Setting Rates! with Alex Vanover and Joshua Bardwell

Alex and Joshua discuss how they set their rates for FPV freestyle and racing. Are your rates too low? Or maybe too high? Sometimes Alex changes his rates for different race courses....
Rates directly define how the drone reacts to stick input so setting your rates correctly is one of the most important things to configure!
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-Pilots / Hosts
Joshua Bardwell [Knowitall]
/ joshuabardwell
Alex Vanover [CaptainVanover]
/ @captainvanover
Production Team
Chad Kapper - Executive Producer
Christian Kapper - Editor
www.rotorriot.com

[@weused2bestoned]

I lowered my rates to 100., flys great., just like a DJI haha :p

[@PatrickHogenboom]

Nice video, but how the heck can you talk about rates and having too little resolution in the middle without talking about expo?!?!

[@SinisterFPV]

Biggest issue I have with this video is the lack of discussion about the breakdown of rates ie: rc rate, super rate, expo. You cant just say lower your rates. Why not go more in depth about what each does. Which you should change and why. Both RCR and SR change your end values. So which do you reduce? Expo or no? So much that isnt covered....

[@falcofpv5177]

I'm right around 1000, but you guys convinced me to drop them some. I'd really like to see a part 2 look at super rate, expo, etc and how to balance all those.

[@dylans8426]

Too many camera cuts 😳

[@guidoarena8924]

Unpopular opinion, pinching the sticks allows for more accurate micro-movements on the sticks. I feel pinchers prefer higher rates because of this. I also find trowing the sticks around to the limit easier with thumbs. (For context too, I am using extended sticks and pinch the controls)

[@toptarantula]

I understand what they're talking about, but here they're talking about the rates like "degrees per second". One number for pitch, one for roll and one for yaw. But then I look in the settings in Liftoff (which is presumably similar to Betaflight etc?) and it has RC Rate, Super, Max and RX Expo! And nothing that looks like a degrees per second value (or maybe max is that degrees per second?, but no units are specified). So this is really unhelpful. These rates are curves in each case, not values. Is there a helpful video to explain this?

[@djSpinege]

Why does Alex look like a evil villain from a vampire movie?

[@effestop]

You completely omitted expo and super rates arguments, sadly. Also pinch and thumb: there's a huge sensitivity gap. Usually thumbers fly lower rates "a priori".

[@jamair31]

Something nobody talks about.....take all the super rate out for racing. Super rate is a very unpredictable spike in the rates through the overall stick travel. 1.9 on RC rates and .30 on all expos. That’s it.

[@RobertTheFriscoSchmid]

WOW WHAT A DIFFERENCE

[@JoshWithrow]

Happy to see RR address this. In the past year, educating and working with other pilots on finding THEIR rates has been my biggest topic. So many people blindly follow what they see other pilots doing (Steele, for instance), but lack the ability to maintain proper control at these rates. Likewise, they have a tendency to focus on the motions at the end of the sticks while forgetting that MOST OF THE TIME you are living in the mid sticks, not the ends. Great video!

[@IanBeaty]

This video was great and very helpful! Another thing that would be incredibly helpful to discuss is how rates/super/expo should be relative to each other, for both racing and freestyle. It would be fantastic if you could do a part 2 about that. Thanks for the great information!

[@GiffysChannel]

Great info! I'm just getting into the hobby and haven't done to much adjusting pids or rates or really anything on the software side but I'm slowing getting a solid understanding of it all because of videos like this. Thanks guys!

[@krisgaja4502]

Awesome video lads.

[@ijmbcm2004]

Thanks for all the info you guys put out. It does really help. I've been searching for the right rates up and down. I was really high at 1st then went really low and did'nt like that. So been around 1000 for a while. After watching I went to liftoff and dropped down to 700 and I think it does feel like I can fly more precise and smoother. I haven't tried in real life yet because of weather....but I will soon. Thanks again and happy flying.

[@Dav2112]

750° on pitch and roll and 650° on yaw is where I’ve settled on for now.

[@elis51501]

Well this was a great refreshing quad learning day:) I spent 8 paks after adjusting my quads rates from Mr.Steeles rates that I had been using for about 2 years. I set up the left potentiometer on my qx7 to 3 separate rates, 1st @ 900, 2nd @ 800, and 3rd @ 700. I also tried 500, and 400. I really liked the 700/800 rates, the quad was sooo much more controllable and flight was what seemed to be really smooth and much more precise. I’ve been flying for about 2.5 yrs and I fly 5” aliens and 4.5” alien in betaflight, and 1 Kiss v1 Reverb. Thank you guys sooo much for this topic I would’ve never tried this before this post.

[@JustinRayHadley]

I have been running Shaun Taylor's rates for 2 years now. Great explanation of why rates matter so much. Thank you for sharing the best tip to the core of flying FPV

[@stevenmcdaniel6820]

Love the vids, been watching you guys for a while. your the reason i in to fpv