Arducopter 3.6 RC6

Loaded, just not tested it out yet although have been reading other people's feedback. What I haven't done is the 3.6 chibios update.. the whole thing of "YOU ARE THE TEST PILOT" was a bit off putting as was the mention of unknown gimbal shudder...
 
Wow this made it here quick. I just put the Chibios one up on Solex yesterday!

The 3.6-RC6 package available on Solex and SidePIlot (Not the chibios one) is working well. There are few things that are not yet compatible with the vehicle setting sliders in Solex and SidePilot since a few speed parameter changed. But I made sure the defaults on those parameters were safe and reasonable so it flies nice. You get EKF3, Smart RTL and Leonard's new loiter (fly mode). All of which are very nice.

The Chibios version is a bit more experimental, but it is safe and stable. As you saw, there are some things still to be addressed, but none affect safety of flight. One of the biggest things is the massive improvement on system resource hogging. It takes it down from like 80% overruns to 1% overruns.
 
I really like the sound of a more efficient operating system and the 3.6 improvements. I want to update both of my birds with RC6 but maybe I'll try the Chibios version on one and see how differently they operate.

Thanks to Matt and Kelly and Tom and all others keeping us on the cutting edge!
 
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Wow this made it here quick. I just put the Chibios one up on Solex yesterday!

The 3.6-RC6 package available on Solex and SidePIlot (Not the chibios one) is working well. There are few things that are not yet compatible with the vehicle setting sliders in Solex and SidePilot since a few speed parameter changed. But I made sure the defaults on those parameters were safe and reasonable so it flies nice. You get EKF3, Smart RTL and Leonard's new loiter (fly mode). All of which are very nice.

The Chibios version is a bit more experimental, but it is safe and stable. As you saw, there are some things still to be addressed, but none affect safety of flight. One of the biggest things is the massive improvement on system resource hogging. It takes it down from like 80% overruns to 1% overruns.
I had watched some of the Ardupilot 3.6 lecture, about 95% of it was over my head (pardon the pun) but I did catch that whole thing about Chibios using up a heck of a lot less resources.

So what's the deal with putting it on the drone. Do we just fly and send in feedback or upload logs? Might as well do something useful with one of my spares I reckon.
 
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I had only partial success. Both solos now have Arducopter 3.6 RC6 but for some reason I could not connect either one of my solos through Solex. Very strange. I had to do the update through Sidepilot, which connected right away. Unfortunately, I could not try the Chibios version from there...

There is now an intermittent beeping from the solo while pre-armed. 3 tones up and then 3 tones down. Is that the new normal or is something amiss?

Not sure what is causing Solex to not read the solo parameters. Troubling to say the least. Any body else having trouble connecting with version 1.7.4?
 
I'm not familiar with those tones, but they're certainly not supposed to happen when all is normal. I suggest as usual when something is funky, do a parameter reset and reboot. Regarding Solex, force quit the app and reboot the device. On the rare occasion I had that happen a long time ago, that took care of it. Also make sure Solex is set for UDP and not USB or whatever else.
 
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I also get those three tones (new sound for the solo) BUT I also didn't get to do a proper compass and IMU calibration yet, so I assumed it was just a new warning tone. I'll do the parameter reset, reboot and recalibrate. If the sounds continue I'll post a video.
 
I think those tones indicate a GPS glitch. They occurred inside as Sidepilot indicated the glitch and they disappeared when outside.

But I have a more urgent problem. I still can't connect with Solex. How does one "Reset Parameters" in Sidepilot? I loaded the 3.6.x parameters file and rebooted but when testing I had no horizontal control whatsoever. I'm missing something big by not using Solex, I think.
 
SidePilot, nor any other app, could inhibit RC control channels. The FW and parameter packages in Solex and SidePilot are identical (literally, I uploaded the same package to both on release) What you're describing sounds like a parameter or firmware problem that is unrelated to the apps. It is undoubtabley preventing the apps from working properly though. There should be a reset parameters button somewhere in the sidepilot firmware menus. I'm not an apple user so I'm not intimately familiar with the details of the app.

Are you familiar with accessing files on the solo via WinSCP or Filezilla? I'd like to see what the 3dr-solo.log and the "boot" file says. Both are in the /log/ directory on the Solo.

Connecting with Mission Planner and seeing what the messages tab says will also be useful, if it connects.
 
Not a single mention of RESET PARAMETERS in the Sidepilot manual. I can't find anything in the menu either.
 
So I thought with open solo, when you did a factor reset it's also supposed to reset the parameters back to the baked in defaults? (reading the open solo documentation now). Doesn't MP let you reset parameters also?
 
OK. The just go into the full parameter list on Mission Planner and hit the reset to defaults button on the right. That will reset all the parameters. And since you installed the version I made with Solo's required defaults, they will be correct defaults. If you have a HERE, you'll need to load the here compass parameter package from Solex or SidePilot before calibration. Or just manually change COMPASS_ORIENT to 0 in mission planner and write it.

So I thought with open solo, when you did a factor reset it's also supposed to reset the parameters back to the baked in defaults? (reading the open solo documentation now).
Yes, but no factory reset was performed here.
 
OK got the parameters sorted out and they both fly beautifully! Thank God for sidepilot and QGC because Solex has crapped out on me. Apparently nobody else is having this connection issue.

Thanks Matt for your help! Won't be able to run Chibios until Solex starts connecting again. Unless you can upload it to Sidepilot...
 
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Since the update I'm getting my elevation (about 1100' msl) as my altitude on both Sidepilot and QGC. Is there an easy setting to change this?
 
Since the update I'm getting my elevation (about 1100' msl) as my altitude on both Sidepilot and QGC. Is there an easy setting to change this?
I can't find the commit message/thread about it, but this is a recent change in ArduPilot that the GCSs will have to be updated to reflect. In other words, working as intended.
 
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Yep. GCS applications that were using the VFR HUD altitude need to be updated to use the global position relative altitude instead.. That old data point is now showing MSL altitude instead of relative altitude as of -RC6. Solex has been updated to show the correct relative altitude. The old 3DR app was already using it. Mission Planner is updated to use it now.

SidePilot still needs to be updated. Tom is aware and will get to it as soon as he can. The Tower app also needs to be updated, but may not ever be.
 
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