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!

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Replies

      • Randy,

        here is one more log. I have tested RTL manually, I have tested RTL initiated by controller off.

        Both worked fine.

        Final RTL that should be triggered by battery voltage level never started. Here is the log. Could you please explain what is the deal? I did set voltage in the failsafe to 13.9V. I drained poor battery all the way down to 11v. Nothing happened.

        Am I the only one who experiences this? How can it be possible?

        3.zip

        • Developer

          Paul,

          Apologies again for the delay.  I had a quick look at the log and I don't immediately see why the battery failsafe didn't trigger.  I'll review the logs in more detail to more to figure it out.

          • I just made maiden flight on other drone using hex firmware. same thing - voltage goes down below failsafe setting but nothing happens. it is same avau x2 clone but I am not sure if it is hardware.

          • thanks. it looks like a bug to me as I tried all different possible combinations of parameters by now, including and excluding mah reserve percentage - this battery failsafe never triggers.

            • Might be worth flushing your firmware and reloading from scratch if not done already. I think there is a method to ensure a 'clean slate'.

            • Paul do you possibly have something connected to (supplying power to) USB port on the pixhawk?   Battery failsafe won't trigger if the USB is connected.

              • absolutely not. drone was in the air. standard telemetry was supplied from standard Serial1 telemetry port.

                can software confuse somehow Serial1 with USB port now?

                • A while back on APM controllers the stack would sometimes see the USB as connected even when it was not. Kev went so far as writing in a detection for this event in his Log Analyzer but I haven't seen this happen in months so whatever it was has probably been fixed. 

        • Hi Paul,

          I can tell you for sure that this battery fail save is working, but I do have the mAH value filled in as well.

          So theoretically it should either trigger the failsave on a low voltage, or you have reached total capacity of the battery minus the set value (mAH failsave value)

          In the clip I uploaded, you can see it gets triggered around 14:27 see

          http://youtu.be/bwXqhHr-ieM

          This time it activates the land mode because I am very close to the takeoff location.
          If you are further away it will trigger an RTL, and for these reasons I have reserved battery Capacity (2000mAH), to be able to fly back, otherwise it may start dropping out of the sky somewhere out of reach...

          I however have never tried to fill in just the voltage..,

          Erik
          • it absolutely always worked with just voltage. what if I have multiple batteries of different capacity?

            all I care is that it is a 4S battery and at 13.9V I need to do RTL. It does not happen in 3.3rc5. And it was working in 3.2.

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