ArduPilot Copter Release Notes:
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.5-rc1 28-Jan-2017
Changes from 3.4.4
1) Multicopter firmware consolidated into single binary, users must set FRAME_CLASS parameter (1:Quad, 2:Hexa, 3:Octa, 4:OctaQuad, 5:Y6, 7:Tri)
2) PixRacer specific items:
    a) board LEDs supported
    b) ESC calibration start problem resolved (was sometimes not detecting high throttle from pilot)
3) Relaxed compass calibration and compass consistency checks
4) Sensor and Optional Hardware Improvements:
    a) IMU sampling rate for MPU9250, ICM20608 IMUs to 8kHz for improved vibration resistance (Pixracer, Pixhawk2)
    b) Onboard Display (http://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-display-onboard.html)
    c) Here+ RTK GPS (UBlox M8P RTK) support
    d) LightWare I2C drivers usable on Copter (thanks to in-tree drivers below)
    e) MaxBotix sonar with serial interface now supported
    f) Bebop optical flow (but sonar not yet operational making this feature currently impossible to use)
5) Precision Loiter using IRLock sensor (set CH7_OPT to 39)
6) Delivery improvements:
   a) Servo gripper (http://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-gripper-servo.html)
   b) Package_Place mission command (drops package without vehicle landing) 
7) Pozyx support for Non-GPS flight (http://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-pozyx.html)
8) EKF improvements:
    a) improved blending of optical flow and GPS
    b) EKF3 added in ride-along.  Enable by setting EK3_ENABLE=1
    c) improvements when using range finder as primary height reference
9) Object Avoidance improvements (http://ardupilot.org/dev/docs/code-overview-object-avoidance.html):
    a) uses mini-fence
    b) accepts MAVLink distance-sensor messages 
    c) simple avoidance in AltHold mode 
10) Other improvements:
    a) pre-arm check that logging is working
    b) better reporting of battery failsafe to ground stations
    c) reduced minimum waypoint speed to 20cm/s
    d) Flight time recorder (http://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-flight-time-recorder.html)
    e) UBlox GPS baud rate fix (was occasionally selecting wrong rate) 
11) Technical improvements (users may not see a functional change):
    a) in-tree drivers lead to improved sharing of drivers with Linux boards
    b) copter arming checks consolidated with other vehicles
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.4.5 11-Feb-2017
Changes from 3.4.4
1) Bug fix to Guided mode that could lead to crash after take-off completes if MOT_THST_HOVER too high 
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.4.4 06-Jan-2017 / Copter 3.4.4-rc1 21-Dec-2016
Changes from 3.4.3
1) Bug Fixes / Minor Enhancements:
    a) prevent unwanted EKF core switching at startup
    b) helicopter prevented from taking off in position hold mode before rotors at full speed
    c) battery resistance calculations fixed
    d) avoid unnecessary parameter change notifications to ground station
    e) default power module definitions for Navio boards
    f) on-board compass calibration capability bit added (tells ground stations that onboard calibration is supported)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.4.3 08-Dec-2016 / Copter 3.4.3-rc1 01-Dec-2016
Changes from 3.4.2
1) Bug Fixes:
    a) reduce unnecessary EKF core switching and fix position reset
    b) attitude control does not limit rate if ATC_ACCEL_MAX is zero
    c) ignore arm command from GCS if already armed
    d) set land-complete to false during auto takeoff 
    e) onboard compass calibration memory init fix that could lead to failure to complete
2) Minor Improvements:
    a) LeddarOne driver robustness improvements
    b) allow MOT_THR_MIX_MAX to be as high as 2.0
    c) uavcan bus settle time increased to 2sec
    d) helicopters do not hold position during auto takeoff until rotor is at full speed
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.4.2 16-Nov-2016 / Copter 3.4.2-rc1/rc2 07-Nov-2016
Changes from 3.4.1
1) Minor Improvements:
    a) ACRO_Y_EXPO applies to all flight modes (but is defaulted to zero)
    b) Autotune timeout increased (helps with large copters)
    c) AltHold filter applied to P (was previously only for D)
    d) arming check for compass health (was previously only a pre-arm check)
2) Bug Fixes:
    a) compass calibration (onboard) fix to return completion status
    b) LeddarOne driver busy-wait fix 
    c) SBF GPS altitude and accuracy reporting fix 
    d) MAV GPS uses existing configured baud rate instead of auto detecting 
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.4.1 01-Nov-2016
Changes from 3.4.0
1) Pixracer PPM RC input fix
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.4.0 31-Oct-2016
Changes from 3.4.0-rc7
1) Disabled LeddarOne driver (will be fixed in AC3.4.1 within a couple of weeks)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.4.0-rc7 25-Oct-2016
Changes from 3.4.0-rc6
1) Bug fixes, minor improvements:
    a) more DSM binding fixes for pixracer
    b) allow non-motor channels to move before safety switch is pressed
    c) fix Bebop motor order
    d) fix MAVLink system id for first few messages
    e) fix throw mode throttle while rotating to level
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.4.0-rc6 15-Oct-2016
Changes from 3.4.0-rc5
1) Object Avoidance with SF40c 360 lidar
2) ACRO_Y_EXPO parameter allows exponential yaw in ACRO mode (slow yaw at mid stick but fast response at full stick)
3) ACRO_THR_MID parameter allows custom mid throttle for ACRO mode
4) Precision Landing reliability and accuracy improvements using mini EKF and adding IRLock lens distortion correction 
5) Bug fixes, minor improvements:
    a) fix DSM binding on Pixracer
    b) resolved position jump caused by EKF core change (also added logging and reporting to GCS)
    c) EKF failsafe while in LAND triggers non-GPS LAND
    d) small throttle jump removed when switching between AltHold, Loiter
6) Safety:
    a) EKF falls back to optical flow if GPS fails
    b) pre-arm check that GPS configuration has completed
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.4.0-rc5 14-Sep-2016
Changes from 3.4.0-rc4
1) Sprayer enabled by default
2) Bug fixes, minor improvements:
    a) EKF fix for yaw angle reset fix when switching between cores (AC3.4 runs multiple EKFs simultaneously)
    b) EKF fixes when fusing range finder into height estimate
    c) pixracer clone board IMU hardware issue work around
    d) dataflash time-going-backwards fix
    e) fix rate PID conversion (AC3.3->AC3.4) for single, coax and tricopters
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.4.0-rc4 06-Sep-2016
Changes from 3.4.0-rc3
1) Intel Aero flight controller support
2) Bug fixes, minor improvements:
    a) resolve unlikely endless-climb in AltHold, Loiter by ensuring Z-axis accelerometer IMAX can always overpower hover throttle
    b) fix auto build issue that could lead to parameter corruption
    c) fix EKF2 gyro estimation error when switching between IMUs
    d) sanity check MOT_THST_MIX_MIN, MAX parameters
    e) increase likelihood that parachute will release by reducing counter instead of resetting counter if vehicle becomes temporarily upright
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.4.0-rc3 31-Aug-2016
Changes from 3.4.0-rc2
1) Landing detector improvements:
    a) checks that descent rate is less than 1m/s (avoids disarms when vehicle is obviously still descending)
    b) tradheli fix for landing detector
2) WP_NAVALT_MIN parameter limits maximum lean angle when vehicle is below the specified alt while taking off or landing.  Only applies in LAND mode, final stage of RTL and during take-off in AUTO mode
3) GND_EFFECT_COMP parameter allows turning on EKF compensation for ground effect during take-off and landing
4) Advanced Failsafe for use in OutBack challenge (see http://ardupilot.org/plane/docs/advanced-failsafe-configuration.html)
5) AutoTune minor improvement to reduce step size on vehicles with very low hover throttle (i.e. high power-to-weight ratio)
6) Bug fixes, minor improvement:
    a) OneShot ESC calibration fix
    b) LAND_SPEED_HIGH allows specifying vertical descent speed separate from WPNAV_SPEED_DN during the initial descent in LAND mode (and final stage of RTL)
    c) improved USB driver reliability for windows users (NuttX change)
    d) report dataflash logging health to ground station
    e) Guided mode accepts yaw rate from SET_ATTITUDE_TARGET message 
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.4.0-rc2 08-Aug-2016
Changes from 3.4.0-rc1
1) ADSB based avoidance of manned aircraft
2) Polygon fence (works seamlessly with circular and altitude fences)
3) Throttle related changes:
    a) motors speed feedback to pilot while landed - motors only spin up to minimum throttle as throttle stick is brought to mid (previously spun up to 25%)
    b) MOT_HOVER_LEARN allows MOT_THST_HOVER to be learned in flight
    c) THR_MIN becomes MOT_SPIN_MIN
    d) THR_MID becomes MOT_THST_HOVER
4) Precision landing:
    a) control improved by reducing lag from sensor and correcting math errors
    b) descent rate slows to allow time to correct horizontal position error
5) Guided mode:
    a) velocity controller accelerates/decelerates smoothly to target
    b) Guided_NoGPS flight mode added to allow companion computer control in non-GPS environments
    c) stop at fence if using velocity controller, reject points outside fence if using position controller
6) Throw Mode:
    a) THROW_NEXTMODE parameter allows copter to switch to Auto, Guided, RTL, Land or Brake after throw is complete  
    b) Throw mode fixes so motors reliably start
7) Attitude controller:
    a) use Quaternions instead of Euler angles
    b) ATC_ANG_LIM_TC allows controlling rate at which lean angles are limited to preserve altitude in AltHold, Loiter
8) EKF can use range finder as primary height source if EKF2_RNG_USE_HGT parameter is set to 70
9) Bug fixes
    a) AutoTune fix so that gains don't fall too low
    b) Rally points with altitudes no longer cause vehicle to climb above fence during RTL
    c) various EKF fixes including bug in initialisation of declination co-variances
    d) SingleCopter, CoaxCopter flag gains 
10) Small enhancements:
    a) Rally points outside fence are ignored
    b) AP_Button support added to allow ground station to see if user has pushed a button on the flight controller
    c) support for PLAY_TUNE and LED_CONTROL mavlink messages to cause vehicle to play tune or change colour of LED
    d) support for GPS_INPUT mavlink message to allow supplying vehicle position data from other sources
    e) NAV_DELAY mission command to delay start of mission (or individual command) until a specified absolute time
    e) TKOFF_NAV_ALT param allows take-off with no horizontal position hold until vehicle reaches specified altitude (intended mostly for helicopters)
    f) SCHED_LOOP_RATE param allows slowing main loop rate from default of 400 (intended for developers only) 
11) Safety (in addition to Fence improvements above):
    a) Motors begin spinning 2 seconds after arming (previously motors spun immediately)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.4.0-rc1 28-May-2016
Changes from 3.3.3
1) EKF2 allows "boat mode" (attitude initialisation without gyro calibration)
2) Throw mode
3) Terrain following:
    a) support terrain altitudes during missions using GCS's map data or rangefinder (i.e. Lidar)
    b) LightWare range finder driver fixes (I2C works)
    c) Bebop sonar support
4) Precision Landing using IRLock sensor
5) Attitude controller re-organisation (all parameter changes automatically moved and scales adjusted)
    a) RATE_ parameters become ATC_RAT_ (i.e. RATE_RLL_P becomes ATC_RAT_RLL_P) 
    b) Rate Roll, Pitch, Yaw P, D are reduced by 10% for X, V, H frames, increased by 27% for all other frames
    c) STB_ parameters becomes ATC_ANG_ (i.e. STB_RLL_P becomes ATC_ANG_RLL_P)
6) Motors library improvements:
    a) support OneShot ESCs (set MOT_PWM_TYPE to 0 for Normal, 1 for OneShot or 2 for OneShot125)
    b) TriCopter compensates for tail servo angle
    c) SingleCopter, CoaxCopter adjust control surfaces based on throttle output
    d) MOT_PWM_MIN, MAX allow specifying output ranges to ESCs which are difference from throttle input channel (i.e. RC3)
    e) TradHeli servo objects moved into heli class (HSV_ parameters become H_SV_)
7) uAvionix Ping sensor support (ADS-B vehicles appear on GCS, avoidance will come in future release) 
8) Safety:
    a) warning if GPS update rate is slow (under 5hz, does not stop arming) 
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.3.3 24-Feb-2016 / 3.3.3-rc2 27-Jan-2016
Changes from 3.3.3-rc1
1) bug fix to Guided mode's velocity controller to run at 400hz
2) bug fix to MAVLink routing to allow camera messages to reach MAVLink enabled cameras and gimbals (including SToRM32)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.3.3-rc1 4-Jan-2016
Changes from 3.3.2
1) Restrict mode changes in helicopter when rotor is not at speed
2) add ATC_ANGLE_BOOST param to allow disabling angle boost for all flight modes
3) add LightWare range finder support
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.3.2 01-Dec-2015 / 3.3.2-rc2 18-Nov-2015
Changes from 3.3.2-rc1
1) Bug fix for desired climb rate initialisation that could lead to drop when entering AltHold, Loiter, PosHold
2) Fix to hard landings when WPNAV_SPEED_DN set high in RTL, Auto (resolved by using non-feedforward alt hold)
3) Reduce Bad AHRS by filtering innovations
4) Allow arming without GPS if using Optical Flow
5) Smoother throttle output in Guided mode's velocity control (z-axis now 400hz) 
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.3.2-rc1 4-Nov-2015
Changes from 3.3.1
1) Helicopter Improvements:
    a) Fix Arming race condition
    b) Fix servos to move after arming in Stabilize and Acro
    c) Implement Pirouette Compensation
    d) Add Rate I-Leak-Min functionality
    e) Add new Stab Collective and Acro Expo Col functions
    f) Add circular swashplate limits (Cyclic Ring)
    g) Add new H_SV_Man functions
    h) Add Hover Roll Trim function
    i) Add Engine Run Enable Aux Channel function
    j) Add servo boot test function
    h) Add Disarm Delay parameter
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.3.1 26-Oct-2015 / 3.3.1-rc1 20-Oct-2015
Changes from 3.3
1) Bug fix to prevent potential crash if Follow-Me is used after an aborted takeoff
2) compiler upgraded to 4.9.3 (runs slightly faster than 4.7.2 which was used previously)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.3 29-Sep-2015 / 3.3-rc12 22-Sep-2015
Changes from 3.3-rc11
1) EKF recovers from pre-arm "Compass variance" failure if compasses are consistent
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.3-rc11 10-Sep-2015
Changes from 3.3-rc10
1) PreArm "Need 3D Fix" message replaced with detailed reason from EKF
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.3-rc10 28-Aug-2015
Changes from 3.3-rc9
1) EKF improvements:
    a) simpler optical flow takeoff check
2) Bug Fixes/Minor enhancements:
    a) fix INS3_USE parameter eeprom location
    b) fix SToRM32 serial protocol driver to work with recent versions
    c) increase motor pwm->thrust conversion (aka MOT_THST_EXPO) to 0.65 (was 0.50)
    d) Firmware version sent to GCS in AUTOPILOT_VERSION message
3) Safety:
    a) pre-arm check of compass variance if arming in Loiter, PosHold, Guided
    b) always check GPS before arming in Loiter (previously could be disabled if ARMING_CHECK=0)
    c) sanity check locations received from GCS for follow-me, do-set-home, do-set-ROI
    d) fix optical flow failsafe (was not always triggering LAND when optical flow failed)
    e) failsafe RTL vs LAND decision based on hardcoded 5m from home check (previously used WPNAV_RADIUS parameter)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.3-rc9 19-Aug-2015
Changes from 3.3-rc8
1) EKF improvements:
    a) IMU weighting based on vibration levels (previously used accel clipping)
    b) fix blended acceleration (used for altitude control) in cases where first IMU fails
    c) ensure unhealthy barometer values are never consumed
2) TradHeli: remove acceleration feed forward
3) Safety:
    a) check accel, gyro and baro are healthy when arming (previously was only checked pre-arm)
    b) Guided mode velocity controller timeout (vehicle stops) after 3 seconds with no update from GCS
4) Minor enhancements:
    a) fix for AUAV board's usb-connected detection
    b) add Lidar-Lite-V2 support
    c) MOT_THR_MIN_MAX param added to control prioritisation of throttle vs attitude during dynamic flight
    d) RALLY_INCL_HOME param allows always including home when using rally points
    e) DO_FLIGHT_TERMINATION message from GCS acts as kill switch
5) Bug Fixes:
    a) fix to ensure motors start slowly on 2nd spin-up
    b) fix RTL_CLIMB_MIN feature (vehicle climbed too high above home)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.3-rc8 25-Jul-2015
Changes from 3.3-rc7
1) EKF improvements:
    a) de-weight accelerometers that are clipping to improve resistance to high vibration
    b) fix EKF to use primary compass instead of first compass (normally the same)
2) UBlox "HDOP" corrected to actually be hdop (was pdop) which leads to 40% lower value reported
3) TradHeli:
    a) Motors library split into "Multicopter" and "TradHeli" so TradHeli does not see multicopter parameters
    b) Heading target reset during landing to reduce vehicle fighting to rotate while on the ground
4) Minor enhancements:
    a) SToRM32 gimbal can be connected to any serial port
    b) log when baro, compass become unhealthy
    c) ESC_CALIBRATION parameter can be set to "9" to disable esc calibration startup check
    d) Circle rate adjustment with ch6 takes effect immediately
    e) log home and origin
    f) pre-arm check of battery voltage and fence
    g) RTL_CLIMB_MIN parameter forces vehicle to climb at least this many cm when RTL is engaged (default is zero)
5) Bug fixes:
    a) fix THR_MIN being incorrectly scaled as pwm value during low-throttle check
    b) fence distance calculated from home (was incorrectly calculated from ekf-origin)
    c) When flying with joystick and joystick is disconnected, control returns immediately to regular TX
    d) dataflash's ATT yaw fixed to report heading as 0 ~ 360
    e) fix to mission's first command being run multiple times during mission if it was a do-command
    f) ekf-check is enabled only after ekf-origin is set (stops red-yellow flashing led when flying without GPS lock)
    g) fix initialisation of mount's mode
    h) start-up logging so parameters only logged once, mission always written
6) Linux:
    a) bebop support
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.3-rc7 28-Jun-2015
Changes from 3.3-rc6
1) reduce EKF gyro bias uncertainty that caused attitude estimate errors
2) force 400hz IMU logging on (temporary for release candidate testing)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.3-rc6 25-Jun-2015
Changes from 3.3-rc5
1) EKF related changes:
    a) reset altitude even when arming without GPS lock
    b) fix yaw twitch caused by EKF heading estimate reset
    c) fix IMU time scaling bug that caused height estimate to deviate from the baro
2) AutoTune improvements:
    a) improved yaw tuning by increasing yaw step magnitude
    b) added logging of accelerations
    c) improvements to step tests
3) Improved crash check:
    a) allow triggering even if pilot doesn't move throttle to zero
    b) easier triggering by removing baro check and using angle error instead of absolute tilt angle 
4) TradHeli:
    a) swash moves while landed in AltHold mode
    b) improvements to land detector
    c) fixed RSC Runup Time calculation
    d) Rate FF Low-pass Filter changed from 5Hz to 10Hz, more responsive
5) support Linux builds for NAVIO+ and Erle-Brain (http://firmware.diydrones.com/Copter/beta/)
6) Other improvements / Bug Fixes:
    a) sonar pre-arm checks only enforced if using optical flow
    b) fix EKF failsafe bug that would not allow recovery
    c) full rate IMU logging for improved vibration analysis (set LOG_BITMASK to All+FullIMU)
    d) new VIBE dataflash message records vibration levels
    e) default MNT_TYPE to "1" if servo gimbal rc outputs were defined
    f) RC_FEEL defaults to medium
    g) addition of SToRM32 serial support (supports mount angle feedback to GCS)
    h) new tricopter's tail servo parameters (MOT_YAW_SV_MIN, MAX, TRIM, REV)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.3-rc5 23-May-2015
Changes from 3.3-rc4
1) Fix AHRS bad gyro health message caused by timing jitter and log IMU health
2) TradHeli:
    a) better default rate PIDs
    b) Collective pitch output now operates even when disarmed 
3) Small changes/fixes:
    a) GCS can use MAV_CMD_MISSION_START to start mission in AUTO even without pilot raising throttle 
    b) GCS can force disarming even in flight by setting param2 to "21196"
    c) rc-override timeout reduced from 2 seconds to 1 (applies when using GCS joysticks to control vehicle)
    d) do-set-speed fix so it takes effect immediately during missions
    e) GCS failsafe disarms vehicle if already landed (previously it could RTL) 
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.3-rc4 17-May-2015
Changes from 3.3-rc3
1) AutoTune:
    a) save roll, pitch, yaw rate acceleration limits along with gains
    b) more conservative gains 
2) Roll, pitch rate control feed-forward now on by default (set ATC_RATE_FF_ENAB to "0" to disable)
3) Serial ports increased to maximum of 4 (set SERIALX_PROTOCOL to 1)
4) MOT_THR_MIX_MIN param to control minimum throttle vs attitude during landing (higher = more attitude control but bumpier landing) 
5) EKF fixes/improvements
    a) prevent yaw errors during fast spins
    b) bug fix preventing external selection of optical flow mode
6) Parachute:
    a) servo/relay held open for 2sec when deploying (was 1sec)
    b) fix altitude check to be alt-above-home (was alt-above ekf origin which could be slightly different)
7) TradHeli:
    a) parameters moved to stop possibility of corruption if board is switched between tradheli and multicopter firmware.  Heli users may need to re-setup some heli-specific params.
    b) H_COLYAW param can be float 
8) Small Improvements / Bug Fixes:
    a) reduced spline overshoot after very long track followed by very short track
    b) log entire mission to dataflash whenever it's uploaded
    c) altitude reported if vehicle takes off before GPS lock
    d) high speed logging of IMU
    e) STOP flight mode renamed to BRAKE and aux switch option added
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.3-rc2/rc3 02-May-2015
Changes from 3.3-rc1
1) AutoTune reliability fixes (improved filtering to reduce noise interference)
2) Optical flow improvements:
    a) Range Finder pre-arm check - lift vehicle between 50cm ~ 2m before arming.  Can be disabled by setting ARMING_CHECK to "Skip Params/Sonar"
    b) Vehicle altitude limited to range finder altitude when optical flow is enabled 
3) AltHold & Take-off changes:
    a) feed-forward controller and jerk limiting should result in slightly snappier performance and smoother take-offs
    b) vehicle climbs automatically to PILOT_TKOFF_ALT alt when taking off in Loiter, AltHold, PosHold, Sport (disabled by default, pilot's throttle input overrides takeoff)
    c) PILOT_THR_FILT allows enforcing smoother throttle response in manual flight modes (defaults to 0 = off)
    d) TX with sprung throttle can set PILOT_THR_BHV to "1" so motor feedback when landed starts from mid-stick instead of bottom of stick
    e) GCS can initiate takeoff even in Loiter, AltHold, PosHold and sport by issuing NAV_TAKEOFF mavlink command
4) Stop flight mode - causes vehicle to stop quickly, and does not respond to user input or waypoint movement via MAVLink.  Requires GPS, will be renamed to Brake mode.
5) Aux channel features:
    a) Emergency Stop - stops all motors immediately and disarms in 5 seconds
    b) Motor Interlock - opposite of Emergency Stop, must be on to allow motors to spin motors, must be off to arm
6) Air pressure gain scaling (of roll, pitch, yaw) should mostly remove need to re-tune when flying at very different altitudes
7) landing detector simplified to only check vehicle is not accelerating & motors have hit their lower limit
8) Loiter tuning params to remove "freight train" stops:
       raising WPNAV_LOIT_MAXA makes vehicle start and stop faster
       raising WPNAV_LOIT_MINA makes vehicle stop more quickly when sticks centered 
9) Other items:
    a) faster EKF startup
    b) Camera control messages sent via MAVLink to smart cameras.  Allow control of camera zoom for upcoming IntelEdison/Sony QX1 camera control board
    c) Lost Copter Alarm can be triggered by holding throttle down, roll right, pitch back
10) Bug fixes:
    a) Home position set to latest arm position (it was being set to previous disarm location or first GPS lock position)
    b) bug fix to mission Jump to command zero
------------------------------------------------------------------
Copter 3.3-rc1 11-Apr-2015
Changes from 3.2.1
1) Only support fast CPUs boards (Pixhawk, VRBrain, etc) and drop support for APM1, APM2 (sorry!)
2) AutoTune for yaw
3) Smooth throttle curve which should reduce wobbles during fast climbs and descents
4) ch7/ch8 aux switches expanded to ch9 ~ ch12 (see CH9_OPT ~ CH12_OPT params)
5) PX4Flow support in Loiter mode (still somewhat experimental)
6) Safety features:
    a) EKF on by default replacing DCM/InertialNav which should improve robustness
    b) increased accelerometer range from 8G to 16G to reduce chance of climb due to high vibrations (requires accel calibration)
7) Landing features:
    a) improved landing on slopes
    b) retractable landing gear (see LGR_ parameters)
8) Camera Gimbal features:
    a) SToRM32 gimbal support (using MAVLink)
    b) AlexMos gimbal support (using AlexMos serial interface)
    c) do-mount-control commands supported in missions (allows controlling gimbal angle in missions)
9) Battery related features:
    a) PID scaling for battery voltage (disabled by default, see MOT_THST_BAT_ parameters)
    b) smart battery support
10) Other:
    a) support do-set-home command (allows return-to-me and locked home position once GCS enhancements are completed)
    b) performance improvements for Pixhawk reduce CPU load from 80% to 15%
    c) firmware string name changed from ArduCopter to APM:Copter
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.2.1 11-Feb-2015 / 3.2.1-rc2 30-Jan-2015
Changes from 3.2.1-rc1
1) Bug Fixes:
    a) prevent infinite loop with linked jump commands
    b) Pixhawk memory corruption fix when connecting via USB
    c) vehicle stops at fence altitude limit in Loiter, AltHold, PosHold
    d) protect against multiple arming messages from GCS causing silent gyro calibration failure    
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.2.1-rc1 08-Jan-2015
Changes from 3.2
1) Enhancements:
    a) reduced twitch when passing Spline waypoints
    b) Faster disarm after landing in Auto, Land, RTL
    c) Pixhawk LED turns green before arming only after GPS HDOP falls below 2.3 (only in flight modes requiring GPS)
2) Safety Features:
    a) Add desired descent rate check to reduce chance of false-positive on landing check
    b) improved MPU6k health monitoring and re-configuration in case of in-flight failure
    c) Rally point distance check reduced to 300m (reduces chance of RTL to far away forgotten Rally point)
    d) auto-disarm if vehicle is landed for 15seconds even in Auto, Guided, RTL, Circle
    e) fence breach while vehicle is landed causes vehicle to disarm (previously did RTL)
3) Bug Fixes:
    a) Check flight mode even when arming from GCS (previously it was possible to arm in RTL mode if arming was initiated from GCS)
    b) Send vehicle target destination in RTL, Guided (allows GCS to show where vehicle is flying to in these modes)
    c) PosHold wind compensation fix
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.2 07-Nov2014 / 3.2-rc14 31-Oct-2014
Changes from 3.2-rc13
1) Safety Features:
    a) fail to arm if second gyro calibration fails (can be disabled with ARMING_CHECK)
2) Bug fixes:
    a) DCM-check to require one continuous second of bad heading before triggering LAND
    b) I2C bug that could lead to Pixhawk freezing up if I2C bus is noisy
    c) reset DCM and EKF gyro bias estimates after gyro calibration (DCM heading could drift after takeoff due to sudden change in gyro values)
    d) use primary GPS for LED status (instead of always using first GPS)
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.2-rc13 23-Oct-2014
Changes from 3.2-rc12
1) DCM check triggers LAND if yaw disagrees with GPS by > 60deg (configure with DCM_CHECK_THRESH param) and in Loiter, PosHold, Auto, etc 
2) Safety features:
    a) landing detector checks baro climbrate between -1.5 ~ +1.5 m/s
    b) sanity check AHRS_RP_P and AHRS_YAW_P are never less than 0.05
    c) check set-mode requests from GCS are for this vehicle
3) Bug fixes:
    a) fix ch6 tuning of wp-speed (was getting stuck at zero)
    b) parachute servo set to off position on startup
    c) Auto Takeoff timing bug fix that could cause severe lean on takeoff
    d) timer fix for "slow start" of motors on Pixhawk (timer was incorrectly based on 100hz APM2 main loop speed)
4) reduced number of relays from 4 to 2 (saves memory and flash required on APM boards)
5) reduced number of range finders from 2 to 1 (saves memory and flash on APM boards)
6) allow logging from startup when LOG_BITMASK set to "All+DisarmedLogging" 
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.2-rc12 10-Oct-2014
Changes from 3.2-rc11
1) disable sonar on APM1 and TradHeli (APM1 & APM2) to allow code to fit 
2) Add pre-arm and health check that gyro calibration succeeded 
3) Bug fix to EKF reporting invalid position and velocity when switched on in flight with Ch7/Ch8 switch 
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.2-rc11 06-Oct-2014
Changes from 3.2-rc10
1) reduce lean on take-off in Auto by resetting horizontal position targets 
2) TradHeli landing check ignores overall throttle output
3) reduce AHRS bad messages by delaying 20sec after init to allow EKF to settle (Pixhawk only)
4) Bug fixes:
    a) fix THR_MIN scaling issue that could cause landing-detector to fail to detect landing when ch3 min~max > 1000 pwm
    b) fix Mediatek GPS configuration so update rate is set correctly to 5hz
    c) fix to Condition-Yaw mission command to support relative angles
    d) EKF bug fixes when recovering from GPS glitches (affects only Pixhawks using EKF)
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.2-rc10 24-Sep-2014
Changes from 3.2-rc9
1) two-stage land-detector to reduce motor run-up when landing in Loiter, PosHold, RTL, Auto
2) Allow passthrough from input to output of channels 9 ~ 14 (thanks Emile!)
3) Add 4hz filter to vertical velocity error during AltHold
4) Safety Feature:
    a) increase Alt Disparity pre-arm check threshold to 2m (was 1m)
    b) reset battery failsafe after disarming/arming (thanks AndKe!)
    c) EKF only apply centrifugal corrections when GPS has at least 6 satellites (Pixhawk with EKF enabled only)
5) Bug fixes:
    a) to default compass devid to zero when no compass connected
    b) reduce motor run-up while landing in RTL
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.2-rc9 11-Sep-2014
Changes from 3.2-rc8
1) FRAM bug fix that could stop Mission or Parameter changes from being saved (Pixhawk, VRBrain only)
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.2-rc8 11-Sep-2014
Changes from 3.2-rc7
1) EKF reduced ripple to resolve copter motor pulsing
2) Default Param changes:
    a) AltHold Rate P reduced from 6 to 5
    b) AltHold Accel P reduced from 0.75 to 0.5, I from 1.5 to 1.0
    c) EKF check threshold increased from 0.6 to 0.8 to reduce false positives
3) sensor health flags sent to GCS only after initialisation to remove false alerts 
4) suppress bad terrain data alerts
5) Bug Fix:
    a)PX4 dataflash RAM usage reduced to 8k so it works again  
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.2-rc7 04-Sep-2014
Changes from 3.2-rc6
1) Safety Items:
    a) Landing check made more strict (climb rate requirement reduced to 30cm/s, overall throttle < 25%, rotation < 20deg/sec)
    b) pre-arm check that accels are consistent (Pixhawk only, must be within 1m/sec/sec of each other)
    c) pre-arm check that gyros are consistent (Pixhawk only, must be within 20deg/sec of each other)
    d) report health of all accels and gyros (not just primary) to ground station 
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.2-rc6 31-Aug-2014
Changes from 3.2-rc5
1) Spline twitch when passing through a waypoint largely resolved
2) THR_DZ param added to allow user configuration of throttle deadzone during AltHold, Loiter, PosHold
3) Landing check made more strict (climb rate must be -40~40cm/s for 1 full second)
4) LAND_REPOSITION param default set to 1
5) TradHeli with flybar passes through pilot inputs directly to swash when in ACRO mode
6) Safety Items:
    a) EKF check disabled when using inertial nav (caused too many false positives)
    b) pre-arm check of internal vs external compass direction (must be within 45deg of each other)
7) Bug Fixes:
    a) resolve NaN in angle targets when vehicle hits gimbal lock in ACRO mode
    b) resolve GPS driver buffer overflow that could lead to missed GPS messages on Pixhawk/PX4 boards
    c) resolve false "compass not calibrated" warnings on Pixhawk/PX4 caused by missing device id initialisation 
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.2-rc5 15-Aug-2014
Changes from 3.2-rc4
1) Pixhawk's max num waypoints increased to 718
2) Smoother take-off in AltHold, Loiter, PosHold (including removing initial 20cm jump when taking off)
3) ACRO mode roll, pitch, yaw EXPO added for faster rotation when sticks are at extremes (see ACRO_EXPO parameter)
4) ch7/ch8 relay option replaces ch6 option (ch6 is reserved for tuning not switching things on/off)
5) Safety Items:
    a) Baro glitch check relaxed to 5m distance, 15m/s/s max acceleration
    b) EKF/INav check relaxed to 80cm/s/s acceleration correct (default remains as 0.6 but this now means 80cm/s/s)
    c) When GPS or Baro glitch clears, the inertial nav velocities are *not* reset reducing chance of sudden vehicle lean
    d) Baro altitude calculation checked for divide-by-zero and infinity
6) Bug Fixes:
    a) AltHold jump bug fixed (altitude target reset when landed)
    b) Rally point bug fix so it does not climb excessively before flying to rally point
    c) body-frame rate controller z-axis bug fix (fast rotation in z-axis would cause wobble in roll, pitch) 
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.2-rc4 01-Aug-2014
Changes from 3.2-rc3
1) Pre-takeoff throttle feedback in AltHold, Loiter, PosHold
2) Terrain altitude retrieval from ground station (informational purposes only so far, Pixhawk only) 
3) Safety Items:
    a) "EKF check" will switch to LAND mode if EKF's compass or velocity variance over 0.6 (configurable with EKFCHECK_THRESH param)
       When EKF is not used inertial nav's accelerometer corrections are used as a substitute
    b) Barometer glitch protection added.  BAROGLTCH_DIST and BAROGLTCH_ACCEL parameters control sensitivity similar to GPSGLITCH protection
       When glitching occurs barometer values are temporarily ignored
    c) Throttle/radio and battery failsafes now disarm vehicle when landed regardless of pilot's throttle position
    d) auto-disarm extended to Drift, Sport and OF_Loiter flight modes
    e) APM2 buzzer notification added for arming failure
    f) APM2 arming buzz made longer (now matches Pixhawk)
    g) do-set-servo commands cannot interfere with motor output
4) Bug Fixes:
    a) Drift slow yaw response fixed
    b) AC3.2-rc3 failsafe bug resolved.  In -rc3 the throttle failsafe could be triggered even when disabled or motors armed (although vehicle would not takeoff) 
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.2-rc3 16-Jul-2014
Changes from 3.2-rc2
1) Hybrid renamed to PosHold
2) Sonar (analog, i2c) and PulsedLight Range Finders enabled on Pixhawk (Allyson, Tridge)
3) Landing changes:
    a) disable pilot repositioning while landing in RTL, Auto (set LAND_REPOSITION to 1 to re-enable) (JonathanC)
    b) delay 4 seconds before landing due to failsafe (JonathanC)
4) Secondary compass calibration enabled, pre-arm check that offsets match current devices (Randy, Tridge, MichaelO)
5) Control improvements:
    a) use bias adjusted gyro rates - helps in cases of severe gyro drift (Jonathan)
    b) bug-fixes when feed-forward turned off (Leonard)
6) TradHeli improvements (RobL):
    a) bug fix to use full collective range in stabilize and acro flight modes
    b) filter added to main rotor input (ch8) to ensure momentary blip doesn't affect main rotor speed
7) Safety items:
    a) increased default circular Fence radius to 300m to reduce chance of breach when GPS lock first acquired
    b) radio failsafe timeout for late frames reduced to 0.5sec for normal receivers or 2.0sec when flying with joystick (Craig)
    c) accelerometer pre-arm check for all active accelerometers (previously only checked the primary accelerometer)
8) Other features:
    a) ch7/ch8 option to retract mount (svefro)
    b) Do-Set-ROI supported in Guided, RTL mode
    c) Condition-Yaw accepted in Guided, RTL modes (MoussSS)
    d) CAMERA dataflash message includes relative and absolute altitude (Craig)
9) Red Balloon Popper support (Randy, Leonard):
    a) Velocity controller added to Guided mode
    b) NAV_GUIDED mission command added
10) Bug fixes:
    a) bug fix to flip on take-off in stabilize mode when landing flag cleared slowly (JonathanC)
    b) allow disarming in AutoTune (JonathanC)
    c) bug fix to unpredictable behaviour when two spline points placed directly ontop of each other
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.2-rc2 27-May-2014
Changes from 3.2-rc1
1) Hybrid mode initialisation bug fix
2) Throttle pulsing bug fix on Pixhawk
3) Parachute enabled on Pixhawk
4) Rally Points enabled on Pixhawk
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.2-rc1 9-May-2014
Changes from 3.1.4
1) Hybrid mode - position hold mode but with direct response to pilot input during repositioning (JulienD, SandroT)
2) Spline waypoints (created by David Dewey, modified and integrated by Leonard, Randy)
3) Drift mode uses "throttle assist" for altitude control (Jason)
4) Extended Kalman Filter for potentially more reliable attitude and position control (Pixhawk only) (Paul Riseborough).  Set AHRS_EKF_USE to 1 to enable or use Ch7/8 switch to enable/disable in flight. 
5) Manual flight smoothness:
    a) Smoother roll, pitch response using RC_FEEL_RP parameter (100 = crisp, 0 = extremely soft)
    b) Adjustable max rotation rate (ATC_RATE_RP_MAX, ATC_RATE_Y_MAX) and acceleration (ATC_ACCEL_RP_MAX, ATC_ACCEL_Y_MAX)
6) Autopilot smoothness:
    a) Vertical acceleration in AltHold, Loiter, Hybrid modes can be configured with PILOT_ACCEL_Z parameter (higher = faster acceleration)
    b) Maximum roll and pitch angle acceleration in Loiter mode can be configured with WPNAV_LOIT_JERK (higher = more responsive but potentially jerky)
    c) Yaw speed can be adjusted with ATC_SLEW_YAW parameter (higher = faster)
    d) smoother takeoff with configurable acceleration using WPNAV_ACCEL_Z parameter
    e) Twitches removed during guided mode or when entering Loiter or RTL from high speeds  
7) Mission improvements:
    a) mission will be resumed from last active command when pilot switches out and then back into Auto mode (prev behaviour can be restored by setting MIS_RESTART param to 1)
    b) DO_SET_ROI persistent across waypoints.  All-zero DO_SET_ROI command restores default yaw behaviour
    c) do-jump fixed
    d) conditional_distance fixed
    e) conditional_delay fixed
    f) do-change-speed command takes effect immediately during mission
    g) vehicle faces directly at next waypoint (previously it could be about 10deg off)
    h) loiter turns fix to ensure it will circle around lat/lon point specified in mission command (previously it could be off by CIRCLE_RADIUS)
8) Safety improvements:
    a) After a fence breach, if the pilot re-takes control he/she will be given a minimum of 10 seconds and 20m to recover before the autopilot will invoke RTL or LAND
    b) Parachute support including automatic deployment during mechanical failures
9) Other enhancements:
    a) V-tail quad support
    b) Dual GPS support (secondary GPS output is simply logged, not actually used yet)
    c) Electro Permanent Magnet (aka Gripper) support
    d) Servo pass through for channels 6 ~ 8 (set RC6_FUNCTION to 1)
    e) Remove 80m limit on RTL's return altitude but never let it be above fence's max altitude
10) Other bug fixes:
    a) Bug fix for LAND sometimes getting stuck at 10m
    b) During missions, vehicle will maintain altitude even if WPNAV_SPEED is set above the vehicle's capabilities
    c) when autopilot controls throttle (i.e. Loiter, Auto, etc) vehicle will reach speeds specified in PILOT_VELZ_MAX and WPNAV_SPEED_UP, WPNAV_SPEED_DN parameters
11) CLI removed from APM1/2 to save flash space, critical functions moved to MAVLink:
    a) Individual motor tests (see MP's Initial Setup > Optional Hardware > Motor Test)
    b) compassmot (see MP's Initial Setup > Optional Hardware > Compass/Motor Calib)
    c) parameter reset to factory defautls (see MP's Config/Tuning > Full Parameter List > Reset to Default)
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.1.5 27-May-2014 / 3.1.5-rc2 20-May-2014
Changes from 3.1.5-rc1
1) Bug Fix to broken loiter (pixhawk only)
2) Workaround to read from FRAM in 128byte chunks to resolve a few users boot issues (Pixhawk only)
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.1.5-rc1 14-May-2014
Changes from 3.1.4
1) Bug Fix to ignore roll and pitch inputs to loiter controller when in radio failsafe
2) Bug Fix to allow compassmot to work on Pixhawk
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.1.4 8-May-2014 / 3.1.4-rc1 2-May-2014
Changes from 3.1.3
1) Bug Fix for Pixhawk/PX4 NuttX I2C memory corruption when errors are found on I2C bus
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.1.3 7-Apr-2014
Changes from 3.1.2
1) Stability patch fix which could cause motors to go to min at full throttle and with large roll/pitch inputs
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.1.2 13-Feb-2014 / ArduCopter 3.1.2-rc2 12-Feb-2014
Changes from 3.1.2-rc1
1) GPS Glitch detection disabled when connected via USB
2) RC_FEEL_RP param added for adjusting responsiveness to pilot roll/pitch input in Stabilize, Drift, AltHold modes
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.1.2-rc1 30-Jan-2014
Changes from 3.1.1
1) Pixhawk baro bug fix to SPI communication which could cause large altitude estimate jumps at high temperatures
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.1.1 26-Jan-2014 / ArduCopter 3.1.1-rc2 21-Jan-2014
Changes from 3.1.1-rc1
1) Pixhawk improvements (available for APM2 when AC3.2 is released):
    a) Faster arming
    b) AHRS_TRIM fix - reduces movement in loiter when yawing
    c) AUX Out 5 & 6 turned into general purpose I/O pins
    d) Three more relays added (relays are pins that can be set to 0V or 5V)
    e) do-set-servo fix to allow servos to be controlled from ground station
    f) Motorsync CLI test
    g) PX4 parameters moved from SD card to eeprom
    h) additional pre-arm checks for baro & inertial nav altitude and lean angle
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.1.1-rc1 14-Jan-2014
Changes from 3.1
1) Pixhawk improvements:
    a) Telemetry port 2 enabled (for MinimOSD)
    b) SD card reliability improvements
    c) parameters moved to FRAM
    d) faster parameter loading via USB
    e) Futaba SBUS receiver support
2) Bug fixes:
    a) Loiter initialisation fix (Loiter would act like AltHold until flight mode switch changed position)
    b) ROI commands were not returning Lat, Lon, Alt to mission planner when mission was loaded from APM
3) TradHeli only fixes:
    a) Drift now uses same (reduced) collective range as stabilize mode
    b) AutoTune disabled (for tradheli only)
    c) Landing collective (smaller than normal collective) used whenever copter is not moving
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.1 14-Dec-2013
Changes from 3.1-rc8
1) Pixhawk improvements:
    a) switch to use MPU6k as main accel/gyro
    b) auto loading of IO-board firmware on startup
2) RTL fixes:
    a) initialise waypoint leash length (first RTL stop would be more aggressive than 2nd)
    b) reduce projected stopping distance for higher speed stops
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.1-rc8 9-Dec-2013
Changes from 3.1-rc7
1) add Y6 motor mapping with all top props CW, bottom pros CCW (set FRAME = 10)
2) Safety Changes:
    a) ignore yaw input during radio failsafe (previously the copter could return home spinning if yaw was full over at time of failsafe)
    b) Reduce GPSGLITCH_RADIUS to 2m (was 5m) to catch glitches faster
3) Bug fixes:
    a) Optical flow SPI bus rates
    b) TradHeli main rotor ramp up speed fix
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.1-rc7 22-Nov-2013
Changes from 3.1-rc6
1) MOT_SPIN_ARMED default to 70
2) Smoother inertial nav response to missed GPS messages
3) Safety related changes
    a) radio and battery failsafe disarm copter if landed in Loiter or AltHold (previously they would RTL)
    b) Pre-Arm check failure warning output to ground station every 30 seconds until they pass
    c) INS and inertial nav errors logged to dataflash's PM message
    d) pre-arm check for ACRO_BAL_ROLL, ACRO_BAL_PITCH
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.1-rc6 16-Nov-2013
Improvements over 3.1-rc5
1) Heli improvements:
    a) support for direct drive tails (uses TAIL_TYPE and TAIL_SPEED parameters)
    b) smooth main rotor ramp-up for those without external govenor (RSC_RAMP_TIME)
    c) internal estimate of rotor speed configurable with RSC_RUNUP_TIME parameter to ensure rotor at top speed before starting missions
    d) LAND_COL_MIN collective position used when landed (reduces chance copter will push too hard into the ground when landing or before starting missions)
    e) reduced collective while in stabilize mode (STAB_COL_MIN, STAB_COL_MAX) for more precise throttle control
    f) external gyro parameter range changed from 1000~2000 to 0~1000 (more consistent with other parameters)
    g) dynamic flight detector switches on/off leaky-i term depending on copter speed
2) SingleCopter airframe support (contribution from Bill King)
3) Drift mode replaces TOY
4) MPU6k SPI bus speed decreased to 500khz after 4 errors
5) Safety related changes:
    a) crash detector cuts motors if copter upside down for more than 2 seconds
    b) INS (accel and gyro) health check in pre-arm checks
    c) ARMING_CHECK allows turning on/off individual checks for baro, GPS, compass, parameters, board voltage, radio
    d) detect Ublox GPS running at less than 5hz and resend configuration
    e) GPSGlitch acceptable radius reduced to 5m (stricter detection of glitches)
    f) range check roll, pitch input to ensure crazy radio values don't get through to stabilize controller
    g) GPS failsafe options to trigger AltHold instead of LAND or to trigger LAND even if in flight mode that does not require GPS
    h) Battery failsafe option to trigger RTL instead of LAND
    i) MOT_SPIN_ARMED set to zero by default
6) Bug fixes:
    a) missing throttle controller initialisation would mean Stabilize mode's throttle could be non-tilt-compensated
    b) inertial nav baro and gps delay compensation fix (contribution from Neurocopter)
    c) GPS failsafe was invoking LAND mode which still used GPS for horizontal control
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.1-rc5 22-Oct-2013
Improvements over 3.1-rc4
1) Pixhawk USB reliability improvements
2) AutoTune changes:
    a) enabled by default
    b) status output to GCS
    c) use 2 pos switch only
3) ch7/ch8 LAND
4) Tricopter stability patch improvements [thanks to texlan]
5) safety improvements:
    a) slower speed up of motors after arming
    b) pre-arm check that copter is moving less than 50cm/s if arming in Loiter or fence enabled
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.1-rc4 13-Oct-2013
Improvements over 3.1-rc3
1) Performance improvements to resolve APM alt hold issues for Octacopters:
     a) SPI bus speed increased from 500khz to 8Mhz
     b) Telemetry buffer increased to 512bytes
     c) broke up medium and slow loops into individual scheduled tasks and increased priority of alt hold tasks
2) Bug fix for Pixhawk USB connection
3) GPS Glitch improvements:
       a) added GPS glitch check to arming check
       b) parameters for vehicle max acceleration (GPSGLITCH_ACCEL) and always-ok radius (GPSGLICH_RADIUS)
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.1-rc3 09-Oct-2013
Improvements over 3.1-rc2
1) GPS Glitch protection - gps positions are compared with the previous gps position.  Position accepted if within 10m or copter could have reached the position with max accel of 10m/s/s.
2) Bug fix for pixhawk SPI bus contention that could lead to corrupted accelerometer values on pixhawk resolved
3) Auto Tuning (compile time option only add "#define AUTOTUNE ENABLED" to APM_Config.h and set CH7_Opt or CH8_Opt parameter to 17)
4) CPU Performance improvement when reading from MPU6k for APM
5) SUPER_SIMPLE parameter changed to a bit map to allow some flight modes to use super simpler while others use regular simple (MP release to allow easier selection will go out with AC3.1 official release)
6) Safety changes:
    a) safety button must be pushed before arming on pixhawk
    b) RGB LED (aka toshiba led) changed so that disarmed flashes, armed is either blue (if no gps lock) or green (if gps lock)
    c) sensor health bitmask sent to groundstations
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.1-rc2 18-Sep-2013
Improvements over 3.1-rc1
1) bug fix for MOT_SPIN_ARMED to allow it to be higher than 127
2) PX4/pixhawk auto-detect internal/external compass so COMPASS_ORIENT should be set to ORIENTATION_NONE if using GPS+compass module
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.1-rc1 9-Sep-2013
Improvements over 3.0.1
1) Support for Pixhawks board
2) Arm, Disarm, Land and Takeoff in Loiter and AltHold
3) Improved Acro
    a) ACRO_RP_P, ACRO_YAW_P parameters added to control speed of rotation
    b) ACRO_BAL_ROLL, ACRO_BAL_PITCH controls speed at which copter returns to level
    c) ACRO_TRAINER can be set to 0:disable trainer, 1:auto leveling when sticks released, 2:auto leveling and lean angle limited to ANGLE_MAX
    d) Ch7 & Ch8 switch to set ACRO_TRAINER options in-flight
4) SPORT mode - equivalent of earth frame Acro with support for simple mode
5) Sonar ground tracking improvements and bug fixes that reduce reaction to bad sonar data
6) Safety improvements
    a) motors always spin when armed (speed can be controlled with MOT_SPIN_ARMED, set to 0 to disable)
    b) vehicle's maximum lean angle can be reduced (or increased) with the ANGLE_MAX parameter
    c) arming check that GPS hdop is > 2.0 (disable by setting GPS_HDOP parameter to 900)
    d) slow take-off in AUTO, LOITER, ALTHOLD to reduce chance of motor/esc burn-out on large copters
7) Bug fixes:
    a) Optical flow sensor initialisation fix
    b) altitude control fix for Loiter_turns mission command (i.e. mission version of CIRCLE mode)
    c) DO_SET_ROI fix (do not use "ROI")
8) Distribute Loiter & Navigation calcs over 4 cycles to reduce impact on a single 100hz loop
9) RCMAP_ parameters allow remapping input channels 1 ~ 4
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.0.1-rc2 / 3.0.1 11-Jul-2013
Improvements over 3.0.1-rc1
1) Rate Roll, Pitch and Yaw I fix when we hit motor limits
2) pre-arm check changes:
    a) double flash arming light when pre-arm checks fail
    b) relax mag field checks to 35% min, 165% max of expected field
3) loiter and auto changes:
      a) reduced Loiter speed to 5 m/s
      b) reduced WP_ACCEL to 1 m/s/s (was 2.5 m/s/s)
      c) rounding error fix in loiter controller
      d) bug fix to stopping point calculation for RTL and loiter during missions
4) Stability Patch fix which was freezing Rate Taw I term and allowing uncommanded Yaw
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.0.1-rc1 26-Jun-2013
Improvements over 3.0.0
1) bug fix to Fence checking position after GPS lock was lost
2) bug fix to LAND so that it does not attempt to maintain horizontal position without GPS lock
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.0.0 / 3.0.0-rc6 16-Jun-2013
Improvements over 3.0.0-rc5
1) bug fix to Circle mode's start position (was moving to last loiter target)
2) WP_ACCEL parameter added to allow user to adjust acceleration during missions
3) loiter acceleration set to half of LOIT_SPEED parameter value (was hard-coded)
4) reduce AltHold P to 1.0 (was 2.0)
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.0.0-rc5 04-Jun-2013
Improvements over 3.0.0-rc4
1) bug fix to LAND flight mode in which it could try to fly to mission's next waypoint location
2) bug fix to Circle mode to allow counter-clockwise rotation
3) bug fix to heading change in Loiter, RTL, Missions when pilot's throttle is zero
4) bug fix for mission sticking at take-off command when pilot's throttle is zero
5) bug fix for parameters not saving when new value is same as default value
6) reduce pre-arm board min voltage check to 4.3V (was 4.5V)
7) remove throttle controller's ability to limit lean angle in loiter, rtl, auto
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.0.0-rc4 02-Jun-2013
Improvements over 3.0.0-rc3
1) loiter improvements:
     i) repositioning enhanced with feed forward
     ii) use tan to convert desired accel to lean angle
2) stability patch improvements for high powered copters or those with roll-pitch rate gains set too high
3) auto mode vertical speed fix (it was not reaching the desired speeds)
4) alt hold smoothed by filtering feed forward input
5) circle mode fix to initial position and smoother initialisation
6) RTL returns to initial yaw heading before descending
7) safe features:
    i) check for gps lock when entering failsafe
    ii) pre-arm check for mag field length
    iii) pre-arm check for board voltage between 4.5v ~ 5.8V
    iv) beep twice during arming
    v) GPS failsafe enabled by default (will LAND if loses GPS in Loiter, AUTO, Guided modes)
    vi) bug fix for alt-hold mode spinning motors before pilot has raised throttle
8) bug fixes:
    i) fixed position mode so it responding to pilot input
    ii) baro cli test
    iii) moved cli motor test to test sub menu and minor change to throttle output
    iv) guided mode yaw control fix
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.0.0-rc3 22-May-2013
Improvements over 3.0.0-rc2
1) bug fix for dataflash erasing unnecessarily
2) smoother transition to waypoints, loiter:
    intermediate point's speed initialised from copter's current speed
3) Ch8 auxiliary function switch (same features as Ch7)
4) safety checks:
    Warning to GCS of reason for pre-arm check failure
    ARMING_CHECK parameter added to allow disabling pre-arm checks
    Added compass health and offset check to pre-arm check
    compassmot procedure displays interference as percentage of total mag field
5) WPNAV dataflash message combined into NTUN message
6) allow TriCopters to use ESC calibration
------------------------------------------------------------------
ArduCopter 3.0.0-rc2 13-May-2013
Improvements over 3.0.0-rc1:
1) smoother transition to waypoints, loiter:
    reduced loiter max acceleration to smooth waypoints
    bug fix to uninitialised roll/pitch when entering RTL, AUTO, LOITER
2) fast waypoints - copter does not stop at waypoints unless delay is specified
3) WPNAV_LOIT_SPEED added to allow faster/slower loiter repositioning
4) removed speed limits on auto missions
5) enhance LAND mission command takes lat/lon coordinates
6) bug fix for RTL not pointing home sometimes
7) centrifugal correction disabled when copter is disarmed to stop HUD moving
8) centrifugal correction disabled when sat count less than 6 (AHRS_GPS_MINSATS)
9) compass calibration reliability improvements when run from mission planner
10) bug fix to allow compassmot to be run from mission planner terminal screen
11) add support for H-quad frame
12) add COMPASS_ORIENT parameter to support external compass in any orientation
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ArduCopter 3.0.0-rc1 01-May-2013
Improvements over 2.9.1b:
1) Inertial navigation for X & Y axis (Randy/Leonard/Jonathan)
2) 3D waypoint navigation library (Leonard/Randy)
    WPNAV_SPEED, WPNAV_SPEED_UP, WPNAV_SPEED_DN control target speeds during missions and RTL
    WP_YAW_BEHAVIOR to allow disabling yaw during missions and RTL
3) PX4 support (some features still not available) (Tridge/Pat/PX4Dev Team)
4) Safety improvements:
    Tin-can shaped fence (set FENCE_ENABLED to 1 and copter will RTL if alt > 150m or horizontal distance from home > 300m) (Randy/Tridge/Leonard)
    GCS failsafe (set FS_GCS_ENABLED to 1 and if you are using a tablet to fly your copter it will RTL and return control to the radio 3 seconds after losing telemetry) (Randy)
    pre-arm checks to ensure accelerometer and radio calibration has been performed before arming (Randy)
5) motor interference compensation for compass (Jonathan/Randy)
6) Circle mode improvements:
    set CIRCLE_RADIUS to zero to do panorama shots in circle mode (copter does not move in a circle but instead slowly rotates)
    CIRCLE_RATE parameter allows controlling direction and speed of rotation in CIRCLE mode and LOITER_TURNS (can also be adjusted in flight from CH6 knob)
7) SONAR_GAIN parameter add to allow reducing the response to objects sensed by sonar (Randy)
8) support for trapezoidal quads (aka V shaped or FPV quads) (Leonard/Craig)
9) performance improvements to dataflash logging (Tridge)
10) bug-fix to analog read which could cause bad sonar reads when using voltage or current monitor (Tridge)
11) bug-fix to motors going to minimum when throttle is low while switching into Loiter, AUTO, RTL, ALT_HOLD (Jason/Randy)
12) bug-fix for auto disarm sometimes disarming shortly after arming (Jason/SirAlex)
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ArduCopter 2.9.1b 30-Feb-2013
Improvements over 2.9.1:
1) reduce INS_MPU6K_FILTER to 20hz
2) reduce InertialNav Z-axis time constant to 5 (was 7)
3) increased max InertialNav accel correction to 3 m/s (was 1m/s)
4) bug fix for alt_hold being passed as int16_t to get_throttle_althold_with_slew
5) bug fix for throttle after acro flip (was being kept at min throttle if pilot switched out of ACRO mode while inverted)
6) reduce yaw_rate P default to 0.20 (was 0.25)
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ArduCopter 2.9.1 & 2.9.1-rc2 01-Feb-2013
Improvements over 2.9.1-rc1:
1) small corretion to use of THR_MID to scale lower end of manual throttle between THR_MIN and 500 instead of 0 and 500
2) bug fix for longitude scaling being incorrectly calculated using Next Waypoint instead of home which could lead to scaling being 1
3) ESC calibration change to set update rate to ESCs to 50hz to allow simonk ESC to be calibrated
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ArduCopter 2.9.1-rc1 31-Jan-2013
Improvements over 2.9:
1) THR_MID parameter added to allow users to adjust the manual throttle so that vehicle hovers at about mid stick
2) bug fix for autotrim - roll axis was backwards
3) bug fix to set sonar_alt_health to zero when sonar is disabled
4) capture level roll and pitch trims as part of accel calibration
5) bug fix to ppm encoder false positives
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ArduCopter 2.9 & 2.9-rc5 14-Jan-2013
Improvements over 2.9-rc4:
1) add constraint to loiter commanded roll and pitch angles
2) relax altitude requirement for take-off command to complete
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ArduCopter 2.9-rc4 12-Jan-2013
Improvements over 2.9-rc3:
1) Smoother transition between manual and auto flight modes (Leonard)
2) bug fix for LAND not actually landing when initiated from failsafe (Randy/Craig)
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ArduCopter 2.9-rc3 11-Jan-2013
Improvements over 2.9-rc2:
1) alt hold with sonar improvements - now on by default (Leonard/Randy)
2) performance and memory usage improvements (Tridge/Randy)
3) increase APM1 baro pressure read from 5hz to 8.3hz to improve alt hold (Randy)
4) bug fix: altitude error reported to GCS (Randy)
5) limit inertial nav's max accel offset correction to 100cm/s/s to speed up recovery after hard impacts (Randy)_
6) moved rate controllers to run after ins read (Tridge/Randy)
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ArduCopter 2.9-rc2 31-Dec-2012
Improvements over 2.9-rc1:
1) increased throttle rate gains from 1.0 to 6.0
2) APM1 fix so it works with inertial nav (5hz update rate of baro was beyond the tolerance set in the inav library)
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ArduCopter 2.9-rc1 23-Dec-2012
Improvements over 2.8.1:
1) altitude hold improvements:
    a)inertial navigation for vertical axis [Randy/Jonathan/Leonard/Jason]
    b)accel based throttle controller [Leonard/Randy]
    c)accelerometer calibration routine updated to use gauss-newton method [Randy/Tridge/Rolfe Schmidt]
    d)parameters to control climb rate:
        AUTO_VELZ_MIN, AUTO_VELZ_MAX - allows you to control the maximum climb and descent rates of the autopilot (in cm/s)
        PILOT_VELZ_MAX - allows you to control the maximum climb/descent rate when in alt hold or loiter (in cm/s)
2) landing improvements [Leonard/Randy]
    LAND_SPEED - allows you to set the landing speed in cm/s
3) camera related improvements:
    a) AP_Relay enabled for APM2 and integrated with AP_Camera [Sandro Benigno]
    b) camera trigger with channel 7 switch or DO_DIGICAM_CONTROL mission command [Randy]
    c) allow yaw override by pilot or with CONDITIONAL_YAW command during missions [Randy]
        YAW_OVR_BEHAVE - Controls when autopilot takes back normal control of yaw after pilot overrides (0=after next wp, 1=never)
4) trad heli improvements [Rob]
    a) code tested and brought back into the fold (2.8.1 was never released for trad helis)
    b) enabled rate controller (previously only used angle controllers)
    c) fix to rotor speed controllers - now operates by switching off channel 8
    d) allow wider collective pitch range in acro and alt hold modes vs stabilize mode
    e) removed angle boost function because it created more problems than it solved
    f) bug fix to allow collective pitch to use the entire range of servos
5) mediatek gps driver improvements [Craig]
    a) added support for 1.9 firmware
    b) bug fix to start-up routine so sbas can be enabled
6) failsafe improvements (both throttle and battery) [Randy/Craig/John Arne Birkeland]
    a) RTL will not trigger if your throttle is zero - reduces risk of accidentally invoking RTL if you switch off your receiver before disarming
    b) failsafe triggered in unlikely case of a PPM encoder failure
    c) bug fix to resolve motors momentarily reducing to zero after failsafe is triggered
7) mpu6k filtering made configurable and default changed to 42hz for copters [Leonard/Tridge]
8) support ppm sum for transmitters with as few as 5 channels [Randy/John Arne Birkeland]
9) acro trainer - copter will return to be generally upright if you release the sticks in acro mode [Leonard]
    ACRO_BAL_ROLL, ACRO_BAL_PITCH - controls rate at which roll returns to level
    ACRO_TRAINER - 1 to enable the auto-bring-upright feature
10) other changes and bug fixes:
    a) allow >45 degrees when in stabilize mode by adding lines like below to APM_Config (compile time option only) [Jason]
        #define MAX_INPUT_ROLL_ANGLE 6000     // 60 degrees
        #define MAX_INPUT_PITCH_ANGLE 6000    // 60 degrees
    b) bug fix to stop RTL from ever climbing to an unreasonable height (i.e. >80m) [Jason]
    c) event and state logging [Jason]
    d) allow cli to be used over telemetry link [Tridge]
    e) bug fix to allow compass accumulate to run when we have spare cpu cycles [Randy]
    f) bug fix so do_set_servo command works [Randy]
    g) bug fix to PID controller's so they don't calculate crazy D term on the first call [Tridge]
    h) bug fix to initialise navigation parameter to resolve twitch when entering some navigation modes [Jason]
    i) performance improvement to copter leds - use DigitalFastWrite and DigitalFastRead instead of native arduino functions  [Randy]
    j) removed unused stab_d from roll and pitch controller [Jason]
    k) bug fix for guided mode not reaching target altitude if it reaches horizontal target first [Randy]
    l) code clean-up, parameter documentation improvements [Randy/Jason/Rob/others]

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ArduCopter 2.8.1 22-Oct-2012
Improvements over 2.8:
- 430 bytes of RAM freed up to resolve APM1 level issue and reduce chance of memory corruption on both APM1 and APM2

Improvements over 2.7.3:
- Improved ACRO mode (Leonard Hall)
- Improved stability patch to reduce "climb-on-yaw" problem (Leonard, Rob Lefebvre, Randy)
- Rate controller targets moved to body frames (yaw control now works properly when copter is inverted) (Leonard/Randy)
- Less bouncy Stabilize yaw control (Leonard)
- OpticalFlow sensor support for APM2.5 (Randy)
- DMP works again by adding "#define DMP_ENABLED ENABLED" to APM_Config.h You can also log DMP vs DCM to the dataflash by adding "#define SECONDARY_DMP_ENABLED ENABLED" (Randy)
- Watch dog added to shutdown motors if main loop feezes for 2 seconds (Randy)
- Thrust curve added to linearize pwm->thrust. Removes deadzone found above 90% throttle in most ESC/motors (Randy)
- More timing improvements (main loop is now tied to MPU6000s interrupt) (Randy)
- GPS NMEA bug fix (Alexey Kozin)
- Logging improvements (log I terms, dump all settings at head of dataflash log) (Jason)

Bug Fixes / Parameter changes:
- fixed skipping of last waypoint (Jason)
- resolved twitching when no GPS attached (Tridge)
- fixed loss of altitude if alt hold is engaged before first GPS lock (Randy/Jason)
- moved Roll-Pitch I terms from Stabilize controllers to Rate controllers
- TILT_COMPENSATION param tuned for TradHeli (Rob)

Code Cleanup:
- HAL changes for platform portability (Pat Hickey)
- Removed INSTANT_PWM (Randy)
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