ardupilot/Rover/release-notes.txt

Rover Release Notes:
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.3.0-beta7 09-Jan-2023
Changes from 4.3.0-beta6
1) Autopilot related changes
    a) AIRLink LTE module enable pin and HEAT_ params added
    b) CUAV Nora/Nora+ bdshot firmware (allows Bi-directional DShot)
    c) CubeOrange, CubeYellow gets fast reset of ICM20602
    d) MambaH743v2 with dual ICM42688 supported
    e) PixPilot-V6
2) MAVFTP speed improvement including faster param download
3) Bug fixes
    a) Analog rangefinder GPIO pin arming check fixed
    b) Arming check of AHRS/EKF vs GPS location disabled if GPS disabled
    c) CRSF gets RC_OPTIONS for ELRS baudrate to avoid RC failsafes
    d) Null pointer checks avoid watchdog when out of memory
    e) Servo gimbal yaw jump to opposite side fixed
    f) Siyi A8 gimbal driver's record video feature fixed
    g) SToRM32 serial gimbal driver actual angle reporting fixed (pitch and yaw angle signs were reversed)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.3.0-beta6 10-Dec-2022
Changes from 4.3.0-beta5
1) Arming check that main loop is running at configured speed (e.g. SCHED_LOOP_RATE)
2) uBlox M10 support
3) Autopilot specific changes
    a) CubeOrange defaults to using 2nd IMU as primary
    b) SIRF and SBP GPS disabled on BeastF7v2, MatekF405-STD, MAtekF405-Wing, omnibusf4pro
4) Bug fixes
    a) Camera driver's CAM_MIN_INTERVAL fixed if pilot manually triggers extra picture
    b) Main loop slowdown after arming fixed (parameter logging was causing delays)
    c) Main loop's fast tasks always run (caused twitches in Loiter on heavily loaded CPUs)
    d) MAVLink commands received on private channels checked for valid target sysid
    e) ModalAI cameras support fixed (ODOMETRY message frame was consumed incorrectly)
    f) Param reset after firmware load fixed on these boards
        - BeastF7v2
        - CubeYellow-bdshot
        - f405-MatekAirspeed
        - FlywooF745Nano
        - KakuteF4Mini
        - KakuteF7-bdshot
        - MatekF405-bdshot
        - MatekF405-STD
        - MatekF405-Wing-bdshot
        - MatekF765-SE
        - MatekF765-Wing-bdshot
    g) Siyi A8 gimbal support fixed
    h) Windows builds move to compiling only 64-bit executables
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.3.0-beta5 17-Nov-2022
Changes from 4.3.0-beta4
1) Autopilot specific enhancements
   a) ARKV6X support
   b) MatekH743 supports 8 bi-directional dshot channels
   c) Pixhawk boards support MS5607 baros
   d) SpeedbyBee F405v3 support
2) Balancebot pitch control improvements and pitch limiting
3) DroneCAN Airspeed sensor support including hygrometer (aka water vapour) readings
4) EFI support (electronic fuel injection engines)
5) Harmonic Notch support (Rover only)
6) Pre-arm warning if multiple UARTs with SERIALx_PROTOCOL = RCIN
7) Siyi gimbal support
8) Bug fixes
    a) AtomRCF405NAVI bootloader file name fixed
    b) BRD_SAFETY_MASK fixed on boards with both FMU safety switch and IOMCU
    c) Compass calibration continues even if a single compass's cal fails
    d) Gremsy gimbal driver sends autopilot info at lower rate to save bandwidth
    e) Invensense 42605 and 42609 IMUs use anti-aliasing filter and notch filter
    f) OSD stats screen fix
    g) RC input on serial port uses first UART with SERIALx_PROTOCOL = 23 (was using last)
    h) RunCam caching fix with enablement and setup on 3-pos switch
    i) RTK CAN GPS fix when GPSs conneted to separate CAN ports on autopilot
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.3.0-beta4 24-Oct-2022
Changes from 4.3.0-beta3
1) Scripting supports implementing AUX functions
2) Bug fixes
    a) BMI085 accel scaling fixed
    b) Build with gcc 11.3 fixed (developer only)
    c) EKF3 alt discrepancy if GPS or baro alt changed soon after startup fixed
    d) Harmonic Notch and ESC telem fix when motor outputs are non-contiguous
    e) NMEA GPS's KSXT message parsing fixed (affected position accuracy)
    f) Scripting random number generator fix
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.3.0-beta3 14-Oct-2022
Changes from 4.3.0-beta2
1) Pixhawk1-1M, fmuv2, fmuv3 display warning if firmware mismatches board's flash size (1M and 2M)
2) Scripting support for multi-byte i2c reads
3) Bug fixes
    a) Airspeed CAN sensor ordering fixed (ordering could change if using multiple airspeed sensors)
    b) BRD_SAFETY_MASK fix for enabling outputs when safety is on
    c) Defaults.parm file processing fixed when a line has >100 characters and/or no new line (developer only)
    d) NMEA serial output precision fixed (was only accurate to 1m, now accurate to 1cm)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.3.0-beta2 04-Oct-2022
Changes from 4.3.0-beta1
1) Autopilot specific fixes and enhancements
    a) AIRLink autopilot supports UART2
    b) CUAV V6X supports CAN battery monitor by default
    c) MatekF405-CAN board uses less memory to fix compass calibration issues
    d) Pixhawk1-1M only supports uBlox and NMEA GPSs to save flash space
    e) SkystarsH7HD-bdshot (allows Bi-directional DShot)
    f) SkystarsH7HD supports VTX power by default
2) EFI support
    a) Currawong ECU support (added as Electronic Fuel Injection driver)
    b) Scripting support for EFI drivers (allows writing EFI drivers in Lua)
    c) SkyPower and HFE CAN EFI drivers (via scripting)
3) Safety features
    a) Arming check that SPIN_MIN less than 0.3 and greater than SPIN_ARM
    b) Arming option to disable itermittant display of pre-arm warnings (see ARMING_OPTIONS)
4) Minor enhancements
    a) Autopilot board names max length increased to 23 characters (was 13)
    b) CAN actuators can report PWM equivalent values (eases debugging)
    c) Log download speed improved for boards with "block" backends
    d) Notch filter slew limit reduces chance of notch freq moving incorrectly 
    e) SLCAN disabled when vehicle is armed to reduce CPU load
5) Bug fixes
    a) DO_JUMP mission command fixed if active command changed before changing to Auto mode
    b) EKF3 altitude error fix when using dual GPSs and affinity enabled
    c) FFT indexing bug fixed
    d) Gimbal mount fix to default mode (see MNTx_DEFLT_MODE parameter)
    e) MSP fix to report arm status to DJI FPV goggles
    f) Notch fix for non-throttle notch (was being incorrectly disabled)
    g) OSD fixes for params, font and resolution
    h) RPM reporting from harmonic notch fixed
    i) "Sending unknown message (50)" warning removed
    j) SBF/GSOF/NOVA GPS auto detction of baud rate fixed
    k) VideoTX fixes for buffer overruns and Tramp video transmitter support
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.3.0-beta1 14-Sep-2022
Changes from 4.2.3
1) Rover specific enhancements
    a) Aux switch for SaveWP displays, "Mission Cleared" if vehicle not armed
    b) Dock mode using modified precision landing library
    c) Manual mode steering scaling with speed can be disabled using MANUAL_OPTIONS parameter
    d) S-Curves for Auto, Guided, RTL
2) Rover specific bug fixes
    a) Wheel encoder timestamp fix (WRC_xx params may need to be changed)
    b) Auto mode stick mixing fixed (see STICK_MIXING parameter)
    c) Arming check removed to support mixed Ackerman and skid-stering vehicles
3) New autopilot support
    a) AtomRCF405
    b) CubeOrange-SimOnHardWare
    c) DevEBoxH7v2
    d) KakuteH7Mini-Nand
    e) KakuteH7v2
    f) Mamba F405 Mk4
    g) SkystarsH7HD
    h) bi-directional dshot (aka "bdshot") versions for CubeOrange, CubeYellow, KakuteF7, KakuteH7, MatekF405-Wing, Matek F765, PH4-mini, Pixhawk-1M
4) EKF enhancements and fixes
    a) EK3_GPS_VACC_MAX threshold to control when GPS altitude is used as alt source
    b) EKF ring buffer fix for very slow sensor updates (those that update once every few seconds)
    c) EKF3 source set change captured in Replay logs
5) Gimbal enhancements
    a) Angle limit params renamed and scaled to degrees (e.g. MNT1_ROLL_MIN, MNT1_PITCH_MIN, etc)
    b) BrushlessPWM driver (set MNT1_TYPE = 7) is unstabilized Servo driver
    c) Dual mount support (see MNT1_, MNT2 params)
    d) Gremsy driver added (set MNT1_TYPE = 6)
    e) MAVLink gimbalv2 support including sending GIMBAL_DEVICE_STATUS_UPDATE (replaces MOUNT_STATUS message)
    f) "Mount Lock" auxiliary switch supports follow and lock modes in RC targetting (aka earth-frame and body-frame)    
    g) RC channels to control gimbal set using RCx_OPTION = 212 (Roll), 213 (Pitch) or 214 (Yaw)
    h) RC targetting rotation rate in deg/sec (see MNT1_RC_RATE which replaces MNT_JSTICK_SPD)
    i) Yaw can be disabled on 3-axis gimbals (set MNTx_YAW_MIN = MNTx_YAW_MAX)
6) Notch filter enhancements
    a) Attitude and filter logging at main loop rate
    b) Batch sampler logging both pre and post-filter
    c) FFT frame averaging
    d) In-flight throttle notch parameter learning using averaged FFTs
    e) Triple harmonic notch 
7) RemoteId and SecureBoot enhancements
    a) Remote update of secure boot's public keys (also allows remote unlocking of bootloader)
8) Safety enhancements
    a) crash_dump.bin file saved to SD Card on startup (includes details re cause of software failures)
    b) Disabling Fence clears any active breaches (e.g. FENCE_TYPE = 0 will clear breaches)
    c) "GPS Glitch" message clarified to "GPS Glitch or Compass error"
    d) Pre-arm check that configured AHRS is being used (e.g. checks AHRS_EKF_TYPE not changed since boot)
    e) Pre-arm check that gimbals are healthy (currently only for Gremsy gimbals, others in future release)
    f) Pre-arm check that scripts are running
    g) Pre-arm messages are correctly prefixed with "PreArm:" (instead of "Arm:")
    h) RC auxiliary switch option for Arm / Emergency Stop
9) Scripting enhancements
    a) CAN2 port bindings to allow scripts to communicate on 2nd CAN bus
    b) ESC RPM bindings to allow scripts to report engine RPM
    c) Gimbal bingings to allow scripts to control gimbal
    d) Pre-arm check bindings (allows scripts to check if pre-arm checks have passed)
    e) Semicolon (:) and period (.) supported (e.g both Logger:write() and Logger.write will work)
10) Sensor driver enhancements
    a) Benewake H30 radar support
    b) BMI270 IMU performance improvements
    c) IRC Tramp VTX suppor
    d) Logging pause-able with auxiliary switch.  see RCx_OPTION = 165 (Pause Stream Logging)
    e) Proximity sensor support for up to 3 sensors
    f) Precision Landing consumes LANDING_TARGET MAVLink message's PositionX,Y,Z fields
    g) RichenPower generator maintenance-required messages can be suppressed using GEN_OPTIONS param
    h) TeraRanger Neo rangefinder support
    i) GPS support to provide ellipsoid altitude instead of AMSL (see GPS_DRV_OPTIONS)
    j) W25N01GV 1Gb flash support
11) Bug fixes
    a) Accel calibration throws away queued commands from GCS (avoids commands being run long after they were sent)
    b) Cygbot proximity sensor fix to support different orientations (see PRXx_ORIENT)
    c) Lutan EFI message flood reduced
    d) Missions download to GCS corruption avoided by checking serial buffer has space
    e) Safety switch disabled if IOMCU is disabled (see BRD_IO_ENABLE=0)
    f) Script restart memory leak fixed
12) Developer items
    a) Fast loop task list available in real-time using @SYS/tasks.txt
    b) Parameter defaults sent to GCS with param FTP and recorded in onboard logs
    c) ROS+ArduPilot environment installation script
    d) Sim on Hardware allows simulator to run on autopilot (good for exhibitions)
    e) Timer info available in real-time using @SYS/timers.txt
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.2.3 30-Aug-2022
Changes from 4.2.3-rc3
1) OpenDroneId bug fix to consume open-drone-id-system-update message
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.2.3-rc3 20-Aug-2022
Changes from 4.2.3-rc2
1) OpenDroneId improvements including reporting if operator location is lost
2) Firmware ID and CRC check (disabled by default)
3) Bug Fixes
    a) Revert Notch filter ordering on loss of RPM source (see 4.2.3-rc1's 3g below) because fix is incomplete
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.2.3-rc2 13-Aug-2022
Changes from 4.2.3-rc1
1) BlueRobotics Navigator autopilot filesystem fix
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.2.3-rc1 12-Aug-2022
Changes from 4.2.2
1) OpenDroneId support (aka RemoteID)
2) New autopilot support
    a) CubeOrange+
    b) Foxeer Reaper F745
    c) MFE PixSurveyA1
    d) Pixhawk6C and Pixhawk6X
3) Bug Fixes and minor enhancements
    a) Battery monitor health check fixed to check all enabled monitors
    b) ICE Lutan EFI update serial flood fixed
    c) ICM42xxx IMU filter settings improved and allow for faster sample rates
    d) INA2xx batteries may init after startup
    e) KakuteH7 OSD parameter menu enabled
    f) Lua script support to set desired speed in Auto mode
    g) Notch filter ordering bug on loss of RPM source fixed
    h) PreArm check of Rangefinder pin conflict and servo outputs
    i) SCurve logs debug if internal error occurs
    j) WSL2 upload fixed (developer issue only)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.2.2 28-Jun-2022 / 4.2.2-rc1 21-Jun-2022
Changes from 4.2.1
1) MambaH743v4 and MambaF405 MK4 autopilot support
2) Second full harmonic notches available (see INS_HNTC2_ parameters)
3) UAVCAN memory usage reduced (see CAN_Dn_UC_POOL parameter to control DroneCAN pool size)
5) Watchdog (caused by hardfault) saves crash dump logs to SD card
6) Bug fixes
    a) CRSF protection against watchdog on bad frames
    b) CRSF reset in flight handled
    c) FFT init watchdog fix when ARMING_REQUIRE=0
    d) OSD flight modes menu includes newer flight modes
    e) Param download (via MAVFTP) fixed for params with overlapping names
    f) PWM rangefinder bug fix and added SCALING parameter support
    g) Replay bug fix when EK3_SRCs changed
    h) SERIALx_OPTION fix when "Don't forward mavlink to/from" selected (resolves MAVLink gimbal detection)
    i) VL53L1X rangefinder preserves addresses
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.2.1 07-Jun-2022 / 4.2.1-rc1 28-May-2022
Changes from 4.2.0
1) CAN ESCs bus bandwidth efficiency improvements (see CAN_Dx_UC_ESC_OF parameter)
2) DShot timing improvements to support for ESC variants
3) Luftan EFI measures fuel consumption (see EFI_COEF1, EFI_COEF2)
4) Bug fixes
    b) CAN ESCs work on boards with no safety switch (e.g. MatekH743)
    b) Inflight Compass calibration checks GSF yaw estimate is good
    c) NeoPixel colour fix
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.2.0 23-May-2022 / 4.2.0-rc4 14-May-2022
Changes from 4.2.0-rc3
1) FlyingMoon F407 and F427 autopilots supported
2) Bug fixes
    a) Log file list with over 500 logs fixed
    b) RSSI when using IOMCU pin 103 fixed
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.2.0-rc3 07-May-2022
Changes from 4.2.0-rc2
1) Bug fixes
    a) Blended Z axis accel calculation fix when not using first IMU
    b) Custom compass orientation for DroneCAN compasses
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.2.0-rc2 29-Apr-2022
Changes from 4.2.0-rc1
1) Minor Enhancements
    a) Button, Relay and RPM GPIO pin conflict pre-arm check improved
    b) DShot uses narrower bitwidths for more accurate timing (allows BLHeli BlueJay to work)
    c) INS_NOTCH parameters renamed to INS_HNTC2
    d) Matek F765-Wing-bdshot firmware added
    e) Matek H743 supports ICM42688
    f) QiotekZealot H743 supports ICM4xxxx
    g) Scripting heap size increased to 100k on F7/H7
    h) SPRacingH7 improvements including external flash performance improvements
2) Bug fixes
    a) BMI088 IMU FIFO overruns fixed
    b) DO_SET_SERVO with SERVOn_FUNCTION=0 fixed, added pre-arm check of servo functions configured on disabled channels
    c) Log file descriptor init fixed (issues only seen on Linux autopilots)
    d) Log list cope with gaps, performance improvement to reduce impact on EKF and some ESCs
    e) Proximity sensor fix when using MAVLink lidars in non-forward orientations
    f) RPM sensor fix to avoid "failed to attach pin" spam to GCS
    g) STM32 DMA fatal exceptions disabled (caused watch dogs reboots with zero information)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.2.0-rc1 10-Apr-2022
Changes from 4.2.0-beta3
1) Minor Enhancements
    a) Log and monitor threads stack size increased
    b) SPro H7 Extreme QSPI support improved
2) Bug fixes
    a) EKF3 accel bias fixed when an IMU is disabled
    b) MatekH743 buzzer fixed by reverting to 16 bit timer
    c) STM32 H7 flash storage bug fixed that caused re-init on overflow
    d) @SYS file logging fixed
    e) Timer bug fixed that could cause a watchdog on boards using flash storage
    f) UART driver incorrect lock class fixed
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.2.0-beta3 30-Mar-2022
Changes from 4.2.0-beta2
1) Minor Enhancements
    a) BATT_OPTIONS supports sending resting voltage (corrected for internal resistance) to the ground station
    b) KakuteH7-bdshot support
    c) MatekH743 uses a 32 bit timer to resolve occasional 68ms timing glitch
    d) RC input protocol text message sent to GCS (helps pilot awareness during RC handover)
2) Bug fixes
    a) Balance bot stands in acro mode even with no GPS
    b) Battery remaining percentage fixed when using Sum battery
    c) DShot reversal bug with IOMCU based boards (see SERVO_BLH_RVMASK)
    d) DShot commands fixed (could cause random motor movements)
    e) GPS blending fix that could have resulted in the wrong GPS being used for a short time
    f) Param conversion bug (impacted airspeed enable)
    g) RC handover between IOMCU RC input and a secondary RC input on a serial port fixed
    h) QioTek Zealot H743 SLCAN port and relays fixed
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.2.0-beta2 10-Mar-2022
Changes from 4.2.0-beta1
1) Follow mode supports FOLLOW_TARGET message (sent by QGC ground station) 
2) Bug fixes
    a) Arming checks ignore SERVOx_MIN, MAX if setup as GPIO pin
    b) BeastH7v2 BMI270 baro support
    c) DShot prescaler fix (ESCs were not initialising correctly)
    d) EKF3 variance constraint fix used to prevent "ill-conditioning"
    e) POWR log message MCU voltage fix (min and max voltage were swapped)
    f) Sailboats loiter fix (could get stuck pointing directly into the wind)
    g) SPRacingH7 firmware install fix
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.2.0-rc1 28-Feb-2022
Changes from 4.1.5
1) AHRS/EKF improvements
    a) EKF startup messages reduced
    b) LORD Microstrain CX5/GX5 external AHRS support
    c) ModalAI VOXL non-GPS system supported (set VISO_TYPE=3, uses ODOMETRY mavlink msg)
2) Rover specific enhancements
    a) AIS support
    b) Attitude control gains defaults reduced
        - ATC_STR_ANG_P reduced to 2
        - ATC_STR_RAT_MAX reduced to 120 deg/sec
        - ATC_STR_ACC_MAX reduced to 120 deg/sec
        - ATC_ACCEL_MAX reduced to 1m/s
    c) Boats loiter by default at end of mission (see MIS_DONE_BEHAVE parameter)
    d) DPTH message supports multiple rangefinders
    e) Omni motor saturation improvement (scaling applied evenly to all motors)
    f) Pivot turn overshoot reduced (would happen with bad combination of ATC_STR_ACC_MAX and ATC_STR_ANG_P)
    g) Speed control improvement when motor hits limits (especially when MOT_SLEWRATE was set to a low number)
    h) Speed control PID logging and reporting includes FF
    i) Stops maintain zero turn rate (previously steering was straight but trim could lead to turning)
    j) Torqeedo motor support
3) Custom build server support (see https://custom.ardupilot.org)
4) Lua scripting improvements
    a) ahrs::get_location replaces get_position (get_position still works for now)
    b) Auto support for NAV_SCRIPT_TIME commands (Lua within Auto)
    c) Frame string support (allows scripting based frame to display custom description after startup)
    d) Parameter support (no need to always use SCR_USERx)
    e) Script logged to onboard log (can be disabled by setting SCR_DEBUG_OPTS)
    f) Set_turn_rate_and_speed control support
5) New autopilots supported
    a) AirLink
    b) BeastF7v2, BeastH7v2
    c) JHEMCU GSF405A
    d) KakuteH7, KakuteH7Mini
    e) MambaF405US-I2C
    f) MatekF405-TE
    g) ModalAI fc-v1
    h) PixC4-Jetson
    i) Pixhawk5X
    j) QioTekZealotH743
    k) RPI-Zero2W
    l) SPRacingH7 Extreme
    m) Swan-K1
6) Safety improvements
    a) Dijkstra's avoidance performance improvements including converting to A*
    b) Parachute option to leave servo in open position (see CHUTE_OPTIONS parameter)
    c) Pre-arm check of IMU heater temp
    d) Pre-arm check of rangefinder health
    e) Pre-arm check that not in RC/throttle failsafe
7) Sensor driver enhancements
    a) ADIS16470, ADIS16507 and BMI270 IMU support
    b) AK09918 compass support
    c) Battery monitor supports voltage offset (see BATTx_VLT_OFFSET)
    d) Benewake TFMiniPlus I2C address defaults correctly
    e) Buzzer can be connected to any GPIO on any board
    f) Compass calibration (in-flight) uses GSF for better accuracy
    g) CRSFv3 support, CSRF telemetry link reports link quality in RSSI
    h) Cybot D1 Lidar
    i) DroneCan (aka UAVCAN) battery monitors support scaling (see BATTx_CURR_MULT)
    j) DroneCan (aka UAVCAN) GPS-for-yaw support
    k) Electronic Fuel Injection support incl Lutan EFI
    l) FETtecOneWire resyncs if EMI causes lost bytes
    m) Hondex underwater sonar custom message support
    n) IMU heater params renamed to BRD_HEAT_xxx
    o) Lightware SF40C ver 0.9 support removed (ver 1.0 and higher still supported)
    p) Maxbotix serial sonar driver support RNGFNDx_SCALING parameter to support for varieties of sensor
    q) MPPT solar charge controller support
    r) MTK GPS driver removed
    s) Ping200x support
    t) Proximity sensor min and max range (see PRX_MIN, PRX_MAX)
    u) QSPI external flash support
    v) uLanding (aka USD1) radar provides average of last few samples
    w) Unicore NMEA GPS support for yaw and 3D velocity
8) Other System enhancements
    a) Board ID sent in AUTOPILOT_VERSION mavlink message
    b) DO_SET_CAM_TRIG_DIST supports instantly triggering camera
    c) DJI FPV OSD multi screen and stats support
    d) GPIO pin configured by setting SERVOx_FUNCTION to -1 (also see SERVO_GPIO_MASK. BRD_PWM_COUNT removed)
    e) GPIO pin support on main outputs on boards with IOMCU
    f) GyroFlow logging (see LOG_BITMASK's "VideoStabilization" option)
    g) Firmware version logged in VER message
    h) Log rate limiting to more easily reduce log sizes (see LOG_FILE_RATEMAX parameter)
    i) SD card format via MAVLink
    j) Serial port option to disable changes to stream rate (see SERIALx_OPTIONS)
    k) Serial port passthrough via USB supports baud rate changes (eases UBlox F9P firmware updates)
    l) VIBE logging units to m/s/s
9) Bug fixes
    a) Auto mode infinite loop with nav commands that fail to start fixed
    b) BLHeli passthrough reliability improvements
    c) Compass learning (inflight) fixed to ignore unused compasses (e.g. those with COMPASS_USE = 0)
    d) EKF resets due to bad IMU data occur at most once per second
    e) GPIO pin fix on CubeOrange, F4BY, mRoControlZeroF7, R9Pilot
    f) MAVlink2 serial ports always send MAVLink2 messages (previously waited until other side sent MAVLink2)
    g) Omnibusf4pro bi-directional dshot fix
    h) Real-Time-Clock (RTC) oldest possible date updated to Jan-2022
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.1.5 19-Feb-2022 / 4.1.5-rc1 10-Feb-2022
Changes from 4.1.4
1) Revert SBUS RC frame gap change from 4.1.4
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.1.4 08-Feb-2022 / 4.1.4-rc1 31-Jan-2022
Changes from 4.1.3
1) Benewake CAN Lidar support
2) CAN GPS default lag dropped to 0.1 seconds (was 0.22 seconds)
3) Bug fixes
    a) Compass custom orientation is never overwritten during calibration
    b) EKF logging gaps fixed (some messages were occasionally being skipped)
    c) IMU logging fix for IREG message (records IMU register changes)
    d) SBUS RC frame gap increased to better handle some new receivers
    e) SERVOx_FUNCTION protection to avoid memory overwrite if set too high
    f) SD card init triggering watchdog fixed
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.1.3 31-Dec-2021 /4.1.3-rc2 21-Dec-2021
Changes from 4.1.3-rc1
1) Suport for IIM-42652, ICM-40605 and ICM-20608-D IMUs
2) Bug fixes
    a) SmartAudio high CPU load fix (previously it could starve other threads of CPU)
    b) Debug pins disabled by default to prevent rare inflight reset due to electrostatic discharge
    c) EKF3 reset causing bad accel biases fixed
    d) RC protocol detection fix that forced PH4-mini users to powerup autopilot before transmitter
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.1.3-rc1 18-Dec-2021
Changes from 4.1.2
1) CUAV-X7 servo voltage detection support
2) Bug fixes
    a) Main loop delay fix for boards with 16 bit timers (could affect smaller boards like those from MatekSys)
    b) Polygon Fence upload fix when replacing fence with one that has fewer points
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.1.2 07-Dec-2021 / 4.1.2-rc1 22-Nov-2021
Changes from 4.1.1
1) CAN_Dn_UC_OPTION param added to help resolve DroneCAN DNA conflicts
2) Durandal with alternative ICM-20602 IMU
3) OBAL autopilot support (Open Board Architecture for Linux)
4) FETtec One ESC protocol support
5) Bug Fixes
    a) APM/LOGS directory creation fixed on some boards
    b) EKF3 fix to switch to non-zero primary core when disarmed
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.1.1 10-Nov-2021 / 4.1.1-rc1 16-Oct-2021
Changes from 4.1.0 
1) EK3_PRIMARY allows selection of which EKF core/IMU to use on startup
2) Bug Fixes
    a) MAVFTP init fix (could cause slow parameter download)
    b) Scripting fix when logging strings
    c) Serial flow control fix (affected at least Lightware LW20 serial lidar)
    d) QiotekZealotF427 IMU (ICM42605) orientation fixed
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.1.0 20-Sep-2021 / 4.1.0-rc3 15-Sep-2021
Changes from 4.1.0-rc2
1) Bug Fixes
    a) Serial port auto detection of flow control fix
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.1.0-rc2 10-Sep-2021
Changes from 4.1.0-rc1
1) Enhancements
    a) Log download speeds improved on F765 and F777 based boards (USB buffers increased)
    b) Serial port DMA contention heuristics improved (reduces chance of delays writing to serial devices)
2) Bug Fixes
    a) CRSF frame timeout increased to reduce RC failsafes
    b) Declination automatic lookup rounding fix (caused inaccurate declination in some parts of world)
    c) DShot (bi-directional) support on Pixhawk4, CUAVv5, CUAVv5-Nano
    d) IMU semaphore fix to avoid occasional corruption
    e) QioTek Zealot F427 GPIO pin fix
    f) Replay/DAL RMGH log message format fix
    g) Rangefinder initial buffer size and baudrate fix (affected Aintein US-D1 radar)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.1.0-rc1 28-Aug-2021
Changes from 4.1.0-beta7
1) Enhancements
    a) DCM fallback easier on boats
    b) Flywoo F745 Goku Nano support
    c) MatekF765-Wing support 
2) Bug Fixes
    a) ChibiOS scheduling slip workaround to avoid occasional 60ms delays found on MatekH7
    b) EKF2 divide-by-zero protection when using optical flow (issue only found in simulator)
    c) External AHRS (e.g. VectorNav driver) init fix
    d) KakuteF4Mini SBUS fix
    e) Pixhawk4 blue and red LEDs swapped
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.1.0-beta7 14-Aug-2021
Changes from 4.1.0-beta6
1) Enhancements
    a) Flywoo F745 supports external I2C compasses
    b) GPS-for-yaw arming check added
    c) GPS_DRV_OPTIONS allows forcing UBlox GPS to 115200 baud
    d) Lua scripts can be placed in root of ROMFS (only relevant for developers)
2) Bug Fixes
    a) Beacon driver protected from requests for data for non-existant beacons
    b) CAN threading fix to resolve potential lockup when lua scripts use CAN
    c) EKF3 GSF can be invoked multiple times with source switching (no longer limited by EK3_GSF_RST_MAX)
    d) EKF3 IMU offset fix (vehicle's reported position was slightly incorrect if INS_POS_XYZ params set)
    e) Motor test stops and reports failure if arming fails
    f) OSD overwrite and nullptr check fix
    g) Proximity sensor pre-arm check disabled if avoidance using proximity sensors is disabled 
    h) RCOut banner displayed at very end of startup procedure to avoid invalid output
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover 4.1.0-beta6 23-Jul-2021
Changes from 4.1.0-beta5
1) Enhancements
    a) GPS-for-yaw enhancements including using position and yaw from different GPSs 
    b) Long distance travel supported (thousands of km) including double precision EKF and moving origin
2) Bug Fixes
    a) BendyRuler avoidance fixed (was slow and jerky)
    b) BLHeli fix that could cause failure to boot
    c) CRSF message spamming and firmware string length fixed
    d) Display re-enabled on 1MB boards
    e) DShot always sends 0 when disarmed (protects against motors spin while disarmed due to misconfiguration)
    f) DShot fix that could cause main loop jitter
    g) DShot buzzer tone disabled during motor test to remove bad interation
    h) Longitude wrap fix (allows autonomous flights as longitude wraps between -180 and 180 deg)
    i) Log created on forced arm
    j) MatekF405-bdshot NeoPixel LEDs re-enabled on PWM5
    k) Serial port performance improvements using FIFO on H7 boards
--------------------------------
Rover 4.1.0-beta5 30-Jun-2021
Changes from 4.1.0-beta4
1) Enhancements
    a) Arming check of distance from EKF origin increased to 250km horizontally (was 50km), 50km vertically (was 500m)
    b) Pre-arm check of FLTMODE_CH and RCx_OPTION conflict
    c) QioTekZealotH743 autopilot support
    d) Scripting support for set home and get EKF origin
    e) Water depth and temperature sent to GCS using WATER_DEPTH mavlink message
2) Bug fixes
    a) EKF alt estimate more robust when using GPS-for-yaw
    b) EKF origin altitudes consistent across cores even if user takes off with no GPS lock
    c) Logging start does not affect EKF (EKF could become unhealthy due to timing delays)
    d) Longitude wrap fixed (allows flying across international date line)
    e) Position jump fixed during GPS glitch and GPS/Non-GPS transitions
--------------------------------
Rover 4.1.0-beta4 12-Jun-2021
Changes from 4.1.0-beta3
1) Rover/Boat specific enhancements and bug fixes
    a) DShot support fixed
    b) Simple Avoidance fix to allow backing away from obstacles
    c) THR onboard log message logs forward-back acceleration
    d) Waypoint delay of -1 does not delay
2) Minor enhancements (or changes)
    a) CSRF telemetry improvements to power setting and pass param requests more quickly
    b) CUAV X7/Nora supports ICM42688P IMU
    c) Pix32v5 USB product string fixed and IMU heater enabled 
    d) RunCam Hybrid supported (see RUNCAM_TYPE parameter)
    e) VisualOdom feature removed from 1MB boards
3) Bug fixes
    a) BLHeli Auto only affects telemetry passthrough to ease setup
    b) Circular complex fence radius not truncated
    c) CubeOrange serial1/2 DMA fixed
    d) ESC telemetry fixes including motor index on boards with I/O mcu
    e) I/O MCU reset fix if user had disabled safety switch (recovery from reset would leave motors not spinning)
    f) MSP temperature scaling fixed
    g) PreArm check of roll/pitch and yaw angle difference fixed
    h) Serial port info file (@SYS/uarts.txt) easier to understand
    i) Scheduler fix of premature run of tasks every 11min
    j) Visual odometry yaw alignment fixed
    k) WPNAV_RADIUS never less than 5cm
--------------------------------
Rover 4.1.0-beta3 24-May-2021
Changes from 4.1.0-beta2
1) Dshot bug fix for autopilots with I/O boards (CubeBlack, CubeOrange, etc)
--------------------------------
Rover 4.1.0-beta2 20-May-2021
Changes from 4.1.0-beta1
1) Rover/Boat specific enhancements and bug fixes
    a) Direct mast rotation logging
    b) RangeFinder logging enabled (RFND)
    c) Shaking reduced when vehicle stopped by simple avoidance
    d) Sonar water temperature logged in DPTH message
    e) TURN_MAX_G renamed to ATC_TURN_MAX_G and applied to all turns
    f) Wind direction calculation when not using wind speed sensor fixed
2) BLHeli improvements and fixes
    a) Bi-directional ESC telemetry fixes
    b) Bi-directional dshot 1200 supported
    c) Control of digital with non-digital outputs fixed
    d) Support dshot commands for LED, buzzer and direction control
    e) Passthru reliability improved
3) New autopilot boards
    a) PixC4-Pi and PixC4-Jetson
4) Avoidance fixes
    a) OBSTACLE_DISTANCE_3D boundary cleared after 0.75 seconds, allows easier multi-camera support
5) Other enhancements
    a) Auxiliary function logging shows how it was invoked (switch, button or scripting)
    b) External IST8308 compass supported on CubeBlack
    c) FrSky telem reports failsafe, terrain alt health and fence status
    d) OSD gets fence icon
    e) RunCam OSD and camera control
    f) Septentrio GPSs support GPS_SBAS_MOD parameter
6) Bug fixes
    a) Barometer averaging fixes for BMP380, BMP280, LPS2XH, SPL06 drivers
    b) EKF3 fix to reset yaw after GPS-for-yaw recovers
    c) KDECAN output range, motor order and pre-arm check messages fixed
    d) Logging memory leak when finding last log fixed
    e) Pixhawk4 mini safety switch fix
    f) SD card slowdown with early mounts fixed
--------------------------------
Rover 4.1.0-beta1 08-Apr-2021
Changes from 4.0.0
1) EKF changes:
    a) EKF3 is default estimator (EKF2 is available as an option)
    b) External AHRS/IMU support (e.g. VectorNav)
    c) Gaussian Sum Filter (GSF) allows emergency yaw correction using GPS
    d) GPS-for-yaw (dual F9 UBlox GPS can provide yaw)
    e) Lane switching logic improvements
    f) Sensor affinity (improves sensor failure redundancy)
    g) Source switching for GPS/Non-GPS transitions (see EK3_SRCx_ parameters)
    h) Yaw estimation and reliability improvements
2) Control improvements:
    a) Vectored thrust improvements (see MOT_VEC_ANGLEMAX parameter)
    b) Skid-steering supports prioritising steering vs throttle (see MOT_STR_THR_MIX parameter)
3) Walking robot support (basic)
4) Object avoidance:
    a) BendyRuler hesitancy improvements
    b) Intel Realsense 435/455 camera support (companion computer required)
    c) Return to original path after clearing obstacle (see OA_OPTIONS parameter)
    d) Simple avoidance backs away from obstacles (see AVOID_BACKUP_SPD parameter)
    e) Simple avoidance accel limited (see AVOID_ACCEL_MAX parameter)
    f) Simultaneous Dijkstra and BendyRuler path planning
    g) Obstacle database now 3D
    h) Obstacle filtering improvements
5) Compass enhancements
    a) In-flight learning improvements (see COMPASS_LEARN = 3)
    b) Large vehicle calibration support (e.g. point vehicle north and push button in MP)
    c) Prioritisation (see MP's compass prioritisation table)
    d) Custom orientations
6) Intel RealSense T265 support (see VISO_TYPE = 2, companion computer required)
    a) Position and velocity from external sources accepted at up to 50hz
    b) Resets from external sources accepted
7) New autopilot boards
    a) CUAV-Nora, CUAV-X7
    b) FlywooF745
    c) Holybro Pix32v5
    d) iFlight BeastF7 and BeastH7
    e) MatekH743
    f) mRo ControlZero, Nexus, PixracerPro
    g) R9Pilot
    h) SuccexF4
    i) QioTekZealotF427
8) IMU improvements:
    a) temperature calibration
    b) faster gyro sampling on high performance autopilots (F7 and faster, see INS_GYRO_RATE)
9) New drivers
    a) AllyStar NMEA GPS
    b) BMM150 as external compass
    c) CRSF and SRXL2 RC protocols
    d) Dshot (bi-directional) for RPM telemetry
    e) GY-US32-v2 lidar
    f) HC-SR04 lidar
    g) Intelligent Energy hydrogen fuel cell
    h) Lightware SF45b lidar
    i) MSP protocol support (and DJI DPV systems)
    j) RichenPower generator
    k) Rotoye smart battery
    l) RunCam Split 4 and RunCam hybrid support
    m) Smart Audio
    n) SMBus batteries up to 12 cells
    o) USD1 CAN radar
10) Scripting enhancements:
    a) Button, Proximity, RangeFinder and RPM sensor support
    b) DO_ mission commands can be triggered from scripts
    c) I2C sensor driver support (i.e. allows writing sensor drivers in Lua)
    d) Logging (i.e. allows Lua scripts to write to onboard logs)
    e) Mission item read support
    f) Motor drivers support (used for walking robots)
    g) Position, velocity and direct steering & throttle control while in Guided mode
    h) Pre-arm checks (i.e. allows writing custom pre-arm checks in Lua)
    i) ROMFS support (allows writing scripts to ROMFS instead of SD Card)
    j) Serial port support (allows reading/writing to serial port from Lua)
    k) ToshibaCAN ESC usage time read support
11) Other enhancements:
    a) Baro parameters start with BARO_ (was GND_)
    b) Barometers get device id for easier identification
    c) ChibiOS upgrade to 20.3
    d) CRSF passthrough for Yaapu widget
    e) DShot rates increased (see SERVO_DSHOT_RATE)
    f) Filesystem/MAVFTP expansion including @SYS for performance monitoring
    g) MAV_CMD_DO_REPOSITION support
    h) MAVFTP performance improvements
    i) Parameter reset workaround by backing-up and restoring old params after eeprom corruption
    j) Sailboats get arming check for windvane health
    k) Simple mode supports two paddle input
    l) Speed nudging in Auto made more consistent with Acro (i.e. same stick position results in same speed)
    m) Spektrum VTX control 
    n) Switch to Manual mode after mission completes (see MIS_DONE_BEHAVIOR parameter)
12) Bug fixes:
    a) Arming rejected in RTL, SmartRTL and Initializing modes
    b) CAN GPS ordering fix (previously order could switch meaning GPS_POS_ params were used on the wrong GPS)
    c) Logging reliability improvements
    d) RM3100 compass scaling fixed
    e) Speed control jumps avoided by resetting I-term when stopped
    f) Throttle slew rate fix (MOT_SLEWRATE param)
    g) Two paddle steering deadzone fix
    h) Wheel encoder fix (data could be skipped)
--------------------------------
Rover 4.0.0 26-Nov-2019 / 4.0.0-rc4 20-Nov-2019
Changes from 4.0.0-rc3
1) Lightware SF40c lidar driver for latest version
2) UBlox F9 GPS automatic configuration
3) UAVCAN RTK GPS support
4) Bug Fixes:
    a) Auxiliary switch support for RTL, SmartRTL fixed
    b) Fence health reporting relaxed (was showing Fence Breach when fence was not setup)
    c) RangeFinder type parameter clarified for Benewake lidar
    d) Barometer PROBE_EXT parameter description improvement
    e) Pixhawk4 board LED brightness fix
--------------------------------
Rover 4.0.0-rc3 08-Nov-2019
Changes from 4.0.0-rc2
1) IMU heater control parameters (see BRD_IMUHEAT_P/I params)
2) Bug Fixes:
    a) DO_CHANGE_SPEED fix (was being ignored)
    b) SET_YAW_SPEED in Guided mode made consistent with Auto mission command handling (yaw in degrees, speed in m/s)
    c) BLHeli fix to RPM calcs and telemetry (aka 0x8000 error)
    d) Fence upload is less strict about altitude types (fences don't have altitudes)
    e) Pre-arm message fix to reports AHRS/EKF issue (was blank)
    f) Sparky2 autopilot firmware available
    g) Startup message "AK09916: Unable to get bus semaphore" removed (was not an error)  
--------------------------------
Rover 4.0.0-rc2 24-Oct-2019
Changes from 4.0.0-rc1
1) Vehicle stays in Auto mode after completing missions using RTL-within-Auto, Hold-within-Auto 
2) Sailboat gets dedicated parameters SAIL_LOIT_RADIUS and SAIL_XTRACK_MAX
3) RTL/SmartRTL fixes:
    a) Boats loiter instead of circling at end of RTL/SmartRTL
    b) Warning sent to GCS when SmartRTL buffer is nearly full
4) OSD improvements including total distance fix for slow vehicles 
5) Bug Fixes and minor enhancements
    a) Wheel encoder fix to use both wheel encoders (if present)
    b) EKF failsafe and pre-arm checks when only wheel encoders used for non-GPS navigation
    c) Follow mode offsets reset to zero when vehicle leaves follow mode
    d) FS_OPTIONS parameter allows enabling failsafes to trigger while in Hold mode
--------------------------------
Rover 4.0.0-rc1 01-Oct-2019
Changes from 3.5.2
1) Path Planning for Object Avoidance (aka Bendy Ruler and Dijkstra's) replaces "Dodge" avoidance
2) Complex Fence support (aka stay-out zones)
3) Flight mode changes:
    a) LOIT_SPEED_GAIN provides tuning of loiter mode aggressiveness
    b) NAV_DELAY command support for clock-based start of mission commands
    c) Simple mode (was present in 5.1 but was undocumented and untested)
    d) SPEED_MIN parameter allows setting minimum speed during missions (reducing slow down at corners)
4) Sailboat improvements:
    a) motor support
    b) tacking improvements
    c) NMEA windvanes 
5) New flight controllers:
    a) Hex Cube Orange
    b) Holybro Durandal
6) Sensor and peripheral related changes
    a) Fuel flow battery battery types
    b) IBUS R/C input support
    c) "Inflight" compass calibration
    d) NTF_BUZZ_VOLUME allows controlling buzzer volume
    e) OSD support
    f) UAVCAN improvements including dynamic node allocation
    g) WS2812 LEDs
    h) Yaw from some GPSs 
7) Safety Improvements:
    a) Improved watchdog logging allows distinguishing between brown-outs from software failures
--------------------------------
Rover 3.5.2 24-Sep-2019
Changes from 3.5.1
1) fixed I2C storm lockup bug on ChibiOS
--------------------------------
Rover 3.5.1 17-May-2019 / 3.5.1-rc1 30-Apr-2019
Changes from 3.5.0
1) WHEEL_DISTANCE mavlink messages sent to ground station and companion computers
2) Bug fixes:
    a) EKF compass switching fix for vehicles with 3 compasses
    b) Guided's heading-and-speed controller no longer uses land based speed control
    c) Pre-arm check fix that all required motors for the frame are configured
    d) Prevent loss of active IMU from causing loss of attitude control
    e) Added startup check for Hex CubeBlack sensor failure
    f) don't reset INS_ENABLE_MASK based on found IMUs
--------------------------------
Rover 3.5.0 06-Feb-2019
Changes from 3.5.0-rc3
1) Bug fixes and minor enhancements
    a) Avoid potential divide-by-zero when waypoints are almost in a straight line
    b) LOIT_TYPE parameter description fix
--------------------------------
Rover 3.5.0-rc3 30-Jan-2019
Changes from 3.5.0-rc2
1) Fix build issue affecting fmuv2
--------------------------------
Rover 3.5.0-rc2 24-Jan-2019
Changes from 3.5.0-rc1
1) ChibiOS fixes and enhancements to many boards including Pixhawk4
2) EKF failsafe added and checked before entering autonomous modes
3) Object avoidance enabled in autonomous modes (Auto, Guided, RTL)
4) Cruise speed/throttle learning always runs for 2 seconds (saves user from having to lower switch) 
5) Boats hold position after reaching target in Auto and Guided (also see MIS_DONE_BEHAVE)
6) MAVLink message interval support (allows precise control of mavlink message update rates) 
7) Bug fixes and minor enhancements:
    a) DShot ESC support
    b) Auxiliary switch 7 parameter copy from CH7_OPTION to RC7_OPTION
    c) Wheel encoder offset fix
    d) SmartRTL default num points increased to 300 
--------------------------------
Rover 3.5.0-rc1 12-Nov-2018
Changes from 3.4.2:
1) ChibiOS provides improved performance and support for many new boards including:
   a) F4BY 
   b) TauLabs Sparky2
   c) Furious FPV F-35 lightening and Wing FC-10
   d) Holybro KakuteF4
   e) Mateksys F405-Wing
   f) Omnibus F4 Pro, NanoV6 and F7
   g) SpeedyBee F4
2) BalanceBot support
3) Sailboat support
4) OmniPlus, OmniX frame support (vehicles can move laterally using 4 thrusters or wheels)
5) Auxiliary Switches expanded to many channels (see RCx_OPTION parameters)
6) External position estimates accepted from ROS and Vicon systems
7) Mode changes:
   a) Follow mode (allows following another vehicle if connected via telemetry)
   b) Simple mode (pilot controls direction regardless of vehicle's heading)
   c) Loiter can be configured to always drive towards target (i.e. does not reverse) (see LOIT_TYPE parameter)
   d) Guided, RTL, SmartRTL will reverse towards target if DO_SET_REVERSE command received (via telemetry or as mission command)
8) Bug fixes and small enhancements:
   a) RC and GCS failsafe timeout shortened
   b) Object avoidance fix to include all sectors from proximity sensor (aka 360 lidar)
   c) Safety switch ability to arm/disarm vehicle now configurable (see BRD_SAFETYOPTION parameter)
   d) Onboard OSD support (for ChibiOS-only boards)
   e) Gripper support
   f) Sprayer support
--------------------------------
Rover 3.4.2 30-Jul-2018 / 3.4.2-rc1 23-Jul-2018
Changes from 3.4.1:
1) bug fix to pivot turn logic during missions
2) dataflash logging improvement to NTUN message
--------------------------------
Rover 3.4.1 04-Jul-2018 / 3.4.1-rc1 12-Jun-2018
Changes from 3.4.0:
1) lane based speed control (vehicle slows to stay close to line between waypoints), WP_OVERSHOOT replaces SPEED_TURN_GAIN 
2) MOT_SPD_SCA_BASE allow configuring speed above which speed scaling begins
3) disable acceleration limits when ATC_ACCEL_MAX is zero
4) accept DO_CHANGE_SPEED commands in Auto, Guided, RTL, SmartRTL
5) DPTH dataflash log messages for recording downward facing echosounders on boats 
--------------------------------
Rover 3.4.0 12-Jun-2018 / 3.4.0-rc1 01-Jun-2018
Changes from 3.3.1-rc2:
1) Loiter mode for boats
2) Omni rover support (three wheeled rover with lateral movement)
3) vision-position-estimate support for use with ROS
4) Control improvements:
   a) reversing control improvements
   b) ATC_DECEL_MAX allows deceleration to be faster or slower than acceleration
   c) PIVOT_TURN_RATE allows slower pivot turns
   d) turn-rate I-term reset when switching in from manual modes
5) NMEA Echosounder support for underwater depth monitoring
6) Bug fixes:
   a) fix forward/back acceleration limiting
   b) MaxsonarI2C driver fix
--------------------------------
Rover 3.3.1-rc2 12-May-2018
Changes from 3.3.1-rc1:
1) Bug fix use of ATC_STR_RAT_MAX to limit maximum turn rate
--------------------------------
Rover V3.3.1-rc1 09-May-2018
Changes from 3.3.0:
1) Vectored Thrust to improve attitude control for boats with rotating motors
2) minor changes and bug fixes:
    a) remove jump forward when transitioning from forward to reverse
    b) safety switch allows disarming motors (was disabled in 3.3.0)
--------------------------------
Rover V3.3.0 07-May-2018
Changes from 3.3.0-rc1:
1) default parameter changes
    a) TURN_MAX_G reduced from 1.0 to 0.6
    b) ATC_STR_ANG_P increased from 1.0 to 2.5 (converts angle error to desired turn rate during pivot turns)
    c) ATC_STR_ACC_MAX reduced from 360 to 180 deg/s/s (slows acceleration in pivot turns)
--------------------------------
Rover V3.3.0-rc1 19-Apr-2018
Changes from 3.2.3:
1) Simple object avoidance support
2) Circular and polygon fence support
3) Pivot turn improvements
    a) Heading control used to aim at new target 
    b) ATC_STR_ACC_MAX limits maximum rotational acceleration
    c) ATC_STR_RAT_MAX limits maximum rotation rate
4) Allow ACRO mode without GPS for skid-steering vehicles (reverts to manual throttle)
5) MOT_THR_MIN used as deadzone
6) Parameter default changes:
    a) PIVOT_TURN_ANGLE default raised from 30 to 60 degrees
    b) ATC_STR_RAT_P and I reduced to 0.2
    c) ATC_STR_RAT_FILT and ATC_SPEED_FILT reduced from 50hz to 10hz to better match vehicle response time
7) Boats report themselves as boats allowing ground stations to display boat icon on map
8) ChibiOS support
--------------------------------
Rover V3.2.3 09-Apr-2018 / V3.2.3-rc1/rc2 02-Apr-2018
Changes from 3.2.2:
1) Waypoint origin uses previous waypoint or vehicle stopping point
2) Boats send correct mav-type to ground station
3) TURN_MAX_G parameter description updates (allows lower values)
4) fix two-paddle input decoding
--------------------------------
Rover V3.2.2 19-Mar-2018 / V3.2.2-rc1 08-Mar-2018
Changes from 3.2.1:
1) Fix loss of steering control when stopping in Acro and Steering modes
--------------------------------
APM:Rover V3.2.1 29-Jan-2018 / V3.2.1-rc1 24-Jan-2018 
Changes from 3.2.0:
1) Fix mode switch logic to allow Auto, Guided, RTL, SmartRTL, Steering, Acro using non-GPS navigation (i.e. wheel encoders, visual odometry)
--------------------------------
APM:Rover V3.2.0 13-Jan-2018
Changes from 3.2.0-rc4:
1) Here GPS/compass default orientation fix (ICM20948)
2) PID values sent to ground station regardless of mode (see GCS_PID_MASK parameter)
3) Steering PID min and max ranges expanded
4) Mavlink message definition update
--------------------------------
APM:Rover V3.2.0-rc4 05-Jan-2018
Changes from 3.2.0-rc3:
1) Steering controller supports feed-forward (reduces wobble)
2) WP_SPEED, RTL_SPEED parameters allow speed independent of CRUISE_SPEED
3) Dataflash logging improvements for steering and throttle
4) Remove auto-trim at startup
5) GPS reports healthy even without 3d lock
---------------------------------
APM:Rover V3.2.0-rc3 05-Dec-2017
Changes from 3.2.0-rc2:
1) SmartRTL mode (retraces path back to home)
2) Acro mode (pilot controls speed and turn rate)
3) Guided mode ROS integration fixes
4) Steering mode allows pivot turns
5) Auto mode pivots on sharp corners
6) Aux switch allows arming/disarming and mode change
7) PILOT_STEER_TYPE parameter allows controlling turn direction when backing up
8) Mixer change to allow steering to use full motor range (removes need for MOT_SKID_FRIC)
---------------------------------
APM:Rover V3.2.0-rc2 28-Oct-2017
Changes from 3.2.0-rc1:
1) MOT_SKID_FRIC parameter allows increasing power for skid-steer vehicle pivot-turns
2) Bug Fixes:
    a) speed nudging fix in AUTO mode
    b) throttle slew range fix (was slightly incorrect when output range was not 1100 ~ 1900)
    c) PID desired and achieved reported to GCS when GCS_PID_MASK param set to non-zero value
    d) use-pivot fix to use absolute angle error
---------------------------------
APM:Rover V3.2.0-rc1 25-Aug-2017
Changes from 3.1.2:
1) Skid-steering vehicle support added (i.e. tank track or R2D2 style vehicles)
2) Brushless motor support
3) Improved speed/throttle and steering controllers:
    a) layered P and PID controllers with optional feedforward, input filtering and saturation handling (reduces unnecessary I-term build-up) 
    b) forward-back acceleration limited (see ATC_ACCEL_MAX parameter)
    c) pro-active slowing before waypoint in order to keep overshoot at or below WP_OVERSHOOT distance
    d) proper output scaling for skid-steering vs regular car steering controls
    e) TURN_RADIUS parameter added to allow better control of turn in Steering mode
    f) speed along forward-back axis used instead of total ground speed (resolves unusual behaviour for boats being washed downstream)
4) Auxiliary switch changes (see CH7_OPTION parameter):
    a) "Save Waypoint" saves the current location as a waypoint in all modes except AUTO if the vehicle is armed.  If disarmed the mission is cleared and home is set to the current location.
    b) "Learn Cruise" sets the THROTTLE_CRUISE and SPEED_CRUISE parameter values to the vehicle's current speed and throttle level 
5) Wheel encoder supported for non-GPS navigation (can also be used with GPS)
6) Visual Odometry support for non-GPS navigation (can also be used with GPS)
7) Guided mode improvements:
    a) for SET_ATTITUDE_TARGET accepts quaternions for target heading, valid thrust changed to -1 ~ +1 range (was previously 0 ~ 1)
    b) COMMAND_LONG.SET_YAW_SPEED support fixes (thrust field accepted as target speed in m/s)
    c) SET_POSITION_TARGET_GLOBAL_INT, _LOCAL_NED fixes and added support for yaw and yaw-rate fields
8) Bug Fixes:
    a) resolve occasional start of motors after power-on
    b) steering mode turn direction fix while reversing
    c) reversing in auto mode fixes (see DO_REVERSE mission command)
----------------------------------------------------------
Release 3.1.2, 15 March 2017
============================
Minor bugfix release.

- Crashing detection is off by default
- DISARMing of a rover via the transmitter stick works again
- If a user was driving in reverse in Manual and went into an AUTO
mode the rover would do the mission in reverse.  This is fixed.


Release 3.1.1, 31 January 2017
==============================
Minor bugfix release for a crash bug in the SRXL driver


Release 3.1.0, 22 December 2016
===============================
The ArduPilot development team is proud to announce the release of
version 3.1.0 of APM:Rover. This is a major release with a lot of
changes so please read the notes carefully!

A huge thanks to ALL the ArduPilot developers.  The Rover code
benefits tremendously from all the hard work that goes into the Copter
and Plane vehicle code.  Most of the code changes in this
release were not specifically for Rover however because of the
fantastic architecture of the ArduPilot code Rover automatically gets
those enhancements anyway.

Note that the documentation hasn't yet caught up with all the changes
in this release. We are still working on that, but meanwhile if you
see a feature that interests you and it isn't documented yet then
please ask.

The PX4-v2 build has had CANBUS support removed due to firmware size
issues.  If Rover users want CANBUS support you will need to install
the PX4-v3 build located in the firmware folder here:
http://firmware.ap.ardupilot.org/Rover/stable/PX4/

EKF1 has been removed as EKF2 has been the long term default and is
working extremely well and this has allowed room for EKF3.

EKF3 is included in this release but it is not the default.  Should
you want to experiment with it set the following parameters:
AHRS_EKF_TYPE=3
EK3_ENABLE=1
but note it is still experimental and you must fully understand the
implications.

New GUIDED Command
------------------
Rover now accepts a new message MAV_CMD_NAV_SET_YAW_SPEED which has an
angle in centidegrees and a speed scale and the rover will drive based
on these inputs.

The ArduPilot team would like to thank EnRoute for the sponsoring of
this feature
http://enroute.co.jp/

COMMAND_INT and ROI Commands
----------------------------
COMMAND_INT support has been added to Rover.  This has allowed the
implementation of SET_POSITION_TARGET_GLOBAL_INT, 
SET_POSITION_TARGET_LOCAL_NED and DO_SET_ROI as a COMMAND_INT

The ArduPilot team would like to thank EnRoute for the sponsoring of
this feature
http://enroute.co.jp/

Reverse
-------
Its now possible in a mission to tell the rover to drive in
Reverse. If using Mission Planner insert a new Waypoint using "Add
Below" button on the Flight Plan screen and select from the Command
drop down list you will see a new command "DO_SET_REVERSE". It takes 1
parameter - 0 for forward, 1 for reverse. It's that simple. Please give
it a try and report back any success or issues found or any questions
as well.

The ArduPilot team would like to thank the Institute for Intelligent
Systems Research at Deakin University
(http://www.deakin.edu.au/research/iisri16) for the sponsoring of the
reverse functionality.

Loiter
------
This changes brings the LOITER commands in line with other ArduPilot
vehicles so both NAV_LOITER_UNLIM and NAV_LOITER_TIME are supported and are
actively loitering. This means for instance if you have set a boat to
loiter at a particular position and the water current pushes the boat off
that position once the boat has drifted further then the WP_RADIUS
parameter distance setting from the position the motor(s) will be
engaged and the boat will return to the loiter position.

The ArduPilot team would like to thanko MarineTech for sponsoring this
enhancement.
http://www.marinetech.fr

Note: if you currently use Param1 of a NAV_WAYPOINT to loiter at a
waypoint this functionality has not changed and is NOT actively loitering.

Crash Check
-----------
Rover can now detect a crash in most circumstances - thanks Pierre
Kancir. It is enabled by default and will change the vehicle into HOLD
mode if a crash is detected.  FS_CRASH_CHECK is the parameter used to
control what action to take on a crash detection and it supports
0:Disabled, 1:HOLD, 2:HoldAndDisarm

Pixhawk2 heated IMU support
---------------------------
This release adds support for the IMU heater in the Pixhawk2,
allowing for more stable IMU temperatures. The Pixhawk2 is
automatically detected and the heater enabled at boot, with the target
IMU temperature controllable via BRD_IMU_TARGTEMP.
Using an IMU heater should improve IMU stability in environments with
significant temperature changes.

PH2SLIM Support
---------------
This release adds support for the PH2SLIM variant of the Pixhawk2,
which is a Pixhawk2 cube without the isolated sensor top board. This
makes for a very compact autopilot for small aircraft. To enable
PH2SLIM support set the BRD_TYPE parameter to 6 using a GCS connected
on USB.

AP_Module Support
-----------------
This is the first release of ArduPilot with loadable module support
for Linux based boards. The AP_Module system allows for externally
compiled modules to access sensor data from ArduPilot controlled
sensors. The initial AP_Module support is aimed at vendors integrating
high-rate digital image stabilisation using IMU data, but it is
expected this will be expanded to other use cases in future releases.

Major VRBrain Support Update
----------------------------
This release includes a major merge of support for the VRBrain family
of autopilots. Many thanks to the great work by Luke Mike in putting
together this merge!

Much Faster Boot Time
---------------------
Boot times on Pixhawk are now much faster due to a restructuring of
the driver startup code, with slow starting drivers not started unless
they are enabled with the appropriate parameters. The restructuring
also allows for support of a wide variety of board types, including
the PH2SLIM above.

This release includes many other updates right across the flight
stack, including several new features. Some of the changes include:

 - log all rally points on startup
 - the armed state is now logged
 - support added for MAV_CMD_ACCELCAL_VEHICLE_POS
 - support MAVLink based external GPS device
 - support LED_CONTROL MAVLink message
 - support PLAY_TUNE MAVLink message
 - added AP_Button support for remote button input reporting
 - support 16 channel SERVO_OUTPUT_RAW in MAVLink2
 - added MAVLink reporting of logging subsystem health
 - added BRD_SAFETY_MASK to allow for channel movement for selected channels with safety on
 - lots of HAL_Linux improvements to bus and thread handling
 - added IMU heater support on Pixhawk2
 - allow for faster accel bias learning in EKF2
 - added AP_Module support for loadable modules
 - merged support for wide range of VRBrain boards
 - added support for PH2SLIM and PHMINI boards with BRD_TYPE
 - greatly reduced boot time on Pixhawk and similar boards
 - fixed magic check for signing key in MAVLink2
 - fixed averaging of gyros for EKF2 gyro bias estimate
 - added support for ParametersG2
 - support added for the GPS_INPUT mavlink message
 
 

Release 3.0.1, 17 June 2016
===========================
The ArduPilot development team is proud to announce the release of
version 3.0.1 of APM:Rover. This is a minor release with small but
important bug fix changes.

The two main motivations for this release
1. Fixing the arming for skid steering Rovers
2. Fix to the rover steering that should really improve steering of
all rovers.

Skid Steering Arming
--------------------
Fixed arming for Skid Steering rovers. You should now be able to arm
your skid steering rover using the steering stick. NOTE skid steering
Rovers - you will not be able to disarm. The reason for this is zero
throttle full left turn is a perfectly valid move for a skid steering
rover as it can turn on the spot. You don't want to be executing this
and have the rover disarm part way through your turn so we have
disabled disarming via the steering stick. You can still disarm from
the GCS.  Thanks to Pierre Kancir for working on this.

Improved Steering Control
-------------------------
For historical reason's the steering controller was using the raw GPS
data for ground speed without any filtering. If you have every graphed
this data you will see on a rover its very spiky and all over the
place. This spiky'ness was feeding into the lateral accel demand and
causing inaccuracies/jitters. Now we using the EKF GPS filtered data
which is much smoother and accurate and the steering control has
greatly improved.

Improved Cornering
------------------
Previously when corning we didn't take into account any "lean or tilt"
in the rover - we assumed the turns were always flat. We have changed
this to now take into account any lean so turning should be more
accurate. Boat users should really benefit from this too.

MAVLink2 support has been added
-------------------------------
See this post by Tridge -
http://discuss.ardupilot.org/t/mavlink2-is-in-ardupilot-master/9188/1


The other changes in this release are:

 - setting your sonar_trigger_cm to 0 will now log the sonar data but
   not use it for vehicle avoidance.
 - the throttle PID is now being logged
 - range finder input is now being captured (thanks to Allan Matthew)
 - added LOG_DISARMED parameter
 - merge upstream PX4Firmware changes
 - numerous waf build improvements
 - numerous EKF2 improvements


Release 3.0.0, 5 April 2016
===========================
The ArduPilot development team is proud to announce the release of
version 3.0.0 of APM:Rover. This is a major release with a lot of
changes so please read the notes carefully!

A huge thanks to ALL the ArduPilot developers.  The Rover code
benefits tremendously from all the hard work that goes into the Copter
and Plane vehicle code.  Most of the code changes in this
release were not specifically for Rover however because of the
fantastic architecture of the ArduPilot code Rover automatically get's
those enhancements anyway.

Note that the documentation hasn't yet caught up with all the changes
in this release. We are still working on that, but meanwhile if you
see a feature that interests you and it isn't documented yet then
please ask.

The 3.x.x releases and above DON'T support APM1/APM2
----------------------------------------------------
This release DOES NOT SUPPORT the old APM1/APM2 AVR based boards. The
issue is the amount of effort required to keep the new code ported to
the old platforms.  We are very sorry this has to occur and if there
is someone who is willing and technically capable of doing this work
then please let us know.
There will be a discussion created on ArduPilot forums where people
can request features in the new code be backported to the APM code to
run on the AVR boards and if it is reasonably easy and they are
willing to do the beta testing we will do our best to make it happen.

EKF2 - New Kalman Filter
------------------------
Paul Riseborough has been working hard recently on the new
EKF2 variant which fixes many issues seen with the old estimator. The
key improvements are:

  - support for separate filters on each IMU for multi-IMU boards
    (such as the Pixhawk), giving a high degree of redundency
  - much better handling of gyro drift estimation, especially on
    startup
  - much faster recovery from attitude estimation errors

After extensive testing of the new EKF code we decided to make it the
default for this release. You can still use the old EKF if you want to
by setting AHRS_EKF_TYPE to 1, although it is recommended that the new
EKF be used for all vehicles.

In order to use the EKF we need to be a bit more careful about the
setup of the vehicle. That is why we enabled arming and pre-arm checks
by default. Please don't disable the arming checks, they are there for
very good reasons.

UAVCAN new protocol
-------------------
The uavcan change to the new protocol has been a long time coming, and
we'd like to thank Holger for both his great work on this and his
patience given how long it has taken to be in a release. This adds
support for automatic canbus node assignment which makes setup much
easier, and also supports the latest versions of the Zubax canbus GPS.

Support for 4 new Boards
------------------------
The porting of ArduPilot to more boards continues, with support
for 3 new boards in this release. They are:

 - the BHAT board
 - the PXFmini
 - the QualComm Flight
 - the Pixracer

More information about the list of supported boards is available here:
https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-autopilots.html

Startup on a moving platform
----------------------------
One of the benefits of the new EKF2 estimator is that it allows for
rapid estimation of gyro offset without doing a gyro calibration on
startup. This makes it possible to startup and arm on a moving
platform by setting the INS_GYR_CAL parameter to zero (to disable gyro
calibration on boot). This should be a big help for boats.

Improved Camera Trigger Logging
-------------------------------
This release adds new CAM_FEEDBACK_PIN and CAM_FEEDBACK_POL
parameters. These add support for separate CAM and TRIG log messages,
where TRIG is logged when the camera is triggered and the CAM message
is logged when an external pin indicates the camera has actually
fired. This pin is typically based on the flash hotshoe of a camera
and provides a way to log the exact time of camera triggering more
accurately. Many thanks to Dario Andres and Jaime Machuca for their
work on this feature.

PID Tuning
----------
You can now see the individual contributions of the P, I and D
components for the Steering PID in the logs (PIDY), allowing you to
get a much better picture of the performance.

Vibration Logging
-----------------
This release includes a lot more options for diagnosing vibration
issues. You will notice new VIBRATION messages in MAVLink and VIBE
messages in the dataflash logs. Those give you a good idea of your
(unfiltered) vibration levels. For really detailed analysis you can
setup your LOG_BITMASK to include raw logging, which gives you every
accel and gyro sample on your Pixhawk. You can then do a FFT on the
result and plot the distribution of vibration level with
frequency. That is great for finding the cause of vibration
issues. Note that you need a very fast microSD card for that to work!

More Sensors
------------
This release includes support for a bunch more sensors. It now supports
3 different interfaces for the LightWare range of Lidars (serial, I2C
and analog), and also supports the very nice Septentrio RTK
dual-frequency GPS (the first dual-frequency GPS we have support
for). It also supports the new "blue label" Lidar from Pulsed Light
(both on I2C and PWM).

For the uBlox GPS, we now have a lot more configurability of the
driver, with the ability to set the GNSS mode for different
constellations. Also in the uBlox driver we support logging of the raw
carrier phase and pseudo range data, which allows for post RTK
analysis with raw-capable receivers for really accurate photo
missions.

Better Linux support
--------------------
This release includes a lot of improvements to the Linux based
autopilot boards, including the NavIO+, the PXF and ERLE boards and
the BBBMini and the new RasPilot board.

On-board compass calibrator
---------------------------
We also have a new on-board compass calibrator, which also adds calibration
for soft iron effects, allowing for much more accurate compass
calibration.

Lots of other changes!
----------------------
The above list is just a taste of the changes that have gone into this
release. Thousands of small changes have gone into this release with
dozens of people contributing. Many thanks to everyone who helped!

Other key changes
-----------------
- fixed the MAV_CMD_DO_SET_HOME (thanks salonijain12)
- fixed bug when reverse throttle would increase speed in AUTO
- fixed a bug going into guided and rover still moving
- loitering at a waypoint if Param1 is non-zero
- update uavcan to new protocol
- fixed reporting of armed state with safety switch
- added optional arming check for minimum voltage
- improved text message queueing to ground stations
- re-organisation of HAL_Linux bus API
- improved NMEA parsing in GPS driver
- improved autoconfig of uBlox GPS driver
- support a wider range of Lightware serial Lidars
- improved non-GPS performance of EKF2
- improved compass fusion in EKF2
- improved support for Pixracer board
- improved NavIO2 support
- added BATT_WATT_MAX parameter
- enable messages for MAVLink gimbal support
- use 64 bit timestamps in dataflash logs
- added realtime PID tuning messages and PID logging
- fixed a failure case for the px4 failsafe mixer
- added DSM binding support on Pixhawk
- added vibration level logging
- ignore low voltage failsafe while disarmed
- added delta velocity and delta angle logging
- allow steering disarm based on ARMING_RUDDER parameter
- prevent mode switch changes changing WP tracking
- fixed parameter documentation spelling errors
- send MISSION_ITEM_REACHED messages on waypoint completion
- enable EKF by default on rover
- Improve gyro bias learning rate for plane and rover
- Allow switching primary GPS instance with 1 sat difference
- added NSH over MAVLink support
- added support for mpu9250 on pixhawk and pixhawk2
- Add support for logging ublox RXM-RAWX messages
- lots of updates to improve support for Linux based boards
- added ORGN message in dataflash
- added support for new "blue label" Lidar
- switched to real hdop in uBlox driver
- improved auto-config of uBlox
- raise accel discrepancy arming threshold to 0.75
- improved support for tcp and udp connections on Linux
- switched to delta-velocity and delta-angles in DCM
- improved detection of which accel to use in EKF
- improved auto-detections of flow control on pixhawk UARTs
- added HDOP to uavcan GPS driver
- improved sending of autopilot version
- log zero rangefinder distance when unhealthy
- added PRU firmware files for BeagleBoneBlack port
- fix for recent STORM32 gimbal support
- changed sending of STATUSTEXT severity to use correct values
- added new RSSI library with PWM input support
- fixed MAVLink heading report for UAVCAN GPS
- support LightWare I2C rangefinder on Linux
- improved staging of parameters and formats on startup to dataflash
- added new on-board compass calibrator
- improved RCOutput code for NavIO port
- added support for Septentrio GPS receiver
- support DO_MOUNT_CONTROl via command-long interface
- added CAM_RELAY_ON parameter
- moved SKIP_GYRO_CAL functionality to INS_GYR_CAL
- new waf build system
- new async accel calibrator
- better rangefinder power control
- dataflash over mavlink support
- settable main loop rate
- hideable parameters
- improved logging for dual-GPS setups
- improvements to multiple RTK GPS drivers
- numerous HAL_Linux improvements
- improved logging of CAM messages
- added support for IMU heaters in HAL_Linux
- support for RCInput over UDP in HAL_Linux
- improved EKF startup checks for GPS accuracy
- added raw IMU logging for all platforms
- configurable RGB LED brightness
- improvements to the lsm303d driver for Linux


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
noticeable 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!