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.

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
  • INS Temperature Calibration
  • SOLO Gimbal Support
  • Visual Odometry
  • Airspeed Drag Compensation
  • Plus Code Location Support
  • Object Avoidance and Proximity Sensors
  • CRSF Text Display (Telemetry is included)
  • Bootloader inclusion in main code base
  • EKF2 (EKF3 only)
  • LUA scripting support

Additional Exclusions

Additional Exclusions for: Sparky2, OMNIBUSF7V2, KakuteF7, KakuteF7 Mini 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
    • 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

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.