ArduCopter 3.2.1 released

Warning: there was a period of about 12 hours after this blog was first posted where an older version (AC3.1.2) replaced AC3.2.1 for APM2. If you think you may have downloaded for the APM2 during these initial period, please check the version on your board by looking at the title bar of the Mission Planner (see the 5th comment from me below for a screenshot)

ArduCopter 3.2.1 has completed beta testing and has been released as the official version available through the mission planner and other ground stations. If upgrading from AC3.2 there should be no need to re-do any configuration.

Changes from AC3.2 are listed below and in the ReleaseNotes:
1) Enhancements:
    a) reduced twitch when passing Spline waypoints
    b) Faster disarm after landing in Auto, Land, RTL
    c) Pixhawk LED turns green before arming only after GPS HDOP falls below 2.3 (only in flight modes requiring GPS)
2) Safety Features:
    a) Add desired descent rate check to reduce chance of false-positive on landing check
    b) improved MPU6k health monitoring and re-configuration in case of in-flight failure
    c) Rally point distance check reduced to 300m (reduces chance of RTL to far away forgotten Rally point)
    d) auto-disarm if vehicle is landed for 15seconds even in Auto, Guided, RTL, Circle
    e) fence breach while vehicle is landed causes vehicle to disarm (previously did RTL)
3) Bug Fixes:
    a) Check flight mode even when arming from GCS (previously it was possible to arm in RTL mode if arming was initiated from GCS)
    b) Send vehicle target destination in RTL, Guided (allows GCS to show where vehicle is flying to in these modes)
    c) PosHold wind compensation fix
    d) prevent infinite loop with do-jump commands pointing at each other
    e) pixhawk memory corruption fix when connecting via USB
    f) vehicle stops at fence's alt limit in Loiter, AltHold, PosHold (as it did in AC3.1.5)
    g) protect against multiple arming messages from GCS causing gyro calibratoin failure

Thanks very much to Marco and our beta testers who put their copters at risk over the past several weeks to help us iron out these issues. Also Thanks to Raph for the video (this is actually a video from AC3.2).

@Patrick, the MPU6k health monitoring is a result of the discussion on this popular thread. This (Pixhawk only) feature monitors (at 1hz) some registers that we know shouldn't change and if they do it marks the accel as unhealthy, resets it and reconfigures it. Marking it unhealthy means that the backup accel (the lsm303d) is used until the mpu6k comes back. The underlying cause is a hardware issue but in the testing we've done the accels recover somewhere between 50% ~ 80% of the time. This means it's really a temporary measure that might save your copter a few times which might give you enough time to notice the problem and contact whomever sold you the board and ask for a replacement. My understanding is that with 3DR board, the MPU6k failure happens more on boards manufactured between June-2014 and Jan-2015 but I'm not totally sure - best to talk to "Vu" from 3DR about that (try on that linked discussion above)

@Emin, yes, AC3.2.1 is exactly the same as AC3.2.1-rc2 (except for the version name change)

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Comments

Distributor

Felix Meissner February 11, 2015 at 9:06am

@ David - thanks for the links. 3DR told me they stopped producing them due to very low demand for this item ... probably there would be a much higher demand for the sensor once it is integrated in the code ...
Cala February 11, 2015 at 8:25am

no, only update,
Michael Beaubien February 11, 2015 at 8:16am

I have 3.2. Does that mean no compass calibration either?
Cala February 11, 2015 at 8:15am

Michael what vers do you have? if it is 3.2 no need
David Skipper February 11, 2015 at 8:13am

@Felix you can buy them from hobbyking (currently out of stock) or banggood do one without the sonar and goodluckbuy have them with and without sonar
Michael Beaubien February 11, 2015 at 7:56am

After updating to 3.2.1 will everyone need to recalibrate everything again?
Distributor

Felix Meissner February 11, 2015 at 6:14am

you say that AC 3.3 will have PX4 Flow support, but 3DR has stopped producing the PX4 Flow Sensor :(
Patrick Wells February 11, 2015 at 5:11am

Randy,

Thanks for the clarification. I've personally had an MPU6k failure in flight that resulted in a pretty nasty crash. 3DR is replacing the Pixhawk for me so we're good there. I'm just wondering if the new update may prevent a crash in flight?
Developer

Randy February 11, 2015 at 4:42am

@Patrick, the MPU6k health monitoring is a result of the discussion on this popular thread. This (Pixhawk only) feature monitors (at 1hz) some registers that we know shouldn't change and if they do it marks the accel as unhealthy, resets it and reconfigures it. Marking it unhealthy means that the backup accel (the lsm303d) is used until the mpu6k comes back. The underlying cause is a hardware issue but in the testing we've done the accels recover somewhere between 50% ~ 80% of the time. This means it's really a temporary measure that might save your copter a few times which might give you enough time to notice the problem and contact whomever sold you the board and ask for a replacement. My understanding is that with 3DR board, the MPU6k failure happens more on boards manufactured between June-2014 and Jan-2015 but I'm not totally sure - best to talk to "Vu" from 3DR about that (try on that linked discussion above)

@Emin, yes, AC3.2.1 is exactly the same as AC3.2.1-rc2 (except for the version name change)
Emin Bu February 11, 2015 at 4:30am

So 3.2.1 and 3.2.1 rc2 are the same?

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