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).

Re the PM warning, there are two parts to it:

1. the PM message doesn't take account of the delay during arming so it reports a big delay in the report that appears in the logs within 10seconds of arming. This is a false positive and nothing to worry about. There's a fix in master that will go out with AC3.3 that fixes this.

2. the timing is indeed a bit rough for the Pixhawk with about 3% of loops running longer than they should. I think you'd be very hard pressed to notice a difference in the flight behaviour though because the loops are still running much faster than on say the APM2. By the way, Tridge and David Sidrane have put a bunch of work into this and it's running as smooth as butter in master now. These speed improvements will go out with AC3.3.

You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!

Join diydrones

Comments

TheMightyThor February 17, 2015 at 6:48am

thanks Rainer, i will get the bec. sorry to take this off topic a bit but i had previously thought landing gear was available ON APM. also thanks for your answers randy. this has the makings of a good tutorial video :)
Rainer K. February 17, 2015 at 5:53am

Yes. the landing gear must be supplied with its own power source or BEC
TheMightyThor February 17, 2015 at 2:26am

Just another thought, when i flip the gear switch it seems like the the APM reboots? is that possible?
TheMightyThor February 17, 2015 at 2:18am

Hi Randy

thanks as always for the response! the servos are just connected to the receiver. i didnt want to run it thru the APM. i thought that was easiest. i really do like the 3.2.1, my craft flew flawlessly i do appreciate the work you and your team have done!

thanks
Developer

Randy February 17, 2015 at 1:13am

Thor,

I think with 3.2.1 we don't have direct support for landing gear. So perhaps you're using the pass pass-through so send your TX's signal diectly to a servo. How is the servo being powered? It's important to be careful that when the servo moves it doesn't steal power from the main CPU.
TheMightyThor February 16, 2015 at 3:38pm

Had a great day flying FW 3.2.1, everything worked perfectly...until i hit the Gear switch to Raise my Skids, Flip Flip Bam into the ground. apparently the gear switch activates more than just raising and lowering the gear? who knew? luckily i was only about 5 feet off the ground to film the blessed event. Any one got a link on how to program Ch08 and the Gear switch to prevent this happening again? i am only glad i had it on video. its was a SPECTACULAR CRASH! great job Devs!! thanks for the awesome Firmware
Developer

Randy February 14, 2015 at 7:15pm

FYI - the MP's beta firmware's link is being temporarily pointed back to AC3.2 to allow MichaelO to get AC3.2 appearing in the "Previous Firmwares" link. After it's built AC3.2 and Michael has grabbed the binaries we will point Beta Firmwares back to AC3.2.1.
Developer

Randy February 14, 2015 at 6:43pm

@Michael,

It'll probably be a couple of months before the official release goes out. I think we will do a release candidate within a couple of weeks though. That'll get some of the big stuff out so people can poke at it. Things like the optical flow sensor, the EKF for attitude + pos control (already available in AC3.2 but off by default), the AlexMos and hopefully SToRM32 gimbal support, AutoTune for yaw etc.
Michael Beaubien February 14, 2015 at 6:14pm
Any idea on a time frame for
```
AC3.3. ? Couple of months?
```
Developer

Randy February 14, 2015 at 6:11pm

Re the PM warning, there are two parts to it:

1. the PM message doesn't take account of the delay during arming so it reports a big delay in the report that appears in the logs within 10seconds of arming. This is a false positive and nothing to worry about. There's a fix in master that will go out with AC3.3 that fixes this.

2. the timing is indeed a bit rough for the Pixhawk with about 3% of loops running longer than they should. I think you'd be very hard pressed to notice a difference in the flight behaviour though because the loops are still running much faster than on say the APM2. By the way, Tridge and David Sidrane have put a bunch of work into this and it's running as smooth as butter in master now. These speed improvements will go out with AC3.3.

of 10

This reply was deleted.