new build, blheli S dshot 600 question

[cnc_dave]

over the weekend i built a new 5" for a betaflight rig to continue my acro learning, if the stupid weather ever makes up its mind. my only other quad morphed into 7" inav rig, its setup and quite satisfied with it so far but inav is lacking in acro mode.

tonight on the new 5". i have BF3.3, omnibusf4 pro V3, spedix 30a 4in1 blheli_s (dshot 600 ready), all flashed up to date.
put the props on it, armed, eased up the throttle, back motors started first, front motors were kind of stuttering, continued on with throttle front finally ran smoothly and it lifted to a hover, i maneuvered around some, seemed ok. gave it a lil punch on the throttle seemed weak. i forgot to check for heat in the motors.
oh, min throttle % set to like .45

i messed around with it some last night, wasn't sure about the whole dshot thing, when i would arm the motors would idle even though i had don't spin props turned on. so i set it back to multishot and it flew perfect.
thoughts

thanks

 

[cnc_dave]

ok think i found my answer. read the wiki again, the whole thing this time.
i have my min throttle % set .45. i think i need to leave out the decimal and make it 4.5.
so am i right,got every thing put up for the night????

 

[PsyBorg]

4.5% sounds about right for base Dshot settings.

Did you set the radio up properly with centers set to 1500 and end points set to 1000 and 2000 respectively on all 4 axis? If you are using Spectrum gear you have to set travel to 147% to be able to fully reach those end points. Other wise you will only get to about 1900 us max signal and will be weak on all four control channels. It does not matter so much on non digital protocols and will only limit resolution with default Spectrum settings where digital protocols need to have the full range available to correctly regulate the motors to the full range.

This is why multi shot felt better. You had full throttle range just less resolution.

 

[cnc_dave]

i'm on frsky, but yeah end points are set right.
tomorrow, i'll change that setting and see what happens.

 

[PsyBorg]

Good Luck Dave. be sure to get us some pics n vids if you can.

 

[cnc_dave]

well, believe changing that setting to 4.5 done the trick. one more question though. i have air mode set to always on, is it normal for motors to idle after arming?? haven't experienced that in my past setups. the little bit i flew it los tonight, flew as it should.

as far as pics and vids. i have some pics i'll be posting up of what i've worked on over the last couple months. as to videos, so far i haven't got any equipment with a dvr. that's coming though

 

[PsyBorg]

I usually set Air mode to the modes switch. I set position 0 to Horizon mode (never bother with Angle mode its totally useless and more for tiny whoop type craft), Position 1 to Acro, and position 2 to acro with air mode. If you want pictures of my Horizon settings and rates that I use to make center stick less twitchy and super accurate let me know Ill drop screenies in so you can see how I do it.

About the motors spinning when armed that is normal behavior and you want to leave that as is for freestyle and racing. you would probably turn it off for an AP ship though. There is a setting on the configuration page for that just above where you set min throttle and all that.

For videos a lot of people will use a go pro session on a 5 inch build for HD video instead of the low res FPV footage. There are other cheaper options if you want to get into all that at some point. Its not a must have though.

 

[cnc_dave]

yes some suggestions or screen shots for rates and such, basically for a beginner would be helpful. been flying acro on the free rider sim over the winter after watching bardwells videos where he was using the sim to teach the basics. haven't been crashing as much in the sim, but not expecting real thing to go as smoothly for some reason :black_eyed:

what has me perplexed about the props spinning after arming, is that i have that setting you're talking about turned on???? i'll look again though.

 

[PsyBorg]

Good morning Dave. I just went over a full set up with Rik on his new Frog quad yesterday so these are fresh grabs. The rates I use will give very gentle center stick. I can move my Gremlin or any of my quads for that matter a mm at a time if I wanted to pay that much attention haha. Pay no mind to the PIDs as they will not work for your quad and may smoke the motors though.

If you notice the degrees per second is kind of low for a 5 inch freestyle quad. I suggest you start there to get a feel for the way this works. Once you get used to how smooth center sticks are and how aggressive full deflection is you can bump them up to .63 RC rate and .88 super rates then drop the expo as it wont be needed. That puts you at 1000 degrees per second which is quite quick for flips and rolls with that super rate. Yet you still retain that sweet center stick smoothness.



Next make sure to change the Horizon mode settings for strength, transition, level and sensitivity. I don't bother with angle mode EVER. Its totally useless unless you fly a whoop. I use horizon mode as I have worked out those settings to have smooth transitions in and out of hover with it. They don't make you fight to move forward like stock does and they don't whip you back into level so hard you wobble for 5 minutes after. I never use that mode anyways I only set it up when I first started FPV for take offs and landings.

Then go down to TPA. I have it super low on the Gremlin as they are twitchy and not much compensation is needed. For a 5 inch I would start at .25 and start that at 1600 TPA break point.

Do not bother with all them fancy filters everyone cookie cutters until later IF they are needed once you learn how to tune and get this tighter. I know its your gear so do what you like but I think people jump right into using them and that is where they fry gear and never know what did it. I would get better with PID tuning and use the filters for fine tuning later IF its needed. I have yet to use any of them and have zero problems getting my gear to work well every time I plug it in.

Finally here is how I set up my switches. All are on three position switches. The arm switch is set where 0 pos id disarmed, pos 1 is disarmed, and pos 2 is armed. The mode switch is set to where 0 pos is Horizon mode with out air mode for take off and landings or emergencies where I know where the quad is and I lose video or something. Pos 1 is acro mode with out air mode for flat track racing where I wont have to flip over so when I crash air mode does not make it flip out even more and do added damage as it goes bonkers. and finally pos 2 which is acro with air mode for freestyle or racing with flips or hard rolls like a split S.

You can't see it but I have my beeper set to a switch too on aux 3 that is tied in with the light setting for the radio but could be used on a switch as well for turning leds on and off if you use them.



Hope the screenies help and that you consider giving this set up and method a try. I now use this for all my quads so it is not an exclusive set up for any one type of quad. It works well on the Gremlin, the Alien, and on a Stretch reaper frame Taz is built on. All I do is adjust the RC rate to change total degrees per second to match what I want to do to what I am flying.

 

[cnc_dave]

here's a screen shot. regarding the motors idling. they are idling when i arm. i'm on BF 3.3.1
thoughts?? no real big deal, everything else flight wise seems ok.
weather went to heck this afternoon, real gusty wind, so won't get to try her out.
thanks much for the settings info btw.

 

[PsyBorg]

Ya got me on that one mate. I would submit the screenie and the proof that the motors spin with that checked. That way if it is a bug in new software they are aware and can get a fix on it. I think if you go to the wiki page there is a way to submit things like that. Or at the very least make someone aware its happening.

 

[ElectriSean]

If you have air mode enabled, either through the modes or as a feature, it overrides MOTOR_STOP.

 

[cnc_dave]

If you have air mode enabled, either through the modes or as a feature, it overrides MOTOR_STOP.

well, that would explain that then.
i'm going to go back and set up my mode switches to what psyborg has suggested so air mode is on a switch.
also noticed last night, was changing setting according to the screen shots, BF 3.3 doesn't have that "sensitivity" feild
on the PID page for horizon mode??

thanks as always