CxPilot-7.0.0

Release 7.0.0 29th November 2024

This release includes moving all CxPilot changes on top of ardupilot 4.5.

Differences since CxPilot-5.2.5:
Fleetwide Changes

• Prearm check to ensure all LUA scripts are loaded and running
• Improved back transition
• JUMP_TAG mission item support
• Switching to auto takeoff after manual takeoff no longer adds extra altitude
• Wind speed warning reduced to 10m/s (from 12m/s)
• Roll limit no longer confined to 7 degrees during transition
• FBWB/CRUISE fix massive undershoot issue when switching from max descent to max climb
• A whole bunch of bug fixes

Ottano Changes:

• Fixed-wing tune improvements. Altitude should be more stable.
• Battery assignments standardized
  1. VTOL batteries combined (reports lowest voltage)
  2. Avionics battery
  3. Fuel level sensor
• VTOL battery failsafe removed. Until battery failsafes can take more
  intelligent automatic action between fixed-wing and VTOL modes, the failsafe
  is dangerous. This is slated for CxPilot-7.1 (SW-466).

Known Issues:

• Unnecessary alerts from CX_BIT:
  • Before disengaging safety switch, nuisance alerts about missing ESC telemetry
  • Flying twice without rebooting causes an false positive alert about RPM
    drop on the second takeoff. Aircraft should be power cycled between flights.
  • Low-priority message on the messages tab "RPM nil", will be removed in the
    next release and can still be safely ignored unless it comes up on the HUD.

Technical

• Improved support for new camera payloads and gimbals
• GPS raw logging improvements for PPK
• Added support for precision landing of quadplanes
• Added TECS option for rapid descent in fixed wing aircraft
• AHRS_OPTIONS supports disabling fallback to DCM
• Quadplane use of forward throttle in VTOL modes improved
• VTOL angle controller gets feed-forward scaling (see Q_OPTIONS)
• Arming check of compass vs world magnetic model to detect metal in ground (see ARMING_MAGTHRESH)
• FLTMODE_GCSBLOCK blocks GCS from changing vehicle to specified modes
• CAN port can support a second CAN protocol on the same bus (2nd protocol must be 11 bit, see CAN_Dn_PROTOCOL2)
• Ethernet/Networking support for UDP and TCP server and client (see NET_ENABLED) and PPP (see SERIALx_PROTOCOL)
• Firmware flashing from SD card
• Rockblock satellite modem support
• Missions can be stored on SD card (see BRD_SD_MISSION)
• New Notch filter features
• CubeOrangePlus supports IMU high resolution sampling (works with ICM42688, ICM42652, ICM42670, ICM45686 IMUs)
• Bunch of Logging enhancements
• Scripting enhancements
• CI Enhancements
  • Parameter defaults are sanity checked for simple errors like naming or
    invalid values.
• ELF file artifacts now contain debug symbols
• Removed the ability to send kill commands (for testing) to the autopilot
• Added CubeOrangePlus to Carbonix-supported autopilot
• Battery sum monitors can report minimum voltage instead of average
• A7R parameter patch no longer reconfigures GPS to ellipsoid altitude
• Fixed bug which prevented full crash dump from being saved

Known Technical Issues:

• Rare crash dumps still occuring during PIQC (has been happening since CxPilot-4)
• Arming again after disarming does not create a new log file
• Log messages early in boot get dropped

Parameter changes since beta4:

• Ottano fixed-wing tuning improvements
• Ottano set max engine retry parameter to 5