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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                  • Developer

                    Hi Pomaroli,

                    I can see the problem in the tune but I don't understand why this is happening.

                    Can you provide some photos of your copter?

                  • Developer

                    Hi Pomaroli,

                    Sorry, it is but it has some data corruption that made it look like it had only one test.

                    Give me a sec.

                  • Hi Leonard, stupid question, are you sure ? because this should be the AT file. See ATT Roll and Pitch, for sure i don't do this manually ;)

              • ok thanks leonard, due to the high KV motors and the small props it doesn't perfom really good for this purpose (ATC YAW)

                I have still the problem that i can't set throttle mid properly. I need to go below 300, something like 230 or so should work. Why can't i set this ?  i know from randy that there is an code defined minimum of 300. Can this be set down ? I worked really hard to get this copter in the air with low weight and high perfomance for akro purpose, in the meanwhile it works pretty good and reliable.

                I've done the tests you've requested i have only to upload it to dropbox.

                • Developer

                  Hi Pomaroli,

                  I don't know what you mean by "due to the high KV motors and the small props it doesn't perfom really good for this purpose (ATC YAW)". I have tuned a number of small quads and they all yaw very nicely.

                  I thought that Randy let the hover throttle drop lower in the final release but maybe it didn't make it in. I will have to ask.

                  • well it isn't so small it's a F550 with 8.5" props and 2208 motors and i thought allways this could be the reason. perhaps it is something else ?

                    What's the impact of throttle mid in relation to the throttle mid ? i think i should start solving this problem if it helps.

  • AC 3.3 RC12 - Advanced Params page - If I choose a value for GPS_SBP_LOGMASK, writing the params causes an error "set gps_sbs_logmask failed"

    the default field setting is "blank" (no value). the three value options in the pick list are "none / all / external" - write params will only complete if I revert the field to blank.

    -just wanted to bring it up for review- i don't really know what this setting does, exactly, or how it is behaving with a blank value field.

  • noticed something which may be a bug- please have a review.  in the HUD, I have satcount displayed in white text. i have the text changed to "M8N - Satcount:

    this status was stuck on displaying 8 - which was the last value when i disconnected telemetry.  i had not closed MP but left it open as I usually do.

    on reconnecting telemetry to the FC today and powering it up, i was getting the normal warning errors "gps numsats 4, need 6" because I had just powered up the pixhawk.  The HUD display for satcount never updated and was stuck on 8 even though there were of course not 8 sats. 

    i removed and re-added the numsat item to HUD and it was now correct (4 sats at the time). 

    i guess this may be a screen refresh glitch - wanted to bring it up since these items are rather important to always rely on for correct status.

    • ^^ AC 3.3 R12, sorry forgot to put that in-

  • I'm happy to inform that my first flight with RC12 on my old extended f550 (680mm) was a complete success. I configured the landing gear also on CH9/RC9 and did a couple of RTLs and the gear was deployed perfectly. I transferred the tuning from my 3.2.1 backup and it flew as locked in as ever. I may try auto-tune when I get some time. A little bit of toilet bowling on a full 360 yaw (I'm talking circumference of about 4metres), but likely due to compass/GPS module not being perfectly aligned. I tested Stabilize, AltHold, PosHold, Loiter, and RTL and am totally happy with the performance of all of those. I had a GPS HDOP of 0.6 which is the best I've ever seen it bizarrely - but no wind today and unusually warm here in bonnie Scotland today which all helped the flight. I'm sure I'll get to test it in more windy conditions before too long at all! Thanks ever so much to the devs for your awesome efforts - I can't praise you guys enough. I love Arducopter so much I just bought a AUAV-X2 for my acro quad, so will have some fun setting that up (I'll be following your post Leonard to get the config sorted on that). Thanks again guys!

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