Potentially bad news about Boat Mode

[Folarin Alakija]

So i have a friend of a friend, whom im friends with on Facebook but just realised that he works at 3DR. Hes a product manager for them and when i asked him about the release date for Boat Mode here is the response he gave me :

"It may not be something we release universally as we are focusing on our mapping and 3D modeling uses heavily - but It'd be awesome to get you set up with our beta and demo it for you with one of my teammates. No pressure of course! "

Ugh

 

[Rich]

This goes against what Colin stated publicly, so I hope it's not true!

No boat mode would just about kill the Solo for me, it's been a long wait to be able to fly from my boat, and I'm still waiting!

 

[Folarin Alakija]

This goes against what Colin stated publicly, so I hope it's not true!

No boat mode would just about kill the Solo for me, it's been a long wait to be able to fly from my boat, and I'm still waiting!

It was a major selling point for me when i bought a Solo. I would think its safe to assume that those expecting it to be released in the next few weeks may have to be patient.

 

[pyrate]

Boat mode has been delayed not forgotten
when solo rebases to arducopter it no longer becomes 3dr
arducopter will have boat mode and throw mode
so if solo is rebased to arducopter solo will have these features regardless of 3dr

 

[Rich]

But you said "when" and then "if" Solo is rebased, those have two very different meanings.

 

[pyrate]

You would need to go and read up on the progress to satisfy your own interests.
Simply trying to provide what I know from keeping up with it.
Since I am not directly involved with coding it mostly is what I can learn from watching github and ardupilot discussions

It will happen I think, but recently had a setback

 

[fpvsteve]

Solo rebase 2.0.21 is currently based on AC3.3. The EKF2 code which is currently part of AC 3.4 RC1 beta was originally added to Solo rebase to enable boat and potentially throw mode but got temporary reverted back to EKF1 with the 2.0.19 build due to drifting issues.

My personal speculation is that it will take some further 3.4 release candidates before EKF2 will make it into the next AC release, and from there it will eventually make it into Solo.
If you have a Pixhawk drone you can download and participate in the Arducopter 3.4 test and be up on the latest developments

 

[pyrate]

running 3.3 on my custom build
not brave enough to jump to 3.4 yet
can never remember EKF2 that is the sticky wicket, but once they have that solved look out. Plus we are creeping closer to PH2 standalone and carrier boards being available in the wild. That will spur some activity

 

[Ian [P13]]

I did mention on here the moment when EKF 2 was pulled from the current firmware on the boat mode thread as I knew a few people were waiting for it.

The plan is that EKF 2 will go into the following Solo firmware, it's being tested on Arducopter at the moment so I guess the outcome of that will be a deciding factor on how quickly it ends up on Solo.

As I suspected though, it's a huge change, not something trivial and so it's no surprise it had unexpected consequences and needed pulling. The impression I had was the developer had a handle on where the issue was so with luck the next round of testing will go smoothly.