Firmware Limitations on AutoPilot Hardware¶
The ArduPilot firmware in some configurations exceeds 1 MB in size. Some autopilots may not have enough flash memory to store the full firmware.
For the affected autopilots, a reduced firmware is generated. This firmware omits less-commonly used features in order to reduce the firmware size to less than 1 MB.
The missing features are listed below. If you require any of these features, you can try to create a build with them in it (at the expense of other non-needed features) using the Custom Firmware Build Server.
Limitations Common to all 1MB Boards¶
Exclusions for: KakuteF4, Sparky2, OMNIBUSF7V2, KakuteF7, KakuteF7 Mini, older versions of the Pixhawk (with the RevA, RevY and Rev1 of the STM32F427 chip), BeastF4, F35Lightning, F4BY, MambaF405v2, MazzyStarDrone, OmnibusNanoV6, VRBrain-v51, VRBrain-v52, VRCore-v10, VRUBrain-v51, airbotf4, crazyflie2, mini-pix, revo-mini, skyviper, speedybeef4.
- ADSB
- EFI Controller Support
- External AHRS
- FETtec ESCs
- INA2XX Battery Monitors
- Plane Deep Stall Landing
- Torqeedo Motor Control
- MAVLink frame rate control from SD file
- INS Temperature Calibration
- SOLO Gimbal Support
- Visual Odometry
- Airspeed Drag Compensation
- Plus Code Location Support
- Object Avoidance using Proximity Sensors
- CRSF Text Display (Telemetry is included)
- Bootloader inclusion in main code base
- EKF2 (EKF3 only)
- LUA scripting support
- In-Flight FFT control of Harmonic Notch
Additional Limitations for Certain 1MB and Other Boards¶
Additional Feature Exclusions for: Sparky2, OMNIBUSF7V2, KakuteF7, and older versions of the Pixhawk (with the RevA, RevY and Rev1 of the STM32F427 chip)
- Common to all vehicles
- Aux function for testing IMU failover (KILL_IMU)
- LTM, MSP, CRSF, Spektrum, Devo and Hott telemetry formats
- Piccolo CAN
- Oreo LED lights
- NCP5623 LED lights
- NMEA output format
- Solo Gimbal
- In Flight FFT support
- MTK, SIRF GPS support
- AK09916 on ICM20948 compass
- Runcam Control
- External I2C barometers
- DLVR Airspeed sensors
- CAN Tester
- KDE CAN
- External AHRS
- Generator
- GPS moving baseline
- MSP Rangefinders
- Camera Mount Control
- OSD Parameter Editor
- OSD Scrolling Sidebars
- Button
- OAPathPlanner
- Copter only
- Sprayer
- Gripper
- RPM
- Guided, Follow, Sport, Guided_noGPS, SystemID, Zigzag and Autorotate modes
- Beacon
- Optical Flow
- Plane Only
- Gripper
- Soaring
- Landing Gear
- Qautotune mode
- Off-board Guided
- Rover Only
- N/A
- Sub Only
- N/A
Additional exclusions for: Matek F405, Matek F405-Wing/F405-SE, OmnibusF4/F4Pro
- SMBUS battery
- Parachute
- Sprayer
- OAPathPlanner
- Generator
- Precision Landing
- Baro Wind Compensation *
- Gripper *
- enabled in OmnibusF4/F4Pro
Also for MatekF405-Wing:
- Wind Compensation
- RunCam Control
- Spektrum Telem
Additional exclusions for: SuccexF4
- Parachute
- Sprayer
RAM Limitations¶
There may be insufficient RAM available in some flight controllers to support all enabled firmware features. Some possible symptoms are:
- MAVFTP does not work. Parameter downloads to GCS are delayed starting while the GCS tries to establish a MAVFTP link which cannot be setup, and then proceed slowly to download parameters using the normal download method.
- Compass Calibration will not start
- Logging will not start
- Terrain downloading from GCS will not start
If this occurs, several possible options are available to allow temporary use of MAVFTP, download terrain tiles, and/or Compass Calibration. All require a reboot to take effect:
- Make sure IMU Batch Sampling (used for FFT analysis) is not running by setting INS_LOG_BAT_MASK = 0.
- Try temporarily disabling logging by setting LOG_BACKEND_TYPE to 0, then returning to 1 (default) after calibrating.
- Reduce the size of LOG_FILE_BUFSIZE . However, lowering below 16KB can introduce small gaps in the log. This may be used temporarily to download terrain or calibrate compass.
- Disable Terrain Following temporarily by setting TERRAIN_ENABLE to 0.
- Disable SmartRTL on Copter by setting SRTL_POINTS = 0.