Discussions

PixRacer with Ardupilot

Posted by Randy on February 9, 2016 at 4:47pm

This is a discussion to focus the feedback and support of ardupilot on the PixRacer board from AUAV.co.

We believe that all teething problems encountered are now resolved and so we recommend people load Copter-3.3.4 which is available for all multicopters through the Mission Planner's (and other GCS's) Install Firmware screens. Note that because regular Pixhawks are still on Copter-3.3.3 the install icon may show Copter-3.3.3 but rest assured, Copter-3.3.4 will be installed (you can check the version by looking at the very top of the Mission Planner).

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apm:copter, arducopter, ardupilot, pixracer

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Replies

- - - - Phillip Kocmoud > Scott W February 21, 2016 at 9:14am
        
        While I cannot confirm it is genuine... Here is the chip under the cover of my units.
        
        Phil
Developer
Randy February 19, 2016 at 10:10pm
Tridge and I have released Copter-3.3.4-rc2-pixracer so it can be downloaded using Mission Planner's beta firmware link. The fixes are in the ReleaseNotes but they're just small changes:
- fix SBUS input
- ignores accel and gyro errors during first 2 seconds of startup
We will give it a couple of days and if no significant problems are reported we will promote it to the official version.

Thanks for your patience in getting this sorted!
- Randy Bachtell > Randy February 20, 2016 at 3:47pm
  
  Randy, do you have any information as to the UAVCAN issue with Zubax GNSS2? According to Pavel it is a break in the UAVCAN code in APM. My racer works with PX4 stack/Zubax but still no communication on the APM side.
  
  Thanks, R
- crayfellow > Randy February 20, 2016 at 10:19am
  
  Randy, for Mission Planner users, it seems "Beta firmwares" does not make 3.3.4 available.
  
  Should it be available on the firmware site (http://firmware.diydrones.com/Copter/latest/) or somewhere else? I do see V3.4-dev is here, but not the pixracer branch. It looks like the Travis build may have failed too?
  
  Thanks for your work on this!
- gervais > Randy February 20, 2016 at 12:56am
  
  > fix SBUS input
  
  The PPM Failsafe issue with Hott (Fs PWM), as described earlier, is fixed as well. Thx !
  
  Recovery behavior is somehow different. The Pixracer has to be rebooted, to recognize the Rx again.
Developer

Randy February 19, 2016 at 12:42am

I think we've gotten to the bottom of the "Bad Gyro Health" issue and I hope to release Copter-3.3.4-rc1-pixracer tomorrow with a fix.

The issue is there are errors on the SPI bus during the first 2 ~3 seconds after startup. It could be the board's power is coming up slowly but I'm not a hardware person so that's just a guess.

The same things happens on the Solo so we're using the same fix which is to ignoring errors during the first two seconds after startup. If the communication problems persist, the Gyro errors will pop-up meaning that this patch should not make the system less safe.
- Edgar Scott > Randy February 19, 2016 at 1:08pm
  
  Awesome work Randy, can't wait to get this in my micro quad.
  - titeuf007 > Edgar Scott February 19, 2016 at 3:02pm
    
    thanks randy for all!
- Tony K > Randy February 19, 2016 at 12:01pm
  
  fantastic new randy. You guys rock! Beers on me :D
- Cala > Randy February 19, 2016 at 3:18am
  
  Great news :)