Naze32 PID tuning QAV250 FAIL

brdw

Junior Member
I've recently built a QAV250 with a Naze32 Acro and Cleanflight. I have had several successful flights with the default settings but it doesn't feel particularly locked in and wind can easily push it around. I've calibrated the accelerometer/gyro and am running 1.9 firmware. I also lowered my P gain slightly because of high pitched oscillations on ascent.

After watching Flitetest's and other videos for PID tuning they all suggest doing P first, with I and D at zero. Some people then move on to I and D, or D and then I. I recently attempted to do this twice with different initial P settings and both times my quad was unable to take off and immediately went into a violent roll which destroyed my props.

So my question is what's a good starting place for P with I and D at 0?

I've also been tempted to take it up and try autotune but it seems like people have various luck with this, working for some and causing crashes for others.
 

makattack

Winter is coming
Moderator
Mentor
Hi brdw! Welcome to the FTForums and sorry to hear you've been frustrated with the PID tuning. Yeah, you're not alone.

I'm no expert, but I do hope some of them will pipe up here. That said, I do know that if you're setting I and D to zero, with a 250 sized/mini quad, you will be making the P term the most significant control factor... which basically raises your P variable higher than before zero'ing I and D.

I assume you're using the default controller? (see https://github.com/cleanflight/cleanflight/blob/master/docs/PID tuning.md to find out more about the different controllers)

I don't know if it's the same... I don't use the default 0 controller, but I think the closest I use is PIDC 3 which is the "MultiWii23" and on my 250 sized quad, it flies nicely with Pitch set to (P,I,D) 33,8,8, roll 33,8,8 and Yaw 63,1,0 on 1.9.0 -- but YMMV...
 

Snarls

Gravity Tester
Mentor
I personally would start with the stock values for your PID controller. They should at least get you flying. Instead of lowering I and D all the way to 0 I find it a lot easier to tune with just a little I and D, enough to keep the copter stable. I use like 0.10-0.15 I and 10-15 D to start with PID2 (Luxfloat). Violent roll after take off could mean your P gain is too high and oscillating out of control, or even too low and you are over correcting it. If you need help tuning all three P,I, and D let me know and I can link some helpful videos and threads.