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
It also looks like it is acting on the geofence breach for sure as I did try that on RC7..(outside ;-) )
It obviously helps that when you take off, it usually starts acquiring more Sats end that might help GeoFence as well.
So you are saying that when you are flying as soon as it hits the 230 value, your fence might not work ?
That would be very bad, as it gives you a false sense of protection against fly-aways.
I have my fence up all the time, and fully trust the protection... ;-(
ok, I see it on both my vehicles so it may not be just a glitch.
What I say - I set HDOP_GOOD to a certain value, like, let it be 201.
if GeoFence is not set active everything is OK - you are able to arm in loiter mode as soon as HDOP value reaches 200 or lower.
If I activate GeoFence, then it reaches 199 and upon arming request it still responds 'need 3D fix' and continues to respond like that for awhile. Like, until actual HDOP value I look at drops to below 100 and GPS locks into 12-13 sats.
It does not do same for you? on rc8 or rc7? try it in front of your house where gps signal may not be as ideal as in the open field.
at 200 value I have usually 8-9 sats locked into. If it is just me on rc8 who got this I am quite surprised, I will try to look at it again, but so far it is quite consistent.
Only good thing is - my big M8N unit after initial delay at first arming hooks very fast into 12-15 sats for the rest of the day, so, it is not a big issue.
And I most of the time take off in Stabilize and then switch to AltH or Loiter while in the air, but I never take off without the green signal, can't even arm in that case...
But I will give it a shot, just to see what it will do, when I do have a green indicator, switch to loiter and try to arm..
If it will prevent me the arming in the field, it means that the green, or minimum HDOP is not enough...
Now I think about it, it may have seen this in the Auto mode...
Recently I tried to arm, in Auto mode, and lift the throttle, and then, while a had a green indicator, it just beeped at me...
So had to switch to Stabilize, took off and at 1 meter switched to Auto, which took care of the rest of the waypoint traject, but that could have a small change from within the code as well...
So I didn't think it was strange..., I may have been in the same area, that the HDOP wasn't low enough for a proper 3D lock.., which is kind of essential for flying Auto modes...
So PaulA is correct in thinking there's more to it than just the GPS_HDOP_GOOD check. The EKF has it's own checks that involve:
So what can happen is that even if the hdop values are low, the EKF checks may not have passed and we don't report that well. It'll just say "Waiting for 3D lock" (or something like that). That's a bit misleading and we should fix it.
BTW, if you're going to do a mission, it's best to first arm in Loiter or PosHold instead of Stabilize, AltHold or Acro. This better ensures that the GPS checks have passed before you try to enter AUTO. The failure tone you heard was because those checks hadn't passed when you switched from Stabilize to Auto. I'm just saying you might as well make sure those test have passed while the vehicle is on the ground if you're planning to do a mission.
So a green indicator on the PixHawk, while fence has been setup, isn't valid to assume you are good to go..
Taking off in any of the GPS assisted modes is a better check.
That is a kind of misleading I think, I.e green light should be good in all cases ?
So a combination of GPS being below the HDOP value, as I think number of Sats is specified with it's own indicator (default 6)
AND EKF initial values (while still on the ground) passing correctly should be used to present the green light on the PixHawk might be a better approach?
Just a suggestion...
if you activate geofence it will not matter in what mode to try to arm - it will not arm until geofence is happy with GPS signal quality.
rom one perspective it is annoying, from other perspective, for FPV long flights I prefer to arm when I know whatever logic is in there - it is happy with how GPS signal looks like, so it is a catch22.
I think may be it would be nice to get a confirmation from EKF developers if 3D lock is now an essential requirement for any GPS and non-GPS flight mode, for EKF to function properly as I am not sure I understand all implications there.
GeoTagging and Log problems with rc8
My Italian friend Jacopo have some problems with GeoTagging the photos taken with his multicopter.
He have done some test with rc7, rc8 and some other test by downgrading to rc5.
The problem that his copter have is are the follwoing:
-He can not geotag in the right way the photos (rc5, rc7, rc8)
-The log are wrong. Something very unreadable (rc7, rc8)
-Open the Mission Planner and try to set up a log bitmask type, save the parameters, disconnect from mission planner, unplug the copter, re-plug the copter, connect the planner, and you will see that the log bitmask is not anymore the same. The log bitmask is changed. (rc7 - And also I have this problem with my copter).
Attached a log created by rc8 (Jacopo, since you are reading, tell me if I wrote something wrong).
Here is the link.
I can not upload directly since is more than 7MB
http://www.4shared.com/file/z0d_Bjfbce/2015-07-27_19-09-57.html
Randy, can you tell what is happened?
Can you tell how to fix it?
I hope this can help with the development.
Seems to be a few problems for us mapping. When using Pix4d to geotag (since mission planner will crash with 3.3 in the geo tagging window), it's not orientating the photos correctly. With camera facing forward selected, the log should assign a kappa angle of 90 degrees. Instead you get like 1 degree which is portrait mode. Don't want to deselect camera forward as it would mess you overlap spacing. It's still possible to map, but it's a workaround.
What this the last beta version of AC3.3 without "Compass Variance" issue?
It is the rc5 or rc6?
I don't think you'll see any improvement by going back in beta versions. -rc8 is the best version we have so far.
The compass variance is a warning which is shown by the mission planner for a full 30 seconds in case the EKF reports, even for a short time, that the compass data didn't match the rest of the sensor data (gyros, etc).
AC3.2.1 uses DCM+InertialNav and doesn't have a way to recognise the compass is bad unless the vehicle is moving so this is a new protection in AC3.3.
I just did a quick test and found I was able to rotate the compass up to 35deg before I saw this error. At the same time I've heard a few others (including RobL from the dev team) say they see this error often.
I found that if I left the compass in it's new orientation, after about 15 seconds the EKF would start adjusting it's orientation to match the compass and then the warning goes away.
Anyway, I can ask Paul Riseborough (EKF master) to look into whether it's too sensitive. If others could test approximately how much they can move he compass before it appears, whether the messages clears and whether the vehicle's heading on the HUD eventually rotates around to the new heading that might clear up if people have different behaviour.
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