Tuning, a simple
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A little understanding before we begin
To know where to start, we need to understand some basic terminology to be sure we are all on the same page. Particularly the rotations. In the diagram above we see the VLX230 listed with the different rotations it’ll have in flight. Yaw, is left to right rotation without tilting. Just nose left or right. Roll, is when you tilt the quad left or right to move left, right or to roll. Pitch, moves you forward or backward by titling forward and backward respectively. Cool, now that we have that understanding let’s start! |
Where do I start?
Depending on the equipment you have at hand you might approach this differently.
Depending on the equipment you have at hand you might approach this differently.
Transmitter: Zack spent a little time and set up some switches on my Taranis so that the left side handled my Pitch PID, and the right switches handled the Roll PID. He also set up another toggle next to those to move them up or down respectively. So, as he would tune the P of the roll, the switch would be set to P position and then move the value up or down as needed until it was set. He then would position the sticks so that the value was saved before powering down the Taranis or it would lose the value that was set. Then he’d move on to the D and then finally I values until it was all finished.
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Blackbox : Some FC’s will have an option of a “black box” which records the flight characteristics and details of the flight that are not visible to the human eye. Being able to look at actual data from the quad itself can provide invaluable feedback and get that level of tuning that you just can’t get from visual line of sight flying. For simplicity sake, we won’t be going into it in this article.
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Have another way of doing it? Please tell me so I can add it to the list!
Okay, so I have the hardware and software ready to go,
what’s next?
Okay, so I have the hardware and software ready to go,
what’s next?
Basic numbers
Well, for the most part, it seems that MOST software like Betaflight, Cleanflight, etc.. already have stable numbers to start with. This, of course, will also be dependent on your particular frame / motor / ESC / and Flight controller hardware. But again, for the most part, you should be able to flash your FC and then hover your bird. Beyond that, we’ll need to tune. So, that’s where we start.
Look at the numbers. Record them. I’m going to approach this as those I’m doing this all on the computer. Try to get a sense of what 20-30% of the values would look like. Again, make note of those numbers. As you tune more and more rigs you’ll find that your sense of where the different rigs needs will become more second nature to you.
Well, for the most part, it seems that MOST software like Betaflight, Cleanflight, etc.. already have stable numbers to start with. This, of course, will also be dependent on your particular frame / motor / ESC / and Flight controller hardware. But again, for the most part, you should be able to flash your FC and then hover your bird. Beyond that, we’ll need to tune. So, that’s where we start.
Look at the numbers. Record them. I’m going to approach this as those I’m doing this all on the computer. Try to get a sense of what 20-30% of the values would look like. Again, make note of those numbers. As you tune more and more rigs you’ll find that your sense of where the different rigs needs will become more second nature to you.
Ready for that first hover and observation
Hover, adjust, repeat. Test hover your bird. I’m doing this via Line of Sight (LOS). What I’m looking for is how “snappy” the feel is. Does it move quickly into position? Does it seem to want to take forever? You test this with small flicks of the controls. Don’t just crank it over and hope for good results. I promise you won’t be happy. Just look at how the bird moves and go from there with small flicks left and right. |
If it’s just wobbling all over the place, then a good place to start would be to lower the P gains. If it’s snappy, or lagging, take P up until it starts to wobble. Taking the notes of the 20-30% adjust your numbers accordingly up or down. Gross adjustments at first, and then get gradually smaller in % until you’re satisfied. You want a tiny bit of wobble but not a ton. You’ll tune out some of that with D later.
Test hover your bird. Does it seem better or worse? Does it wobble more? Does it seem more “snappy”? Keep doing this just on the Roll until you are happy that it’s where it should be. If you’re operating a true X frame, then your Pitch value should be pretty close. If it’s a stretch, your pitch will be greater than your roll because of the distance between the motors in the pitch and roll axis.
Continue this process until you’re happy. Next, let’s move on the Pitch. Now the flicks should be forward and back and you’ll repeat the same process that you did for the roll until it’s about right.
Yaw, we really don’t need to mess with this. Most stock settings are fine, so for now ignore it for now.
Skip the I move on to D
Okay, so now you have a bird that is nice and snappy, but still wobbles a little on the ends. So, now it’s time for D.
Just like you did with the Pitch and Roll, you’ll adjust your D gain until the bird stops MOST of the wobbling at the ends of the turns. You just want a TINY bit to where it’s still snappy. Do note that you want the LEAST amount for D gain as possible. The lower the value, the better. But you don’t want to sacrifice P if you can help it, so it’s a balance. One thing to note is how warm your motors get when you’re tuning. If they are starting to get hot or really warm to the touch, you’re D is probably too high. Lower it immediately! If your bird is still wobbling too much for your taste, then back off the P of the axis in question by about 5-10% and then go back to tuning D. Again, lower is better.
Now your bird should be snappy and hitting the mark where you want it to be when you flick the controls.
Now it’s time for the I!
Pitch your quad forward and start throttling using pulses. Watch the quad. Does it start lifting the nose? Bring it back. If it does, then raise your I gain. You’ll repeat this process until the bird flies forward without changing it’s pitch value. Then, move on to the Roll by doing the same thing to the side. When you’re done, you can do a test hover and pulse your bird up and down and watch for it to drift one side to another. Continue to raise your values in 1-5% increments until you’re satisfied that it’s pretty well dialed in. NOTE: these quads aren’t GPS held, so I doubt anyone will ever get 0% travel unless you’re flying in a vacuum.
Test hover your bird. Does it seem better or worse? Does it wobble more? Does it seem more “snappy”? Keep doing this just on the Roll until you are happy that it’s where it should be. If you’re operating a true X frame, then your Pitch value should be pretty close. If it’s a stretch, your pitch will be greater than your roll because of the distance between the motors in the pitch and roll axis.
Continue this process until you’re happy. Next, let’s move on the Pitch. Now the flicks should be forward and back and you’ll repeat the same process that you did for the roll until it’s about right.
Yaw, we really don’t need to mess with this. Most stock settings are fine, so for now ignore it for now.
Skip the I move on to D
Okay, so now you have a bird that is nice and snappy, but still wobbles a little on the ends. So, now it’s time for D.
Just like you did with the Pitch and Roll, you’ll adjust your D gain until the bird stops MOST of the wobbling at the ends of the turns. You just want a TINY bit to where it’s still snappy. Do note that you want the LEAST amount for D gain as possible. The lower the value, the better. But you don’t want to sacrifice P if you can help it, so it’s a balance. One thing to note is how warm your motors get when you’re tuning. If they are starting to get hot or really warm to the touch, you’re D is probably too high. Lower it immediately! If your bird is still wobbling too much for your taste, then back off the P of the axis in question by about 5-10% and then go back to tuning D. Again, lower is better.
Now your bird should be snappy and hitting the mark where you want it to be when you flick the controls.
Now it’s time for the I!
Pitch your quad forward and start throttling using pulses. Watch the quad. Does it start lifting the nose? Bring it back. If it does, then raise your I gain. You’ll repeat this process until the bird flies forward without changing it’s pitch value. Then, move on to the Roll by doing the same thing to the side. When you’re done, you can do a test hover and pulse your bird up and down and watch for it to drift one side to another. Continue to raise your values in 1-5% increments until you’re satisfied that it’s pretty well dialed in. NOTE: these quads aren’t GPS held, so I doubt anyone will ever get 0% travel unless you’re flying in a vacuum.
FPV Flying!Now that you have a pretty close dial feeling, it’s time for some FPV testing!
Fly, adjust, repeat.
Just like you started out with in LOS, you’ll start flying your quad and getting a feel for what those PID values look like when you’re flying FPV. Watch your screen as you fly and look for those wobbles. Again, if they are small, then increase or decrease your P until you are happy and then smooth it out with D to finish off the feeling. When you’re happy with that, move on to the I and be sure that you’re not dropping or rising in either roll or pitch when you punch the throttle, when you’re satisfied that your tuning looks good, go fly! Tuning is such a personal feeling. If you want more control and are happy with it, then fly it!
Others might say that it’s too soft for them or that it’s too snappy. If you’re comfortable with it, then fly it. If you think it could use some tuning based on feedback from others, tune it until you learn a new level of flying or go back to what you were comfortable with. In the end, it’s all about what you can make your rig perform with to a level that you’re happy with. Each rig will be unique and will require different tuning, so never take someone else’s numbers and think it’ll be the same with yours! Take the time to tun your rigs and you’ll be more experienced, have a better feeling for tuning in the long run, and be a better pilot for it! If you have questions, find people at your flight club that are experienced in tuning and ask their input and advice on how to continue forward. As I mentioned earlier, this is not a definitive article on how to tune so there is a lot of room for new ideas and processes!
Mind you, there are MANY approaches to this topic, so I hope you can keep that in mind and know that if you have a better way or some other input that would be helpful, then I’d love to hear from you and help share the information within the fpv community.
LINKS!Links to decent tuning videos. Be sure to watch for our tuning series coming out in the next couple of months!
Fly, adjust, repeat.
Just like you started out with in LOS, you’ll start flying your quad and getting a feel for what those PID values look like when you’re flying FPV. Watch your screen as you fly and look for those wobbles. Again, if they are small, then increase or decrease your P until you are happy and then smooth it out with D to finish off the feeling. When you’re happy with that, move on to the I and be sure that you’re not dropping or rising in either roll or pitch when you punch the throttle, when you’re satisfied that your tuning looks good, go fly! Tuning is such a personal feeling. If you want more control and are happy with it, then fly it!
Others might say that it’s too soft for them or that it’s too snappy. If you’re comfortable with it, then fly it. If you think it could use some tuning based on feedback from others, tune it until you learn a new level of flying or go back to what you were comfortable with. In the end, it’s all about what you can make your rig perform with to a level that you’re happy with. Each rig will be unique and will require different tuning, so never take someone else’s numbers and think it’ll be the same with yours! Take the time to tun your rigs and you’ll be more experienced, have a better feeling for tuning in the long run, and be a better pilot for it! If you have questions, find people at your flight club that are experienced in tuning and ask their input and advice on how to continue forward. As I mentioned earlier, this is not a definitive article on how to tune so there is a lot of room for new ideas and processes!
Mind you, there are MANY approaches to this topic, so I hope you can keep that in mind and know that if you have a better way or some other input that would be helpful, then I’d love to hear from you and help share the information within the fpv community.
LINKS!Links to decent tuning videos. Be sure to watch for our tuning series coming out in the next couple of months!
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