FPV Noob (me) :)

Stephen1

New member
I'm looking for advice. Last year I tried to get into the fpv quadcopter hobby, but not much went as planned. I stumbled upon Mr. Steele's videos and thought "hey, it'd be cool if I could do that" so I started researching. I ended up buying a versacopter from flitetest and used the graupner mz-12 transmitter that I already had with a graupner flight controler/reciever combo. I went to fly it, but it turns out on that radio I can't seem to get upside down, I can only set bank limiters so the quad won't tilt past a certain degree. So to get around that, I tried going full left or right and then cutting the power, but whenever I tried to restart the motors, they would just kinda twitch, ending in repeated crashes. But that's another problem. Anyways, I'm looking for a different radio. I don't know a lot about what radios are good for freestyle quads or anything about flight controllers, but I'm looking for I guess more "freedom" with the quad. Maybe this will solve the motor problem too. But right now I'm wondering if anybody can give me a rundown of quad radios/ recommend a relatively cheap one?
Thanks
 

Fyathyrio

Member
The transmitter has no idea what orientation the quad is in, your issues sound like they are related to the receiver/flight controller. If you absolutely must blow money on a new transmitter, the FrSky Taranis X9D Plus is the most common.
 

French

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I’m not familiar with the limitations of the Graupner receiver/flight controller. I don’t know if it allows a full rate or acro mode.

FrSky is a very popular and powerful radio. The QX7 is an amazing value at just over $100.
 

French

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Generally. Most all flight controllers now require a serial signal with 1 wire. For example, FrSky uses the s.bus protocol.
 

Fyathyrio

Member
All modern radios work basically the same. They operate on 2.4GHz and send a signal between ~1000 and ~2000 that the receiver decodes to position the control surfaces or motors. Most radios allow for programming and mixing, such as adding some rudder when using ailerons. The flight controller is what limits bank angles, does self leveling, ect. FrSky's popularity means better support for that particular radio protocal (language) in the various hardware, as well as better firmware options for improved programming.

Right now, I'd recommend working on tuning your existing quad and getting used to flying it before throwing money at a new transmitter. The downside with new gear is chasing performance and dealing with constant firmware upgrades, plus learning a new transmitter programming language. I'm not fimiliar with the Graupner flight controller, but I'm pretty sure it will have a "rate" or "acro" mode that will allow for flips, and perhaps a "horizon" mode that allows flips at full stick deflection while still retaining self level when sticks near center.

Are you getting something that resembles a flip, or is it more like a loop? You may have your radio programmed to where it's not sending full control signals, thus the quad is responding slowly.
 

Stephen1

New member
That's awesome! Thanks for your help. I think the main problem was that I don't really know what I'm doing. I'm used to planes haha. But that's great. I'll have to try it out once the warm weather rolls around.