Q&A Livestream Question Post Thread

Spektrum is more than enough? My question to Josh, why do people hate on spektrum? Yes they are "pricey" so is the tyranis but I've been running 11ms latency forever with tiny spektrum sats HAVE NEVER even had a brown out with this setup. And with the new racing rxs I can fly to the moon. I also watch people like mcfly who got me into this, and I've seen him fly further than anyone else I have ever seen running 5.8vid and his signal was still almost full at a mile more out.. Is it simply opion or is say a Spektrum Dx8 newer version or older really any worse than Tyranis as I honestly think the stock gimbals are FAR better on my spektrum radios but is that my opinion overstepping critical thinking? Thanks n sorry if you have answered this b4...

Do we, (everyone but tiny woopers) need to go through the bs of re registration? Under the new regulations, and more importantly are they the same as before? If not can u sum up what has changed, for the better, or worse, in laymen terminology? Thanks Josh, I hope this helps all of us to better understand what, if anything we can do to stay on the media's good side, and can u see anything positive coming from this, Is there any "silver lining" or is this just a sign of what's to come? Ps. Could the introduction of things like the illegal 70 band VTXs, be one of the reasons for this? Thanks as always from Fla... ☺️

Nice! Count me in.

What FC is in it? An F3 can't be overclocked.

Good morning Sir J.B well I been watching and listening I think but I have the Eachine Wizard x220 and I updated the beta flight to what u posted on the web and it’s the 3.3.0 the Kalman filter...and now my Quad come on but flip right off take off and I seen when u showed the video and u ran and that’s the only thing I was thinking from there I F%^* up somewhere can u please help me again and I thought I was paying attention but I guess I wasn’t so sorry...

No, it doesn't matter. It's just a question of logistics when it comes time to repair the quad.

Joshua Bardwell

First round of testing is happening now. Release of results will depend on whether I find any flaws in my test protocol. So consider this a Release Candidate.

Joshua Bardwell

I know most prefer FrSky. I came over from flying fixed wing and I have a lot invested in Spektrum...not to say I love it. it's fine but nothing amazing. I just haven't made a switch to a dedicated radio for FPV yet

The balance connector is needed on LiPos. LiPos that don't have it probably have an internal balance circuit. You can build a no-solder quad today. There used to be pins on FC and we all used servo connectors. Direct-solder is lighter and more secure and lets you get the wire lengths exactly right.

Joshua Bardwell

I'm flying the Acrobee, but I'm not sure how that falls into the bang-for-buck spectrum. It has lots of bang but I'm not familiar enough with the ecosystem to say whether it's a good value compared to what else is out there.

Joshua Bardwell

No, I don't think it's likely that the analog RX is causing it. But I still think you will like flying on a serial RX better.

Joshua Bardwell

p.s. I will swap to a regular speksat

I just received an HGLRC XJB 145....the pre soldered pigtail for attaching the RC Rx is supplying 5v power. For a quickie flight, I attached an orange cppm DSMX satellite (which runs on 3.7-9.6v). The default ESC settings were DSHOT600. I flew on 4s today (maiden plus 2 batts). On punch out, there was a notable 'harmonic' sound from the motors. wah...wah...wah...wah. it was fast regardless. But, the noise seemed odd. sounded like it was from all 4 motors. Any chance the analog rx with DSHOT is causing this?

I asked in the wrong place: for small quads using an whip antenna on the VTX, is there any difference in using RHCP or LHCP antennae on the goggles?

tested motor inductance all 3 phases 23 nH yes drops on motor #3 every time

Hey Joshua, I am trying to get Smartaudio working with my Mach2 VTX - I have a Seriously Dodo FC (BTFL 3.2.3 (Target: RMDO) with the audio on the Mach2 soldered to pin 5 (softserial1 Tx) and I selected TBS Smartaudio on ports page for soft serial 1. Problem is my Taranis only shows 0 for the band/channel/power on the LUA script. Any ideas? Thanks, keep up the great work!

I have a HGLRC F440 with blheli32 esc 4-1 After reunning on 4s i get the flip of death on throttle punches. Upped my digital idle % a small bit at a time and 20% is where it works at, Why so high?

Thanks man. I saw your IG post, but i'm eager for the video!

Thankyou! Vbat sensing is the third one :)

​Asking for a friend - would those Samguk DYS 2207/2300kv motors be too much for a 4" quad? Any downsides of using these motors on 4" props?

I have a old fc and the usb plug is starting to not work. Is there any options to save the fc

Any new thoughts on the Lumenier POPO system? Have you tested it yet?

Hi mate, is it possible to remap any fc pad to use for current sensing? I heard it needs to be an adc pad?

Joshua can you please talk about some good bang for your buck options for people wanting to get into whoops?

my all in one esc's what the pads coming out of the side.. and i normally solder to the top of the pad but i want to know if you can solder to the bottom of it as well and still be fine or if it has to be on top

Can you elaborate?

Joshua Bardwell

yes i was wondering if its safe to use the bottom pad on a 4 in 1 esc to hook up the motor wires

I have a question: I have an AXII LHCP U.FL antenna (<a href="http://rotorgeeks.com/index.php?route=product/product&amp;product_id=831)" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://rotorgeeks.com/index.php?route=product/product&amp;product_id=831)</a> and want to change its connector to MMCX. Can this be done just by cutting off the old connector and soldering MMCX or should I be aware of some conditions (changing antenna capacitance or otherwise detuning it is some way). Thanks!

Maciej Janowski

Your thoughts on the future of connectors. Will we always have separate main/balance connectors for batteries? Will we ever be able to, and will we want to, be able to simply plug everything in to an FC without a single solder joint? Wouldn't this help lower the barrier to entry for the hobby? Why do we solder things like ESC signal wires, but plug in Vtx and FPV cams, even though reliability on the latter is arguably as, if not more, important? Does anyone actually crimp their own Vtx/FPV cam plugs? I could go on forever.

Hi Josh, I recently got a R-XSR but have not been able to get it working. It does not get recognized by the FC as a receiver. It will pass telemetry and I get a great RSSI signal. It is set as SBUS (green light is on) and my Taranis gets all the telemetry. I can plug in an XSR (after moving the signal wire) and it immediately gets recognized by the FC. I have tried on on CL F4s and the JB F4 AIO. Could the receiver just be BAD? any other tests I can try?? It is upgraded with the latest firmware; as are the FCs. I don't have another R-XSR but all the XSRs I try work fine.

I think a lot of us want to know when the battery tester is going to be operational

Pagoda, axii, clover leaf for vtx and patch, pepperbox, helical for diversity on goggles (assuming a matching omnidirectional on goggles as well)? I've used clover leafs and Pagoda on quads, haven't tried axii yet. Pagoda works well but concerned about durability. Just broke a Pagoda and not sure which to replace it with. Have a Pagoda and a 3 turn helical on goggles now. Would like to standardize on something.., ;) but what?

Any updates on the Machine firmware?

Does the stacking order matter? I see most people put the FC at the bottom but would it matter if I put it in the middle of a stack, or mount it to the bottom of the top plate?

Another (smaller) issue I've run into is with VTX/OSD. The text and images displayed on goggles OSD is clear &amp; legible when quad is unarmed. But on arming, the OSD text becomes static-y, while the video feed remains clear throughout flight. I've soldered VTX (AKK FX3) power (+) directly to battery lead, and VTX ground onto one of the FC ground pads. The cam is powered (5V, RunCam micro swift) by VTX 5V/ground. Thanks again!

There is a lot of talk about the 6s "revolution" on the 5"-ish quad scene these days. Claims that we need to lower the amp draw and go the route via higher voltage and lower kv on our quads as the 4s batteries are not holding up to the development on the other hardware. Any thoughts on this ?

I've been building 3-4" quads, using DYS mini-F4 FC paired with DYS 18-22A 4-in-1 ESC. I've run through three of these ESCs when they seem to loose 1-2 motors after first few flights (which fly great!) I've remapped motors repeatedly (trying new ports that aren't assigned in CLI 'resources'), and this has worked once, but not 2 other times. Any advice on how to diagnose &amp; fix problems like this with 4-in-1 ESCs? Thanks!

JB - still having issues with desyncs. Why does the motor go to 100%? Also, discovered Oomph Titan motors with loose stators. I suspect this is the cause of the death spirals. Have video of stator. Check out <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/448033658718187/permalink/727363207451896" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/groups/448033658718187/permalink/727363207451896</a>and black box/video overlay <a href="https://youtu.be/ZvVqAR7gYQo" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/ZvVqAR7gYQo</a>

Do you think that its possible with the hardware and software available to us that we could see flight controllers with self adjusting PID's ? Possibly form small tweeks depending on flying aggressiveness up to self ajustment for oscillations and things like that.

I have a micro running an Omnibus F4 nano V5 and the ORI32 25A 4in1 ESC. I have calibrated the MAH usage to be spot on (using the OSD reading vs charger reading technique) but in doing so the current draw in my OSD is way off. It basically stays at 13amps, and actually drops about an amp under full throttle. How do I calibrate in Betaflight so both readings are correct.

Can a bad tune cause noisy video? I'm trying to get my video cleaned up, it's only noisy when armed and worse when I give it throttle. Short of adding a capacitor, what else can I do to help get this better? Also could my Rx antenna be interfering with my vtx antenna if the are close to each other?

1) If using a 4-in-1 ESC are you able to use low ESR capacitors and if so, how do you tell the "+" from the "-"? 2) If using a frame with only 3 screws for the motors, does soft mounting the motors create any issues since the soft mount pad isn't being "squished" where the 4th motor screw would go?

Does it bother you that you have made it impossible to locate a FrSky X9D Plus SE anywhere in the world? ;)

Joshua Hi, Following your review of the RDQ Mach2 / AKK VTX ... many people including my self bought and used those units, now BF 3.3 is around the corner and as you know ... someonce (I guess) from TBS submitted a PR to BF fixing a bug ( it was a big bug - trappy doesn't like this one :) ) ... I've been on Slack a bit with some Devs: 1. They don't like AKK it's a fact. 2. They don't want to make any workaround for BF 3.3 3. It seems that in BF 3.4 pending "serial port" refactoring, we will have the option to use AKK units again. 4. Solution provided by AKK sucks, they offer 50 % of new units (currently under testing) or send them back for repair. The most upsetting part is that this BUG ( BIG BUG) is merelly one line of code , <a href="https://github.com/betaflight/betaflight/pull/4636/files" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://github.com/betaflight/betaflight/pull/4636/files</a>#diff-c0a4abaf6a65421e2c36aa0e5b297a76L685%23L682 Line 682, added two stopbits to the packet, revert this or make additional protocol will take someone who is in the code 10 min top ... but again they won't allow bugs in their code. So given your recommendation and this situation ... at least talk about this few min ...

What are your tips and tricks for protecting a Go Pro? Any specific mounts, lens protectors etc? Also any opinion on Session4 vs Session5? Maybe these would be good to add to your FPV-know-it-all shopping list.

Any general tips for tuning 6”?