Help! Help flattening the Edgetx learning curve?

[Clintonious]

So I sent it off on it's maiden flight yesterday... we're definitely going to need to go to the park where there is more room to fly! It's almost big enough with the dual rates... almost. One thing I did notice, though, is that with throttle at -100%, if I bump the aileron, the props start spinning at 100%. Anyone have any thoughts on how to fix this? I need to set a throttle kill switch (and a flight timer)*... but this is something I'm a little worried about if my kids are wanting to fly.
*I think I can figure these out... if I can find that one video again...

Would you please expand on the elements of a video that would help you? Mixes and programming transmitters have been around for about 30 years. Do you want an explanation of EdgeTX mixes? Have you watched the excellent videos of RCreviews? What is missing in those videos that we in Flite Test could add to make this usable for you? This is a serious question. I am not being snarky. This topic has received a lot of attention over the years and when books were popular Don Enberg wrote a book on programming transmitters. That book is now outdated and I suggest a video that focuses on EdgeTx would be the most valuable.

Dave,

Nope, no offense taken! I'll say, when I first, two years ago, got a transmitter and Mighty Mini Trainer, I went through all the videos I could find. I downloaded the EdgeTX Companion and watched those videos... and stumbled my way through it... but it never saw an explanation that clearly laid it out. I got so frustrated with all the videos that didn't help me that I had to set it down and walk away from it for a few weeks. Yes, I did eventually get help from the videos, including RC Video Reviews... but it took me a long time to piece it all together. Maybe this is why I was a mechanical engineer instead of software?

Now I understand that if I am suffering from this much frustration, there's going to be a significant portion of the population that is also excluded from this hobby and your sales will never be what they could... so it's obviously in your best interest to help fix this. I'm tired of being frustrated, so I'm more than happy to tell you about it. It reminds me of something I learned in science class, as this is something of a symbiotic relationship.

All that out of the way, if I understood it and had time to make the video myself (see number of kids below), I would lay it out like this. My thought is that there should be beginners guide to EdgeTX. Rabbit trail: I can imagine a lot of different people who would want this kind of video... Example - A single mom who got her son what he asked for for Christmas and doesn't know a single thing about airplanes trying to help her son fly. My wife is not technically minded. There is no way she would ever even attempt this.

[Maybe this is a business opportunity - sell a technical support package along with a kit? Somebody to talk on the phone with that can guide somebody through the process? I still think a good video would be better, but something to consider.]

1. Inputs
   1. Two different possibilities
      1. Here's what the inputs page looks like on a color screen
      2. Here's what it looks like on a b&w screen
      3. When it says X on a color screen, it's the same as Y on the black and white screen.
         1. (I know the symbols are a little different. This has thrown me off a few times.)
   2. Here's what you do here on the inputs tab
      1. As I understand it, this is where you tell the controller that you are later on going to want to use certain switches.
      2. Does it make any difference the order they are in?
      3. For each input, you can long enter and edit it...
         1. Input - you can assign letters and numbers here - where does this get used?
         2. Name - you can assign letters and numbers here - where does this get used?
         3. Source: I know this one! The easy way - You scroll down to it, long hold and then move something on your transmitter and it will automatically pick the hardware your just manipulated. The hard way - You can also long hold and select it from a long list of options.
      4. You can do other stuff here too... weights, rates, curves, etc... but I don't think that should be covered in a beginner level video.
      5. Note - I honestly can't remember where AETR and all the other combos of that show up, so this might be a good place to add a short video segment on wherever that gets applied. I recall working through this 2 years ago and then Litterbug had me change to something else to make it easier when we set up the Aura...
   3. Throughout each section you would explain why you do it like this with the eventual working up towards the airplane application example (main bullet number 5).
2. Mixes
   1. What can you do with mixes
   2. Why would you want to do that?
   3. Here's how you would do a few things
      1. Examples:
         1. When you want to have a smooth turn (I don't remember what it's called) and you don't want to do any aerobatics, you could mix your rudder and ailerons.
         2. I can't think of anything else... I probably don't know enough.
      2. Keep it simple and maybe come back with a follow up video on advanced mixing options?
3. Outputs
   1. What can you do with outputs? (You can address the really cool stuff, but there are enough videos of people showing off how smart they are. Focus on the basics so that single mom can get her kid's plan in the sky!)
   2. Why would you want to do that?
   3. Here's how you would do a few things
4. Here's an example of an airplane
   1. EZ First Flyers - how to set those up. I didn't even know they had a flight controller till I got on here!
   2. Mighty Mini Trainer
      1. 3 Channel
      2. 4 Channel
      3. There's also a need to explain how to set something up with the Aura. Litterbug can't spend 2hrs on the phone with everyone! (Thanks again)
   3. Maybe a Kraken or something else with twin props. I've seen a lot of questions on setting these up with differential thrust / aura setup.

1. Setting up an Aura - This needs to be it's own video. I watched your video on setting it up so many times... but I didn't have the exact same transmitter, so nothing seemed to apply to me. This is another area I had to walk away multiple times in order to not loose my cool. If Litterbug hadn't volunteered to walk me through it, I likely would have given up and walked away from flying all together. That said, if the above video was made first and then a "let me hold your hand and walk you through setting up the aura on your Edge TX transmitter" (for the above airplanes in section 4) video came out, it would go a long way! I still don't know if the Aura config tool on my PC was required, but I had it, so we used it.
   1. My biggest frustration with the Aura in general was that once I bought it, I felt like I was on my own... good luck... downstream without a paddle. Maybe there have been some videos put out since then that better explain it, I haven't checked. What I want to communicate is that it didn't feel like there was any support from the Flight Test team on this one. I felt very lost and without this forum, I would probably be bitter right now. Not everyone is going to join a forum and put in the time asking for help.

Like yourself, I am not trying to be rude or judgmental here. I think you guys do an absolutely awesome job with your fun videos. That's what got us sucked into this in the first place! However, on the technical side, if you can provide the basic support so an average 3rd grade student can figure it out on their own, or offer some sort of customer support hotline where somebody can walk your customer through their difficulties, the hurdle of fear (before they make an order) and frustration (after they make an order) will be greatly reduced and I would think your company would see more sales. During all of my experience trying to figure this stuff out, my wife asked me multiple times if you guys have any customer support... aside from waiting a few days for a response to my e-mail, I couldn't find any. That is enough to make people hesitant to put in an order with Flight Test and I would think that means it is something you would want to change. However, people cost money to staff... I get it.

This is all the opinion of a simple mechanical engineer, who might not represent the average joe... but I think I'm close! You, as CEO, obviously get to factor what I have to say into how you run your business. I'd be happy to talk on the phone about it more if you'd like... after the kids get in bed... it's taken me multiple sits at the PC to bang all this out.

I’m right there with you! Information doesn’t stick for me until I try it myself. It reminds me of a funny farming proverb that isn’t specifically applicable here, but funny anyhow…

”There are three kinds of men. The first kind of man learns about something by reading about it in a book. The second kind of man learns by watching somebody else do it. The third kind of man just has to piss on the electric fence himself.”

😂 Perhaps not coincidentally, I had a lot of interactions with electric fences in my childhood. I still hate the damned things.

I was also intimidated by EdgeTX when I started. It slowly started to click and now I’m fairly comfortable with it. Regarding the inputs, mixes, and outputs, think of it like a pipeline. When you move a stick, first that signal goes through the input settings. In your input settings, you set up your rates and expo. After the signal passes through that stage, the signal now has the rates and expo applied. Then it gets to your mixes. A simple plane just passes each control input directly through to a channel, so 100% of the aileron input goes to channel 1. You might have an actual mix though, like sending 100% of the aileron input to channel 1, but also send 20% of the aileron input to channel 4. The output from mixes is now the channels that those inputs are sent to. So then lastly the signal gets to the outputs. You can think of these as directly adjusting the servos or ESC. This is where you adjust the center point of your servos, or your maximum throw, etc. So the input signal gets there, applies those adjustments, and finally it transmits that final signal to your aircraft.

Maybe that helps? If you wanted, I could show you around a bit. Will you be a FliteFest? Otherwise, I’d be happy to do a FaceTime call or something. Fwiw, I’m not an EdgeTX expert by any means. I can set up my models and I know a few tricks, but I‘ve only been playing with it for about a year myself. Just to set expectations!

Well... I've been bitten by the electric fence a few times myself... but I never tried peeing on it... so I'm not yet sure which one that makes me!

I might be interested in taking you up on the phone call. I looked into Flightfest, but with 7 kids under 13, I'm not sure if my wife will ever sign up for taking all of us down there to go camping... especially when she's still nursing. I'd love to do it, but I've yet to figure out how to balance the cost to attend and make it work for my family.

 

[tamuct01]

My workflow for EdgeTX usually goes this way:

INPUTS:
Standard AETR inputs. I add my multi-rates here and always on switch SE so it's standard across all my models. Low/Mid/High rates here. If there's a recommended rates I usually set low to the recommended low and mid to the recommended high. The actual high rates I set to the limits of surface travel before binding. Basically, a low, high, and crazy setting on switch SE.

I also set my expo here. It usually set the same across all three rates with a global variable. I prefer about 30% expo.
Additional inputs are here like flaps, gears, etc. according to what switch I want them on.

MIXES:
On a standard plane these are just passthrough from the input 1:1. On planes with differential thrust or some other fanciness this is where I would mix rudder into the throttle channels for differential thrust. I've also used these for elevator compensation when deploying flaps, or other things.

OUTPUTS:
This is where servo travel limits are set and any electronic trim that's needed to center a servo when that servo spline just isn't quite centered. You also set servo reverse here as well.

FLIGHT MODES and CURVES:
I'd save this for a more advanced session or helicopter setups.

SPECIAL FUNCTIONS:
I always use the first special function as a throttle cut tied to SF on all my models. It sets the output of the throttle channels to -100 when active. I also use a bunch of these to play tracks to remind me what each switch does. Low rates, throttle hold, etc., etc.

I hope that helps. Edge/OpenTX are very powerful radio software, but I understand the learning can be pretty difficult. Good luck!

 

[Bricks]

Here is a much better and safer throttle cut then just using a switch without any stipulations or conditions are met, it is how I have my throttle cut setup.

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?3674229-OpenTX-Tutorial-A-Better-Throttle-Cutoff

 

[Clintonious]

My workflow for EdgeTX usually goes this way:

INPUTS:
Standard AETR inputs. I add my multi-rates here and always on switch SE so it's standard across all my models. Low/Mid/High rates here. If there's a recommended rates I usually set low to the recommended low and mid to the recommended high. The actual high rates I set to the limits of surface travel before binding. Basically, a low, high, and crazy setting on switch SE.

I also set my expo here. It usually set the same across all three rates with a global variable. I prefer about 30% expo.
Additional inputs are here like flaps, gears, etc. according to what switch I want them on.

MIXES:
On a standard plane these are just passthrough from the input 1:1. On planes with differential thrust or some other fanciness this is where I would mix rudder into the throttle channels for differential thrust. I've also used these for elevator compensation when deploying flaps, or other things.

OUTPUTS:
This is where servo travel limits are set and any electronic trim that's needed to center a servo when that servo spline just isn't quite centered. You also set servo reverse here as well.

FLIGHT MODES and CURVES:
I'd save this for a more advanced session or helicopter setups.

SPECIAL FUNCTIONS:
I always use the first special function as a throttle cut tied to SF on all my models. It sets the output of the throttle channels to -100 when active. I also use a bunch of these to play tracks to remind me what each switch does. Low rates, throttle hold, etc., etc.

I hope that helps. Edge/OpenTX are very powerful radio software, but I understand the learning can be pretty difficult. Good luck!

That's a good explanation... and I get the gist of what you are doing and why... but for me, your explanation comes across better as an agenda for a good video, not an explanation as to how to go do it. There are things I've learned along the way that help me to know how to do some of the things you mentioned, but I'm confident if I tried to start pushing buttons and flipping switches to try and actually program the transmitter, I'd be right back here asking for more details.

Here is a much better and safer throttle cut then just using a switch without any stipulations or conditions are met, it is how I have my throttle cut setup.

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?3674229-OpenTX-Tutorial-A-Better-Throttle-Cutoff

I will plan to check that out when it's not so late!

 

[DaveM]

So I sent it off on it's maiden flight yesterday... we're definitely going to need to go to the park where there is more room to fly! It's almost big enough with the dual rates... almost. One thing I did notice, though, is that with throttle at -100%, if I bump the aileron, the props start spinning at 100%. Anyone have any thoughts on how to fix this? I need to set a throttle kill switch (and a flight timer)*... but this is something I'm a little worried about if my kids are wanting to fly.
*I think I can figure these out... if I can find that one video again...


Dave,

Nope, no offense taken! I'll say, when I first, two years ago, got a transmitter and Mighty Mini Trainer, I went through all the videos I could find. I downloaded the EdgeTX Companion and watched those videos... and stumbled my way through it... but it never saw an explanation that clearly laid it out. I got so frustrated with all the videos that didn't help me that I had to set it down and walk away from it for a few weeks. Yes, I did eventually get help from the videos, including RC Video Reviews... but it took me a long time to piece it all together. Maybe this is why I was a mechanical engineer instead of software?

Now I understand that if I am suffering from this much frustration, there's going to be a significant portion of the population that is also excluded from this hobby and your sales will never be what they could... so it's obviously in your best interest to help fix this. I'm tired of being frustrated, so I'm more than happy to tell you about it. It reminds me of something I learned in science class, as this is something of a symbiotic relationship.

All that out of the way, if I understood it and had time to make the video myself (see number of kids below), I would lay it out like this. My thought is that there should be beginners guide to EdgeTX. Rabbit trail: I can imagine a lot of different people who would want this kind of video... Example - A single mom who got her son what he asked for for Christmas and doesn't know a single thing about airplanes trying to help her son fly. My wife is not technically minded. There is no way she would ever even attempt this.

[Maybe this is a business opportunity - sell a technical support package along with a kit? Somebody to talk on the phone with that can guide somebody through the process? I still think a good video would be better, but something to consider.]

1. Inputs
   1. Two different possibilities
      1. Here's what the inputs page looks like on a color screen
      2. Here's what it looks like on a b&w screen
      3. When it says X on a color screen, it's the same as Y on the black and white screen.
         1. (I know the symbols are a little different. This has thrown me off a few times.)
   2. Here's what you do here on the inputs tab
      1. As I understand it, this is where you tell the controller that you are later on going to want to use certain switches.
      2. Does it make any difference the order they are in?
      3. For each input, you can long enter and edit it...
         1. Input - you can assign letters and numbers here - where does this get used?
         2. Name - you can assign letters and numbers here - where does this get used?
         3. Source: I know this one! The easy way - You scroll down to it, long hold and then move something on your transmitter and it will automatically pick the hardware your just manipulated. The hard way - You can also long hold and select it from a long list of options.
      4. You can do other stuff here too... weights, rates, curves, etc... but I don't think that should be covered in a beginner level video.
      5. Note - I honestly can't remember where AETR and all the other combos of that show up, so this might be a good place to add a short video segment on wherever that gets applied. I recall working through this 2 years ago and then Litterbug had me change to something else to make it easier when we set up the Aura...
   3. Throughout each section you would explain why you do it like this with the eventual working up towards the airplane application example (main bullet number 5).
2. Mixes
   1. What can you do with mixes
   2. Why would you want to do that?
   3. Here's how you would do a few things
      1. Examples:
         1. When you want to have a smooth turn (I don't remember what it's called) and you don't want to do any aerobatics, you could mix your rudder and ailerons.
         2. I can't think of anything else... I probably don't know enough.
      2. Keep it simple and maybe come back with a follow up video on advanced mixing options?
3. Outputs
   1. What can you do with outputs? (You can address the really cool stuff, but there are enough videos of people showing off how smart they are. Focus on the basics so that single mom can get her kid's plan in the sky!)
   2. Why would you want to do that?
   3. Here's how you would do a few things
4. Here's an example of an airplane
   1. EZ First Flyers - how to set those up. I didn't even know they had a flight controller till I got on here!
   2. Mighty Mini Trainer
      1. 3 Channel
      2. 4 Channel
      3. There's also a need to explain how to set something up with the Aura. Litterbug can't spend 2hrs on the phone with everyone! (Thanks again)
   3. Maybe a Kraken or something else with twin props. I've seen a lot of questions on setting these up with differential thrust / aura setup.

1. Setting up an Aura - This needs to be it's own video. I watched your video on setting it up so many times... but I didn't have the exact same transmitter, so nothing seemed to apply to me. This is another area I had to walk away multiple times in order to not loose my cool. If Litterbug hadn't volunteered to walk me through it, I likely would have given up and walked away from flying all together. That said, if the above video was made first and then a "let me hold your hand and walk you through setting up the aura on your Edge TX transmitter" (for the above airplanes in section 4) video came out, it would go a long way! I still don't know if the Aura config tool on my PC was required, but I had it, so we used it.
   1. My biggest frustration with the Aura in general was that once I bought it, I felt like I was on my own... good luck... downstream without a paddle. Maybe there have been some videos put out since then that better explain it, I haven't checked. What I want to communicate is that it didn't feel like there was any support from the Flight Test team on this one. I felt very lost and without this forum, I would probably be bitter right now. Not everyone is going to join a forum and put in the time asking for help.

Like yourself, I am not trying to be rude or judgmental here. I think you guys do an absolutely awesome job with your fun videos. That's what got us sucked into this in the first place! However, on the technical side, if you can provide the basic support so an average 3rd grade student can figure it out on their own, or offer some sort of customer support hotline where somebody can walk your customer through their difficulties, the hurdle of fear (before they make an order) and frustration (after they make an order) will be greatly reduced and I would think your company would see more sales. During all of my experience trying to figure this stuff out, my wife asked me multiple times if you guys have any customer support... aside from waiting a few days for a response to my e-mail, I couldn't find any. That is enough to make people hesitant to put in an order with Flight Test and I would think that means it is something you would want to change. However, people cost money to staff... I get it.

This is all the opinion of a simple mechanical engineer, who might not represent the average joe... but I think I'm close! You, as CEO, obviously get to factor what I have to say into how you run your business. I'd be happy to talk on the phone about it more if you'd like... after the kids get in bed... it's taken me multiple sits at the PC to bang all this out.



Well... I've been bitten by the electric fence a few times myself... but I never tried peeing on it... so I'm not yet sure which one that makes me!

I might be interested in taking you up on the phone call. I looked into Flightfest, but with 7 kids under 13, I'm not sure if my wife will ever sign up for taking all of us down there to go camping... especially when she's still nursing. I'd love to do it, but I've yet to figure out how to balance the cost to attend and make it work for my family.

This is very helpful! Thank you for taking the time to detail your recommendations! And, thanks to other posters for their excellent recommendations and comments!

 

[Clintonious]

So I'm curious... is that normal?

1. The issue where the aileron ramps the motors up to full throttle (equally) when I bump it when the throttle is at -100%.
2. I didn't think I put very much glue on the back of the plane, but I needed two of the nuts provided up in the nose for counterweight to get the CG in the right place. This was for the Canard model. I'm guessing this will cause it to need to fly faster, although I may need to shift the CG a little aft once I can get it out in the open.

This is very helpful! Thank you for taking the time to detail your recommendations! And, thanks to other posters for their excellent recommendations and comments!

I hope it was helpful. Like I said, I'd love to make a video on all this myself... but I don't have the knowledge or the time anymore... and I'm probably on the wrong forum for the videos I have made...

 

[Foamforce]

1. The issue where the aileron ramps the motors up to full throttle (equally) when I bump it when the throttle is at -100%.

Yup, that’s normal for the EZ pack. I haven’t tried yet, but I think a solution would be to add a mix so that there’s always a small amount of throttle. I have a kill switch set up in mine, so I could mix 1% off that into throttle. That way there would always be a tiny bit of throttle when the plane was armed.

Alternately, I could set up a logical switch so that if the throttle stick position was -100 and if aileron stick position was not 0, then True. I could then mix that into throttle. That way it would always apply a little throttle whenever ailerons were used.

Fwiw, I have no idea why the EZ pack behaves like this, but it’s sure surprised me a few times when trying to land it!

 

[Clintonious]

Good to know, thank you! Good idea on the logic too...

 

[Kralisshela]

So I sent it off on it's maiden flight yesterday... we're definitely going to need to go to the park where there is more room to fly! It's almost big enough with the dual rates... almost. One thing I did notice, though, is that with throttle at -100%, if I bump the aileron, the props start spinning at 100%. Anyone have any thoughts on how to fix this? I need to set a throttle kill switch (and a flight timer)*... but this is something I'm a little worried about if my kids are wanting to fly.
*I think I can figure these out... if I can find that one video again...


Dave,

Nope, no offense taken! I'll say, when I first, two years ago, got a transmitter and Mighty Mini Trainer, I went through all the videos I could find. I downloaded the EdgeTX Companion and watched those videos... and stumbled my way through it... but it never saw an explanation that clearly laid it out. I got so frustrated with all the videos that didn't help me that I had to set it down and walk away from it for a few weeks. Yes, I did eventually get help from the videos, including RC Video Reviews... but it took me a long time to piece it all together. Maybe this is why I was a mechanical engineer instead of software?

Now I understand that if I am suffering from this much frustration, there's going to be a significant portion of the population that is also excluded from this hobby and your sales will never be what they could... so it's obviously in your best interest to help fix this. I'm tired of being frustrated, so I'm more than happy to tell you about it. It reminds me of something I learned in science class, as this is something of a symbiotic relationship.

All that out of the way, if I understood it and had time to make the video myself (see number of kids below), I would lay it out like this. My thought is that there should be beginners guide to EdgeTX. Rabbit trail: I can imagine a lot of different people who would want this kind of video... Example - A single mom who got her son what he asked for for Christmas and doesn't know a single thing about airplanes trying to help her son fly. My wife is not technically minded. There is no way she would ever even attempt this.

[Maybe this is a business opportunity - sell a technical support package along with a kit? Somebody to talk on the phone with that can guide somebody through the process? I still think a good video would be better, but something to consider.]

1. Inputs
   1. Two different possibilities
      1. Here's what the inputs page looks like on a color screen
      2. Here's what it looks like on a b&w screen
      3. When it says X on a color screen, it's the same as Y on the black and white screen.
         1. (I know the symbols are a little different. This has thrown me off a few times.)
   2. Here's what you do here on the inputs tab
      1. As I understand it, this is where you tell the controller that you are later on going to want to use certain switches.
      2. Does it make any difference the order they are in?
      3. For each input, you can long enter and edit it...
         1. Input - you can assign letters and numbers here - where does this get used?
         2. Name - you can assign letters and numbers here - where does this get used?
         3. Source: I know this one! The easy way - You scroll down to it, long hold and then move something on your transmitter and it will automatically pick the hardware your just manipulated. The hard way - You can also long hold and select it from a long list of options.
      4. You can do other stuff here too... weights, rates, curves, etc... but I don't think that should be covered in a beginner level video.
      5. Note - I honestly can't remember where AETR and all the other combos of that show up, so this might be a good place to add a short video segment on wherever that gets applied. I recall working through this 2 years ago and then Litterbug had me change to something else to make it easier when we set up the Aura...
   3. Throughout each section you would explain why you do it like this with the eventual working up towards the airplane application example (main bullet number 5).
2. Mixes
   1. What can you do with mixes
   2. Why would you want to do that?
   3. Here's how you would do a few things
      1. Examples:
         1. When you want to have a smooth turn (I don't remember what it's called) and you don't want to do any aerobatics, you could mix your rudder and ailerons.
         2. I can't think of anything else... I probably don't know enough.
      2. Keep it simple and maybe come back with a follow up video on advanced mixing options?
3. Outputs
   1. What can you do with outputs? (You can address the really cool stuff, but there are enough videos of people showing off how smart they are. Focus on the basics so that single mom can get her kid's plan in the sky!)
   2. Why would you want to do that?
   3. Here's how you would do a few things
4. Here's an example of an airplane
   1. EZ First Flyers - how to set those up. I didn't even know they had a flight controller till I got on here!
   2. Mighty Mini Trainer
      1. 3 Channel
      2. 4 Channel
      3. There's also a need to explain how to set something up with the Aura. Litterbug can't spend 2hrs on the phone with everyone! (Thanks again)
   3. Maybe a Kraken or something else with twin props. I've seen a lot of questions on setting these up with differential thrust / aura setup.

1. Setting up an Aura - This needs to be it's own video. I watched your video on setting it up so many times... but I didn't have the exact same transmitter, so nothing seemed to apply to me. This is another area I had to walk away multiple times in order to not loose my cool. If Litterbug hadn't volunteered to walk me through it, I likely would have given up and walked away from flying all together. That said, if the above video was made first and then a "let me hold your hand and walk you through setting up the aura on your Edge TX transmitter" (for the above airplanes in section 4) video came out, it would go a long way! I still don't know if the Aura config tool on my PC was required, but I had it, so we used it.
   1. My biggest frustration with the Aura in general was that once I bought it, I felt like I was on my own... good luck... downstream without a paddle. Maybe there have been some videos put out since then that better explain it, I haven't checked. What I want to communicate is that it didn't feel like there was any support from the Flight Test team on this one. I felt very lost and without this forum, I would probably be bitter right now. Not everyone is going to join a forum and put in the time asking for help.

Like yourself, I am not trying to be rude or judgmental here. I think you guys do an absolutely awesome job with your fun videos. That's what got us sucked into this in the first place! However, on the technical side, if you can provide the basic support so an average 3rd grade student can figure it out on their own, or offer some sort of customer support hotline where somebody can walk your customer through their difficulties, the hurdle of fear (before they make an order) and frustration (after they make an order) will be greatly reduced and I would think your company would see more sales. During all of my experience trying to figure this stuff out, my wife asked me multiple times if you guys have any customer support... aside from waiting a few days for a response to my e-mail, I couldn't find any. That is enough to make people hesitant to put in an order with Flight Test and I would think that means it is something you would want to change. However, people cost money to staff... I get it.

This is all the opinion of a simple mechanical engineer, who might not represent the average joe... but I think I'm close! You, as CEO, obviously get to factor what I have to say into how you run your business. I'd be happy to talk on the phone about it more if you'd like... after the kids get in bed... it's taken me multiple sits at the PC to bang all this out.



Well... I've been bitten by the electric fence a few times myself... but I never tried peeing on it... so I'm not yet sure which one that makes me!

I might be interested in taking you up on the phone call. I looked into Flightfest, but with 7 kids under 13, I'm not sure if my wife will ever sign up for taking all of us down there to go camping... especially when she's still nursing. I'd love to do it, but I've yet to figure out how to balance the cost to attend and make it work for my family.

You're right, it would be great to have a guide that would allow a newcomer to fully understand. Quite difficult to figure out without the appropriate background. Yes, I'm not an engineer

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I tried asking the gpt chat, but it seems more like an essay helper to me. I saw https://chat.openai.com/g/g-a0ULgFcuZ-essay-helper which is specially configured for this. And I prefer to ask people about technology.

 

[Foamforce]

Yup, that’s normal for the EZ pack. I haven’t tried yet, but I think a solution would be to add a mix so that there’s always a small amount of throttle. I have a kill switch set up in mine, so I could mix 1% off that into throttle. That way there would always be a tiny bit of throttle when the plane was armed.

Alternately, I could set up a logical switch so that if the throttle stick position was -100 and if aileron stick position was not 0, then True. I could then mix that into throttle. That way it would always apply a little throttle whenever ailerons were used.

Fwiw, I have no idea why the EZ pack behaves like this, but it’s sure surprised me a few times when trying to land it!

I finally tried this today and it worked well. Since I have a kill switch that reduces throttle to zero, I just added a bit of offset to the throttle so that the throttle is always active unless the kill switch overrides it. Also, I found that there was about an 15% dead band at the bottom of the throttle, so I increased the offset to eliminate that too. All of the funny behavior is gone and I had some of my most successful flights with the EZ pack today. I think that behavior must have been messing me up in the air before. I just have to hit the kill switch before I land.

I had another thought about it after I flew today. It takes a bit to get used to the fact that your throttle is your pitch control. It’s set up on your throttle stick because it is, in fact, throttle, but you don’t use it to change speed like on a normal plane. Since speed <is> pitch, you really only have pitch control and not independent speed control. So now I’m considering moving throttle over to the right stick where elevator would normally be. If I can get the center position tweaked just right, it might feel natural. Of course, this is just for fun. It flies just fine with throttle on the left.