The Dev Team has now pushed a maintenance update to both ArduCopter (2.5.5) and ArduPlane (2.34) that all APM 2 users should upgrade to (it also includes some nice improvements for APM 1). It fixes both the APM 2 reset issue (you sometimes need to press the reset button to start the board under battery power) and an issue with some APM2s that have a slightly different version of the MPU-6000 sensor with a different accelerometer scaling factor (this is now auto-detected by the code).
Both of these are now in the Mission Planner so everyone can easily upgrade.
Tridge describes some of the changes to ArduPlane in this post:
This release includes one very important update for APM2 users, and a few other minor updates.
The main reason for the release is to fix a bug in the scaling of the MPU6000 accelerometers. We discovered that the MPU6000 on the most recently shipped APM2 boards had different accelerometer scaling than earlier boards. This resulted in bad attitude calculations which would get worse during flight (as the DCM code interpreted the conflicting information between the gyroscope and accelerometers as gyro drift). We now query the product ID of the MPU6000 on startup, and fix the scaling according to whether it is a RevC or RevD version of the chip.
If you use an APM2 with ArduPlane then it is strongly recommended that you update to the 2.34 release.
Other less critical changes in this release include:
- fixes for building ArduPlane with the MAVLink 1.0 protocol (we currently use the 0.9 protocol). In a future release this will be the default once all other components are ready
- expose a new parameter AHRS_YAW_P to control how fast the compass controls the heading. The default is 0.2, which should be good for most users (this was mostly added for ArduCopter users)
- fixed the reporting of the raw servo output value in the MAVLink logs. Previously if you uses a mission element to set a servo value (for example, for a bottle drop) the log would not reflect the servo change. The logged value is now obtained directly from the servo library so will always be accurate
- changed the default I terms for navigation roll and pitch to 0.1. It is very common to need a small I value for navigation, so a 0.1 default is better than 0
- make it possible to use UART2 for Telemetry. The APM2 has a otherwise unused UART2 port, which you can connect to the telemetry connector via a solder bridge. This adds a TELEMETRY_UART2 build option to configure the code to use this port. This is mostly useful if you have an onboard computer connecting to the APM2 via USB at the same time as you connect a radio to the telemetry port, and you want both telemetry streams active
For ArduCopter, here's the short form of the some of the changes, thanks to Randy and Marco:
- MPU6000 accelerometer scaling fix (affected APM2s shipped from early May)
- "Retro Loiter" by Adam Rivera (uses ground speed directly from GPS instead of calculating from lon/lat position). Improves Loiter performance
- "AutoApproach" function by Marco Robustini, developed by Adam Rivera
- APM2 support for Optical Flow
- bug fix for needing to push reset before motors will arm
- compass reversal problem (actually same root cause as #5)
- Fix for Tri tail servo reverse issue as reported during testing.
All frame types were updated in the planner including the TradHeli and Y6. We figured for the Y6, even though the TB_Ratio (top/bottom motor speed ratio) has temporarily gone missing (but will be back in 2.6), it's more important to get this scaling issue fix out there.
Now the ArduCopter dev team will return to their focus on 2.6, which is all about performance (fine-tuning Loiter and Navigation accuracy)
Comments
@Andke,
Hmm..all a bit strange really. I really don't know what you mean re SETP-SETC capacitor. What compass are you using? I assumed it was the diydrones mag but sounds like maybe it's something else.
Are you uploading the code using arduino to an APM2? If Yes, are you uncommenting this line in APM_Config.h.
Regarding my compass problem:
I've got another APM2 - replaced the GPS/SD/magnetometer board, - and it works as expected.
So the failure is somewhere on my GPS/SD/mag board - but I verified all power & interface connections, without finding the error - the fact that SD *and* magnetometer fails on it - hints that it should be something they have in common.
Thanks to all who tried to help.
Regarding my problem : "North is wherever APM2 was facing during power up/reset"
I've resoldered/reflowed the shield connecors (both on the shield and the main board) - the GPS/mag shield is all the way down,(the pin's plastic spacer limits it from getting any more down.)
Compass test works as expected. Compass does have the SETP-SETC capacitor in place, and it's main communication over just 2 wire (+int), so it's very difficult tosee why it could fail to boot/reset properly - and still be able to communicate it's orientation..
I also have the "no dataflash found" problem - yet I measured the connection and he SD-detect switch.
Hi All
Can someone provide a short description with a photo (if possible) of how I should configure the solder bridge on APM2 (V2.4.1) to use UART2 for telemetry? Also if one does so do you lose telemetry on the UART0/2 port when the USB cable is disconnected?
Just some feedback, flew ArduPlane V 2.34 yesterday morning as my first flight after integrating the board into a Dynam Hawk Sky. Successfully evaluated stabilize, FBW-A and RTL mode - thanks to the developers for their effort. Still have problems with the M-TEK GPS not getting 3D-Fix when the board is powered up any way other than via the USB. I,ve just taken delivery of a uBlox GPS so I'm going to check whether it establishes lock more reliably than the M-TEK whilst powering up the board from an ESC/BEC.
Thanks in advance.
Grant
@Randy
I did follow the wiki. when it boots after putting the test sketch on, I get the menu but it's preceded by the error, could not initialise the sensor. If I put 2.5.5 back on and try enable it through the CLI it does not enable and returns the error. Yes, the led is on ;)
As for the logic analyser, I don't have one but don't need much of an excuse to get another toy. I could have one tomorrow if it's going to help?
@Crispin,
that's a sign that it's not able to communicate with the sensor. So when it starts up it first asks the sensor for it's product id and it should reply with 0x17. if it doesn't (like for example if it replied with 0x00 or 0xff) then the communication line is not working. That's most likely the MISO (master in slave out) or MOSI (master out slave in) line that's not connected properly. Of course you've followed the wiki instructions carefully.
I'm sure you don't have a logic analyzer so it's hard to be sure what messages are passing through the lines.
Of course, the little red light is on, on the optical flow sensor?
@Popa,
I'm not super familiar with the arduplane code but it looks like it's stil there it's just that instead of putting the servo output into that "servo_out" array, it's being put into g.channel_roll.servo_out. Here's the link to the equivalent place in the code.
Hello,
I am looking for the servo_out variable in the newest Arduplane code and I cannot find where it's value is being calculated.
I found in the repository http://code.google.com/searchframe#iTqA9ErfVSM/ArduPilotMega/trunk/... this formula, which is impossible to find in the newest versions of the code.
servo_out[CH_PITCH] = PID((nav_pitch + abs(roll_sensor * PITCH_COMP) - pitch_sensor), deltaMiliSeconds, CASE_SERVO_PITCH, 1.0);In reply to my own post -
If this helps? I stuck some debug into the init for the ADNS3080 and it fails to read the product ID or the product id was not 0x17 so exited false.
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