Flight Controller Board Alignment in iNav

[@aaronwood9523]

I feel like a broken record for saying this all the time. Thanks for all you do I use you vids all the time thanks again

[@MrD]

Thanks Aaron. I’m just glad they help 👍🏻

[@kevinknight9994]

OMFG, I was going crazy trying to figure out why the damn thing was backward on the screen. The Z rotate worked, you saved my sanity bro, subbed, (Evolution Drone Works)

[@MrD]

No problem Kevin. The Z-axis reset is just the view on screen. But it definitely helps getting things set up.

[@RCVideoReviews]

Oohhhh, 1,000'th subscriber! Congrats on 1k. Good work on your iNav material. Very helpful.

[@MrD]

Thank you on both counts :) Hopefully 2021 will be even better for everyone, and we'll all be able to fly more. Hope you have a happy holidays and a great new year.

[@coreyperez13]

Darren, thanks for sorting that out. I hadn't thought about the adjustment on "Roll". I would have thought that the alignment would then keep the "nose up" adjustment correct, but wouldn't require it to be added to Roll. Thanks!

[@MrD]

No problem Corey. You just have to remember that the board is based on the arrow, rather than the plane. So if the board is rotated in the plane, it is pitch to the plane, but roll to the board.

[@sleepingbearffg5008]

Hey I'm starting in wing's. This mix thing cost me day! You I understand better.. thanks for the help. It's what we do. God bless

[@MrD]

You're welcome. I hope you get everything working well on your wing and have some great flights.

[@MrVasmikey]

Fantastic video. You filled in some major gaps in my understanding. Thank you!

[@MrD]

You’re most welcome. I’m glad it helped.

[@tomjoad1060]

thanks for this video. helped me to position my self-built quad correctly with INAV, just by going to "Configuration" -> "Board and sensor alignment". Thank you again!

[@MrD]

No problem Tom. I hope you have many great flights.

[@IanF-FPV]

Darren this was great...was in talks with Marc as well on Pawel's discord for help. I'm working on the correct pitch alignment as I type...thank you.

[@MrD]

No problem at all. Hopefully it all goes well and you have some great flights.

[@lesjack137]

Helpful video. Why oh why don't they just have a 'Set Level' button!! Save all that switching about on the configurator.

[@MrD]

Because set level only deals with level, and then it is dependent on if the area the flight controller is sat is level with the correct attitude for level flight. Level for flight is handled better now in iNav 3.0 with the auto level mode. The board orientation now deals with how the flight controller is positioned in the model; so that iNav knows which way is the front of the model and which way is up.

[@decoybig]

Millions of thanks!!! Great video and very very helpful! All the best to you!

[@MrD]

You’re welcome.

[@Slash7FPV]

Very good and clear explanation. Thank you, Darren!

[@MrD]

Thanks you, it’s great to hear 👍🏻

[@securus777]

You might need to update this. I don't have the option in Configuration for adjusting the Roll Degrees, seems this is now only in CLI for some reason. Great vid!

[@MrD]

It’s because those options are now only to be used to set where the front of the flight controller is. With most cases, if people change the orientation of the flight controller, it’s only with the yaw. That’s why yaw has been left in the UI. If the pitch or roll need to be changed, they can be changed in the CLI. Typing “get board” will show the commands to do this. To change the board pitch alignment for in flight, you can now use the new auto level mode, or set it manually with the parameter at the bottom of the PID Tuning > Mechanics page.

[@beefybeef1326]

Great video. Thanks for this step by step tutorial- really helps beginners like me

[@MrD]

No problem at all. I’m glad it helped.

[@goku445]

Again much useful and clear info. Thanks. Btw I think we can use negative numbers for board alignment : ex -90 instead of 270.

[@RichardFAdams-kt9ux]

Great video as usual. Looking forward to the next one.

[@MrD]

Thanks Richard. The next one should light things up a little 😉

[@petebuttons210]

Great stuff. Keep them coming.

[@MrD]

Thanks Pete 👍🏻

[@rscottwilson1]

Awesome. Very practical. Good luck with your channel.

[@MrD]

Thank you Scott 👍🏻

[@teetsik]

For me iNav is atm very difficult and arduplane was easy. And i just had problems with plane going down on stabilization mode. This video was great help for me. Thank you

[@MrD]

Glad it helped you 👍🏻

[@ansariflightplan5814]

thank u sir.. that pitch relly work on inav

[@MrD]

Thank you. Yes, it works great.

[@peterhancox5268]

So when do you do the calibration of the FC, before or after doing what you have done here?.

[@MrD]

As it the accelerometer calibration? If so before. I usually do that before even putting it in the plane.

[@damienmilk3025]

great information, thank you

[@MrD]

You’re most welcome. I’m glad it was helpful.

[@Bigtbuilder]

Good info but can you do an update for iNav 7.1.1 as many things have changed.

[@thepilotF]

Hi Darren! The board alignment value change option for pitch and roll is not there anymore in INAV 5.* and 6.0. The software says it is only available in CLI, but we should not use it to trim the airplane for level flight. It says we should use Fixed Wing Level Trim instead on the PID Tuning tab under Mechanics. My plane (Nano Drak) has 6-7 degrees of down-slope in the electronics bay, therefore the FC is facing down a bit, so I guess I need to add +6-7 degrees in i this PID? Plus 3-4 degrees to make the plane face up a bit before the maiden? Is this the correct way to do the board alignment in INAV 5+? I searched for a video, but found only below for INAV 5-*, where you still have the pitch and roll alignment as a setting. Is there an up to date explanation for this somewhere? Many-many thanks,

[@MrD]

You can use the board alignment commands in CLI to get the flight controller level in the plane. if it is down by 6-7 degrees, you will see on the setup page it will say +6. So in the CLI, you will need a negative to raise the nose. Also, it is in decidegrees, so you need -60 to -70 in the align_board_pitch. Then use the fixed wing level trim on the PID Tuning Mechanics page for the 3 to 4 degrees for the up trim. This is always positive for nose up and negative for nose down.

[@Icke]

Hello Darren, I have just started with INAV. I am flying fixed wing airplanes. Installation and setup of flight controller in INAV works fine. But I have a problem in manual mode. Without flight controller, I used to compensate the motor mount with adding a pitch mixer to the amount of throttle. With the flight controller, I realized, that I also need to add a pitch mixer to the motor throttle. How can I do this without the setting it up in the radio?

[@MrD]

Honestly, you’d be better off correcting the thrust angle, it that is the main cause of the problem. With iNav 3.0 there are a couple of potential options. There is continuous autotrim. But, that only makes changes in stabilised modes, so throttle changes in manual would not be corrected. You could use iNav programming to change the elevator based on the throttle percentage. I’ve not looked in to this, but it should be possible. But I still think the best solution is to fix it physically.

[@PeteWilkinson-mo5if]

Hi, can i ask why the pitch value is a negative number when the nose is pointing up within the inav setup page? mine is the same, is this correct?

[@MrD]

In normal orientation, pitch up will show as a negative number on the setup page. It is the raw data from the IMU. It is correct.

[@ДмитрийИсаев-л2л]

And in INAV configurator 5 we have only yaw setup. Other are in CLI only.

[@MrD]

Yes. 99% of the time yaw is all that is needed.

[@sams9716]

Love the videos, keep up the great work! I was wondering if you could do a fast video on basic iNav glider setup? I saw the full house setup and thats cool but I'm talking about like Y cable flaps and alerions. Im going to be using a Matek F722 Wing in a Phoenix 2400 and I will have a pan/tilt setup so need to Y cable flaps and alerions.

[@MrD]

Thanks Sam, I appreciate it. Ideally, you still want ailerons on separate servo leads as they need to work differently for crow braking. If you still want crow that is. Depending on the receiver you’re using. You may be able to output directly to the pan and tilt from the receiver. Or you could use an SBUS decoder for channels 9-16? I will be making an updated full house video, so will also make a basic glider setup too. Thanks for the feedback, it’s always welcome.

[@sams9716]

@@MrD I will be using an R9mm receiver at least at first. I'm thinking about moving to crossfire at some point. One limiting factor that I have at the moment is my radio. Or at least I see it as limiting anyways. I have a Qx7 which is low on switches/sliders and knobs and speed for crossfire. This is my first glider or plane with flaps. Crow is a ways down the road. Would like to get up and going and used to the plane and it flying good then go for the more advanced stuffs. One other thing is my goggles. I have Skyzone goggles with a head tracker in it. It gives me a choice of channels 6, 7, and 8.

[@MrD]

With the R9MM, you can bind it as channels 9-16. Then the 4 outputs on the side can be used directly as PWM channels for servos. So channels 9 and 10 can be pan and tilt. The goggles output the head tracker as trainer channels, but you can assign them to whatever channel you want in the transmitter. I have a video on this, which may interest you? In all honesty, I don’t think you’d even need flaps with that glider. I have the 2000, and they launch so easily. They just fly out of your hand. But crow helps a great deal for landing, it’ll slow it right down. So that would honestly be my recommendation. I use both Crossfire and R9. They’re both good systems with advantages and disadvantages. R9 has more channels and just works out the box on your Q-X7. Crossfire (with the full module) is more convenient to set up, but only has 12 channels. As far as reliability, I’ve seen plenty of issues on both platforms. But, people who are generally happy don’t ever post that. I’ve not seen any reason to choose one over the other as far as signal goes.

[@MrD]

Here’s the Pan and Tilt video, just in case kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z37Ki5JtpbF-gMk

[@sams9716]

@@MrD If you bind it 9-16 can you still connect to the FC with SBUS? I will check out the head tracker video. I have a ranger 1600 here with a F405 Wing in it as well as an R9mm and plan on either moving the pan/tilt that has on it or 3d printing a lower profile one for the Phoenix with the runcam hybrid. So I have that plane to experiment on at the moment.

[@ftemaximal]

and now in inav 6.0?where i can flip de flight controler.txh

[@flytelaw1]

Great video! How do you fine tune the "heading" in "MAG Alignment" since it is in such large sub amounts? Why can this be so far out when the board offset is per manufacturer instructions e.g. Fli[ 270 degrees with some Matek boards? Why can't the GPS find the accurate heading given enough satellites? I am an Airbus Captain and we use laser gyros and GPS Primary for extremely precise 3d information and the IRS entire system can take several minutes to align....Can you use "Yaw Degrees"...have a funny feeling this would not be a good idea....thanks in advance! Cheers:-)

[@MrD]

Magnetometer alignment is really a different issue. This video is purely for the flight controller alignment. On fixed wing with iNav, we tend not to use the magnetometer at all, as it is sub optimally set up. There can be big deviations and overshoots when using the mag, which you don’t get with just using the GPS. With the mag, there is no fine tuning. Just a basic 4 rotation points, and those points with a flip. The flip is because on a lot of GPS modules, the magnetometer is on the bottom, so upside down. Only the bottom of the 4 options in the Board and Sensor alignment section of the configuration page is for the magnetometer. Adjusting the yaw in the board and sensor alignment section will not effect the mag at all. The top 3 settings are just for the flight controller its self, to determine where the front is, and level in pitch and roll. The GPS modules will be calculating the heading from the satellite positions. But this is only hobby/consumer grade equipment. I doubt it would even come close the the GPS system in your Airbus.

[@ab7rs]

I want the ESCs and Battery connection pointing forward instead of back on my F405 wing board and then compensate 180 degrees....is this ok (to have the arrow pointing backwards ) or is there a reason not to? Thanks.

[@MrD]

Nope, it’s fine. Just add 180 in the board alignment yaw.

[@ab7rs]

@@MrD how is the reptile coming along?

[@MrD]

It’s looking good. Not started the build yet, but will soon.

[@dmck6623]

I'm having an issue with my board. I've rotated it on the yaw axis as I have it installed in a tight spot and cannot have it arrow to the nose. Plane is awesome in manual. However, when switched to horizon or angle. The plane immediately dives to the right. It does have a built in mag. Does mag alignment play a role in this? The board is a Jhemcu Wing FC-10 DOF

[@MrD]

It sounds like you have adjusted the pitch on the FC. As it shows in the video, if you rotate the yaw 90 or 270 degrees, you need to adjust the roll to correct the pitch.

[@dmck6623]

I did set the pitch on the roll axis lol. Confusing. I have the board at 90 on the yaw and roughly 4 degrees roll (pitch). The board moves as it should in the setup tab. Orientation is correct and animations all in the right direction. I have a switch on my tx set to change the board alignment (roll). No matter what. Plane dives to the right and heads for the dirt. Thanks for your help man!

[@MrD]

How does the stabilisation react at the bench? Do the surfaces move the correct directions to counter the movements. Usually if it’s great in manual, but has issues when stabilised, something hasn’t been set up correctly with the control link. Either a mix has been used on the transmitter (like a wing mix) or outputs have been reversed on the transmitter to make the servos go in the correct direction in iNav. I can’t help too much at the moment as I’m at work. But, if the stabilisation is wrong, I would make sure the 4 control RC channels are correct on the mixer page. I have a video called something like “A newbies guide: setting up your transmitter for iNav”. That will show how the receiver page should respond. Again, sorry I can’t link to it. But I’ll be available in a couple of hours.

[@dmck6623]

@@MrD I do appreciate your time! The surfaces do move accordingly to counter any outside input. My TX is clean there's no mixing there, it is all set up in inav. I have a tbrc reflex with the same board and it functions flawlessly. After I get home from work I will check again to verify control surface movement. I am getting old and I do tend to miss things.

[@alfonsas35]

@Mr.D - Falling with style Hi, could the incorrect board alignment cause a drifting center-point in position hold mode? (plane goes around a point, but it with each turn the spiral center point moves ~50m)

[@MrD]

It shouldn’t. If the board alignment was incorrect, I would imagine it would have a hard time flying in a self levelling mode, let alone loitering. What version of iNav are you using?

[@alfonsas35]

INAV 4.1 Is looks leveled when loitering. Somehow I dont believe its gps, since there were 18 sats fixed.

[@MrD]

Have you performed the autotune in acro yet?

[@alfonsas35]

No. So the hypothesis is that PID tuning is required (I have used the defaults)?

[@MrD]

Actually the PID settings are not touched. But the rates and FF are tuned to your plane which are very important. The first thing I would do is properly autotune. It needs to be performed in acro. Do one axis at a time. Use hard, full stick deflections. Don’t just wobble the stick back and forth. The plane needs to react and settle.

[@IanF-FPV]

Hello Darren. Quick question. If I mount my FC with the arrow facing forward but board is perpendicular to the ground what axis do I enter a value for pitch to keep the model flying level? Is it yaw?

[@MrD]

If the arrow is still pointing towards the front, it would still be the pitch to change. I’m guessing you already have a 90 or 270 in the pitch to have the flight controller in it’s position. It would just be a case of fine tuning that value. Raise the nose while keeping the wings level, and you should see the value that needs changing.

[@IanF-FPV]

@@MrD Darren I have a value of -86.5 for the roll axis.

[@MrD]

That seems strange if the arrow is still pointing forwards. If there’s no yaw to rotate the flight controller, you should still be tuning the pitch.

[@IanF-FPV]

@@MrD correct. Yaw is not displayed on the first screen with the model reference/rectangle. Just shows pitch and roll. I have it installed in a Sonic F1 wing.

[@MrD]

This is really confusing me then. I don’t really see how you’d fit it in there perpendicular (90 degrees) to the ground. Did you mean parallel?

[@egtreadway4232]

Thanks for another great video, I did my board alignment today following your video and then flew the plane and it sure is more stable, when I started with tail of board facing me inav was not showing that so I clicked the reset z button and it then was showing correct orientation. I'm still fighting with these sensors, the developer of the yaapu script assures me that his script does work with inav, and crossfire but I don't know how. I've posted link to video on github of what's happening. If you can please take a look. Thanks for all your videos

[@MrD]

You’re welcome Ernest. That little z axis reset button comes in very handy. I’ve seen the posts on the Yaapu GitHub. I know Marc has a friend where it doesn’t work with Crossfire too. The sensor case thing I think is a red herring. The sensors are automatically discovered, so the case is already set in the OpenTX firmware. I still maintain that Crossfire should be using the Yaw sensor, for it to work in the same way as SmartPort sensors. There is a difference, but for fixed wings or other models with no compass, you won’t necessarily see a difference.

[@egtreadway4232]

@@MrD I trust what you say and can't understand why the developer doesn't just say that it's not going to work, I have build in compass on my BD gps module I have thought about wiring it to my f405-wing, do you see any benefits from this?

[@egtreadway4232]

I've done some changes in inav according to you and Mark's video haven't tested yet due to weather but I'm sure it will help, one question I'm noticed that when my wing gets out around a mile I get inav sound that I'm in position hold but it's really not what would cause this? It's been doing this for long time but very distracting. Thanks

[@egtreadway4232]

So yesterday I clicked reset z axis and inav showed tail of plane like it should, today when connected to fc tail facing me inav showing left of plane so I reset z axis again to make it correct, in configuration tab mag Alignment was set to default so today I set to CW 0 degrees In attempt to keep it from changing again. Have you seen this before? Why did it change? There's no save and reboot in setup page so I don't get that. Also with tail facing me, in setup page no battery just usb power, heading says 357 degrees which is almost completely opposite of actual heading is this normal? My f405-wing is mounted with arrow pointing to nose so seems like it would show close to correct heading. Thanks for any help

[@egtreadway4232]

linksharing.samsungcloud.com/gQlOmGkLDpqZ according to inav cli none of these numbers are in range, is this normal?

[@BigAppleJeff]

Hi ! I think I have a problem with my FC, because the pitch is constantly moving when the card doesn't move... and I can't calibrate the accelerometer. Can anyone help me please ?

[@MrD]

Try flashing the firmware again with a full chip erase. You should be able to calibrate. If this is a new FC, maybe RMA it and get a replacement if the flash doesn’t work.

[@BigAppleJeff]

@@MrD Ok I'll try it, thanks ;)

[@BigAppleJeff]

I've tried to flash it again but it was the same. But I solved the problem, I selected the 2nd gyro (ICM20602) with the CLI command and thanks to that I no longer have permanent pitch movement. For the moment it works, I'll see if this is a long term solution. Thanks for your help !

[@MrD]

@@BigAppleJeff awesome Jeff. I’m glad it’s working.

[@ansariflightplan5814]

can u make english what that german guys say? i really like long range, but the sub is not 100%

[@MrD]

Marc’s video has English subtitles. If you can’t see them, you just need to turn them on in your KZbin settings.