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!

You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!

Join diydrones

Email me when people reply –

Replies

                • Speaking of speculation - where was the black cat at the fateful moment?

                  George

                  • Any motor mounts of mine that have failed (or needed replacement because they were at risk of failing), did so at roughly that same location - where they join the arm, often via a stretch of material that is narrower than the rest of the mount. Even worse, manufacturers compound the problem by cutting material out of the mount nearby, further concentrating the stresses. I guess it looks cool.

                    It begins with stress-weakening, barely visible (maybe just a local discolouration), then hairline cracking (still easy to overlook), then sudden, catastrophic snapping.

                    I make my own mounts now, and I avoid that narrowing phenomenon entirely. It's trouble.

                    George

          • From your last log file of the actual spin out your RC Out 1 lost traction causing the value to max out, see graph. I would just hold down the quad and test the motor using the Pixhawk motor test at 100%. I don't know what the purpose of the simulator is when you already have one built in. Once you can identify it and reproduce it on the ground follow standard troubleshooting by swapping one component at a time. Don't over look the power distribution board. I just had an integrated one go bad on my Tarot 680 Pro hex driving me batty for a few days. One motor was slipping poles at > 65%. Good luck.

            Dave Wood Plot.jpg

            • The purpose of the simulator was to identify ESC sync issues. They are caused by fast variations of throttle input. With the simulator, I can put out much faster variations of throttle, but it still didn't fail.

      • re- log confusion... I have that confusion myself MANY times. Sometimes they are listed in a different order on the SD card than on my HD which makes it easy to make a mistake. 

    • Developer

      Hi Dave,

      The log you provide doesn't appear to be from your crash. Can you please give us that log.

      • I uploaded the right log as an answer to the first post now, thanks for having a look :)

      • Hello, I think you maybe downloaded the wrong log.
        After a request, I posted a log of the Copter flying OK:
        http://diydrones.com/xn/detail/705844:Comment:2137633
        The crash log is in the first post:
        http://diydrones.com/xn/detail/705844:Comment:2137266

        • The log from the first post (http://diydrones.com/xn/detail/705844:Comment:2137266) is definitely the crash log, as you can also see at the errors, it even detected the crash in the end!

          3702802029?profile=originalYou are right, the download of the OK-file doesn't work. Will upload that again when I come home.

          Not being able to see the spinning in the att.yaw log data also confuses me hard.

          Has to be an error in that sensor then doesn't it?

          Also what do the big jumps in that data mean? The heading can't jump that fast?

          • Developer

            Hi Dave,

            Those errors don't mean this is your crash log. I am 99.9% sure (I am never 100% sure) you have the wrong log. Nothing matches your video.

This reply was deleted.

Activity