GOOD, if you activate geofence you will see what factual HDOP and number of satellites it accepts as 'good' until it will finally let drone to arm.
I do suspect a lot of subsequent EKF issues that were reported here may be related to GPS units not yet hooked up to sats at the level that geofence logic assumes to be a good '3D fix'. This '3D fix' level does not seem to correlate at all with what I used to presume as a 'good' HDOP level. It is way, way lower, in the new HDOP values it goes to 12-14 sats and HDOP of 0.90 or something like that. But it flies pretty stable after that.
Bringing this value lower, like 0.90 makes it harder to reach for those GPS units which are not capable of locking 12-14 satellites, like the NEO-M8N which I do use.
With the new code RC8 the valid question is should you move the default of 230 to something lower, like ultrafuge is suggesting, to maintain the same security level as before with the 230 ?
I originally brought it down to 140, as well but then it took quite some time to reach the usual OK to fly which I interpret by getting a green light on the PixHawk, so I did bring it back to 230, but that might actually be too high in this new scenario.
Henri
2015-08-01 11-27-26.bin
you misunderstood.
you may set your HDOP_GOOD to 140 or 150.
After you did that - Geofence still will not let you to arm your vehicle claiming 'need 3D fix' until factual HDOP value falls to way, way lower number.
Try it. Set geofence up and try to arm it up while monitoring what a current value of HDOP is. it will show '3' for gps mode, will show lower hdop than your hdop_good but will not arm.
so my guess was - there is something more to it than just hdop that geofence is looking at.
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