PsyBorg
Wake up! Time to fly!
Well I have jumped on to the Taranis bus recently and picked up a Taranis Plus and an X4R
receiver to go with it. I have a few thoughts on this, the kiss set up and the Alien frame
and what I have observed with using them.
First I will start with the newest acquisition the Taranis. I will compare it to my Devo7 as that
is my only radio I have flown quads with. The old Futabas and Sanwa systems were old school plane
and heli radios and FM so nothing in the same realm to compare. The weather has been crappy up until
this past weekend where both days were nice enough to go fly outside so the first days were all on
the sims.
I am getting used to the subtle difference in size and weight so that was a very minor hurdle. The
plastic casing seems "thin" compared to the Devo and maybe that is nothing but a weight issue but
it feels different and I have less confidence about it taking bumps and knocks compared to the Devo.
I liked the fact it came with a four hole strap hook to balance the radio and help manage the hand
stress +2 for that. The software to set it up... all I will say is Uhhhg. I got thru it and now am
reasonably familiar with most of its operations. Thank God for FT forums and you tube. Other wise
I dont believe this radio will have ever gotten so popular. The plus side is I agree that this thing
will do nearly everything short of cooking and cleaning house.
How it flew.. In the sims I use it is easy to set up and has upped my game as far as my abilities.
The only thing I did not like is the usb port on the back of the radio. I feel it would better serve
me any ways to have the port on the side or even the top instead. I am not sure but I think this has
a higher resolution digitally then the devo 7 but that had to be interfaced thu an analog converter
to use for sim flying so that could be the loss of the finer control. I think I will have to open it
up and find better spring resistance to the sticks as I always feel slightly off when using the
Taranis. For now I will leave it as is and see if that goes away.
When I finally did get it out in the real world on a real quad I noticed more how much more smooth it
was specifically how I can make finer pitch changes and not porpus or have to cut throttle to drop
down into a better gate line. Now to qualify I will say the quad is set up exactly as I had it with
the Devo 7 as far as rates and pids. The only change I did was actually set expo on the flight controller
and not in the radio like I did with the Devo. I will have to change my rates higher but that was in
the plan anyway as I had progressed past what I had set using the Devo.
Interaction with the KISS FC on my Alien build. I am not overwhelmed as much as I thought by all the
hype as I anticipated. It has good points and bad but this is not a nitpick it to death thread. The
one MAJOR issue I am seriously not happy with is the fact I now have mid throttle oscillations really
bad. The Quad shakes worse then a chihuahua now where it NEVER did that before on the Walkera setup.
Now that said, I was running ppm not sbus so THAT may be what is the root cause of the mid throttle
shake n bake.
Lastly as this is kind of long winded Is an overview of this set up and the questions that have come up.
With only 10 packs in real flying vs probably a good 25 hours already of sim time with it I think it
is a step forward. The minor problems with it for me can be cured over time. I think I will look into
repainting it and using a textured paint to solve the grip issues. While it is open I will change spring
tensions to get the feel I am used to. More time programming and changing things will help with the
software dread I am sure. Now for questions.
First and foremost is those mid throttle oscillations that I now get. I will post some video of the
same track I used in my last video where there were no oscillations to show how bad they are. That
brings up the question of the oscillations caused by the Taranis / sbus protocols and NOT the KISS
FC or software that runs it. If I did not have them on PPM using Walkera gear and the only thing
that has changed is the radio and receiver that kind of points in "A" direction for the developers
of both KISS software and the Taranis / open TX devs to look to solve a common and predominant issue.
Second has anyone come up with a viable fix thru tuning to get rid of all or most of these shakes.
I know Steele and the RR crew that use KISS setups managed to do this but they have years on me for
tuning. I am already very similar to what Steels posted pids are by using Skitzo's tuning method but
I like many others have them.
Third is how come this quad does not seem to be as fast as others in videos I have seen. Is the
weight difference for the 5x4x3 props spooling faster enough to change top end verses 5x4.5x3
heavier props. Do the motors lose that much rpm from the added weight? Also what is an avg top
speed in MPH for the stock RR Alien 5 inch build with the KISS setup and the Lumenier 2350 motors?
I figured someone would have clocked them with a radar gun but I cant seem to find any results.
Well that's long winded enough to hopefully drive some discussion and maybe help me learn some more
as well as answer them for others I am sure are scratching their head as well.
receiver to go with it. I have a few thoughts on this, the kiss set up and the Alien frame
and what I have observed with using them.
First I will start with the newest acquisition the Taranis. I will compare it to my Devo7 as that
is my only radio I have flown quads with. The old Futabas and Sanwa systems were old school plane
and heli radios and FM so nothing in the same realm to compare. The weather has been crappy up until
this past weekend where both days were nice enough to go fly outside so the first days were all on
the sims.
I am getting used to the subtle difference in size and weight so that was a very minor hurdle. The
plastic casing seems "thin" compared to the Devo and maybe that is nothing but a weight issue but
it feels different and I have less confidence about it taking bumps and knocks compared to the Devo.
I liked the fact it came with a four hole strap hook to balance the radio and help manage the hand
stress +2 for that. The software to set it up... all I will say is Uhhhg. I got thru it and now am
reasonably familiar with most of its operations. Thank God for FT forums and you tube. Other wise
I dont believe this radio will have ever gotten so popular. The plus side is I agree that this thing
will do nearly everything short of cooking and cleaning house.
How it flew.. In the sims I use it is easy to set up and has upped my game as far as my abilities.
The only thing I did not like is the usb port on the back of the radio. I feel it would better serve
me any ways to have the port on the side or even the top instead. I am not sure but I think this has
a higher resolution digitally then the devo 7 but that had to be interfaced thu an analog converter
to use for sim flying so that could be the loss of the finer control. I think I will have to open it
up and find better spring resistance to the sticks as I always feel slightly off when using the
Taranis. For now I will leave it as is and see if that goes away.
When I finally did get it out in the real world on a real quad I noticed more how much more smooth it
was specifically how I can make finer pitch changes and not porpus or have to cut throttle to drop
down into a better gate line. Now to qualify I will say the quad is set up exactly as I had it with
the Devo 7 as far as rates and pids. The only change I did was actually set expo on the flight controller
and not in the radio like I did with the Devo. I will have to change my rates higher but that was in
the plan anyway as I had progressed past what I had set using the Devo.
Interaction with the KISS FC on my Alien build. I am not overwhelmed as much as I thought by all the
hype as I anticipated. It has good points and bad but this is not a nitpick it to death thread. The
one MAJOR issue I am seriously not happy with is the fact I now have mid throttle oscillations really
bad. The Quad shakes worse then a chihuahua now where it NEVER did that before on the Walkera setup.
Now that said, I was running ppm not sbus so THAT may be what is the root cause of the mid throttle
shake n bake.
Lastly as this is kind of long winded Is an overview of this set up and the questions that have come up.
With only 10 packs in real flying vs probably a good 25 hours already of sim time with it I think it
is a step forward. The minor problems with it for me can be cured over time. I think I will look into
repainting it and using a textured paint to solve the grip issues. While it is open I will change spring
tensions to get the feel I am used to. More time programming and changing things will help with the
software dread I am sure. Now for questions.
First and foremost is those mid throttle oscillations that I now get. I will post some video of the
same track I used in my last video where there were no oscillations to show how bad they are. That
brings up the question of the oscillations caused by the Taranis / sbus protocols and NOT the KISS
FC or software that runs it. If I did not have them on PPM using Walkera gear and the only thing
that has changed is the radio and receiver that kind of points in "A" direction for the developers
of both KISS software and the Taranis / open TX devs to look to solve a common and predominant issue.
Second has anyone come up with a viable fix thru tuning to get rid of all or most of these shakes.
I know Steele and the RR crew that use KISS setups managed to do this but they have years on me for
tuning. I am already very similar to what Steels posted pids are by using Skitzo's tuning method but
I like many others have them.
Third is how come this quad does not seem to be as fast as others in videos I have seen. Is the
weight difference for the 5x4x3 props spooling faster enough to change top end verses 5x4.5x3
heavier props. Do the motors lose that much rpm from the added weight? Also what is an avg top
speed in MPH for the stock RR Alien 5 inch build with the KISS setup and the Lumenier 2350 motors?
I figured someone would have clocked them with a radar gun but I cant seem to find any results.
Well that's long winded enough to hopefully drive some discussion and maybe help me learn some more
as well as answer them for others I am sure are scratching their head as well.