Rover Release v2.50 is out!

The ArduPilot development team has released version 2.50 of APM:Rover. This release is mostly a back-end improvement to ArduPilot but a few new features and bug fixes are included.

Re-do Accelerometer Calibration
Due to a change in the maximum accelerometer range on the Pixhawk all users must re-do their accelerometer calibration for this release.

Only 3D accel calibration
The old “1D” accelerometer calibration method has now been removed, so you must use the 3D accelerometer calibration method. The old method was removed because a significant number of users had poor experiences.

Changes in this release are:

[ul][li]CLI_ENABLED parameter added so the CLI can now be accessed in Rover[/li]
[li]PID logging for the steering controller. It its now possible to graph what the P, I and D are doing as your driving the rover around to enable much better tuning of the vehicle.[/li]
[li]Transition from .pde file to .cpp files for improved development.[/li]
[li]GIT Submodules created for PX4Firmware, PX4Nuttx and uavcan git repositories for improved development.[/li]
[li]Followme mode now works for Rover[/li]
[li]GUIDED mode significantly improved. If you have a GCS which is in Followme mode if the user then changes mode with the RC transmitter to HOLD or anything else then the Rover will STOP listening to the [/li][li]Followme updated guided mode waypoints.[/li]
[li]When going into GUIDED mode the rover went into RTL - this is fixed.[/li]
[li]Added EKF_STATUS_REPORT MAVLink message[/li]
[li]64-bit timestamps in dataflash logs[/li]
[li]Numerous EKF improvements[/li]
[li]Added support for 4th Mavlink channel[/li]
[li]Added support for raw IMU logging[/li]
[li]Updated Piksi RTK GPS driver[/li]
[li]Improved support for GPS data injection (for Piksi RTK GPS)[/li]
[li]The SITL software in the loop simulation system has been completely rewritten for this release. A major change is to make it possible to run SITL on native windows without needing a Linux virtual machine. (thanks Tridge)[/li][/ul]

ENJOY!

Thanks Grant!

Hi Grant,
Nice work, much appreciated.
Regards,
TCIII AVD

How do we calibrate the accelerometer? I am not seeing it anywhere.

@Keebie81
You can use the Setup Wizard and the Mandatory Hardware screen to calibrate the accels.
Regards,
TCIII GM

@Keebie81 - if you mean you can’t see it in MissionPlanner there yes there appears to be a bug in MP where that menu item isn’t available for Rover. I have advised MichaelOborne the MP maintainer and he should have it fixed shortly.
Thanks, Grant.

@TCIII I still dont get the accelerometer calibration as an option in missionplanner. in apm I do but it times out. I have also noticed now that terminal just spits out gibberish. I put 2.49 back and tried 2.5 again and still had same issue.

Hi Keebie81

At least with the (latest) version of Mission Planner 1.3.30.2 it is shown
Initial Setup -> Mandatory Hardware -> Accel Calibration

Anders

@Keebie81
There is a bug in both MP 1.3.28 and 1.3.30 that has removed the Level and Accel calibration from the Mandatory Hardware drop down.
I have reported the bug in the Mission Planner Git issues.
Regards,
TCIII AVD

I am new to trying to change my arduPilot’s firmware. It is a APM 2.6. I have a few questions that I seem to be struggling with.

Is release 2.49 of ArduRover2 the last version for the APM 2.x AVR based arduPilots? When I updated my APM 2.6 arduPilot in Mission Planner it said that the firmware was version 2.50, however the source code seems to be only for the ARM based arduPilots. Mission Planner did ask for a 3D accelerator calibration.

Am I missing where the 2.50 version for AVR arduPilot source code is located? The change from .pde to .cpp files breaks the arduPilot-Arduino / Atmel Studio toolchain that is described at http://dev.ardupilot.com/wiki/building-ardupilot-with-arduino-windows/ .

Is there another tool chain to use?

Any help would be appreciated.

@paradug,
The latest version of the ArduRover2 firmware available on MP is v2.50.
If you want to use an older version try here: http://firmware.diydrones.com/Rover/
Regards,
TCIII AVD

@TCIII,

What tool chain is used to build rover release 2.50? Is it straight Atmel Studio?

@paradug,
For the APM2.x it is here: http://ardupilot.com/downloads/?did=45
This is a modified version of the Arduino IDE that will work with the HAL.
Regards,
TCIII GM