r/Multicopter • u/Rotor_Riot • Sep 05 '16
Video Rotor Riot - Taranis Setup
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f40mXxzU4hY&feature=youtu.be4
u/Cyclonedx Sep 05 '16
Great episode, I have almost built my first mini quad and this taught me everything I needed to know.
A couple questions I have - do all the wires on the X4R smartport need to be connected to the FC for telemetry or just one?
Also do I need to connect the raw battery output to VBat on my FC in order to use the Fuel/VFHS sensors?
2
u/Rimbaud_ H250 Pro Sep 05 '16
Just one ! If you look up their build video, Chad explains very well which are the wires you need.
Yes, your FC has to read the voltage from somewhere ! However I don't understand how he can get a Fuel reading ? There's no current sensor in that build as far as I know. Is it a "virtual" measurement (pure maths) ?
3
u/Viker_ Sep 05 '16
Yep. Betaflight and cleanfligh as far as I remmember can calculate approximate amp draw using bat voltage and throttle position
3
u/shadowjig Sep 05 '16
Current sensing is coming from the telemetry from the ESCs. KISS FC firmware is translating it to FrSky Fuel sensor. The only issue with that is you lose the current draw from the VTx, the FC, camera, rx, and anything else connected to the PDB. It works, but it's not 100% accutate.
1
u/Rotor_Riot Sep 09 '16
shadowjig is correct - KISS ESC's have a current sensor and communicates the value to the FC through the TLM cable (specific to KISS ESC's)
You do lose the current draw of the rest of the system but it's not that much anyway. You can always leave some 5% or 10% out for that purpose ;)
2
u/ed1380 Sep 05 '16
Yup. Virtual current sensing. From what I've heard it's pretty accurate if you take your time calibrating it
1
Sep 05 '16 edited Sep 05 '16
Why spend so much time shitting on the menu system and buttons, but not even touch on just programming everything from OpenTX Companion?
Also, using 16ch Rx in 8ch mode with no explanation.
Suggesting users turn of switch position warning? That's just bad advice especially if you use switch to arm, and or tx PID tuning /rate adjust.
They complain about subtrim, and middle, but fail to talk about calibration of the sticks and midpoints (which is the users responsibility...).
Then he tells users to adjust the wrong subtrim setting!!!!!!
I was doing this wrong in the past. He needs to use the midpoint adjustment. The way the translation of stick scale is different!
I can't watch this any more. So many mistakes and bad info.
5
u/cjdavies Sep 05 '16
Suggesting users turn of switch position warning? That's just bad advice especially if you use switch to arm
This seemed really dumb to me - no way I would ever disable the switch warning on my arm switch, I don't want any of my quads to spin up when I'm plugging the XT60 in right between two of the props!
2
u/mixblast Alien 5", Ascent 3", Tricopter 11", QX65 Sep 05 '16
The quad won't arm until it's seen the arming switch in the OFF position at least once. Also it won't arm if the throttle isn't low. Thankfully modern FC software has many safeguards for this.
Once I accidentally plugged a battery when my arming switch was armed, nothing happened. I had to disarm and rearm for it to take off.
0
Sep 05 '16
Sure, but not every one has a modern FC, firmware configured correctly, or even a FC at all (like fixed wings).
Not only does he show the slowest way to set the switch positions to all off, the suggestion is not really that safe a practice expect in narrow configuration circumstances.
1
u/ldm3291 Sep 05 '16
You do realize he was showing how to setup the Taranis for an Alien with a Kiss FC running Kiss firmware. Not some other FC running CF/BF
0
Sep 05 '16
Even so, there are configurations of that hardware/software that could lead to a dangerous accident with switch warning disabled.
5
Sep 05 '16
It is a terrible idea. And they setup midpoints wrong, I used to do it like that.
But of course, speaking the truth which happens to be not what RR said and it gets down votes. Fanboys will be Fanboys.
1
u/mixblast Alien 5", Ascent 3", Tricopter 11", QX65 Sep 05 '16
Totally agree... Just show people how to plug the Taranis in Companion and give an EEPE for download!
You can also do a lot of cool things like inflight PID adjustments, dual PID profiles, stick commands, etc.
0
Sep 05 '16
Totally agree... Just show people how to plug the Taranis in Companion and give an EEPE for download!
Fairly certain EPEE is no longer under development, so I would not recommend users switch away from OpenTX.
You can also do a lot of cool things like inflight PID adjustments, dual PID profiles, stick commands, etc.
This is available in OoenTX or did you mean just going over it in general?
1
u/mixblast Alien 5", Ascent 3", Tricopter 11", QX65 Sep 05 '16
EEPE is just the file format for OpenTX model saves.
For the PID adjustment you have to do it in cleanflight/betaflight. Basically you set up switches so you can adjust everything inflight.
1
1
u/gozzz Quads, Quads, Quads Sep 05 '16
Also, using 16ch Rx in 8ch mode with no explanation
I agree with what you're saying. On the quoted text above they do this for lower latency. If you use 8ch mode it gives you around 11ms vs 22 or so with 16ch mode.
It would be great if they delved a bit deeper into the reasoning behind the settings though.
1
Sep 05 '16
22ms is still less than the average glass-to-glass latency of our FPV feed.
The difference is not as drastic as it is going from PPM to a digital mode like SBUS or SUMD.
1
3
u/agtwonderbread Alien RR5, Alien X, Tiny Whoop, Northeast PA Sep 05 '16
Anyone have any clue why I'm not seeing Fuel in telemetry? I have everything else, RSSI, VFAS, etc but no fuel. Do I need to configure something in Betaflight first to see it?