soften controls

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I have a phantom version 1.1.1 and have gone into the Naza assist software, but was afraid to change more than I had to. My problem is that the the controls are too responsive. I would like to be able to rotate the phantom and thus the camera horizontally (I think it's called yaw????) to pan across the horizon, but it is almost impossible to do this smoothly. No matter how gently I try to move the controls, the quad over-reacts to my control. I end up moving in 10 or 20 degree jumps which makes my video pretty jumpy.

The quad and tx work fine for every other desired movement. It's just that very tiny adjustments are are impossible.

Can someone tell me how I can soften this reaction. Also, a language lesson might be good. I'm afraid I've really made a mess of this question.

Thank You.

Charlie
 
crchisholm said:
I have a phantom version 1.1.1 and have gone into the Naza assist software, but was afraid to change more than I had to. My problem is that the the controls are too responsive. I would like to be able to rotate the phantom and thus the camera horizontally (I think it's called yaw????) to pan across the horizon, but it is almost impossible to do this smoothly. No matter how gently I try to move the controls, the quad over-reacts to my control. I end up moving in 10 or 20 degree jumps which makes my video pretty jumpy.

The quad and tx work fine for every other desired movement. It's just that very tiny adjustments are are impossible.

Can someone tell me how I can soften this reaction. Also, a language lesson might be good. I'm afraid I've really made a mess of this question.

Thank You.

Charlie

Sadly, yaw is the one "attitude gain" you can't change in Assistant. Many people want what you describe. AFAIK, the only reasonable way to do it is to use a 3rd party TX that allows you to vary the endpoints and stick input on a per-axis basis.
 
A "Dual Rate" option would have been nice.
 
As others have mentioned, you won't be able to do that with the stock P2/P1 controller. I purchased a Futaba controller and have setup the dual rate and exp setters to give me that "ease" when doing a pan. It's easy to setup and you can assign it to a switch on the remote for on/off. It's worth the upgrade if you're serious about getting decent tracking/panning shots.
 
What would be some good controllers to look at for someone who's pockets are a bit shallow. I certainly can't afford top of the line, but would like to at least find out what my options might be.

Thank you all for your respones.
 
May I suggest using the MANUAL mode at that moment. You may want to test the yaw movement in MANUAL mode at low level without the camera to see how comfortable you are with it. If you are in trouble, be ready to flip back to ATTI mode.
You can also try to give the yaw input in ATTI mode, then wait until your Phantom starts to rotate, then immediately let go the stick for a split second and see how the Phantom reacts. It shouldn't rotate and stop if you keep the stick still.
 
crchisholm said:
What would be some good controllers to look at for someone who's pockets are a bit shallow. I certainly can't afford top of the line, but would like to at least find out what my options might be.

Thank you all for your respones.

I have a Futaba T8FG Super. I paid around $225 used if I remember correctly. The nice thing about the Futaba radios is that they can bind directly to the phantom V1.1.1 and you don't need a separate receiver since they are FASST compatible.

Manual mode is also a great option. However, most of the time when I'm trying to get the right panning shot, I'm flying around something with the camera focused on it, which can be difficult to do in manual mode without going to far. I've flow quite a bit in manual mode and have flown quads what only had manual mode and still wouldn't feel comfortable doing that kind of move while focusing on my fpv screen in manual.
 
Another thing you can try in the meantime is adjusting how you hold the sticks when moving them...if you use your thumb on the top of the stick, instead try pinching them down near the base of the stick. Unfortunately this can't totally overcome the yaw difficulties in the Phantom, but it will give you more precise control over the amount of input you provide.
 
ElGuano said:
crchisholm said:
I have a phantom version 1.1.1 and have gone into the Naza assist software, but was afraid to change more than I had to. My problem is that the the controls are too responsive. I would like to be able to rotate the phantom and thus the camera horizontally (I think it's called yaw????) to pan across the horizon, but it is almost impossible to do this smoothly. No matter how gently I try to move the controls, the quad over-reacts to my control. I end up moving in 10 or 20 degree jumps which makes my video pretty jumpy.

The quad and tx work fine for every other desired movement. It's just that very tiny adjustments are are impossible.

Can someone tell me how I can soften this reaction. Also, a language lesson might be good. I'm afraid I've really made a mess of this question.

Thank You.

Charlie

Sadly, yaw is the one "attitude gain" you can't change in Assistant. Many people want what you describe. AFAIK, the only reasonable way to do it is to use a 3rd party TX that allows you to vary the endpoints and stick input on a per-axis basis.
what parameters am i affecting when I change the yaw % value in the naza software?
 
MILLER4PRESIDENT2020 said:
ElGuano said:
crchisholm said:
I have a phantom version 1.1.1 and have gone into the Naza assist software, but was afraid to change more than I had to. My problem is that the the controls are too responsive. I would like to be able to rotate the phantom and thus the camera horizontally (I think it's called yaw????) to pan across the horizon, but it is almost impossible to do this smoothly. No matter how gently I try to move the controls, the quad over-reacts to my control. I end up moving in 10 or 20 degree jumps which makes my video pretty jumpy.

The quad and tx work fine for every other desired movement. It's just that very tiny adjustments are are impossible.

Can someone tell me how I can soften this reaction. Also, a language lesson might be good. I'm afraid I've really made a mess of this question.

Thank You.

Charlie

Sadly, yaw is the one "attitude gain" you can't change in Assistant. Many people want what you describe. AFAIK, the only reasonable way to do it is to use a 3rd party TX that allows you to vary the endpoints and stick input on a per-axis basis.
what parameters am i affecting when I change the yaw % value in the naza software?
basic gains, which is autopilot/attitude maintenance. How aggressively the phantom will attempt to get back to the direction it was facing if it is yawed by wind or the side effect of other controls.
 
In the Assistant GAIN tab, you will see 2 rows of GAIN adjustment:

The top one is BASIC gain, which indicate how fast the autolevel react to get the Phantom back to level position.
If you set the gain too high, the Phantom may oscillate but if you set it too low, it will take longer for the Phantom to complete the correction. Note that you can adjust all 4 parameters (Pitch, roll, yaw & vertical).

The second row you will only have Pitch and Roll, the higher the number, the faster your Phantom will react to the stick movement, too high = the control will be too sensitive, too low = the control will be sluggish. Note that you don't have yaw and vertical because the yaw is controlled by varying the motors' speed which is not the strong suit for the quad-copter and the vertical is the throttle control which is better with "linear" motion.

The key is to try and see because it depends also on many other factors like total flying weight, temperature, prop size, wind condition and altitude.
 
So, if I am understanding... I would want to try turning the pitch gain down from 40% (corrent setting) to 30% and test fly to see the difference, correct? The roll seems ok to me right now, but if this helps, I may want to soften that a bit as well.
 
crchisholm said:
So, if I am understanding... I would want to try turning the pitch gain down from 40% (corrent setting) to 30% and test fly to see the difference, correct? The roll seems ok to me right now, but if this helps, I may want to soften that a bit as well.

Yes, lower the GAIN to soften the response.

It will be a lot easier if you have the in flight control lever installed on the back of the stock TX.
Then you can choose the Remote Adjust (either single or combination) and go fly then adjust until it works the way you like.
Do not touch the lever, connect to the Assistant and jot down the corresponding number of the setting you chose earlier. Set it as such and go on to the next setting if needed. Once done you can choose to set the lever to adjust whatever you think you need to change the most. I chose to be able to Remote Adjust the Attitude GAIN after setting the BASIC gain to work as I like.

Otherwise, you have to set it using the Assistant, go fly and come back hook it up to your computer and try again and again and again until it reached the optimal point.
 
Thank you. I will try this weekend and see what happens. BTW, I said in my last post that the current setting was 40%. I was going from a very faulty memory. The actual setting right now is 125%. I will try at 110% and see what happens.

Thanks again.
 
Yeah, 40 is pretty low. For AP/AV, I set my attitude pitch and roll gains to 80%, which really dampens and smooths the response. It makes it so your Phantom takes longer to change direction, but that's kind of what you're shooting for, no?
 
Ok, just to make sure I don't trip over my faulty terminology, when we say pitch, are we talking about revolving around the verticle (z) axis, and by roll we mean revolving around the horizontel (y) axis? Being a 3d printer, i tend to think in x, y, z axises with z meaning up & down.
 
crchisholm said:
Ok, just to make sure I don't trip over my faulty terminology, when we say pitch, are we talking about revolving around the verticle (z) axis, and by roll we mean revolving around the horizontel (y) axis? Being a 3d printer, i tend to think in x, y, z axises with z meaning up & down.

Pitch is nodding your head. Roll is touching your ears to your shoulders. But you will almost always change those together, there's very little reason to have different pitch/roll numbers on a Phantom.
 
crchisholm said:
It seem like, using your analogy, I would be after adjusting sensitivity of shaking your head "no" , or looking right and left. Does that make sense?
that's yaw. You can adjust basic yaw gain (autonomous corrections while flying and in hover) but there is no direct way to soften the yaw control of the rudder stick in Assistant.
 

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