LibrePilot/WHATSNEW.txt

--- RELEASE-13.06 --- Italian Stallion Release ---

This is the first official OpenPilot Revolution software release. This version
also supports the CopterControl, CC3D, OPLinkMini and the upcoming OP OSD.
There a number of significant backend changes in this version compared to
previous software releases: from new toolchains and build system to a source
code reformatting that is inline with our project style guidelines.

The goal of this release is to provide CC3D-style features for the new
Revolution platform (using the Revo's internal modem and external OPLinkMini
board). Advanced features such as Altitude Hold, Position Hold, Guidance,
Return to Home, and AutoLanding are still in development and will be available
in future releases. The availability of those features will depend on how many
people are able to contribute with code, testing and documentation.

Remember that the first Revo hardware batch was intended for developers/
bleeding-edge testers, not end users who want a 100% final platform.

- New bootloaders are REQUIRED for this release to support new features such
  as erase settings and others. As always, bootloaders can be updated without
  any special programmer hardware using the bootloader updater firmware files.
- F1 boards (CC, CC3D, OPLinkMini) require bootloader version 4 or higher.
- F4 boards (Revolution, OSD prototype) require bootloader version 5 or higher.
- Check the wiki for details of how to update them:
  http://wiki.openpilot.org/display/BUILDS/Bootloader+update

Please remember to take a moment to view these important tutorials:
  http://wiki.openpilot.org/display/Doc/OpenPilot+Tutorials

What's New / Release Notes
--------------------------

NEW:

- Firmware folders removed.
  The firmware files folder has been removed in this release. These files
  are now integrated into the GCS so they are always up to date and there is
  less risk of a firmware mismatch. To update your firmware you must use
  either Vehicle Setup Wizard (big green button at the top right on the
  Welcome GCS tab) or the new Auto-Update button on the GCS Firmware tab.

- Responsiveness sliders.
  To simplify tuning, we have introduced a new Responsiveness slider that
  will allow you to modify stick response. For best results, you should
  still tune your system with PIDs as tight as possible for better
  stabilisation. This will result in better stabilisation, and at the
  same time soft or sharp response according to your preferences.

- Auto-Update firmware.
  This feature simplifies all OpenPilot board firmware updates. Now all
  you have to do is click "Auto-update" on the Firmware tab and follow the
  instructions to reflash your OpenPilot board. This is essentially the
  same as Rescue but uses the embedded firmware images so there is no need
  to browse for them anymore.

- Erase Settings Option.
  We previously had a hacky way to delete bad or incompatible settings from
  our OpenPilot boards. This old special firmware that did this is now
  deprecated and the functionality is now integrated into the latest
  bootloaders and firmwares.

  To erase settings enter DFU (boot) mode (using Halt or Rescue function)
  and click the "Erase settings" button on the Firmware tab and follow the
  instructions. This will NOT work with an older bootloader and the "Erase
  settings" button will be disabled if an out of date bootloader is detected.

- Language defaults.
  GCS now uses the system default language (only French and English are
  available currently, please contribute translations). You can change the
  language in the GCS Options at any time.

- CDC driver install option (Windows only).
  This is an optional USB virtual serial port that is useful, for example,
  for updating your GPS configuration using the U-Blox u-Center software.
  It is NOT required for normal configuration of OpenPilot boards. If it is
  not installed, virtual serial port features will not be available. This
  driver is not signed by Microsoft, but in fact it uses serial port drivers
  from Windows and only the driver information INF file is supplied by
  OpenPilot.

- Lots of help tooltips were added to the GCS. Hovering your mouse over an
  option in the GCS will show them, please review for help during tuning/
  setting up.

- A large amount of general improvements, code clean ups and minor bugs
  resolved.

KNOWN ISSUES:

- On Linux you should remove the OpenPilot package if it was previously
  installed, then install this new one. This is a known issue and likely
  be fixed later.

- Due to changes in USB descriptors to support new features, USB drivers
  on Windows must be updated. If after using Rescue or Wizard or Auto-Update
  button the GCS cannot connect to the board, you may be experiencing this
  USB issue. To resolve it you should remove the old drivers (ones with
  yellow exclamation mark) and allow Windows to find them again.

  Here is how to do it:

  Windows XP:
   - Right click on "My Computer" on your desktop and select "Properties".
   - Select the "Hardware" tab.
   - Select the "Device Manager".
   - Scroll down the list until you see the "Universal Serial Bus Controllers"
     selection.
   - Click it to expand the list of USB drivers. Right-click on the driver(s)
     you wish to uninstall and select "Uninstall".

  Windows 7/Vista:
   - Right click on "My Computer" on your desktop and select "Properties".
   - Select "Device Manager" in the upper left-hand corner of the window.
   - Scroll down the list until you see the "Universal Serial Bus Controllers"
     selection.
   - Click it to expand the list of USB drivers. Right-click on the driver(s)
     you wish to uninstall and select "Uninstall".

  Then disconnect the board from USB, wait few seconds and re-connect it to
  your computer. Windows should find new drivers and install them properly.

- If GCS crashes when switching to the Flight Data tab, it usually means
  your PC needs newer video drivers. That tab contains a ModelView widget
  which uses OpenGL. It is known to crash on some graphics cards with old
  and buggy drivers.

- Sensor calibration is not final. It will be reworked completely to
  increase its accuracy and make it easier to use.

- Until the calibration is reworked, default attitude estimation algorithm
  used by Revo is a complimentary filter with magnetometers disabled. Hence
  Revo does not use them yet to correct yaw drift. Magnetometers can be
  enabled, but you should properly calibrate them first. That's the reason
  why they are disabled by default.

- AltitudeHold mode is enabled, but it is not officially supported. Do
  not expect it to work perfectly and be considered production quality.
  You may play with it and report your issues and suggestions at your own
  risk. If you are not using a case for your Revo, we strongly recommend
  covering the barometer sensor with some foam to shield the sensor from
  wind and light.

- Note that throttle stick in AltitudeHold mode is used to control vertical
  velocity, sometimes called vario altitude in other platforms, centre stick
  means hold altitude and there is a dead band around centre stick.

- There are currently no configuration options for the Radio module in
  the Revolution except for Radio enable/disable and output power. This is
  intentional because all configuration should be done using its paired
  ground OPLink coordinator.

  How to configure the Revolution to OPLinkMini radio link:

  - Make sure you have the newest bootloaders and matching firmwares
    between the Revolution, GCS and OPLink.
  - Enable the radio in the Revolution, click save and disconnect the board
    from USB.
  - Power it from external supply to continue.
  - Then connect the OPLink board to USB and scroll down in the GCS config
    widget to find OPLink icon at the end of list. This icon is only
    available when an OPLink is detected.
  - To pair the two radios, select the Revolution side radio address in the
    list of found boards, select it, click Add to add to the list of paired
    radios and click Save. After unplugging the board from the USB and
    plugging back your OPLink it should show "Connected", and you can
    continue with the configuration.

- Do not set the Revolution modem or OPLinkMini output power to high values
  without antenna connected, this can damage the hardware.

JIRA issues addressed in this release:

Due to major rework of all code and integration of Revo code into mainline
(next) it is almost impossible to list all corresponding JIRA issues for the
list above. Some of them can be found using this link:
  http://progress.openpilot.org/issues/?filter=10860

OP-678,  OP-682,  OP-693,  OP-719,  OP-726,  OP-727,  OP-747,  OP-761,  OP-769,
OP-770,  OP-772,  OP-781,  OP-784,  OP-792,  OP-804,  OP-807,  OP-812,  OP-816,
OP-817,  OP-820,  OP-821,  OP-834,  OP-843,  OP-846,  OP-854,  OP-855,  OP-856,
OP-861,  OP-864,  OP-867,  OP-871,  OP-873,  OP-874,  OP-875,  OP-879,  OP-885,
OP-886,  OP-888,  OP-889,  OP-890,  OP-891,  OP-892,  OP-893,  OP-894,  OP-895,
OP-896,  OP-897,  OP-898,  OP-899,  OP-900,  OP-903,  OP-905,  OP-906,  OP-907,
OP-910,  OP-912,  OP-917,  OP-920,  OP-925,  OP-926,  OP-928,  OP-935,  OP-936,
OP-939,  OP-952,  OP-955,  OP-957,  OP-958,  OP-965,  OP-968,  OP-969,  OP-970,
OP-977,  OP-979,  OP-980,  OP-981,  OP-982,  OP-983,  OP-988,  OP-989,  OP-990,
OP-991,  OP-993,  OP-997,  OP-998,  OP-999,  OP-1000, OP-1002, OP-1005, OP-1007,
OP-1008, OP-1009, OP-1010, OP-1011, OP-1012, OP-1013, OP-1015, OP-1016, OP-1021

Short summary of changes. For a complete list see the git log.

Flight code changes:
- initial version of Revo code;
- initial version of OPLinkMini code;
- CopterControl/CC3D code reworked to reuse parts of Revo code;
- switched to new ARM-supported GCC 4.7 toolchain with hardware floating point support;
- major code cleanup and use of compiler warning flags to early catch errors;
- major directory and Makefiles reorganisation and cleanup;
- all source code fixed to use float variables instead of doubles (to use hardware FPU);
- added multi-binding support for OPLinkMini;
- added frequency hopping for Revo and OPLinkMini;
- added auto-configuration for OPLinkMini remote modem / Revo;
- replaced entire flash generation code;
- new U-Blox GPS binary protocol parser;
- added STM32 DSP library;
- updated STM32 CMSIS library;
- updated STM32 USB OTG driver;
- updated STM32 F1 StdPeriph driver library;
- updated STM32 F4 StdPeriph driver library;
- updated FreeRTOS (real-time operating system used by the flight code to run many tasks);
- PyMite moved to a library;
- fixed nasty bug in PyMite Makefile, single file was rebuilt 5 times fo no reason;
- added configurable accel/gyro rates;
- added visualisation of errors in bootloader updater;
- added numerous sanity checks to the flight code to prevent unsafe arming;
- new flash file system, much faster and higly optimised;
- Revo data flash is splitted into two partitions, one for settings, another for user data (logs, etc);
- OPLinkMini now stores settings in the MCU flash using FlashFS too;
- a catalog of known flash types is used to support different flash types by the same firmware;
- fixed broken overo submodule remote repository link;
- fixed DSMX protocol error with some Tx/Rx combintions;
- added new pios_*.h headers to support commonly used constants, functions and defines;
- numerous fixes for data alignment and memory allocation strategy;
- new bootloaders to support more features (for example, board settings erase);
- added new feature to erase settings without special firmware;
- removed CC/CC3D setting erase firmware (now not necessary due to new erase feature);
- introduced new delayed callback scheduler to run modules from a single task;
- many changes to AeroSim-RC simulator interface;
- fixed broken debug pins API;
- fixed few bugs in the EKF code;
- introduced bootloader updater for F4 boards (including Revo and OSD);
- some changes in RAM and flash memory partitioning to better utilize resources;
- changes in bootloader to allow remote reboot via serial port or radio modem;
- the EKF "Huge Formula" is replaced by optimised set of of loops to make it editable;
- Cyr's attitude patch is ported from CC3D to Revo;
- added magnetometer options (mags are disabled by default for Revo complimenary filter);
- advance camera stabilisation is now officially released;
- Revo alarm led now distinguish between Critical(lit led), Error(blink fast), Warning(blink slowly) Alarm condition
- Revo alarm led flash fast(like in Error Alarm) during calibration using complementary attitude estimation.
- Redo gyro bias zero after calibration parameters changes
- Do not raise GPS alarm if a gps port is not configured.
- fixed numerous internal firmware bugs (too many to list here).

GCS code changes:
- nice loading splash screen;
- now GCS uses system language by default if translation is available, English otherwise;
- French translation officially added. Please help with other languages;
- fixed some crashes of uploader gadget;
- fixed double config read on restore;
- improvements in GCS options dialog handling;
- optimised option dialog creating;
- added UI tooltips for many options;
- removed unused yet options from configuration UI;
- removed GCS config dialog on the first run, one default is used now if missing;
- added Revo configuration page, similar to CC/CC3D one;
- added OPLinkMini configuration page;
- hardware options are now dynamically enabled/disabled to allow supported configurations only;
- new artwork for all boards everywhere;
- optimised some 3D models;
- new About dialog showing version info and contributors list;
- fixed badly broken HiTL options dialog;
- fixed compilation problem on OSX, now GCS should be compatible with OSX 10.5+;
- major vehicle config cleanup with lazy creation (speeds up GCS start);
- UI config pages improvements (responsiveness, etc)
- new auto-update feature added, *.opfw firmware files removed from distributables;
- anti-aliased scope plugin;
- numerous code fixes and cleanups (too many to list here);
- USB HID code is replaced by new cross-platform hidapi library to fix old Linux/OSX problems.
- Adds GUI to set Altitude Hold filter parameters.
- Adds configurable units for velocity/speed and altitude in QML PFD. Units are configured in settings panel.
- Reduces precision of the PDOP value in the PFD display to 1 decimal.
- Remove deprecated powerlog

Common parts:
- added simple toolchain install make targets;
- added self-hosted toolchains to ensure that they're always available;
- added support for globally istalled tools used by many working copies;
- added Windows bootstrap script to pull all other build tools;
- added unit testing framework, also supported by Bamboo CI server and agents;
- added code style formatting make targets, easy to use by developers;
- added doxygen make targets. The documentation still must be completely revised, though;
- enforced global line ending policy, source files are updated accordingly;
- reworked packaging to provide correct dependencies and safe multi-threaded builds;
- multiply renames of board names and directories, now we have correct names;
- fixed dependencies in Makefiles, now 'make -j' works reliably;
- CLEAN_BUILD make option is deprecated, use 'package' or 'clean_package' instead;
- simposix elf is now included into linux distribution and can be run with default GCS settings;
- revised 'make help' message;
- updated Windows driver to support Revolution and use correct board names.

Android GCS:
- old and buggy code was removed;
- full rewrite has been started.

Infrastructure:
- Bamboo continuous integration server is actively used;
- around 10 build agents running 4 different operating systems are set up;
- every push to any branch is now build-tested, and unit tests run are performed;

2012-11-17
Advanced camera stabilization features.
They include optional manual control input filtering (moved from camera stabilization to manual
control input and now available also for main controls), optional airframe attitude filtering
used by camera stabilization, and optional camera actuator feed forward to improve gimbal response.

--- RELEASE-12.10.2 --- Mayan Apocalypse Release ---

List of issues resolved in this maintenance release:
http://progress.openpilot.org/issues/?filter=10361

OP-459, OP-545, OP-674, OP-679, OP-685, OP-686, OP-687, OP-690, OP-691,
OP-702, OP-703, OP-714, OP-715, OP-716, OP-721, OP-728, OP-746, OP-748,
OP-749, OP-750, OP-758, OP-759, OP-760

Here is a list of some known unresolved issues. If an issue has JIRA ID [OP-XXX],
you may track it using the following URL: http://bugs.openpilot.org/browse/OP-XXX

+ Only French translation is updated, use English for other locales or help with translations.
+ Radio Wizard confused by a reversed throttle, fix it on your transmitter before starting wizard.
+ Radio Wizard Throttle display does not show full range properly.
+ [Windows 8] USB Driver is broken.
+ Firmware Update Instructions on Firmware Tab not entirely accurate for all upgrade paths.
+ Tricopter's using Vehicle Wizard need to check servo does not need reversed manually.
+ XAircraft ESCs uses non-standard PPM range which may cause issues with Vehicle Wizard.
+ Spectrum Satellite Receivers setup in Radio Wizard may have wrong protocol set.
+ Old Intel 965 have an OpenGL bug that turns the QML PFD black and while.
+ [OP-732] Import UAV Settings for inactive modules crashes the running firmware (board restarts).
           Workaround: update firmware, power cycle, enable modules, power cycle, import configuration.
+ [OP-747] Board infinitely reboots itself after firmware upgrade (settings erase firmware is a workaround).
+ [OP-723] GCS uses the system language ot the 1st run. After restart it uses English (can be changed later).
+ [OP-725] GCS camera stab config error message disappears too fast (but config error is cleared as it should)
+ [OP-767] GCS does not send AttitudeActual packets over serial port when GPS is connected and system is armed
+ [OP-768] GCS does not show UAV position on the map (master or next CC branches, but works in Revo branches)
+ [OP-769] Can't enter "12,45" on German system. Workaround: change GCS language (in fact, locale) to German.

2012-11-12
Implemented smoothing filter for accelerometer data.
Added support for Mode 3 and Mode 4 to the TX Configuration Wizard.

--- RELEASE-12.10.1 ---

2012-10-26
Temporary disabled AutoTune GCS GUI. It was listed as an experimental
feature in the previous release, there were however a few cases where
it did not behave as expected.

--- RELEASE-12.10 ---

2012-10-06
Receiver port can now be configured as PPM *and* PWM inputs.
Pin 1 is PPM, other pins are PWM inputs.

2012-07-27
Added the ability to load stylesheets from external file according to operating system:
macos.qss, linux.qss, windows.qss
Files should be placed inside the app folder.

2012-07-27
Several UI changes. 
MixerCurveWidget refactoring, now as a simple and advanced view.

2012-07-27
Added "advanced mode" option to general settings. Right now it only shows the hidden apply buttons.
To enable go to tools->options->General and click one of the checkboxes to give focus to the form,
then press F7

2012-07-27
Made the flight mode switch and accessory pots move according to user input on the input wizard.

2012-07-27
Changed the board pictures on the uploader widget

2012-07-27
Add more verbose debug output on the UAVOBJECTS saving code.

2012-08-11
CopterControl can now emulate an 8-channel USB HID joystick.  Primarily,
this lets you use any RC transmitter with flight simulators on your PC.

2012-07-20
AeroSimRC simulator plugin is now included into the Windows distribution
(will be installed into .../OpenPilot/misc/AeroSIM-RC directory).  Still
being an experimental development tool, it could be used to play with
HITL version 2.  Other platforms include udp_test utility which can be
used to check the connectivity with AeroSimRC plugin running on Windows
machine.

2012-07-10
On Windows the installation mode was changed from per-user to per-machine
(for all users) installation.  It is recommended to completely uninstall
previous version before installing new one to remove per-user installed
files.  Per-machine installation requires elevated (administrator) previleges
during install.  But since the same rights are now required to install
optional CDC driver (virtual communication port), it was deemed acceptable.

2012-06-04
AeroSimRC support merged into next

2012-05-26
VirtualFlybar which allows a more aggressive flight mode than rate mode
support.  Also PiroCompensation added.

2012-05-26
Revert some UI changes that didn't work consistently between OSX and Windows.

2012-05-24
Merged the updated firmware for the PipXtreme, thanks to Brian for a lot of
work on this.

2012-05-04
Support for CC3D.  This involved changes to various things such as the sensors
being split from AttitudeRaw to Accels,Gyros,Magnetometer.  A single firmware
image fw_coptercontrol will run on both CC and CC3D.  When compiling the
bootloader one must set the HW_REVISION to the appropriate value.  0x01 is for
CC and 0x02 is for CC3D.  If the wrong bootloader is installed the firmware
will not run.

2012-05-02
Reduction in the memory usage due to the UAVObject metadata.  Now the update
periods are using a smaller data type and the various flags relating to access
controls and update modes are stored in a bitfield.  The UAVObjectBrowser has
not been updated to allow these modes to be easily changed.

2012-03-31
Support for ground vehicle configuration has been added to the the GCS.

2012-02-14
New QML based system to allow more flexible UI.  Upgraded stabilization
configuration.

2012-01-02
CC FW now supports USB Virtual Com Port (VCP/CDC) in addition to the original HID interface
New ComUsbBridge module can bridge any serial port to the USB CDC port
CC FW now detects repeated faults during init and boots with default hwsettings

2012-01-02
Added new camera stabilization features: AxisLock mode and LPF.

2011-12-10
Merged a change that sorts the UAVO fields based on size.  Because this changes
all of the objects, erase all existing flash files based on this.

2011-11-04
New Spektrum/JR satellite receiver driver implementation.
It now provides explicit selection of DSM2 (and DSMJ), DSMX (10bit) and
DSMX (11bit) serial protocol variations to better serve different frame
and resolution modes. The protocol name used now is DSM instead of
previously used Spektrum to make it less ambiguous when used with JR
2.4GHz radios.

2011-10-20
Inputs can be remapped to outputs to allow up to 10 channels of control.  The
receiver inputs remap as follows:
Receiver 3 because output channel 7
Receiver 4 because output channel 8
Receiver 5 because output channel 9
Receiver 6 because output channel 10

2011-10-11
Fix for the Mac telemetry rates and specifically how long enumeration took.

2011-10-08
Make the flash chip need to be have bad magic for a full second before erasing
settings.  Should avoid random lost settings.

2011-09-12
Max rate now ONLY applies to attitude and axis lock mode.  Manual rate is the
only term that limits the rate mode now (and in axis lock when you push stick
only manual rate applies).  Also integrals are reset when unused.

2011-09-09
Some large updates to the input system.  Now multiple receivers can be
connected at once.  A wizard was added for configuring the input channels.  A
specific collective pitch channel was added.

2011-09-04
Improvements to the failsafe handling code for inputs.  PWM power off is now
detected properly.  Powering on transmitter for Spektrum Satellite no longer
causes a glitch on servos.

2011-08-10
Added Camera Stabilization and a gui to configure this.  This is a software
selectable module from the GUI.  However, a restart is required to make it
active.  The GUI does not currently expose the configuration for using the
transmitter to change the view angle but this is supported by the hardware.

2011-08-10
By default a lot of diagnostic objects that were enabled by default are now
disabled in the build.  This include TaskInfo (and all the FreeRTOS options
that provide that debugging information).  Also MixerStatus, I2CStatus,
WatchdogStatus and RateDesired.  These can be reenabled for debugging with
-DDIAG_ALL.

2011-08-04
Fixed packaging aesthetic issues.  Also avoid runtime issues on OSX Lion by
disabling the ModelView and Notify plugins for now (sorry).

2011-07-29
Added support for PPM receivers from James W. Now all 4 interfaces (R/C
standard PWM, combined PPM (MK), Spektrum satellite, Futaba S.Bus) are
supported and configurable through the GCS hardware configuration tab.

2011-07-17
Updated module initialization from Mathieu which separates the initialization
from the task startup.  Also implements a method to reclaim unused ram from
initialization and end of memory for the FreeRTOS heap.

2011-07-12
Improvements to the stabilization code.  Included a LPF on the gyros to smooth
out noise in high vibration environments.  Also two new modes: axis-lock and
weak leveling.  Axis-lock will try and hold an axis at a fixed position and
reject any disturbances.  This is like heading-hold on a heli for the tail but
can be useful for other axes.  Weak leveling is rate mode with a weak
correction to self level the craft - good for easier rate mode flying.

2011-07-07
Dynamic hardware configuration from Stac.  The input type is now
selected from ManualControlSettings.InputMode and the aircraft must be rebooted
after changing this.  Also for CopterControl the HwSettings object must
indicate which modules are connected to which ports.  PPM currently not
working.