20151123-76f58893f9 (Endomorphism bugfix)

This is a safety-related bug fix to the 20150922 release

This release fixes two arming related bugs:

• Vehicles could inadvertently arm if switch arming was selected and no arming switch was configured.
• If an arming command was sent while the vehicle was unable to arm because of alarms, the vehicle could arm later when the alarms clear.

This release also contains fixes that improve the reliability of OpenLRS control communications when using a Sparky2 or RevoMini flight controller with native OpenLRS.

Known Bugs/Bugfixes

• For OpenLRS the battery voltage was incorrectly displayed. You can use this firmware to fix this on Sparky2 / BrushedSparky

20150922-f069ece425

• Navigation, return-to-home, and path following significantly improved.
• New targets added: Naze32/OpenNaze and AeroQuad32 (aq32).
• TauLinkModule and ground-side UAVO to FrSky telemetry bridging support added.
• It is now possible to build the GCS in MSVC. The packaging infrastructure has not been updated for this, but future releases will be built with MSVC for enhanced performance and stability.
• Helicopter support improved; many bugfixes were made.
• It is possible to also use the throttle stick to control altitude in position hold mode, by manually setting vtolpathfollowersettings.LoiterAllowAltControl and ThrottleControl to True.
• A new "zippy loiter" mode is available when in position-hold mode. The pitch/roll inputs can control moderately aggressive multirotor position changes, and when stick is neutral it holds position. The GPS and position control loop is still coupled at all times, but it feels much more interactive than it did before.
• An "AcroPlus" flight mode, similar to Acro+ in OpenPilot and other projects, was added. Large stick inputs become direct actuator activation.
• Gyro lowpass filters are now target and sampling frequency independent, and configurable in a UAVO in terms of cutoff frequency in Hz (StabilizationSettings.GyroCutoff). Helicopter and large multirotor users may want to decrease this value; 250-size and smaller often benefit from increasing it. (Default tuning is for the most part general purpose, though).
• Flight modes display properly in minimosd-extra over MavLink.
• The GCS is now built using QT 5.5.
• Sparky2 now uses ChibiOS.
• On many targets, a missing external magnetometer no longer results in a boot panic.
• FrSky support updated to work better with newer OpenTX, and various encoding improvements were made.
• SPI runs at faster speed on some targets, reducing CPU consumption
• The default PPM pin on CC3D was changed to match OpenPilot convention; there's still a setting for existing boards that uses the old pin but it is not compatible with OneShot.
• Various cleanups were made for developers; code and make infrastructure de-duplicated some.
• Various small GCS bugfixes and enhancements were made.
• "RevoMini" target improved. PicoC support returns. This requires a new bootloader.
• Small changes were made to default tuning. Default tuning is still intended to be quite conservative but closer to working well for more users.
• TxPid now covers various nav/vtolpathfollower parameters.
• Removal of obsolete/unmaintained targets-- revolution prototype, freedom.

Known issues:

• Naze32 support is still early. The board setup wizard doesn't function; there is no ADC support yet; there is no support for flashing boards in GCS.
• OpenLRS reliability. Increased number of channels from default (more than 6) definitely causes OpenLRS failsafe / motor interruptions. There is possible reliability issues with the default configuration, too. Most likely the cause is that we are too quick to failsafe compared to "real" OpenLRS modules/code.
• For Linux you will have to install .udev rules for the device. This is the likely cause if you cannot connect to it. To do this download the udev permissions file from here and then run sudo cp taulabs.udev /etc/udev/rules.d/45-taulabs-permissions.rules && sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
• For Windows if you have any connectivity issues, please uninstall all the drivers associated with your hardware and reboot.
• FlyingF3 does not have enough memory to save telemetry rate settings for all object

20150713-4b9fc7dc46

• Support for Sparky2 flight controller and SparkyBGC brushless gimbal controller!
• ChibiOS is now used instead of FreeRTOS on some targets (Quanton, Sparky, FlyingF3, Colibri) which in turn reduces system resource utilization.
• Improvements to Pipxtreme / OpLink / TauLlink / TauLink module and RFM22 telemetry support, both to RF backend and support for new binding wizard in GCS.
• Baseline support for OpenLRS on targets with integrated RFM22 radios.
• Improvements to navigation; position feedforward control scheme, soft deadbands to assist waypoint capture, improvements to waypoint handling. Numerous bugfixes and performance improvements. Also, a new improved 14 state INS. Also improvements to GPS interface and autoconfiguration.
• Restore support for autotune on CopterControl target.
• Support for Oneshot/synchronous PWM for better control loop latency/tau/system bandwidth.
• Various improvements to PicoC support.
• Improvements to arming/disarming. Arming and disarming times are configurable. There are new switch+delay and switch+throttle+delay modes that allow gyro offset calibration during the delay time.
• New flightstats module that tracks flight distances, battery used, speeds and altitudes, etc.
• Support for RSSI information via S.bus, native FrSky PWM RSSI support, display of RSSI information in GCS.
• Functionality for developers, including new Python API, improved and unified Posix simulators, improved compilation speeds, etc.
• Various other performance and stability improvements.

Installation notes:

• For Linux you will have to install .udev rules for the device. This is the likely cause if you cannot connect to it. To do this download the udev permissions file from here and then run sudo cp taulabs.udev /etc/udev/rules.d/45-taulabs-permissions.rules && sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
• For Windows if you have any connectivity issues, please uninstall all the drivers associated with your hardware and reboot.

Known issues:

• GPS satellite count in PFD can be missing or wrong.
• RevoMini does not work with SBus.
• FlyingF3 does not have enough memory to save telemetry rate settings for all object

20150131-4082e9d8

• MWRate mode - a flight control mode very similar to that from MultiWii that allows extremely aggressive flying while being totally locked in
• Improved behavior of altitude hold for takeoff and landing. Arming allowed in AH mode. It is now possible to have entire flights in Altitude Hold mode.
• MWRate settings import from BaseFlight/CleanFlight. No need to retune when switching over.
• DSM Resolution autodetection. Simplifies input configuration.
• Removed feedforward from GCS. This is stage one of deprecating this feature which should not be used with modern ESCs.
• Flight logging to flash support. Used for creating “black box” logs while flying.
• Spektrum binding fix. This requires an updated boot loader and will not work on ports that support SBUS on F4 platforms (because of the inverter).

Note that for windows there are two versions. The installer version will install to Program Files and add start menu items like most programs. The portable version will allow to extract it to any directory and simply run it. This is useful if you use multiple versions of the software.

Installation notes:

• For Linux you will have to install .udev rules for the device. This is the likely cause if you cannot connect to it. To do this download the udev permissions file from here and then run sudo cp taulabs.udev /etc/udev/rules.d/45-taulabs-permissions.rules && sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
• For Windows if you have any connectivity issues, please uninstall all the drivers associated with your hardware and reboot.

Known issues:

• RevoMini does not work with SBus. OPLink configuration page does not work.
• CopterControl does not have enough memory for autotuning (See #1476)
• FlyingF3 does not have enough memory to save telemetry rate settings for all objects

20141026-1f8fa2fe

Here is a new release of Tau Labs software and firmware. This brings a large number of improvements and additions since our last release in April. For a complete log, see the commit history. Just a few highlights are

• Team Black Sheep Gemini support. This runs a tiny little flight controller called Colibri, a derivative of Quanton, and provides an exciting ready to fly target for FPV and racing.
• Improved autotuning algorithm. Now all the parameters of your control loop, including the derivative and the cutoff for the low pass filter are optimized. Two sliders provide easy control from smooth to aggressive tuning. Also easily share your settings to the forums for others. Video
• ESC calibration wizard
• FrSky SmartPort support
• PicoC programming and debugging gadget. Easily write snippets of code that run on your flight controller (F4 targets only) and allow extending the functionality.
• Session Management - only see the UAVO objects available on your flight controller, faster telemetry reconnects
• Telemetry Manager improvements with confirmation that settings are stored and saved
• Updated Uploader which allows backing up or overwriting the partitions in your flash. Create a complete snapshot of your UAV settings and firmware.
• Updated GCS configuration screen. Get the Telemetry Scheduler and others by default.
• Large internal overhaul of the RTOS API to allow upgrading to ChiBiOS

Note that for windows there are two versions. The installer version will install to Program Files and add start menu items like most programs. The portable version will allow to extract it to any directory and simply run it. This is useful if you use multiple versions of the software.

Installation notes:

• For Linux you will have to install .udev rules for the device. This is the likely cause if you cannot connect to it. To do this download the udev permissions file from here and then run sudo cp taulabs.udev /etc/udev/rules.d/45-taulabs-permissions.rules && sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
• For Windows if you have any connectivity issues, please uninstall all the drivers associated with your hardware and reboot.

Known issues:

• RevoMini does not work with SBus. OPLink configuration page does not work.
• FlyingF3 does not have enough memory to save telemetry rate settings for all objects
• Welcome screen has blurred fonts for some people on windows

20140405-ab688254

This is an exciting release with lots of new features and improvements. For a sample of all the features please see our features page

• Loiter mode. Smoothly move your position while in position hold.
• RTH now has ascends to a safe altitude before returning home, hovers before landing
• Improved altitude estimation and altitude hold control. Ability to aggressively change altitude with exponential for smooth control too.
• picoC scripting support
• Improved position hold performance
• Frksy telemetry support
• and lots of other improvements and bug fixes

Before testing Altitude Hold, make sure you understand what it does. Please read this page

For questions and discussions see the forums

To cite this code:

20140309-beaca5f2

This is an exciting release with lots of new features and improvements. For a sample of all the features please see our features page

• Loiter mode. Smoothly move your position while in position hold.
• RTH now has ascends to a safe altitude before returning home, hovers before landing
• Improved altitude estimation and altitude hold control. Ability to aggressively change altitude with exponential for smooth control too.
• Improved position hold performance
• Frksy telemetry support
• and lots of other improvements and bug fixes

Before testing Altitude Hold, make sure you understand what it does. Please read this page

For questions and discussions see the forums

20131212-4074f4d3

Numerous features and bug fixes since the last release, including:

• Horizon mode
• Exponential control for rate mode
• Improved battery processing
• Native MavLink output
• HoTT telemetry and receiver support
• Safety fixes
• Setup wizard
• Support for Sparky
• Modules configuration tab
• UI improvements
• Altitude hold refactoring and baro accuracy
• I2C code rework
• Unified bootloader code
• Gimbal and CANBus support

For questions and discussions see the forums: forums.taulabs.org

20130811-rc1

RC1 for the Tau Labs August 2013 release. This release has numerous improvements beyond
the April release. A small subset of these are:

• improved failsafe handling code
• fixing and reenabling the setup wizard
• support for Sparky
• adc support for quanton
• bootloader updater for all platforms
• support for MavLink output

note: reinstalling the usb driver on windows is necessary for this update