Rate Curves

[TAI UK]

Has anyone suggestions on improved rate curves for aileron and elevator controls.
Also interested in throttle rate curve if anybody has looked at this.

 

[NorWiscPilot]

Tai,

Are you looking for values or instructions on how to create custom curves?

There was a good discussion in at least a couple threads. This one starts off talking about jerky flight from hover and gets into the Broken Rate Curve discussion, including a good video as to the how to.

If you are looking for actual values, I will have to look at my ST16 once I get moving and get my H kit out of the trunk. Was on a wedding shoot last night and didn't roll in until about 2:30am.

While I am at it: a friendly reminder about a lesson already known (but life got in the way): If you have your certificate and choose to keep it, remember to do some pre-planning prior to any event or job you are asked to cover. I was asked to get some candids of the later hours of a wedding reception, the time when most pros say good night. The location was out in the sticks. With the ceremony at 3pm, and the actual location definitely flyable, I brought along my H even though I didn't really have any plans on using it. (Keyword: plan!) A brother of the groom (good friend) heard I had the H with me and thought it would be a great idea to get some aerial footage.

Before I did anything, I checked "B4UFly". Told me I was right on top of an airport, albeit G-class airspace. Said I needed permission. While some may think we don't need permission for class G, I attempted to call the airport manager anyway, considering the proximity. Not reaching anybody, I decided to keep my H in the trunk of my car and not risk it. Better to be cautious for no reason than to risk it and get in trouble. (Remember, I said "out in the sticks" before anyone jumps on me about "how could you not know there was an airport nearby? A small strip is still an airport!)

Not a half hour after I made my decision not to fly, and about the time I would have been up in the air had I chosen to be there, an ultralight came zooming by, right over where I would have been. It looked like the pilot was trying to get a look at the festivities, or just showing off as the craft was put through some tight turns and low altitude runs (maybe 50 - 100 feet above the trees). My H would have definitely been "traffic" and who knows if the ultralight pilot would have been expecting it.

Moral of this story: Pay attention to your instincts! If your gut says "Don't fly!" Don't! Oh, and plan ahead!

 

[Steve Carr]

This is a good tutorial on changing settings. A word of caution. Be very careful when you change anything in Channel settings. Only make one change at a time and test it WITHOUT the camera mounted.

 

[Rayray]

I agree with Steve. Please do not mess with Channel Settings just because you can. Changing these settings can have unexpected consequences which can not be covered under warranty.

 

[JCFlippen]

I agree with Steve. Please do not mess with Channel Settings just because you can. Changing these settings can have unexpected consequences which can not be covered under warranty.

I have often wondered about expo settings to remove the initial lurch - not that it really shows up much. I tried the above video suggestions and all seemed well until .... I wanted to use Cruise Control! Cruise control is lost if you change to the broken line settings listed above.

No harm done but back to standard settings now.

 

[Ty Pilot]

I use Cruise Control with my rate curves all the time. You just have to add more stops to get the first movement. The reason I found the broken line rate curve was better than traditional expo is that the software wants to see a certain amount of input to a control before it initiates that control, however once at that point, then the shallow rate increase can be used. I am hopeful that Yuneec will smooth this out in a future update as I have seen evidence that they have done so in the Typhoon H 520 demo video.

 

[kd4pbs]

I've noticed that the jerkyness seems to be more a function of the flight control software than the controller. In other words, there's a dead band around the stick center. Outside of that dead band, for instance, in initiating a forward movement by pushing the right stick forward, there's a sudden step from no motion to what I could only guess as the slowest forward motion capable. This is even with the turtle/rabbit slider all the way on slow. It's a jerky movement from hover to the first forward motion speed. And looking at the telemetry and stick movement records, it doesn't appear to be a function of the stick position other than moving outside of the hover dead band.
I've not tested this to any great length, nor has it really caused an issue that can be noticed in the footage from the camera unless the H is close to the subject.
I will add that I tried smoothing out the transition with rate curves in the ST16, but all this accomplished was enlarging the dead band on the stick.

 

[Ty Pilot]

Correct. As I mentioned above this anomaly is in the software, not the sticks. As such, I think we will soon see a firmware update that will greatly reduce the problem. However, the rate curve I set up really was not to fix the jerkiness from stop to go as much as it was to give a more exponential feel to the flight controls from off center to full deflection and basically allowed me to eliminate the need to use the rate slider. When I originally set up a true expo curve, it took nearly a quarter of the sticks movement to get to the point that the software would initiate the command, the Broken rate curve steepens that off center angle slightly more than a regular expo curve. If I could move the point laterally I would put the first one just to the left and right of center and start at about 5% and work on it from there but since we can't do this I'm leaving it as is till we get a firmware fix.

I would also echo what Ray and Steve said; if you're new to flight controllers and these types of alterations and settings, take some time and learn to fly with the controls as stock until you get the feel for them.