Quadcopter Won't Arm | CLEANFLIGHT BETAFLIGHT

Please consider supporting me on Patreon: / thedroneracingengineer
If your Cleanflight or Betaflight quadcopter won't arm, there's a relatively short list of possible causes. I'll take you through all the possible things that could be preventing your quadcopter from arming, so that you can find the one that's affecting you, fix it, and get into the air!

[@jaredjenkins8583]

I can’t tell you how many videos I’ve watch being completely new, to get my tiny hawk 2 freestyle to work and I kept coming to a dead end. You’ve help me so much and cannot thank you enough!

[@WEEBER13]

DUDE. I have been so frustrated for TWO days now trying to figure out WTH I was doing wrong. Thanks so much for being the "know it all, Joshua Bardwell!!"

[@that1guycanfly]

same . munch earned a sub lol

[@luckylucc848]

🤓

[@recklessndalycity]

Mr. Bardwell I want to say thank you for your love for the drone world and for all you do to help keep people like me flying. You are always my first go to whenever I have problems. I still don't know a lot but thanks to your videos I`m able to work out my problems. I took up this hobby when my mom passed away and it helped keep my mind right and helped me get through the hardest parts by keeping me occuopied.

[@pinewaves_]

4 years later and you're still saving lives... Throttle min check did it for me. Thank you so much 🙌

[@ReasonedRhetoric]

Thanks Joshua, I finally got my first build working. Took a few google searches and a couple of your videos to do it. The last piece of the puzzle was that Throttle min_check value.

[@415bryant]

I learn something every single time I watch one of your videos. I think I know a lot then you teach me something else. Thanks!

[@jzquad1]

Great Video! I am new to Betaflight, bought 5 Quads, each with different arming issues and this video cover all the problems I encountered. Thank you so much for taking the time to document it!!!!

[@warpster7656]

Thank you again Joshua, I have learned something today and now my quad finally arms. You are a legend

[@adamk.3946]

everyone, pay special attention to the min_check portion of this video. correctly setting your min_check can GREATLY improve your flight experience by getting rid of the dead zone at the bottom of the throttle!! Thanks for mentioning this Joshua

[@PeakPeacock]

Adam-g1 Wow, feeling kinda dumb right now. Been playing this game for awhile now and somehow never came across this tidbit. Default Betaflight was at 1100. I've always noticed the dead spot especially on takeoff. Thanks for the heads up to reexamine that portion of the video.

[@stefansantiago7186]

I was wondering what that was, I thought it was related to the ppm values like an idiot

[@SpikeJonesTheCr0oked]

Adam-g1 Yup this is good advice. Makes my rigs feel less jumpy down low.

[@quakingpig]

Thank you!

[@adamk.3946]

I went for almost two years with no clue about min_check... and the day I read something about it and gave it a try, I felt really sad that I didn't do this earlier. So much better low throttle control doing this!

[@Winterfal11]

This hobby sure is hard to get into, I have had experience with PC's my whole life and even working in CLI's and old school DOS and just getting a tinyhawk 2 to bind and arm is giving me a run for my money. I'm not going to give up but damn.... I just wanted to fly the little guy around!

[@Nothereforthechase]

Dude I get you 😭 I’m here trying to arm my quadcopter

[@dmitrychoglo4782]

My tinyhawk 2 won't arm either...WTH

[@raydesheles9205]

lol i felt the same way, but i ended up g throwo g in tge towl. I sold my tiny hawk cause never could get it yo arm,lol

[@keithstafford4099]

I think that firmware's and technology is getting on the way of fun for people in the hobby just make a board pre-programmed so we can fly why do we have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out if you want people in the hobby then simplify it I can't be the only one that feels this way someone buys one can't program it and guess what they'll never buy another that's a great marketing strategy if you ask me

[@Mr.Mantastic263]

It took me a several hours to get everything to work, but I flew my mobula7 for the first time today and it was totally worth it.

[@ooPROTOTYPE1oo]

You're a big help. It's 2018 and your videos still works like a charm.

[@chitung2277]

I love it when smart people talk...thanks for your help Joshua...one of the tips solved my intermittent problem.

[@retal052]

Its also a great tool to have small angle 180, or disabled acc, for retrieval purposes if you get stuck in a tree. Likely to burn a motor or an ESC, but if you cant get your copter down, it might come in handy to arm it and thrash it around the branches.... Great video as always Josh :D

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+Liam Lambkin you can also recalibrate the acc with stick commands whole the copter is in the tree.

[@retal052]

Ahhh, good idea. I bet that it wouldnt work very well if it was windy tho :/

[@alexdij4025]

Great idea. Whats the stick command?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+Alex DiJ github.com/cleanflight/cleanflight/blob/master/docs/assets/images/StickPositions.png

[@madyet5235]

i tried these stick commands after watching a way to fine tune your quad to eliminate drift. i use a spektrum radio and when i followed the commands, i ended up changing the betaflight profile lol so i went to roll and it was super laxed because it was stock settings not what i expected, and crashed. no harm, no foul just know that if using a spektrum radio those stick commands may not work as indicated.

[@PuttingOnTheFoil]

"Have you tried turning it off and then back on again? Are you absolutely sure it's plugged in?" -The IT Crowd. But seriously, that can be very frustrating when you are trying to get your first quad in the air for the first time.

[@Kriswixx]

thats me! im almost over it.

[@Darksagan]

Was so hyped to get my quad today...about to call it quits and find a new hobby.. Shit shouldnt be this difficult. lol

[@Boostedsn95992]

i had this very problem building my first quad ,thank you for your time and patients making this video

[@michaelrodgers9829]

Thank you again Josh. This question is asked more than any other in almost every group i'm in. Now I can just provide a link to your video. Thank you again!

[@ryan0io]

Not allowing the gyro to calibrate will also prevent arming. The gyro needs a few seconds of no movement for calibration. If it never sees this period of no movement, you won't be able to get it to arm. Only time I've ever really noticed this is on micros (tinywhoop, etc) that I sometimes fly out of my hand. Unless you hold extremely still, it'll never see no movement long enough to calibrate the gyro.

[@fpvdave]

Glad you posted this as nothing else was working for me. Once I calibrated the giro everything was sweet.

[@FutureJacket]

1. Quad is not level 0:00 2. CPU Load too high 3:50 3. Receiver end points / binding 6:30 < most common is is min_check 4. Receiver channel to function binds 10:15 set min_check = 1005 (for a throttle that bottoms out at 1000)

[@raptor550]

So useful Thanks

[@robinsayers9645]

Thanks, Josh knows what he's talking about but sometimes he takes a while to get to the point!

[@Bergwacht]

4. For me, the arm switch was defined only in the wrong area ... I had never change this value ...i dont know how this happend. Betaflight is bitchy and makes me what it wants ^^

[@chezz456]

mine bottoms out at 885? what should I do here

[@ronnielopez295]

That command fixed my problems, thank you a ton for that

[@socialexpirement2012]

Thank you sooooo much mr.bardwell it's 3 am and I thought I did everything right but it wouldn't arm and my first search led me to your video and I finally got my quad to lift off for the first time!!! Thank you so much, I can finally sleep

[@erickoran5818]

THANK YOU!!!!!! Without your videos I don't know how a normal person could do this

[@arnoldvales784]

A million thanks, Joshua!!! I just upgraded to bf 3.2 and I could not figure out why the motors won't arm! It turns out my MIN CHECK was out of whack. SUBSCRIBED AND SUPER LIKED THE VID... THANK YOU !!!!

[@sardarasif1858]

Thank you Mr Bardwell, I just got my Skyliner Mk3 but it wasn't arming. For me the channel mapping worked and also the calibration of accelerometer got it working. Thanks again :)

[@propabilityfpv303]

Josh always there to save the day and a lot of confusion. Thanks man its always a big help

[@xjet1457]

Once again I definitely learned something today.Thanks again josh you saved the day arming up the Inductrix pro and DX7...

[@Warrior6504]

Thanks josh it was my min check, this video saved a lot of head scratching its very much appreciated.

[@dane1293]

Awesome! I was tearing my hair out, trying to get the bloody thing to arm. Cheers Joshua!

[@TheSiliconeslick]

Thanks for the video! My geprc Elegant was not arming consistently. Sometimes it would but sometimes it wouldn't. My min check was set to 1005. The throttle was reading 1005 to 1006 in beta flight. I went into my output page in my qx7 and trimmed the throttle channel to 1000. It works every time I arm it now!! Good information in this video.

[@micheletardivo8592]

I'm new to the hobby and my brand new Tinyhawk S was refusing to arm and giving me some serious headache. Glad your guide pointed me out toward min_check feature. It worked like a charm! Thanks Joshua ;-)

[@sterby1]

Was stuck on throttle min check, value off by 1! EPA set to 101% low and now it works! Thanks Josh! I'm not going to unsub today ;)

[@arefwe82]

Thank you for the video. I was wrestling with this on yesterday. I'm sure it will help a lot of people.

[@GKW25308]

Thank you. The Darn thing wouldn't arm until I watched this video. You are a champion! Throttle min check got me and I should know better, I have heaps of quads.

[@manosmeram1588]

THANK YOU JOSHUA!! LOVE the videos. I've learned so much from your channel.

[@segpie]

Well, finally....someone gave us some 'conditions' when setting up a board with CF or BF. I've run into so many problems with my boards NOT connecting, not 'arming', not able to get the channels to work on the receiver. I've went through 2 FC (F3) boards, bought two (2) F4 boards and tried 3 different receivers (PPM/s, Bus and iBus). Yesterday, I finally got my board to 'connect' with BF but still have an 'arming' issue. Watching this video turned the 'light on' in my head and looking forward to getting home to verify my throttle settings. Thanks so much for this video Joshua, I'll be visiting your Patreon link this evening.

[@MelanieMartinezFan4evsXx]

used one of ur videos and sorted it went to configuration board and sensor alignment and changed the default to gyro and accel alignment to cw 180 now all ok thank you for your videos joshua bardwell nice easy to understand fantastic videos aswell cheers buddy

[@martinmacdonald2010]

With this video I was able to troubleshoot my way through a first time radio and quad setup. It ended up taking two days, two computers, two USB wires.... anything that could be wrong was wrong right down to the channel order. Thanks for the awesome videos!

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Thanks for the kind words!

[@kaseym3331]

After spending half a day frustrated, I found this video, and am armed, and up and running.... finally. Thanks a bunch!

[@dvdny]

I always learn something from these, thanks so much!

[@tymfor]

Literally my google search term for yesterday. Thank you, Joshua.

[@jperez5356]

Just got my quad armed thanks to u(it was the min check). Thank u for all ur hard work

[@harlock00999]

Thank you so very much! I'm a beginner and I was going mad with my brand new Emax Tinyhawk S!!! Emax should include this information in their manuals!!! Now I can learn to fly ;)

[@wearemany73]

Thank you Joshua I think I needed this. I’m going to try out this check list in the morning. Thx😁

[@ki6hzs]

Super helpful, my indoor whoop (Meteor65 ELRS) was being super picky about arming. I learned something!! Thanks again for the tips!

[@jaibertaborda2774]

Im beginner in this hobby and building a drone, i could fix this issue for me, thank you so much. You are the best.

[@neils6485]

Thanks! I also had to reverse Aileron and Rudder in my Spektrum DX9, in addition I had to use Sub-Trim to get all the centers at EXACTLY 1500 as opposed to like 1586 or whatever they were going to. That fixed my issue with arming. We need to all make more videos as when I need them, I can never find them, despite all the good RC channels out there. I am about to buy a Taranis just because folks almost never show DSMX instructions

[@frommerdaniel]

THANKS JOSHUA!!! THIS FIXED MY PROBLEM WITH MY NEW LDARC TINY 7X !! I BINDED A WALKERA DEVO 7 WITH SBUS RECIEVER , BUT WASNT ABLE TO ARM THE QUAD , AND IT WAS DE MIN_CHECK BEING TOO LOW ! I DONT KNOW HOW TO CHANGE IT ON MY RADIO , BUT I WILL FIND OUT LATER . THANKS AGAIN BUDDY , YOU ARE AWESOME!

[@PhillyDroneLife]

I'm MICHAEL D and I learned something today! Dude, I don't want to give you a bigger head then you already probably have, lol, but I spent hours trying to figure out the why's on why my quad wouldn't arm. I just learned that my throttle was lower then MIN check. Thx so SO much for your awesome videos. MICHAEL

[@justinharder5585]

thank you so much for this video! I was having arming issues via aux switch and this solved it!!!

[@VDLT9321]

Finally, thanks to you my brother! Needed to straighten out the channel mapping... Appreciate all the great info.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Now get in the air!!!

Thanks Joshua! every time you save me, my brain was in fail safe mode trying to arm my drone... The High End points was blocking my drone to arm! thankssss!

[@N0bodySpeci4l]

Got a new Quad today and it wouldn't arm. Thank you Joshua cause today i learnt something and my new quad is in the air

[@berniedrew5855]

Many thanks. my first betaflight quad. just spent two week trying to get it to arm. it was min throttle setting. the relief when they spun up for the first time.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Congrats. Now go fly :-)

[@roberttelfer3150]

Well phark me Joshua Bardwell... I did learn something new today and I am soooo happy. I have just built myself a brushed Smart 100 mini drone and was having issues trying to arm it. Adjusted the set angle and problem solved :) Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and keep up the great work!

[@Graeme758]

And again JB saves the day. It was a wrong setting in modes preventing my Drift from arming. Thanks, now, for the third time.

[@felixbaum2180]

or if it gets out of your radio range, the quad disarms and if it falls back in your range(or you hold your tx up, cause horizon...) you want your quad to rearm!(and it's never leveled while free falling) Thanks for the video!

[@mikeminard4250]

Thank you for this video, my problem was min check took me a while to figure out how to set my spectrum.

[@aero-potato4901]

Josh if we ever meet I will buy you a pint mate. My journey into FPV has been problematic to say the least. I used this how to vid to help me on a NAZE32 and cleanflight and now I have the biggest grin on my face. keep up the good work lad. And yes NAZE 32 I bought a Flitetest versa copter a few years ago and pretty much gave up. I decided to revisit and im glad I did.

[@dronezone7451]

Thanks so much! Channel mapping was my problem ! I appreciate the troubleshooting advice

[@scottdavis7743]

Thank you Mr. Bardwell and I did learn more than one thing today.

[@unitedelectrician4334]

I love u Joshua 8:36 I spent 4 hour think and looking why my quard don't arm . I so silly face plam" to myself. Having u as a patreon will not go wrong "change the world of FPV" Joshua"

[@marciodiniz8121]

Prezado Joshua Bardwell, muito obrigado por mais uma aula de mestre. Saudações aqui do Brasil !!!!

[@doupnetwork]

Thank you for your vids bro. U have saved many days of flying

[@Firedrake1313]

Great Video...helped me find the problem with a build I just finished...still have a few other minor kinks to go, but I can actually take off now. Seems like a no brainer in retrospect but I totally missed it. Thanks ;)

[@aztecjoe29]

Awesome thank I'm having I mean problems stayed up to 2 in the morning trying to figure it out I'll give it a go again when I get home from work

[@funflier57]

Outstanding video! Thanks very much for helping me understand and set arming!!!

[@IIBennacII]

Thhhhhaaaaaaannnkkkk yoooouuuuu!! Great vid, I was getting sooooo frustrated. Got it all working now. Keep up the great work

[@Suraj_Mandal.]

i got that min check issue, now it's finally arming....thanks and love from INDIA

[@picklerick2324]

Dude the cli tip just saved my ass on my beta f4 build love the flags it just tells u the issue

[@bobsterit]

Just want to say ,you are a life saver, I couldn't arm my KingKong Fly Egg 130 ,after watching your video, it is in the air, Thank You

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Very glad I could help :-) Now get in the air!!!

[@chaleefoo1]

you the man Josh! most helpful videos on youtube!

[@MsMrzebo]

Thank you, I would have given up it it wasn't for your teachings. Always learn something new..

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Glad to help!

[@berberdodo]

thank you!!!!.....joshua bardwell my warp quad ripped a hole in night sky!..it would not arm! then i found this video brought the throttle value down and it armed its a beautiful 6" fire ball and performs amazing!.. cant wait to build my next screamer with the hype train motors the emax magnum and armattan 6" frame...

[@jscales107]

@Joshua Bardwell I just wanna say thanks for all the information from just watching your videos has help me LOTS!!!! in my quad build. The issue I was having was the arm switch in betaflight wouldn't go yellow when triggered. Solved that. Then wasn't sure what esc protocol to use .it wouldn't act right in oneshot, multishot or Dshot I wasn't getting all the motor start up tones I would get the first set but not the last.so at the top of the list there was PWM. This worked with my ESC and did the trick I running lumenier BLheli "flycolor" fairy 30a esc

[@kev1990n]

Great video! Note with regard to the min_check: you need to type "save" after changing the values. You see Joshua do this in the video, but it goes so fast that i didn't notice this at first.

[@mihaisamaila7646]

Joshua, ma' man, I just hope you know how helpful you are. I just hope you're not modest and you're taking all the credit you deserve. I bought my drone 4 years ago and i bought parts to finish the setup like... once a year or something so, 4 years later nothing work: betaflight wants me to upgrade the firmware but I remember reading I have a custom board and that's not a good idea, I had to learn what the mixer section is, because all my controls were doing the wrong thing and then the damn thing won't arm). At some point I really thought that I bit more than I can chew, but slowly my drone is coming to life. Thank YOU, Sir!

[@xxxMobiusxxx]

Thanks, I very much appreciate the work you do for RC community. :) Thumbs Up!

[@slightlyokvideos]

This video was so helpful. Thank you Joshua!!

[@googlybits6154]

Hi - just wanted to let you know that even in 2020 this info is still great. Couldn't figure out why my quad wouldn't arm after putting in a new 3s battery...caused my little micro quad to "lean" a little too much exceeding the small angle setting.

[@CageHound]

Good Job Josh! Your vids are very helpful

[@kahnkretefpv7594]

Wow, complicated...yet so simple! Thanks JB! I can finally arm my babyhawk-R. That damn min check!!!

[@Mike0193Azul]

Thanks so much for this. Your videos have saved a lot of frustration! My channel map was off. 💚🚁

[@JoshKetchum]

great video! just chilling working on my build and watching for a while :)

[@1conchitaloca]

Awesome man, thanks! I've spent an hour trying to figure out what was going on :-)

[@carlpelletier860]

Thanks for the great video. I was finally able to arm my Naze32.

[@SpeedChair]

Josh, you rock dude, this video saved me on my new Blackhawk. The min_check was at 1000 thus the reason why it wouldn't arm...Thank you professor

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Yep that'll do it.

[@derrickmitchell39dm]

Thanks Josh, this was very helpful for me.

[@blackmennewstyle]

This video reminds me a couple of troubles back in the days :) That should help a lot of people indeed especially at the beginning! I just ordered my second set of M9 gimballs, my first set had been seized by the thai customs because i used an exotic shipping transport called "TNT", they require me to have a licence to import this kind of proucts (WTF)! Probably time for me to consider getting my HAM licence though! Thanks for remind me by the way that i will have to have a look on my channels end points with the M9 lol Have a great week McGuyver :)

[@morlanius]

Great video, you just helped me a lot. Thank you.

[@asskicker6557]

Thank you for sharing I have been having the same problem!!!And couldn`t fiqure out why.

[@gordonmajor122]

You the man thank you very much Bardwell

[@RCinginSC]

You are the freaking man !!!!!!!! Best help on the net. Thank you. Thank you thank you !!!!

[@bytemuncher1]

This video helped me. My min_check value was too low in Betaflight so couldn't arm my Mobula7. I changed it in Betaflight rather than mucking around with my jumper T8SG (black and silver model). Just seems so easy in Betaflight vs digging into transmitter menus.

[@haikufpv9659]

You weren't kidding when you were hanging out of the trunk of your car and said "I should make a video about this" lol! It was great to meet you and fun to fly with you the other day, I hope to do it again sometime!

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+Haiku FPV I've been meaning to make this video forever. That was just the reminder.

[@hassanshabib7023]

Thank you Joshua you are an insperation.

[@rcflyair2386]

Just helped me get in the air (min_check). Thanks!!!

[@patrickgervais6424]

DAMN just when u thought you knew it all .... just made a new build and i couldnt arm, didn't know CPU load would prevent it from arming... there ya go , i learnt something today

[@lurchtattoo]

You rock....got it because of your help...thankd

[@gunkofpv2666]

I love you Bardwell just got my beebrainv2 today and this(min_check) is keeping me from arming but also run a naze on another copter which gps wont work and I know now its because to many features are running on the processor thank you so much for what you do:) If I find dopplegangers for you its out of love because I think about you so much.

[@prinztom8652]

great! you saved a ton of my neves with the info "it dont arm at high cpu load". finally this was the solution to my problem of the day! now i have one other problem left, one of my FCs works only on one of two PCs (connection to betaflight). other FCs work great on both PCs. the normal troubleshooting and driver installation videos don't work, think i have to search more....

[@SpdFrk-ku4md]

I was looking for this video yesterday when I was having problems arming a new build haha

[@stefansantiago7186]

Hi, I'm Stefan Santiago and I learned something today.