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
Marcus,
Thanks for the testing, report and logs.
The usb-connected is only visible in the 9th bit of the DU32 message in the dataflash. From checking the logs it looks to me like that bit is unset (meaning usb is not connected) so it seems to be working. Also the battery failsafe triggering in these logs shows that it's ok.
The issue with the vehicle switching to LAND instead of RTL is because the vehicle was within WPNAV_RADIUS of home. That parameter was set to a very large 30m (i.e 3000). It's not intuitive that these two are linked so I think I'll hard-code the RTL vs LAND distance check to perhaps 2m or 3m.
Randy,
thanks for information an clarification.
So i looked at the wrong bit, sorry...
That the WPNAV_RADIUS is linked to this is new for me.
The failsafe-wiki says:
"Return-to-Launch (RTL) if the
FS_BATT_ENABLEparam is set to “2” (“RTL”) OR the vehicle is in AUTO mode, has a GPS lock and are at least 2 meters from your home position"I think, hard-coded is a good solution.
Marcus,
Yes, the wiki is misleading. Here's the fix to hard-code it to 2m. So we can push that into -rc10. I was hoping there wouldn't be an -rc10 but it's very likely there will be but it should be soon and have very few changes.
Only 2 meters Randy? Is not too little?
"WPNAV_RADIUS" in my opinion was an acceptable value, and configurable, without recompiling the code.
With my big birds for safety reason i takeoff and land about 6 meters from me, and it would help him to do the LAND instead RTL in that radius.
My $0.02...
Maybe we should create a new parameter...
Or we leave it as it was and update only the wiki.
Randy,
thanks for the fast response.
Weird behavior with RC9 and latest Tower app
Copter Failsafed for battery and its action is LAND. As it landed switched to Loiter even if there was no GPS coverage.
Strange and possibly dangerous. Already opened issue for Tower, but RC9 engaging Loiter even without GPS coverage is not good also.
Screenshot of relevant portion of the log attached
Screen Shot 2015-08-22 at 01.06.16.png
Luis,
regarding the compass variance error, it may be a real problem with the vehicle. In particular I see the EKF variances climb a lot once the throttle is raised. Also the field length of the magnetic vector changes a lot when the motor is running.
In the graph below you can see the current (blue) and how the mag field length drops from 535 down to about 300 as the current goes up. Also look at the right side of the graph where whenever there are current spikes the mag field length drops a lot.
I see you're using compass-mot. You may want to re-do that setup or try turning it off after moving the compass further from any sources of interference.
Apparently is a Tower behavior....
https://github.com/DroidPlanner/Tower/issues/1108
although the Loiter change would not be possible.
btw: Thanks Randy :)
Luis,
As discussed on mumble, this is definitely a bug that we will need to fix asap. It seems we allow arming in Loiter with no GPS if the ARMING_CHECKS are set to zero. Even though the arming checks are zero we still shouldn't allow this so we will fix that up. Looking back through the code history, it seems even in AC3.2.1 it was possible to arm in Loiter with no GPS (if ARMING_CHECK = 0) but the GPS failsafe would trigger immediately and the vehicle would disarm.
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