The ArduPilot dev team is proud to announce the release of APM:Plane 3.9.0beta1. This is the first in a series of beta releases for plane 3.9.0. It is a major release, with a lot of changes.
The main changes are for supporting two new HALs (hardware abstraction layers). One is the port to ChibiOS and the second is the F4Light HAL.
These ports bring a host of new flight board options, and a lot of new features. Some highlights include:
support for many inexpensive STM32F4 based flight boards
support for DShot output for BLHeli ESCs, including ESC telemetry feedback
new battery monitoring system with more flexible failsafe options
support for Devo telemetry output
a new position hold library for multicopters which improves quadplane VTOL support
This release is fully compatible with previous releases, and users should not notice a significant difference in flight. The focus of the beta testing will be on ensuring that the new flight board support is stable.
As explained there, we (for example) need it for this
It just takes one customer to forget to add mission line “Do set servo X,Y”, before landing approach or the auto land. Then of would do so with open belly and get the expensive thermal sensor lens all scratched up or worse.
Yesterday @walter and me did a successfull (dusty ) maiden on a new build Mini Talon Quadplane with ChibiOS 3.9.0beta1 on a conventional pixhawk “2.4.8” (with 2 MB) . The Firmware performed very well (QSTABILIZE, QHOVER, FBWA, AUTOTUNE, Forward- and backtransition) and without any problems.
thanks @tridge, @bugobliterator, @sh83 and everybody else that put a lot of effort into chibios. imho this is exceptionally awesome! had a couple of pretty rewarding flights on fmuv3, revomini and mini-pix running chibios-based arduplane, all doing great. thank you all and keep that pace!
All you need is an arduino nano and a couple lines of code to implement this functionality. It can be even pass through to keep mission commands alive.
I have had a few flights on the Believer using the new telemetry BLHeli_32 ESC’s, and I am happy. Only very minor issues here that I’ve raised in github.
I did a relatively full shakedown of the latest build of master on 2018/07/03. Everything that I tested was stable.
There is a minor bug where using the new telemetry ESC’s as a battery monitor causes the reported current to be higher than it is (by about 4x for my twin motor plane).
This can also be due to a faulty calibration of the BLHELI32 ESC. The current protection of one of my BLHELI32 ESCs responds also too soon compared to the well calibrated pixhawk power module current sensor.
@pompecukor I’ve been working on the landing support in this PR:
I have been testing it in SITL, but it needs testing in a real aircraft. If I built you a fw could you test it? If so, what board would you like it for?
@tridge
Awesome as usual.
We currently use The Cube (pixhawk2.1) exclusively. Yes, I am happy to test.
Another use (for us) for example is to override user and park Gimbal in safest position just before landing. So the grass don’t scratch up the lens over time.
In short is us good for so many application, just make it altitude base, which user can set and PWM under: xxxx, PWM over: yyyy.
Hi how is everyone on this page? I have some questions regarding using BLheli esc for fixed wing. So far I have uploaded arduplane 3.9.0 beta 5 onto my pixhawk v2 and im not seeing any of the BLH parameters in the full parameter list. Im confused because on the arduplane page under optional hardware Dshot support is listed as available on this beta release. Am I flashing the correct firmware from the ardupilot page or is there a different source I should be downloading it from? Any help would be appreciated as i would like to use a blheli 32 esc with my plane and having the option of blheli pass through so I can use current limiting and change the low voltage protection for the use of 18650 packs.
I am using BLHeli_32 ESC telemetry in ArduPlane latest, ChibiOS HAL, on a Matek F405-Wing. Everything worked more or less as documented. My guess is that the version of firmware you are loading/running does not have the BLHeli_32 code in it.
) maiden on a new build Mini Talon Quadplane with ChibiOS 3.9.0beta1 on a conventional pixhawk “2.4.8” (with 2 MB) . The Firmware performed very well (QSTABILIZE, QHOVER, FBWA, AUTOTUNE, Forward- and backtransition) and without any problems.