Arducopter Tuning (AUTOTUNE, PIDs & FILTERS, FLIGHT TESTS!)

[@TMacFPV]

After further tuning revisions after this video was published, I now have my parameter (for this particular quadcopter) ATC_THR_MIX_MAN=4 . Like the Arducopter video series? Want to see more? Remember to check out my site at tmacfpv.com/ for more fun, useful FPV info & product recommendations! Congratulations Bryan W! You are the Winner of the FatStraps Goggle Strap Giveaway! Please contact me at email: [e-mail] for verification and to claim your prize!

[@kennethlagoniolsen7890]

TMac thank you for a great video! - one question, do you mean ATC_THR_MIX_MAN=4 or 0.4? - the range is 0.1 to 0.9 so a bit confused here.

[@kennethlagoniolsen7890]

Just found this in the code: " if (_thr_mix_man < 0.1f || _thr_mix_man > AC_ATTITUDE_CONTROL_MAN_LIMIT) { // parameter description recommends thr-mix-man be no higher than 0.9 but we allow up to 4.0"

[@yuesungfung5491]

What element with change is whew go all the way to ATC thr mix man 4.0 isn’t that is for prevention flying away in low number ?

[@jackd6134]

THANKS for this! This video has got to be the best presentation I have seen on the multicopter tuning process. Finally someone has clearly deciphered and explained the tangled description found in the Arducopter documentation. And I'm not even an FPV drone builder.

[@brianparisien9262]

I just found this at the right time! Very useful explanations, and I appreciate the flow charts. Looking forward to exploring the rest of the videos. Thank-you for sharing your expertise and experience.

[@BrjanBuckmaster]

Thank you for this video! I just built a large quad - a Tarot 650 Sport that is powered with T-Motor MN5008 KV400 motors with 17” propellers. With the default PIDs the aircraft is a challenge to fly! I will follow your procedure to hopefully get a much more stable machine.

[@dawirelessg]

you are really knowledgeable. Thank you!!!! This helped me tremendously.

[@SKHADAR-f4w]

Dear TMac, Thanks so much for your wonderful explanation.

[@RobertSmith-wj7zf]

Thanks for the video. This weekend I will be applying this to my first quadcopter. An S500 Pixhawk 2.4.8. Cross your fingers... I don't see any fixed wing projects on your channel. I sure would like to see you do some videos for the new SpeedyBee F405 Wing APP Fixed Wing Flight Controller!

[@gregorykress1641]

TMac, thank you VERY much for videos like this. I am relatively new to drones and Arducopter. Your videos like this are taking me to the next level. I am your 45 like . . . and I just subscribed to your channel. I, like Brian W, noticed your Matek H743 flight controller and I am looking at branching out from the Pixhawk 2.4.8 that I learned on. I appreciate your videos!!

[@TMacFPV]

Thank you Gregory for making the time to share your thoughts. I'm excited for you to continue your Arducopter & Drone "Journey to Better!" Fly fearlessly & Clear Skies Gregory!💪👍

[@lioman2578]

Be healthy and Thank you!

[@bryanw9210]

Very interesting topic that no one else is covering much. I know you had a ton of time in the initial set up and the "Tmac Arducopter Tuning" tutorials so thank you!!! I'm going to buy the Matek H743 to replace my F722 on my Inav cinewhoop and follow your tutorial. I have a opflow/lidar sensor on it now and have been thinking about changing to Arducopter and a TF Mini lidar for better flight and position hold characteristics. I have a feeling I'll be watching these videos again. Thanks.

[@TMacFPV]

Sure thing Bryan! sounds like a fun project you've got ahead for yourself! I've got a couple different types of lidars on my workbench right now myself waiting to be installed. Looking forward to it

[@TMacFPV]

Congratulations Bryan! you are the FatStraps Goggle Strap Giveaway Winner! Please contact me at email: [e-mail] for verification and to claim your prize.

[@TMacFPV]

Hey Bryan, I responded to your email. Please let me know if you've received it. Thanks

[@bryanw9210]

@@TMacFPV Yes, thank you!

[@distantimagery2077]

Thanks a bunch, just swapping my multicopters over from A3 pro to Pixhawk and finding easy to digest instructions on PID tuning is difficult. This was a big help!

[@001Filler]

best setup video. excellent presentation of material. I followed your instructions step by step and set up the hexacopter. Thanks a lot. Hello from Abkhazia.

[@TMacFPV]

Thank you & Outstanding! Have fun flying and Clear Skies always!🌅

[@voxtelnismo]

Wow so much better than official documentation 😂

[@OlegShevtsov512]

I learned a lot from this video, thanks for making it and for sharing. Greetings from Ukraine.

[@TMacFPV]

👍

[@coddingslug1778]

Hey TMAC please make a dedicated video on just Throttle based Harmonic notch filter setup. Thanks in advance :)

[@tamburavadak]

You're a godsend.

[@EricGrumling]

Very helpful thank you.

[@SteveHill68K]

Thank you so much for this and the previous video. I'd been having trouble getting my hand-built 10" prop drone working well, and decided to give Ardupilot a try after watching your video. One question, do you mention *why* you adjust PSC_ACCZ_I and PSC_ACCZ_P values after the Altitude Hold test flight? Just trying to understand the process a little better. Thank you again.

[@robertparenton7470]

Thank You!

[@aleksanderpawelczyk5221]

thank you!

[@kacperadamus4714]

Great tutorial

[@TMacFPV]

Thank you! Glad you found it useful 👍

[@PakAerialMedia]

Superb video once again :)

[@TMacFPV]

Thank you 🙏

[@DiogoCaneco]

Hello, Thank you soo much for this. I come back over and over to this as documentation. Your website if down, is there anyone with the download tunning charts for safe keeping?

[@dr0n3droid]

Have you tested a more aggressive autotune? The moment I saw how autotune dropped D, I wondered if it's intentionally low for more docile characteristics. Edit: Please refrain from adding music to tuning flights. Hearing motors is so important. Can't wait to see the next one.

[@TMacFPV]

Reducing the D gain while maintaining the P gain constant (increasing the P / D ratio) actually makes the quad more "Aggressive." The Autotune Aggr value I used (as explained in the video) was 0.1. The range of values is 0.05 - 0.1 with 0.05 being weak, 0.075 being medium, and 0.10 being aggressive as explained here ardupilot.org/copter/docs/autotune.html . I have not attempted to exceed the range since (as explained in the video) I was already experiencing "overshoots" (P/D ration too high). I actually needed to reduce the P/D ratio

[@dr0n3droid]

@@TMacFPV Wasn't sure of the aggr range in autotune. I've been away for some time. Planning to attempt a 5" in the coming weeks. Admittedly talking out my a$$ here, but if autotune raised P and lowered D, that could account for the overshoot. How does it compare to pre-tune? P/D ratio is important as you say, but the higher they are overall while maintaining ratio, the more aggressively you can push it. The benefit of higher D gains is better prop wash performance. Again, top of my head with minimal tuning exp.

[@user-bv2kv8hx5d]

Thank you! But 33:14 - what was that? Oscillations on pitch? And after that, oszillation on yaw 33:25?

[@aryaaprillianzdelphi8380]

does all these methods can be applied for larger drone?

[@airfilm_it]

it could be useful to explain how to change the extended tuning parameters...how did you change those parameters??

[@TMacFPV]

I may have done that in this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z5XQc2ulj6uomaM

[@madladdan]

Tried doing a quicktune but it gets stuck on yaw_p 0.5. Any ideas? The notch filters also don't seem to do anything to the FFT logs.

[@kenmacirish]

6/22 - the Plug-in from Andras Schaffer is now built into MP.

[@wowthatflies]

Regarding acro, what about ATC_THR_MIX_MAN? The altitude-vs-attitude mix is very important to get right for good acro flights. I mean, ArduPilot is usually very picky about maintaining altitude, but in acro you want a sharp attitude control instead. And almost nobody knows that ATC_THR_MIX_* parameters are not constrained to [0;1]. "Good" acro starts with ATC_THR_MIX_MAN at maybe 2 or 3. This comes with a warning that the copter will behave funny at landing if still in acro, but well, one can switch modes anyway.

[@TMacFPV]

absolutely correct! I briefly went over the initial ATC_THR_MIX_MAN at this point in the video kzbin.info/www/bejne/d3eZknRor5ulntk . This was the initial tuning process. As mentioned toward the end of the video, it's useful to continue to revise your tune as you notice improvements can be made. In my case, after this video was published (and for this particular quadcopter), I have my ATC_THR_MIX_MAN=4 . I have covered either in this video (or the previous video in this ArduPilot series) the fact the values in the "Options column" of each parameter are not "hard nad fast" but suggested values for the default setups. Based on your pertinent comment, I have now included my revised ATC_THR_MIX_MAN setting in my pinned comment above.

[@Ronsand1]

Looks like there are some errors in the PDF tuning document for the 5in frame. I would assume that the PID values for the 5in frame should fall somewhat in between the data for the 10in and the 4in frame?

[@Kholeta]

Sir, thanks a lot for the detailed explanation, I only have one question regarding this parameter INS_HNTCH_FREQ , is it the same frequency of the peak frequency in the batch sample of the FFt logs, or half of it ? thank you

[@orientasiprodikelasA]

Hi TMac, I have a question for you regarding pre-Autotune. I did an interpolation using Matlab software to determine the parameter value according to the prop I used, which is 13". But when I try it, the result is negative. Is it possible that the PID is negative? Here is the interpolation code that I use in Matlab. % Sekumpulan titik data prop = [3, 4, 5, 10]; value = [0.055, 0.060, 0.125, 0.135]; % Titik-titik di antara titik data yang akan diinterpolasi xi = 3:1:15; % Melakukan interpolasi nonlinear dengan metode spline yi = spline(prop, value, xi); % Menampilkan data interpolasi dan titik data fprintf(' prop value ') fprintf('---------------------- ') for i = 1:length(xi) fprintf('%6.2f %6.2f ', xi(i), yi(i)) end I am very happy if you answer my question. Thank You

[@rooibaard123-w8m]

Hi. It does not seem that the short cut "Alt A" works for vtol setup,only for multirotor firmware( vtol uses plane firmwate) which is a pity because it is a quad after all and would be helpfull in the configuration.

[@asadkhan-mq8ro]

Where i can find the table like that for greater than 10'' props. I have 14 inch props.

[@Natsuluffy04]

Were you able to find it?

[@asadkhan-mq8ro]

@@Natsuluffy04 nope

[@healstudio189]

Could you please do the same with fixed wing drones?

[@ksped1]

TMac: I changed the Thro DZ to 300 to make it closer to the mid range and did a test flight everything worked great all the Flight Modes were tested 3 times P-hold, A-hold, Loiter, and RTL during the 15min test flight, I added RC 9 #17 for Auto Tune but can't find how to find auto tune axes to pick which one to tune first it doesn't show in Mission Planner.

[@TMacFPV]

Page 7 of Arducopter Tuning Process Charts available through the link in this video's description shows parameter you're looking for is AUTO_TUNE_AXES. Type this into Search Bar of Full Parameter List under config Tab in Mission Planner with quad connected to Mission Planner. If it still does not show up, perhaps you need to upload latest "Beta Version" of Mission Planner which is available at the bottom of the Mission Planner screen after you click on the "Help Tab" at the top of the screen

[@ksped1]

@@TMacFPV Thanks I got it with the beta version, When this thick fog lifts i'm going to try the auto tune my question is when you get a success in the goggles do you just throttle down and land then disarm to save that Auto Tune and unplug the drone? before flipping the switches back to off? I didn't see that in your video.

[@TMacFPV]

I speak about it beginning at this time mark kzbin.info/www/bejne/d3eZknRor5ulntk To save, simply land & disarm. No need to flip any switches. Just land & disarm

[@ksped1]

@@TMacFPV Hi well I got too much in a hurry and went to do the Auto Tune without changing to one thing at a time It did the roll first, then the pitch and then it started the yaw but it Batt Fail Safe and did RTL it landed then disarmed itself, Darn! So do i need to start over or do just the yaw again? Or does that wipe everything out when it went into the RTL mode?

[@顾兵-v3m]

the vedio is very helpful. but i still have the altitude hold mode problem, even i decrease the parameters psc_posz_p and psc_velz_p 50%, still cant get the altitude hold, the drone just bounce up and down, how can i fix this, thanks in advance

[@locho9442]

Did you ever got your althold fix? I am seeing bounce up and down as well? I half twice on the psc_posz_p and psc_velz_p and did not change anything?

[@ImtiazAhmed-zq2oy]

Does anyone has the tuning parameters list for 7inch Quad on Matek H743 Slim and Ardupilot?

[@jordigrau83]

Do this PID values are valid for betaflight?

[@TMacFPV]

Oh no, Jordi they are not. However, i do have a Playlist specifically for Betaflight Tuning like this one. II think you'll find it very useful. Here ya go! kzbin.info/aero/PLKAiYAaTdvmrODB23Hgqhd-9L8VupChRd

[@k1ortia]

How in gods name do you know all this stuff? you some kind of Wizard or something?

[@TMacFPV]

🧙😉🤣

Very interesting! I'll try that it ASAP. But nobody entered the FATSTRAPS GOGGLE STRAP CONTEST? "TMac Arducopter Tuning." (Why not?) Happy flights to everyone and stay safe.