Dev Call July 20, 2020

Development Team
1

Issues & Pull Requests














Comms
Moving from Gitter to Discourse

Plane

Copter

Rover

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2

Attendee count (max): 23

UTC1100 - https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/pull/14865

  • Fix OSD aspect ratios
  • Code by Pete, based on excellent report by @FasaArg
  • Couple of trivial coding things to fix up
    • Can be merged after these are addressed

UTC1102 - https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/pull/14777

  • Waiting for MdB to look at this one

UTC1104 - https://github.com/ArduPilot/SITL_Models/pull/15

  • Nice structure!
  • Remove spaces from directory names
  • Henry has exercised the models to ensure all of the actuators work on the models
  • README in each directory
    • Also appears in the realflight description of the model
  • Henry would like someone to go through the models and check the instructions
  • Boat physics in realflight arenā€™t great
  • Swampboat

UTC1110 - https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/pull/14856

  • Log accumulated flags - any power bit ever set
  • Merged!

UTC1112 - https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/pull/14854

  • Do size checking for each packet sent rather than individual ones
  • Merged!

UTC1114 - https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/pull/14847

  • Device ids for barometers so you know what you have
  • Currently hard to tell which baro is which
  • MAVProxy already patched
  • MissionPlanner will need a patch to show them nicely
  • Doesnā€™t persist them
    • No persistent calibration for baros

UTC1119 - https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/pull/14835

  • Pass parameters as parameters rather than in state
  • Need to get Paulā€™s input on this
  • Looks good to Randy tridge and Peter

UTC1130 - https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/pull/14820

  • Account for big lag on input data
  • Google Cartographer as a ~250ms delay, maybe longer
  • Max delay was way too short

UTC1131 - https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/pull/14815

  • Convert to use RXc_OPTION
    • Helps avoid one
  • AP_Int8 on stack is weird but same pattern as elsewhere
  • Autotest slightly stuffed up
    • Peterā€™s OK with that
  • merged!

UTC1137 - https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/pull/14800

  • Consistent messages
    • You get messages if you donā€™t even have an airspeed senors
  • Want a similar PR for airspeeds sensor devids as tridge did for Baro
  • Devids on rangefinders?
  • Something weird with airspeed sensors on matekf405
  • merged!

UTC1144 - prearm throttle check enable by default

  • https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/pull/14755
  • MdB still has a problem with using is_flying
    • Rearming in the air isnā€™t possible without this?
  • Notify flags should not be used as a data bus!
    • Will be removed entirely as is_flying wasnā€™t really required
  • Post-watchdog-reset still needs to be able to force-arm the vehicle

UTC1150 - https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/pull/12303

  • Change from mbar to hectopascal
  • Mavlink can catch up
  • Do people use hectopascal in real life?
    • SI say so
    • Common usage is no
    • Inches-of-mercury in USā€¦.
    • Apparently HPa in Australia
    • CASA is HPa
    • [9:55 AM] HughStimson: Glider pilots in australia use hPa
  • Henryā€™s got some work to do on the Wiki?

UTC1156 - https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot_wiki/pull/2859

  • Killing Concrete5 in the Wiki
  • Example replacement page:
  • Blogs section will stay
    • Create something in Python to run on the server
      • Generates HTML + images put in subdirectory on server and loaded as part of the page
      • Concrete5 does stuff client-side
  • Good po
  • Separate repo?
    • Doing stuff via sphinx could be a pain
    • ā€œFrontpageā€?
    • Or a directory in ardupilot_wiki
  • Easy to mess things up with Concrete5

UTC0005 - https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/issues/14460

  • Compass changes holding this up
  • Some feedback from the forums on how itā€™s working on the forums
    • Warnings on MissionPlanner might be sufficient?
  • Current proposed PR https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/pull/14776/files is not receiving a warm welcome
  • Smaller change coming which will only apply to CAN compasses
    • Swap i2c compass you canā€™t tell it has changed and can easily run with offsets from different compass
    • CAN you can tell it has changed
      • Serial number determines CAN node ID
    • New PR coming
  • We could also do a final beta now and maybe have a new PR later
    • After hitting reset youā€™d need to reboot then calibrate

UTC0012 - https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/issues/12547

  • 4.0.4rc3 will go out soon
  • EKF instability from NeoPixel
  • Lsm issues to look at

UTC0013 - https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/issues/12509

  • Nothing to report on Rover

UTC0013 - Stop using gitter and use Discord/

  • Less and less happening over there?
  • Get conversations in one place
    • Vision has already moved
  • 2,100 members of gitte!
  • Total users in Discord == 420
  • Why doubling up of users?
    • Logging in from new device seems to do it
    • Randy is in once as a DevTeam member, once not
  • Discordā€™s been a better system for us
    • Easier to find stuff
  • Make the move?
  • Put a link on every gitter channel pointing towards Discord
  • Maybe shutter it in a few weeks
  • Gitter you need a github ID
    • Discord not so much
    • Discord zero barrier ATM?
    • Run a bot on Discord?
    • Integrate with forum?
      • Nobody knows how to do thatā€¦.

UTC0020 - User alerts

  • Repo has been created
  • Wiki PR coming soon
    • Data files will be pulled in from new repo by Sphinx
  • MissionPlanner patches would be greatā€¦.

UTC0022 - GSoC update

  • EKF PRs

    • Need some flight testing
    • Close to merge
    • https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/pull/14674
    • Donā€™t want too many lane switches
    • Should improve robustness on sensor failure
      • Particularly if you enable the affinity code
        • Dual airspeed means one lane uses one, the other uses the other
          • So water droplets might cause you to switch to other lane
        • Really bad compass can cause both lanes to diverge before a compass is switched
          • Affinity means different cores can use different compasses
    • 1st lane gets 1st compass, 1st baro, ā€¦
    • Lane-switching based on innovations rather than drivers dying
    • How does this work with source-selection?
      • Probably orthogonal
    • Keep it EKF3 only?

  • Rishadh is doing well on object avoidance for Rover and Copter

    • New video with 1D lidar - hesitancy fixed
      • Reliably drives around people

  • Walking robots coming along

    • Hopefully get a PR and video this week
    • LUA for motors layer
      • Get_control_outputs method in lua scripts
        • high-level -roll command, throttle-command, pitch commands

  • Streaming stuff from matlab to ardupilot for debugging

    • developing ability to find PID oscillations in MATLAB
    • JSON input is coming along nicely, and other people are using it
    • Need lots and lots of documentation so others can use it!
    • Matlab is universal-ish
    • Simulink is version dependent
      • 2020a
      • Can save an older version but PH canā€™t test it

UTC0035 - GCS loss of link

  • AP_Int8 value for waypoint to go to which is not greatā€¦.
    • AFS_WP_COMMS
    • We have a method to change the type
    • Call method in initialisation of class
    • Convert_parameter_width
      • Widening twice might work if you make two callsā€¦
        • Would want some testingā€¦

UTC0038 - How do we do ethernet?

  • Big discussionā€¦.
  • Start small
    • Serial port ethernet
    • Otg2
    • serial7/serial6 second USB
    • If you have an ethernet in the hwdef then
      • Declare number of virtual uarts
      • Mavlink UDP will be main use?
        • NMEA?
    • Or dynamically create parameter tables?
  • How about SocketAPM?
    • Like in AP_HAL_Linux?
    • Might not be a good fit
    • Might make packetisation easier?
      • Packetisation could be done with existing mavlink hooks
  • NucleoH7 Sun47 H743ZI
  • Make an example?

UTC0050 - some private hooks with update and init?

  • Own parameter space and whatnot would avoid conflicts
  • LUA is really fast
  • Move user hooks up to AP_Vehicle?
  • Bit unfortunate
  • Would prefer people to use LUA scripts
  • Remove the user-hook stuff from Copter?
  • Everything we put in we have to maintainā€¦.
  • No eagerness for this rebase-proof approach - use LUA instead

UTC0103 - pymavlink PR might help with releases

  • Random pymavlink PRs should be looked at

UTC0106 - close

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