YOU KNOW WHAT? I'm just wondering how by now you don't have a million subscribers even when the FPV geniuses direct people to your videos. In my opinion, you are the best when it comes to teaching the knowledge and skills in FPV with data-driven information.
Don’t understand how this guy doesn’t have at least 100k subscribers. Hands down some of the best explanation videos out there… Chris, thank you for spending all this time making top notch quality content. Thank you for being so humble about it too. I really wish you the best and hope this channel gets all the attention it truly deserves.
Great Video Sir! All the factors and process for tuning and feeling make 100% sense to me. I would also want to add, that the mechanical travel and "feel" for all the sticks (Throttle, Yaw, Pitch and Roll) is also very important and I know many pilots just fly with whatever their radio was shipped with. I experimented last year with reducing the mechanical travel of roll to about 70% (I am a pincher, and the corners always felt too uncomfortable). I calibrated my radio sticks, and since then I fly much comfortable, and I think it helped my flying as well. Also the stiffness of the sticks would be an interesting topic to cover and discuss what is "scientifically" better for specific use cases: racing, freestyle, longrange, cinematic...
As a fellow engineer, ive been enjoying your logical approach throughout these series. As a newb in the hobby, the "feel" approach from other peoples didn't sit right to me. I feel much more comfortable messing around with all the terms and plan to go through the process with my first build. Thanks!!
100% agree that throttle tuning is very important and is something that doesn't get talked about that much. With that said, I think doing a BLHeli settings/tuning video will go hand in hand with the subject matter here, seeing that things like motor timing, pwm frequency, ramp up power, etc do have significant effects on throttle feel and responsiveness. Anyway, congrats on another great tutorial! You definitely earned another Patreon sub! hehe
You showed how theoretical and practical knowledge go hand in hand. You are doing a great job. Good contribution to FPV community. Thank you for your work.
If you add a throttle limit, I think it's necessary to do another flight with blackbox log before adding throttle expo (or at least before setting the throttle mid value). That's because the area on the throttle stick that you are going to be using most will be different with a throttle limit. So you may end up adding expo to the wrong area of the throttle curve.
Finally you demystify the taboo topic of throttle expo!!! You are doing such an amazing job for the community, man. I’m sure we all appreciate it! Keep it up!!!
I've been looking for how to tune the throttle on my 5" and didn't find exactly what I was looking for until now. Great info, clear and understandable presentation sans fluff. Thanks for the great content!
This channel is example how scientific approach can change experience. I have looked dozens videos of UAVtech, but still i learned and remembered lot from this channel. good job Chris keep going.
For racing applications I don’t like throttle expo (although I know others do!). Since some tracks are open and fast, they require high throttle throughout the lap. Whereas other, shorter, more technical tracks result in less throttle being used. Looking at my blackbox logs from various tracks I realized that I’d need to tune throttle expo for each different type of track, and changing the throttle mid/expo settings constantly might also mess with muscle memory. Instead, I adjust my throttle limit for each track (and how I’m feeling that day), while keeping the throttle curve itself 100% linear. I have a pot on my radio set up to adjust throttle limit between 70-100%, so I can dial in more resolution for tracks where it’s needed, or back off the throttle limit for tracks that are more wide open.
If you have to use Throttle limit, your motors are too big for your drone: on well buit, motor weight is 50% of the weight, so you should reduce your motor size, you will increase manoeuvrabity, acceleration, and autonomy. Been using 50% expo, and mid point for years, and tried to promote it to RUclipsrs without success hopefully, your vidéo will change their minds, Thanks.
I really appreciate this video series because explanations are seriously lacking for beginners, I now understand a lot more about rates etc but may I suggest that definitions be used too. Acronyms can be very jarring for a newbie, who just crashed their drones. great series I’m off to eff stuff up, again…
Ok, I've never understood throttle limit and expo settings until now. But ... just again ... you make so much sense out of these settings. Of course you want more resolution around the hover-position of your quad and need less for punches.... gonna try the default .54 expo on the axis too... I kinda had it at .3 for... I don't know how long and why actually. Let's see! And yay, Discord server! Thanks so much :3
3:38 I'd say something to add onto this as a fourth thing to keep in mind as well is throttle boost. For me, I usually disable it outright and set it to zero. BF defuault is set to 5. Throttle boost is basically a feed forward but for your throttle only. If you're low in the throttle and you do quick small movements on throttle, the quad from my experience with throttle boost enabled will cause the quad to be jumpy and a little uncontrollable. Setting it to zero will prevent this from happening. Something else to check if you get odd quad behavior. Can be found in the PID tuning tab on the PID page.
I'm an Angle mode flyer and I find that setting my throttle midpoint is key, as I use as much expo as I can there to smooth my input. I've tried several different approaches, and found they all work, after a fashion. Stick feel is indeed highly subjective. However, if you're new at setting up the throttle, Chris' approach is the best I've seen so far.
So this is very interesting. I have experimented with my rates in LiftOff and when I was really enjoying them in the sim, I put them on all of my quads. I was tuning one using a mix of techniques from your, Kababs and UAV tech videos and it never felt right until I finally PID tuned it somewhat right (if I'm reading the logs correctly). It just quite suddenly felt right and I started flying more agressive then I have ever flown IRL and it was a really great time :D
Thank you Chris, a really usefull series of videos. I've been looking for something like this for some time and have got the impression that other FPV channels either dont know or dont care about how to share this kind of information. Its made my fpv journey much less frustrating.
@@ChrisRosser man Chris you have changed the hobby like no other!!!!! Because of you I'm going to actually be a real tuner lol I seen some of your ideas for filters and OMG!!!!! YOU CANT GET A QUAD TO RUN LIKE A CADILLAC LIKE YOU DO ITS INSANE!!!!!!✌ IM SO FREAKIN HAPPY THAT THE HOBBY HAS YOU CHRIS!!!!!! SERIOUSLY ✌✌HAPPY 4TH BUDDY TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY HOPE ALL IS WELL FROM CHICAGO 👍✌
agree re throttle mid/expo.. you can totally change the feel of the throttle.. I like to start with the mid at your hover point and personally like around .5 to .6 expo. don't think any one has done a video on this before.. bravo good sir
Thanks! I couldn't find a similar video on it but you're right its a super feature of BF that everyone should know about and try out to see if its right for them 👍
This was an awesome way to start my Saturday morning! Great info as always! I’m a big fan of throttle limiting but haven’t ever had it lower than about 97%, I’ll definitely try out this approach. As far as having different rates of rotation on each axis, I definitely agree that keeping pitch and roll the same is ideal but I know that some pilots like to have a lower or higher yaw rate. I think it makes sense in that we don’t do full yaw rotations as frequently as full rolls or flips so the yaw rate of rotation can be managed differently. On the other hand, keeping them all the same feels fine too.
Before I switched to DJI I was displaying my throttle on the OSD. I made an adjustable throttle curve in OpenTX so midpoint, expo, and limit were adjustable on the fly with knobs. When I swapped different battery sizes, and camera types (or no camera), I could dial in exactly how I wanted the quad to fly. Then, I could take those parameters and make fixed custom curves for the different configurations. But then I switched to DJI video and lost the live throttle OSD display, and DJI radio and lost transmitter knobs and sliders. Sooner or later I'm going to switch to crossfire and go back to my TX16S. I'd kill for a way to display throttle input in the DJI OSD. Makes setting throttle curve midpoint SO easy. It would also be nice if the Betaflight throttle curve parameters could be tied to transmitter inputs, but I don't think there's a way to do that.
I used to use throttle expo back in my drift car and fixed wing era, and so did when I first got into FPV, but then I went back to no expo ever since the first day I walked away from beta flight's stock rates. Reason being that on drift car and fixed wing I was more likely to stay in a certain range of throttle for quite a while to achieve certain movements so I need more resolution around that area, but on FPV my throttle is pretty much all over the place depending on which style I feel like flying that day and I feel it's easier to determine if I want a soft punch or hard punch or smoothie smooth no punch without throttle expo. I also believe this is the soul reason why cars and planes prefer less cell counts and bigger cells such as 2s 3000mah or 3s 2000mah while FPV nowadays is all about that 6s 1000mah even though all three of them contain the exact same amount of energy.
I like the throttle advice because it seems to be the opposite of everyone else e.g. "I just leave it linear on all quads so I don't have to adjust to different throttle feel for every quad". But if quads have different thrust to weight ratios....? Also the throttle limit explanation was really useful, I've been using 90% scaled as I learn, but it's good to know I could use data to find a better scale %.
My first quad didn't have onboard black box memory so I never could get my head around how to tune this aspect. Just took my first build from scratch out for it's maiden flight. Time to turn some logging on to get some data to start this process.
Great video and very well explained as always. As a former engineer I really appreciate the whole technical info presented in a very simple way. Some of this stuff from PID tunning I remember having such a hard time understanding while studying at Uni hahaha For racing I use even lower rates, my rates sit around 300-400. The lower the rates the more resolution you will have ont he sticks, and since for racing you should be doing mainly small adjustments (if you preturn properly) then it works very well. :)
I dont know if I like the thought of a throttle expo, but I will try it and see. I am going to be trying your tuning technique when I rebuild my drone on another frame, I tuned it using UAV Techs approach and really liked the result, so I can compare them both. It would be good if you and UAV Tech did a podcast or interview and discussed tuning approaches to see each of your opinions on it.
@@uavtech fwiw, for a quick and dirty tune, there is nothing better, simpler, and easier to understand than your 2 pack slider tuning. PD bal to the left until bounce, back off. PD gain to the right until trilling, back off. Stick sensitivity until you feel the juice. Profit ❣️
Absolutely they are the same approach. I'd be interested to know if you find it easier to find the right PD balance by ear with higher gains? I think the noise of bounceback is slightly clearer and sharper with high gains?
@@ChrisRosser with the current configurator, it's easier to find the balance first. If they make balance adjust p, then it's easier to find the gain first. Just my opinion though, surly subjective.
Hey Chris, so I tried the throttle expo and... I quite like it, it’s a subtle difference but it is easier to maintain altitude when flying forward. I think it’s important to have a fixed camera angle though so the throttle position remains the same and you can’t change props or else you’d need to find the new mid point, not that it’s very difficult, I used the OSD read out and found I was between 20-30%.
I would opt to setting up throttle limit and curve with OpenTX or its variant, as it's much easier to store various throttle curve setup on the transmitter, and change it depending on how I want to fly. Using the potentiometer for Throttle limit / cap is also what I do
@@ChrisRosser you could use one model in OpenTX and save multiple throttle curves, switch as you need. The number of points are adjustable in OpenTX to have a more fine-grained curve. However if you want to limit motor output, then you need to use betaflight
@@ChrisRosser there were some wonky presets it actually hovers at 20% i found adjusting subtrim on the throttle stick much more effective it can move the hover point around on the stick range to almost any point you like if i wanted my 20% hover point to be at 50% stick travel, i'd just set subtrim to -60% but i found subtrim at -40% to be better i don't know to which travel % that would work out to, but it feels good
very good explainer, I do set Throttle mid in the old fashion way, by just fly somewhere where I have a reference (a pole or lamp or something at my usual flight altitude) and hold the quad there for some time .. the Throttle I need to hold it at that spot, I use as MID
That's a great method! If you have a quad with *lots* of camera uptilt you might want a little more than the hover throttle because you'll be pitched forward so much. But for most freestyle I'm sure your method works perfectly.
@@ChrisRosser oh yes thats right, i fly at 12degrees camera, so i not really have this problem, can see the reference point at 0degree pitch :) (perks of being old/slow) haha
Thanks Chris for these video series. With your videos I ve begun tuning my quads . And results are fantastic. Can you tune a 3" quad and a much bigger quad like 8-10 inch? So that people can know what differs filter and pid wise. I also wanted to learn do we need to change the TPA and TPA breakpoint values? How do they effect ?
I appreciate these informative videos that describe tuning in an easy-to-follow manner. But, how does TPA and TPA Breakpoint factor into the throttle settings? Thanks again for taking the time to make these videos.
Curving the throttle rate helped, I was just overcorrecting way too much with the stock linear rate. I am not racing though, just flying around the house.
Hello Chris.. new sub👍👍. Love your channel and like many others I'M learning a ton from you. Thank you sir.... Question I use to build and fly all different quads but now I'm only flying the DJI FPV for reasons to many to mention.. lol.. Safety and dependability at the top of that list ... ANYWAYS, would the process be same? Because there's not all the settings like betaflight has.. thx.. PHILLYDRONELIFE aka Mikey ! 💙💙💙
I've tried the throttle expo before and while I understand the theory, I could never get used to it. Things like recovering from a dive or entering a juicy flick suddenly required quickly moving the throttle stick from one end to the other, whereas with pitch/roll you only really go from center to one side. Perhaps it's just me, but do consider that adding that much expo will require your throttle movements to be much wider in aggressive freestyle as the center area is almost deadband. This was with the white RS2306 motors that were begging for it because they naturally go from no power to crazy power at mid throttle, so I can't imagine I'd like it any better with modern motors
Great vids about PIDs Chris!👌 I want to ask if you can suggest some rates converter? I’m using Actual rates from beginning and would like to use my rates in Velocidrone/DRL but they are using only Betaflight rates and I wasn’t successful with the convert. Thank you.
Hi! Great series on filters and pids! Thanks for that.. my question is how would you tune a cinematic drone that is build only for the best quality video possible (carrying hero 9). I would be ready to give up some stickfeel and latency overall for that perfecty smuuth footage. I would really apreciate if you have any thoughs on this. Thanks!
Hey Chris- so from what I've seen, there seems to be some relationship between PIDs and rates. However, wouldn't it be better to set rates FIRST before PID tuning, PID tune the quad, and then come back AFTER and change the rates? Would the PID tune NOT end up differently, especially when it comes to bounceback, if (for example) someone were to tune a quad at 200 deg/sec max rates vs someone tuning a quad at 1200 deg/s max rates?
The PIDs for a quad shouldn't depend on what you command the quad to do. They should only be a function of the physical parameters of the quad and its power system. The right PIDs for 200deg/s and 1200deg/s should be the same in theory.
@@ChrisRosser It's only the same if you have a perfectly linear thrust curve, and you need the correct prop pitch and experiment with thrust_linear to achieve that. I agree with Jack for experienced pilots; if you're used to high rates then do your PID tune with those and fine-tune them afterwards if needed. For beginners and intermediate pilots who don't have the full flight instinct yet your recommendations to stay around the defaults make perfect sense.
Hey Chris amazing content!!!! So in theory say I was running 6S if I got 2400 KV motors I could run a 30% scaled throttle essentially maximizing my stick resolution by 43%? ? ? ? Would there be any negative to running such a high KV? I know in your past videos you said it’s negligible because were talking about 5 inch. Could this possibly be a way to make things smother ? Or better in anyway? Or am I totally off ?
will everything you show in this video work right if i am running my quad in 3D mode? my throttle stick is centered in 3D mode so in effect you have throttle above center stick position and you have throttle below center stick position. Im sure you don't get many questions about 3D mode but it's all i fly. Thanks Chris.
Good stuff thanks for the explanation. What do we got to do to get all the features or settings in BF on the OSD? (thrust_linear?) For those of us that may have unplugged the usb cable and the board mounted connector came with it...
Is there any downsides to fitting motors that produce 70% the power and trying to benifit from the lighter weight motor perhaps even more flight time for the same performance, or will you lose some tourque and response?
Great vid Chris! Hey I’ve always wondered does changing throttle limit apply to motor output or just throttle stick? I know people for example set a limit when using high Kv motors designed for 4s with 6s. But if throttle limit only affects the stick, and not motor output then the motors still may hit full output with this throttle limit set. I probably should know this but I’m new to 6s so I never had to think about it. Anyway, keep up the great content!
In betaflight, throttle limit only affects input, not output. It has nothing to do with the PID controllers authority over the quad, and the output of the motors, only your actual throttle command. This setting is on the rate profile tab, and will change with rate profiles. If you want to limit motor output as a whole, (useful for say, 6s battery on a 4s quad) there is a motor output setting on the pids tab (down by the angle mode settings and cell count and such) that will limit total output and limit the PID controllers authority over the quad. This effectively "lowers your kv" for tuning proposes (not really, though).
@@PIDtoolbox last thing, the motor output changes with pid profile, along with the battery cells setting (don't remember the exact name, it's right next to the output limit setting). So, if you set both of these appropriately, your PID profile and motor output will change automatically when you plug in a given lipo.
Ive used throttle Expo before and liked it but then I saw some videos where they said dont use it so I turned it off looks like its time to give it another shot
I didn‘t quite get how to set feedforward. Is it, I start from zero (was that the initial step?) and work my way up? I mean, I now know what to look for in the logs, but it is not clear to me, if it is the first box we set to zero in the beginning. Sorry in advance, I am not a native English speaker.
Question, related to this whole series:. I fly 4s, but recently got some 6s packs. I set up my FC to scale output to fly either. Are there any precautions I need to take in the tuning process to account for switching between cell count?
Hello, I am trying since 1 week to find the perfect setting for my 4 inch but I have mid throttle oscillation or something like that. Is it possible to send you a blackbox log?
How does betaflight determine the degree change without knowing your prop and motor. If I have 2500kv motors on a 4s and swap them for 2700kv motors, how would it know the rotation, or does the gyro work in conjunction to get that degree per second? I don't understand this part.
An ESC always knows the RPM of a brushless motor. It needs to know how fast the motor is spinning to commutate it. With bidirectional d-shot the ESC reports the current RPM of the motor to the FC.
With the throttle curve using a mid point I wonder if the "hump/boost" beneath it would alter smoothness when I want to increase throttle slowly from zero. Not true?
Hi I just build a 3inch toothpick 1204 5200kv motor (120awg, 3s) With an 80% throttle limit, I still feel it is too powerful for the area that I fly instead of going down with a throttle limit, how about lowering down the motor output limit? what is your opinion about this, is lowering the motor output limit recommended?
Leave motor output limit alone and continue to reduce throttle limit and perhaps also rates. Motor output limit is for flying 4S quads on 6S batteries. 👍
Hm... to get more throttle resolution I set the motor output limit to say 93% instead of throttle limit, because I thought that way the PID controller can use 100% if needed. Did I get it twisted?
That is a good method I think. With a drone with lots of camera uptilt you might need a little more throttle because you'll be pitched forward a lot most of the time. What do you think?
Its not a problem unless there is some weight that can wiggle around because of the flexible TPU. My iFlight XL5 video shows a potential problem with TPU VTX antenna mounts.
I'm flying with 720/720/540 and I love it. You don't need nearly as much yaw as the other axes. Check some logs and I bet you'll see that you very rarely use more than 50% stick input on yaw. As with any change in rates, it takes a while to get used to it so I recommend to decrease the yaw max in small steps at a time.
Sir how can I contact you ? I have made a frame which I am about to test. I have created a resonance analysis as per my understanding from articles online and your videos,and it shows promising results. It would be great if you could make a video on how to set up the 3d model for frame analysis.
This is probably why my 2inch feels so much better than 5inch, the tame throttle changes everything, my 5inch is too powerful and i always end up very high in the sky
I hope you are happy now... I blew my wallet up today on Betaflight kit.... ;) Will your series make me retire kiss? Lets see. I am actually very hopeful.
Personally I would never touch throttle expo. Like ever. You want a linear throttle, straight up. If you need more resolution simply scale cap it at 85-97%. The rest can be achieved by picking the appropriate kv motor and fine tuning it with prop selection.
wrong. first of all you need to configure the rates. imagine how the copter will behave at the maximum rates of 100 degrees/s and at 1000. PIDs are depend on the maximum rates. Most people fly default rates or rates they already flyy 10000 hours so they don't need to tune them
I would be interested to know how you know that to be the case. I'm not aware of any application of PID controllers where the ideal PID gains are dependent on the absolute value of the maximum setpoint. Do you have a link to a source?
@@ChrisRosser go to the field and try to tune your quad with very low rates and then with high rates. On the low rates quad doesn't reach his limit so PID will be less than they should be - less the speeds, less overshoot, easier to acelerate and to stop movement etc...
@@mikenomatter You are right that the amount of overshoot etc. will be less on low rates than high rates but that doesn't mean you should run lower PID gains. You should always increase the PID gains as high as possible *regardless* of rates to minimize PID error. More gain is better (as long as it doesn't cause hot motors/oscillations) so I tell everyone to push their gains as high as they feel comfortable with.
No discredit to all who have made good and informative videos before. But for me this series has changed everything. Thank you very much Chris.
Yes, game changer
Agreed!
Totally agree!
it's over a yr and I still come back to these videos
YOU KNOW WHAT? I'm just wondering how by now you don't have a million subscribers even when the FPV geniuses direct people to your videos. In my opinion, you are the best when it comes to teaching the knowledge and skills in FPV with data-driven information.
Don’t understand how this guy doesn’t have at least 100k subscribers. Hands down some of the best explanation videos out there… Chris, thank you for spending all this time making top notch quality content. Thank you for being so humble about it too. I really wish you the best and hope this channel gets all the attention it truly deserves.
Because Chris started 3 month ago with channel.
Maybe one day!
@@ChrisRosserYou will, just don't leave us, your work is VERY good!
There’s not 100k fpv pilots
because his videos are informative but dorky and nerdy.
Great Video Sir! All the factors and process for tuning and feeling make 100% sense to me. I would also want to add, that the mechanical travel and "feel" for all the sticks (Throttle, Yaw, Pitch and Roll) is also very important and I know many pilots just fly with whatever their radio was shipped with. I experimented last year with reducing the mechanical travel of roll to about 70% (I am a pincher, and the corners always felt too uncomfortable). I calibrated my radio sticks, and since then I fly much comfortable, and I think it helped my flying as well. Also the stiffness of the sticks would be an interesting topic to cover and discuss what is "scientifically" better for specific use cases: racing, freestyle, longrange, cinematic...
As a fellow engineer, ive been enjoying your logical approach throughout these series. As a newb in the hobby, the "feel" approach from other peoples didn't sit right to me. I feel much more comfortable messing around with all the terms and plan to go through the process with my first build. Thanks!!
You really are a real GURU... Thanks for very clear explanation Chris!
Man I really appreciate how you provide a complete explanation of everything. These tutorials are very helpful to newer pilots. 💯
Glad you like them!
100% agree that throttle tuning is very important and is something that doesn't get talked about that much. With that said, I think doing a BLHeli settings/tuning video will go hand in hand with the subject matter here, seeing that things like motor timing, pwm frequency, ramp up power, etc do have significant effects on throttle feel and responsiveness. Anyway, congrats on another great tutorial! You definitely earned another Patreon sub! hehe
Great point! I think a BLHeli video is definitely on the cards.
@@ChrisRosser Bluejay too, not just BLHeli! Please!
Your videos are awesome, more in depth explanation. I was never into hard tuning but watching your videos suggest that I should.
You showed how theoretical and practical knowledge go hand in hand. You are doing a great job. Good contribution to FPV community. Thank you for your work.
I appreciate that! Thank you.
If you add a throttle limit, I think it's necessary to do another flight with blackbox log before adding throttle expo (or at least before setting the throttle mid value). That's because the area on the throttle stick that you are going to be using most will be different with a throttle limit. So you may end up adding expo to the wrong area of the throttle curve.
It's definitely best to go in stages 👍
Finally you demystify the taboo topic of throttle expo!!! You are doing such an amazing job for the community, man. I’m sure we all appreciate it! Keep it up!!!
Much appreciated! Thank you for your support.
I've been looking for how to tune the throttle on my 5" and didn't find exactly what I was looking for until now. Great info, clear and understandable presentation sans fluff. Thanks for the great content!
Glad I could help
This channel is example how scientific approach can change experience. I have looked dozens videos of UAVtech, but still i learned and remembered lot from this channel. good job Chris keep going.
Thank you, I'm glad my videos helped you!
For racing applications I don’t like throttle expo (although I know others do!). Since some tracks are open and fast, they require high throttle throughout the lap. Whereas other, shorter, more technical tracks result in less throttle being used. Looking at my blackbox logs from various tracks I realized that I’d need to tune throttle expo for each different type of track, and changing the throttle mid/expo settings constantly might also mess with muscle memory.
Instead, I adjust my throttle limit for each track (and how I’m feeling that day), while keeping the throttle curve itself 100% linear. I have a pot on my radio set up to adjust throttle limit between 70-100%, so I can dial in more resolution for tracks where it’s needed, or back off the throttle limit for tracks that are more wide open.
That's a great way to do it. I've never thought of putting it on a pot!
If you have to use Throttle limit, your motors are too big for your drone: on well buit, motor weight is 50% of the weight, so you should reduce your motor size, you will increase manoeuvrabity, acceleration, and autonomy.
Been using 50% expo, and mid point for years, and tried to promote it to RUclipsrs without success hopefully, your vidéo will change their minds, Thanks.
I really appreciate this video series because explanations are seriously lacking for beginners, I now understand a lot more about rates etc but may I suggest that definitions be used too.
Acronyms can be very jarring for a newbie, who just crashed their drones. great series I’m off to eff stuff up, again…
Thanks you for the feedback. I'll try and remeber to define all the terms in future videos the first time I mention them in the video.
Ok, I've never understood throttle limit and expo settings until now. But ... just again ... you make so much sense out of these settings. Of course you want more resolution around the hover-position of your quad and need less for punches.... gonna try the default .54 expo on the axis too... I kinda had it at .3 for... I don't know how long and why actually. Let's see!
And yay, Discord server! Thanks so much :3
See you on Discord!
Thanks for the videos! For the first time I am starting to understand filtering and how to reach a good tune
Happy to help!
3:38 I'd say something to add onto this as a fourth thing to keep in mind as well is throttle boost.
For me, I usually disable it outright and set it to zero. BF defuault is set to 5. Throttle boost is basically a feed forward but for your throttle only.
If you're low in the throttle and you do quick small movements on throttle, the quad from my experience with throttle boost enabled will cause the quad to be jumpy and a little uncontrollable. Setting it to zero will prevent this from happening.
Something else to check if you get odd quad behavior. Can be found in the PID tuning tab on the PID page.
I'm an Angle mode flyer and I find that setting my throttle midpoint is key, as I use as much expo as I can there to smooth my input. I've tried several different approaches, and found they all work, after a fashion. Stick feel is indeed highly subjective. However, if you're new at setting up the throttle, Chris' approach is the best I've seen so far.
Thanks Bill! I appreciate your support.
So this is very interesting.
I have experimented with my rates in LiftOff and when I was really enjoying them in the sim, I put them on all of my quads. I was tuning one using a mix of techniques from your, Kababs and UAV tech videos and it never felt right until I finally PID tuned it somewhat right (if I'm reading the logs correctly). It just quite suddenly felt right and I started flying more agressive then I have ever flown IRL and it was a really great time :D
Great to hear! Once you have a good PID tune you may find you prefer different rates because the quad reacts faster. 👍
Thank you Chris, a really usefull series of videos. I've been looking for something like this for some time and have got the impression that other FPV channels either dont know or dont care about how to share this kind of information. Its made my fpv journey much less frustrating.
Glad it was helpful!
Chris I just ordered a tyro 79 and can't wait to tune it to your tune✌I'm so stoked!!!!!!your awesome man ✌
Awesome! Thank you!
@@ChrisRosser man Chris you have changed the hobby like no other!!!!! Because of you I'm going to actually be a real tuner lol I seen some of your ideas for filters and OMG!!!!! YOU CANT GET A QUAD TO RUN LIKE A CADILLAC LIKE YOU DO ITS INSANE!!!!!!✌ IM SO FREAKIN HAPPY THAT THE HOBBY HAS YOU CHRIS!!!!!! SERIOUSLY ✌✌HAPPY 4TH BUDDY TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY HOPE ALL IS WELL FROM CHICAGO 👍✌
agree re throttle mid/expo.. you can totally change the feel of the throttle.. I like to start with the mid at your hover point and personally like around .5 to .6 expo. don't think any one has done a video on this before.. bravo good sir
Thanks! I couldn't find a similar video on it but you're right its a super feature of BF that everyone should know about and try out to see if its right for them 👍
Bro I like your explaining important things good what others don't even talking about.. Huge like
This was an awesome way to start my Saturday morning! Great info as always! I’m a big fan of throttle limiting but haven’t ever had it lower than about 97%, I’ll definitely try out this approach. As far as having different rates of rotation on each axis, I definitely agree that keeping pitch and roll the same is ideal but I know that some pilots like to have a lower or higher yaw rate. I think it makes sense in that we don’t do full yaw rotations as frequently as full rolls or flips so the yaw rate of rotation can be managed differently. On the other hand, keeping them all the same feels fine too.
Absolutely agree, I know some pilots have different yaw rates but I've always kept mine the same. Rates are such a personal thing I think.
Man this is gold Chris. Amazing job with this series.
Thank you for the wonderful information. You deserve more subscribers❤️
Before I switched to DJI I was displaying my throttle on the OSD. I made an adjustable throttle curve in OpenTX so midpoint, expo, and limit were adjustable on the fly with knobs. When I swapped different battery sizes, and camera types (or no camera), I could dial in exactly how I wanted the quad to fly. Then, I could take those parameters and make fixed custom curves for the different configurations. But then I switched to DJI video and lost the live throttle OSD display, and DJI radio and lost transmitter knobs and sliders. Sooner or later I'm going to switch to crossfire and go back to my TX16S. I'd kill for a way to display throttle input in the DJI OSD. Makes setting throttle curve midpoint SO easy. It would also be nice if the Betaflight throttle curve parameters could be tied to transmitter inputs, but I don't think there's a way to do that.
I used to use throttle expo back in my drift car and fixed wing era, and so did when I first got into FPV, but then I went back to no expo ever since the first day I walked away from beta flight's stock rates. Reason being that on drift car and fixed wing I was more likely to stay in a certain range of throttle for quite a while to achieve certain movements so I need more resolution around that area, but on FPV my throttle is pretty much all over the place depending on which style I feel like flying that day and I feel it's easier to determine if I want a soft punch or hard punch or smoothie smooth no punch without throttle expo. I also believe this is the soul reason why cars and planes prefer less cell counts and bigger cells such as 2s 3000mah or 3s 2000mah while FPV nowadays is all about that 6s 1000mah even though all three of them contain the exact same amount of energy.
Sounds like your flying style suits a more linear throttle. It's interesting to read everyone's different experiences thanks!
I like the throttle advice because it seems to be the opposite of everyone else e.g. "I just leave it linear on all quads so I don't have to adjust to different throttle feel for every quad". But if quads have different thrust to weight ratios....?
Also the throttle limit explanation was really useful, I've been using 90% scaled as I learn, but it's good to know I could use data to find a better scale %.
Another great video thanks 👍 I’ve been using a throttle limit for quite a while now and find it makes a big difference.
Great to hear!
Thank you for taking the time to educate us on this
You're welcome.
Thanks, man! Like before watching!
You're the best!
Always a great view mate. Cheers for your help!
This is exactly what I needed, thank you
My first quad didn't have onboard black box memory so I never could get my head around how to tune this aspect. Just took my first build from scratch out for it's maiden flight. Time to turn some logging on to get some data to start this process.
Great video and very well explained as always. As a former engineer I really appreciate the whole technical info presented in a very simple way. Some of this stuff from PID tunning I remember having such a hard time understanding while studying at Uni hahaha
For racing I use even lower rates, my rates sit around 300-400. The lower the rates the more resolution you will have ont he sticks, and since for racing you should be doing mainly small adjustments (if you preturn properly) then it works very well. :)
Cool, thanks for your comment! 👍
Man, as I told you before, I love you 🤟🏼🤙🏼👏🏼
Thanks buddy! I appreciate your support.
Another great vid! Would be cool to see a similar series for Cinewhoops & Tinywhoops ;)
Thanks for the idea!
I dont know if I like the thought of a throttle expo, but I will try it and see. I am going to be trying your tuning technique when I rebuild my drone on another frame, I tuned it using UAV Techs approach and really liked the result, so I can compare them both. It would be good if you and UAV Tech did a podcast or interview and discussed tuning approaches to see each of your opinions on it.
They are the same approach. :-)
Chris just pushes to D max first, and was getting PD Balance firs and then pushing to D max.
@@uavtech fwiw, for a quick and dirty tune, there is nothing better, simpler, and easier to understand than your 2 pack slider tuning.
PD bal to the left until bounce, back off.
PD gain to the right until trilling, back off.
Stick sensitivity until you feel the juice.
Profit ❣️
Absolutely they are the same approach. I'd be interested to know if you find it easier to find the right PD balance by ear with higher gains? I think the noise of bounceback is slightly clearer and sharper with high gains?
@@ChrisRosser with the current configurator, it's easier to find the balance first. If they make balance adjust p, then it's easier to find the gain first. Just my opinion though, surly subjective.
Hey Chris, so I tried the throttle expo and... I quite like it, it’s a subtle difference but it is easier to maintain altitude when flying forward. I think it’s important to have a fixed camera angle though so the throttle position remains the same and you can’t change props or else you’d need to find the new mid point, not that it’s very difficult, I used the OSD read out and found I was between 20-30%.
I would opt to setting up throttle limit and curve with OpenTX or its variant, as it's much easier to store various throttle curve setup on the transmitter, and change it depending on how I want to fly. Using the potentiometer for Throttle limit / cap is also what I do
That's a good suggestion. I tend to set in betaflight because I only have one model on my transmitter and use it for lots of quads.
@@ChrisRosser you could use one model in OpenTX and save multiple throttle curves, switch as you need. The number of points are adjustable in OpenTX to have a more fine-grained curve.
However if you want to limit motor output, then you need to use betaflight
Nice and clear presentation 👍
Thanks!
oh nice
i'll try on my 170g auw 4"
hovers at 8%
haven't thought about this in a long time
I hope you like how it feels!
@@ChrisRosser
there were some wonky presets
it actually hovers at 20%
i found adjusting subtrim on the throttle stick much more effective
it can move the hover point around on the stick range to almost any point you like
if i wanted my 20% hover point to be at 50% stick travel, i'd just set subtrim to -60%
but i found subtrim at -40% to be better
i don't know to which travel % that would work out to, but it feels good
Great video, love your content.
very good explainer, I do set Throttle mid in the old fashion way, by just fly somewhere where I have a reference (a pole or lamp or something at my usual flight altitude) and hold the quad there for some time .. the Throttle I need to hold it at that spot, I use as MID
That's a great method! If you have a quad with *lots* of camera uptilt you might want a little more than the hover throttle because you'll be pitched forward so much. But for most freestyle I'm sure your method works perfectly.
@@ChrisRosser oh yes thats right, i fly at 12degrees camera, so i not really have this problem, can see the reference point at 0degree pitch :) (perks of being old/slow) haha
Massively helpful, thanks!
Thanks Chris for these video series. With your videos I ve begun tuning my quads . And results are fantastic. Can you tune a 3" quad and a much bigger quad like 8-10 inch? So that people can know what differs filter and pid wise. I also wanted to learn do we need to change the TPA and TPA breakpoint values? How do they effect ?
I ve actually found out about TPA and its Breakpoint in your latest video 😉
Thanks for the great video!
My pleasure!
I appreciate these informative videos that describe tuning in an easy-to-follow manner. But, how does TPA and TPA Breakpoint factor into the throttle settings? Thanks again for taking the time to make these videos.
I'll cover TPA and breakpoint in my fine tuning video. I've started working on it but it needs a little more time.
Curving the throttle rate helped, I was just overcorrecting way too much with the stock linear rate. I am not racing though, just flying around the house.
Glad it helped! Thanks for the comment
Yeah Mr. Rosser! Yeah Science!
Love this video 💪
Hello Chris.. new sub👍👍. Love your channel and like many others I'M learning a ton from you. Thank you sir.... Question I use to build and fly all different quads but now I'm only flying the DJI FPV for reasons to many to mention.. lol.. Safety and dependability at the top of that list ... ANYWAYS, would the process be same? Because there's not all the settings like betaflight has.. thx..
PHILLYDRONELIFE aka Mikey ! 💙💙💙
I'm afraid I have no idea. I've never seen the DJI FPV drone I'm afraid.
@@ChrisRosser lol. Lol. Great answer lol. Thank you for the quick response.. 💙💙👍👍
MIKEY
I've tried the throttle expo before and while I understand the theory, I could never get used to it. Things like recovering from a dive or entering a juicy flick suddenly required quickly moving the throttle stick from one end to the other, whereas with pitch/roll you only really go from center to one side. Perhaps it's just me, but do consider that adding that much expo will require your throttle movements to be much wider in aggressive freestyle as the center area is almost deadband. This was with the white RS2306 motors that were begging for it because they naturally go from no power to crazy power at mid throttle, so I can't imagine I'd like it any better with modern motors
deadband are not in throttle stik, but only in axis stick yaw,roll, pitch
i guess you're like living in the past
Its all about the amount of expo. If you have 0 it's linear maybe try a small amount like 0.1 to 0.3?
Great vids about PIDs Chris!👌 I want to ask if you can suggest some rates converter? I’m using Actual rates from beginning and would like to use my rates in Velocidrone/DRL but they are using only Betaflight rates and I wasn’t successful with the convert. Thank you.
Here you go! kmitchel.github.io/
Thanks a lot Chris😉
Hi! Great series on filters and pids! Thanks for that.. my question is how would you tune a cinematic drone that is build only for the best quality video possible (carrying hero 9). I would be ready to give up some stickfeel and latency overall for that perfecty smuuth footage. I would really apreciate if you have any thoughs on this. Thanks!
Well explained sir
Thanks for your support!
@@ChrisRosser any time… trying the throttle scaling today . Thank you
Hey Chris- so from what I've seen, there seems to be some relationship between PIDs and rates. However, wouldn't it be better to set rates FIRST before PID tuning, PID tune the quad, and then come back AFTER and change the rates? Would the PID tune NOT end up differently, especially when it comes to bounceback, if (for example) someone were to tune a quad at 200 deg/sec max rates vs someone tuning a quad at 1200 deg/s max rates?
The PIDs for a quad shouldn't depend on what you command the quad to do. They should only be a function of the physical parameters of the quad and its power system. The right PIDs for 200deg/s and 1200deg/s should be the same in theory.
@@ChrisRosser It's only the same if you have a perfectly linear thrust curve, and you need the correct prop pitch and experiment with thrust_linear to achieve that. I agree with Jack for experienced pilots; if you're used to high rates then do your PID tune with those and fine-tune them afterwards if needed. For beginners and intermediate pilots who don't have the full flight instinct yet your recommendations to stay around the defaults make perfect sense.
Honestly I just play with throttle midpoint and throttle expo. Feels great.
Hey Chris amazing content!!!!
So in theory say I was running 6S if I got 2400 KV motors I could run a 30% scaled throttle essentially maximizing my stick resolution by 43%? ? ? ?
Would there be any negative to running such a high KV? I know in your past videos you said it’s negligible because were talking about 5 inch.
Could this possibly be a way to make things smother ? Or better in anyway?
Or am I totally off ?
will everything you show in this video work right if i am running my quad in 3D mode? my throttle stick is centered in 3D mode so in effect you have throttle above center stick position and you have throttle below center stick position. Im sure you don't get many questions about 3D mode but it's all i fly. Thanks Chris.
Good stuff thanks for the explanation. What do we got to do to get all the features or settings in BF on the OSD? (thrust_linear?) For those of us that may have unplugged the usb cable and the board mounted connector came with it...
I don't think you can. The OSD only shows certain things.
Oh yes I know, I should have said what do we got to do to get the devs to get all the settings on the OSD. Just sort of wishing out loud...
SLICK CONTENT MATE KEEP GOING! I'M SUBBING YOU! 😍😍😍😍😍😍
Whoa, subscribed
Is there any downsides to fitting motors that produce 70% the power and trying to benifit from the lighter weight motor perhaps even more flight time for the same performance, or will you lose some tourque and response?
Great vid Chris! Hey I’ve always wondered does changing throttle limit apply to motor output or just throttle stick? I know people for example set a limit when using high Kv motors designed for 4s with 6s. But if throttle limit only affects the stick, and not motor output then the motors still may hit full output with this throttle limit set. I probably should know this but I’m new to 6s so I never had to think about it. Anyway, keep up the great content!
In betaflight, throttle limit only affects input, not output. It has nothing to do with the PID controllers authority over the quad, and the output of the motors, only your actual throttle command. This setting is on the rate profile tab, and will change with rate profiles.
If you want to limit motor output as a whole, (useful for say, 6s battery on a 4s quad) there is a motor output setting on the pids tab (down by the angle mode settings and cell count and such) that will limit total output and limit the PID controllers authority over the quad. This effectively "lowers your kv" for tuning proposes (not really, though).
@@mouseFPV good to know thx
@@PIDtoolbox last thing, the motor output changes with pid profile, along with the battery cells setting (don't remember the exact name, it's right next to the output limit setting). So, if you set both of these appropriately, your PID profile and motor output will change automatically when you plug in a given lipo.
Throttle expo is my favorite betaflight feature
Ive used throttle Expo before and liked it but then I saw some videos where they said dont use it so I turned it off looks like its time to give it another shot
Coming in the fine tuning video ;)
I didn‘t quite get how to set feedforward. Is it, I start from zero (was that the initial step?) and work my way up? I mean, I now know what to look for in the logs, but it is not clear to me, if it is the first box we set to zero in the beginning. Sorry in advance, I am not a native English speaker.
You set the feedforward transisiton to 0 which turns feedforward on all the time. Then you adjust using the stick response gain slider.
@@ChrisRosser ok, thank you. I must have missed that
Question, related to this whole series:. I fly 4s, but recently got some 6s packs. I set up my FC to scale output to fly either. Are there any precautions I need to take in the tuning process to account for switching between cell count?
If you scale the motor output then you should be good to go with the same filters PIDs and rates.
very usefull, thank you
do you lose the full power of the motor doing the scale down? or u still have the full power of the motor but at a lower stick position?
Hello,
I am trying since 1 week to find the perfect setting for my 4 inch but I have mid throttle oscillation or something like that.
Is it possible to send you a blackbox log?
How does betaflight determine the degree change without knowing your prop and motor. If I have 2500kv motors on a 4s and swap them for 2700kv motors, how would it know the rotation, or does the gyro work in conjunction to get that degree per second? I don't understand this part.
An ESC always knows the RPM of a brushless motor. It needs to know how fast the motor is spinning to commutate it. With bidirectional d-shot the ESC reports the current RPM of the motor to the FC.
Thanks mate
With the throttle curve using a mid point I wonder if the "hump/boost" beneath it would alter smoothness when I want to increase throttle slowly from zero. Not true?
It will do yes. You'll have a bit less resolution around 0% throttle and 100% throttle.
Hi I just build a 3inch toothpick 1204 5200kv motor (120awg, 3s)
With an 80% throttle limit, I still feel it is too powerful for the area that I fly
instead of going down with a throttle limit, how about lowering down the motor output limit?
what is your opinion about this, is lowering the motor output limit recommended?
Leave motor output limit alone and continue to reduce throttle limit and perhaps also rates. Motor output limit is for flying 4S quads on 6S batteries. 👍
Hm... to get more throttle resolution I set the motor output limit to say 93% instead of throttle limit, because I thought that way the PID controller can use 100% if needed. Did I get it twisted?
I think you have it the wrong way around. With throttle limit, the pid controller can spin the motors up to 100% if needed.
@@PenPeng agree,,,he is wrong
Yep, I can confirm that motor output limits the PID controller while throttle limit only limits the squishy human bit!
Thanks.
I can't seem to find video one and two
The first video is called Filters and the second PID tuning
shoukdn´t it be possible to make a ai that tunes the quad by itself untill a certain point?
I've used throttle mid point value, expo as where my hovering point is for when I come in to land. Am I using it wrong?
i guess youre wrong because you not sett scale in betaflight and hovering point always changed according your Vbatt
That is a good method I think. With a drone with lots of camera uptilt you might need a little more throttle because you'll be pitched forward a lot most of the time. What do you think?
@@ChrisRosser i agree,,🙏🙏
aos5 not yet in banggod🥲🥲😭
Working on it.
thank you vm sir ,,for your humble&hospitality,,salut
I flew stock rates also now I'm flying marks actual rates I can't see why any one would have different rates on different axis mine are the same
Btw What effect do u think tpu has on frame resonance ?
Its not a problem unless there is some weight that can wiggle around because of the flexible TPU. My iFlight XL5 video shows a potential problem with TPU VTX antenna mounts.
I'm flying with 720/720/540 and I love it. You don't need nearly as much yaw as the other axes. Check some logs and I bet you'll see that you very rarely use more than 50% stick input on yaw. As with any change in rates, it takes a while to get used to it so I recommend to decrease the yaw max in small steps at a time.
Sir how can I contact you ? I have made a frame which I am about to test. I have created a resonance analysis as per my understanding from articles online and your videos,and it shows promising results. It would be great if you could make a video on how to set up the 3d model for frame analysis.
Hi you can contact me over at aos-rc.com
@@ChrisRosser okay. Thank you so much !!! I am a big fan from India.
This is probably why my 2inch feels so much better than 5inch, the tame throttle changes everything, my 5inch is too powerful and i always end up very high in the sky
I hope you are happy now... I blew my wallet up today on Betaflight kit.... ;) Will your series make me retire kiss? Lets see. I am actually very hopeful.
Once you tune Betaflight it should fly better than KISS ever could because KISS doesn't have feedforward!
@@ChrisRosserthanks Chris 🤗 I'm really looking forward to this. Going to save me so much money.
Huh... On the DJI FPV Drone center sensitivity works the exact opposite of your explanation.
The DJI FPV drone does not run betaflight so I imagine most of the settings are different.
Could someone make a software to read blackbox and make changes to the pids, rates automatically?? I would definately pay for such software.. 😁
Watch flying video must be better no? Or pay someone to fly and wear goggles also easy. LOL. Tuning is a taste. make it fun.
@@SithaSek hehe when u work 5days a week, u just wanna fly on the weekends.. and i have 7 quads 😁
@@verdi6092 I just sold 20 quads to my clients. It is 40' Props drone. ☺️
@@SithaSek niice..
hahaha,,,7 quads are get beat by 20quad, whwahahah,,,
Personally I would never touch throttle expo. Like ever. You want a linear throttle, straight up. If you need more resolution simply scale cap it at 85-97%. The rest can be achieved by picking the appropriate kv motor and fine tuning it with prop selection.
It's very dependent on style, I would imagine your flying style requires maximum resolution everywhere in the throttle so you can't really use expo.
wrong. first of all you need to configure the rates. imagine how the copter will behave at the maximum rates of 100 degrees/s and at 1000. PIDs are depend on the maximum rates. Most people fly default rates or rates they already flyy 10000 hours so they don't need to tune them
I would be interested to know how you know that to be the case. I'm not aware of any application of PID controllers where the ideal PID gains are dependent on the absolute value of the maximum setpoint. Do you have a link to a source?
@@ChrisRosser go to the field and try to tune your quad with very low rates and then with high rates. On the low rates quad doesn't reach his limit so PID will be less than they should be - less the speeds, less overshoot, easier to acelerate and to stop movement etc...
@@mikenomatter You are right that the amount of overshoot etc. will be less on low rates than high rates but that doesn't mean you should run lower PID gains. You should always increase the PID gains as high as possible *regardless* of rates to minimize PID error. More gain is better (as long as it doesn't cause hot motors/oscillations) so I tell everyone to push their gains as high as they feel comfortable with.