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
Randy, if this is specific to pressure reading in AltHold, would this suggest that we shouldn't see this same issue with PosHold (due to its altitude being determined from GPS coordinates instead of pressure)? The reason I ask, is (and I know this isn't exactly on topic, but since the pressure phenomenon has been present in all versions historically) , is that I see the altitude drop (in 3.2.1) when moving forwards at speed (so at 45deg forward pitch attitude) when I am flying in AltHold mode. then upon a quick stop, the copter climbs to the initial altitude and holds there. Does this suggest that in PosHold, we are still using the barometer for altitude?
Paul,
I haven't seen your logs but what you're describing is likely a separate issue related to the pilot asking for a lean angle that the vehicle physically can't attain while also maintaining altitude. An enhancement request to prioritise altitude over lean angle is here on the to-do list.
Most vehicle's simply don't have the power to lean over at 45 degrees and maintain their altitude. I've been considering reducing the ANGLE_MAX default to 35deg or 30degrees but haven't yet.
In reality it's more like 1 to 2 meters. When descending it's slow, but when it's ascending it goes pretty hard. Sure doesn't look right. I'll shoot a little video with another log. I'm also taking up a 1300mm X8 with the same pixhack. See how that goes.
Oh, you were replying to Julian. I though my vibes were good : )
I've been the pull down menu for vibration... Didn't even realize there was vibe x y and z on the right. These actually look awful! Like 4X worse that what Julian was showing. Are we not using the acc in the vibe pull down menu anymore? Have to find out what the clipping numbers means, but it doesn't look so good.
Shaun,
No, we don't use the MP's dataflash viewer Vibe pull down with AC3.3. I've added a request for MichaelO to update that drop-down to use the VIBE message.
How did you mount your Pixhawk?
I fixed my vibration by this omnimac anti vibration mount: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:163472
Your log looks pretty much like mine.
http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/flying-arducopter/flight-modes/alt...
I am thinking that larger the prop sizes and the lower the Kv the more correction factor is needed.
I am not sure if this is a ground station or software issue, but there should be a way to simply over ride the parameter max range from the extended tuning page to allow for setups which require more correction factor than normal. Auto tune yields much higher values than allowed otherwise. If I try to to tame the auto tune results a little, the only value that can be entered is what max range allows.
I know that you can manually make changes through the full parameter tree, but that is cumbersome to say the least
+1@ Wes.
I think the dev team is trying to get EKF glitches sorted out first. (I could be wrong).
Perhaps three sets of "standards params" could exists: < 500 mm, > 500mm, and >1 metre (<19.6 inches,
> 19.6 inches and >39 inches).
Not sure but as 3dr solo, X8 -M, iris+ etc are very small frames "possibly" mainly interested by small sizes?
(again I am possibly wrong).
Henri
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