ardupilot/APMrover2/release-notes.txt

Release 2.50, 19 June 2015
==========================

The ardupilot development team has released version 2.50 of
APM:Rover.  This release is mostly a backend 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:

        - CLI_ENABLED parameter added so the CLI can now be accessed
          in Rover
        - 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.
        - Transition from .pde file to .cpp files for improved
          development.
        - GIT Submodules created for PX4Firmware, PX4Nuttx and uavcan
          git repositories for improved development.
        - Followme mode now works for Rover
        - 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
          Followme updated guided mode waypoints.
        - When going into GUIDED mode the rover went into RTL - this
          is fixed.
        - Added EKF_STATUS_REPORT MAVLink message
        - 64-bit timestamps in dataflash logs
        - Numerous EKF improvements
        - Added support for 4th Mavlink channel
        - Added support for raw IMU logging
        - updated Piksi RTK GPS driver
        - improved support for GPS data injection (for Piksi RTK GPS)
        - 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)



Release 2.49, March 4th 2015
----------------------------

The ardupilot development team has released version 2.49 of
APM:Rover.  This release is a bug fix release with two important bugs
found by Marco Walther - Thanks Marco!

The bug fixes in this release are:

    - fixed a sonar problem where objects to the left wouldn't be
      identified - thanks Marco Walther!
    - Fixed the ordering of the AP_Notify call so the main indicator
      light would be correct on startup - thanks Marco Walther!



Release 2.48, February 20th 2015
--------------------------------

The ardupilot development team has released version 2.48 of
APM:Rover.  This release is a bug fix release with some important bugs
found by the users of ardupilot.

The changes in this release are:

  - fixed a bug that could cause short term loss of RC control with
    some receiver systems and configurations
  - allowed for shorter sync pulse widths for PPM-SUM receivers on
    APM1 and APM2
  - fix an issue where battery reporting could be intermittent (thanks
    Georgii Staroselskii!)
  - fixed a mission handling bug that could cause a crash if jump
    commands form an infinite loop (thanks to Dellarb for reporting
    this bug)
  - improved support for in-kernel SPI handling on Linux (thanks to John Williams)
  - support UAVCAN based ESCs and GPS modules on Pixhawk (thanks to
    Pavel, Holger and and PX4 dev team)
  - Multiple updates for the NavIO+ cape on RaspberryPi (thanks to
    Emlid)
  - Lots of EKF changes
  - added support for MAVLink packet routing
  - added detection and recovery from faulty gyro and accel sensors
  - added support for BBBMini Linux port
  - increased number of AVR input channels from 8 to 11
  - auto-set system clock based on GPS in Linux ports
  - added SBUS FrSky telemetry support (thanks to Mathias)
  - Added AK8963 MAG support (thanks Staroselskii Georgii)
  - Added support for second battery
  - Auto formatting of SDCard if it cannot be accessed on startup
  - A number of significant performance improvements for the PX4 platform

The most important bug fix is the one for short term loss of RC
control. This is a very long standing bug which didn't have a
noticible impact for most people, but could cause loss of RC control
for around 1 or 2 seconds for some people in certain circumstances.

The bug was in the the AP_HAL RCInput API. Each HAL backend has a flag
that says whether there is a new RC input frame available. That flag
was cleared by the read() method (typically hal.rcin->read()). Callers
would check for new input by checking the boolean
hal.rcin->new_input() function.

The problem was that read() was called from multiple places. Normally
this is fine as reads from other than the main radio input loop happen
before the other reads, but if the timing of the new radio frame
exactly matched the loop frequency then a read from another place
could clear the new_input flag and we would not see the new RC input
frame. If that happened enough times we would go into a short term RC
failsafe and ignore RC inputs, even in manual mode.

The fix was very simple - it is the new_input() function itself that
should clear the flag, not read(). 

Many thanks to MarkM for helping us track down this bug by providing
us with sufficient detail on how to reproduce it. In Marks case his
OpenLRSng configuration happened to produce exactly the worst case
timing needed to reproduce the issue. Once Tridge copied his OpenLRS
settings to his TX/RX he was able to reproduce the problem and it was
easy to find and fix.

A number of users have reported occasional glitches in manual control
where servos pause for short periods in past releases. It is likely
that some of those issues were caused by this bug. The dev team would
like to apologise for taking so long to track down this bug!

The other main change was also related to RC input. Some receivers use
a PPM-SUM sync pulse width shorter than what the APM1/APM2 code was
setup to handle. The OpenLRSng default sync pulse width is 3000
microseconds, but the APM1/APM2 code was written for a mininum sync
pulse width of 4000 microseconds. For this release we have changed the
APM1/APM2 driver to accept a sync pulse width down to 2700
microseconds.

Auto format of SD Card
======================
From time to time the SD cards in the PX4 autopilots get corrupted.
This isn't a surprise considering what we do to them.  Your all
familiar with the windows "please unmount or eject your SDCard before
removing" process.  Well we don't do that.  In fact normal operation
is to just pull the power on the SDCard - whilst its being written
too!!  Not to metion the horrible vibration rich environment the
SDCard exists in.  If the autopilot is setup in the internal innards
of your plane/copter/rover this can be a nightmare to get to.  To
resolve that problem Tridge has added code at startup so when
ArduPilot tries to mount to SDCard to access it - if that fails it
will then try to format the SDCard and if successful mount the card
and proceed.  If the format fails then you will get the usual SOS
Audio that makes most of us want to find the buzzer and rip its heart
out.

I mention this in case anyone has precious logs saved on the SDCard or
they are using the SDCard out of their phone with their wedding
photo's on it.  Probably best not to do that and assume any data on
the SDCard can be deleted.

We are also looking to add a parameter to control whether the card is
auto formatted on startup or not but it isn't in there yet.



Release 2.47, November 15th 2014
--------------------------------

The ardupilot development team is proud to announce the release of 
version 2.47 of APM:Rover. This is a minor bug fix release.  The most 
important change in this release is the fixing of the skid steering 
support but there have been a number of fixes in other areas as well.

Full changes list for this release:

  - add support for controlling safety switch on Pixhawk from ground station

  - prevent reports of failed AHRS during initialisation

  - fixed skid steering that was broken in the last release

  - report gyro unhealthy if gyro calibration failed

  - fixed dual sonar support in CLI sonar test

  - fixed Nuttx crash on Pixhawk with bad I2C cables

  - added GPS_SBAS_MODE parameter - turns on/off satellite based augemtation system for GPS

  - added GPS_MIN_ELEV parameter - specifiy the elevation mask for GPS satellites

  - added RELAY_DEFAULT parameter to control default of relay on startup

  - fixed bug in FRAM storage on Pixhawk that could cause parameters changes not to be saved

  - better handling of compass errors in the EKF (Extended Kalman Filter)

  - improved support for linux based autopilots

  - added support for PulsedLight LIDAR as a range finder

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this release, especially
Tom Coyle and Linus Penzlien for their excellent testing and feedback.

Happy driving!



Release 2.46, August 26th 2014
------------------------------

The ardupilot development team is proud to announce the release of
version 2.46 of APM:Rover. This is a major release with a lot of new
features and bug fixes.

This release is based on a lot of development and testing that
happened prior to the AVC competition where APM based vehicles
performed very well.

Full changes list for this release:

  - added support for higher baudrates on telemetry ports, to make it
    easier to use high rate telemetry to companion boards. Rates of up
    to 1.5MBit are now supported to companion boards.

  - new Rangefinder code with support for a wider range of rangefinder
    types including a range of Lidars (thanks to Allyson Kreft)

  - added logging of power status on Pixhawk

  - added PIVOT_TURN_ANGLE parameter for pivot based turns on skid
    steering rovers

  - lots of improvements to the EKF support for Rover, thanks to Paul
    Riseborough and testing from Tom Coyle. Using the EKF can greatly
    improve navigation accuracy for fast rovers. Enable with
    AHRS_EKF_USE=1. 

  - improved support for dual GPS on Pixhawk. Using a 2nd GPS can
    greatly improve performance when in an area with an obstructed
    view of the sky

  - support for up to 14 RC channels on Pihxawk

  - added BRAKING_PERCENT and BRAKING_SPEEDERR parameters for better
    breaking support when cornering

  - added support for FrSky telemetry via SERIAL2_PROTOCOL parameter
    (thanks to Matthias Badaire)

  - added support for Linux based autopilots, initially with the PXF
    BeagleBoneBlack cape and the Erle robotics board. Support for more
    boards is expected in future releases. Thanks to Victor, Sid and
    Anuj for their great work on the Linux port. 

  - added StorageManager library, which expands available FRAM storage
    on Pixhawk to 16 kByte. This allows for 724 waypoints, 50 rally
    points and 84 fence points on Pixhawk.

  - improved reporting of magnetometer and barometer errors to the GCS

  - fixed a bug in automatic flow control detection for serial ports
    in Pixhawk

  - fixed use of FMU servo pins as digital inputs on Pixhawk

  - imported latest updates for VRBrain boards (thanks to Emile
    Castelnuovo and Luca Micheletti)

  - updates to the Piksi GPS support (thanks to Niels Joubert)

  - improved gyro estimate in DCM (thanks to Jon Challinger)

  - improved position projection in DCM in wind (thanks to Przemek
    Lekston)

  - several updates to AP_NavEKF for more robust handling of errors
    (thanks to Paul Riseborough)

  - lots of small code cleanups thanks to Daniel Frenzel

  - initial support for NavIO board from Mikhail Avkhimenia

  - fixed logging of RCOU for up to 12 channels (thanks to Emile
    Castelnuovo)

  - code cleanups from Silvia Nunezrivero

  - improved parameter download speed on radio links with no flow
    control

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this release, especially
Tom Coyle and Linus Penzlien for their excellent testing and feedback.

Happy driving!