Good day everyone and welcome back to TMac FPV - your home for your "Journey
to Better" FPV fun, flights, and racing stuff! Today we're gonna go over three
FPV beginner tips which you can implement before you start flying
that'll help you learn to fly FPV the right way, more quickly, and with more
confidence. And, if you're interested in more FPV Tutorial videos check out our
"Learn FPV" playlist at the card up above or at the link in the video description
below. Stay tuned! The first tip we'll be going over is the
FPV camera angle and actually all three of these tips that we'll be going over
today are in response to a question we recently received concerning how to
learn with a slow-moving quadcopter. Actually, the question was which
slow-moving quadcopter this person could get. Well, to answer this question we took
a different approach. You can actually get any quadcopter and use these three
FPV beginner tips to slow it down so that you've got the opportunity to learn
starting out gradually and progress at your own pace and that's the reason
we're going over these three tips. The question was he really wants to get a
slow FPV drone to try and teach his brother the basics of drones and FPV. He's
flown his Maverick a few times and gets the basics of drones, but FPV is a
completely different ballgame. He doesn't want anything super rapid (or fast) but he
still wants good quality from it. He's looked about but it's easy to find the
quick ones (the quick drones) but it's hard to find a slow-moving drone. He
definitely wants something that's also mobile enough to do banking moves but
flips really don't matter at this stage. So, once again, we took a different
approach in answering this and instead of picking out one particular
slow-moving drone - which is what he's looking for - we're applying these three
tips to slow any FPV quadcopter down so that you can learn FPV gradually,
step-by-step, at your own pace. So the first tip is FPV camera angle. When
flying FPV, you have the same view in your goggles as the camera does on the
quadcopter. In other words, both you and your camera have the same view. For the
quad to fly forward and your view to be level to
the ground with the horizon in the middle of your view (which is what you want when
you're flying straight and level) - obviously if you're banking then the
horizon's gonna be angled one way or the other - but in order for that to
happen, with the horizon in the middle of your view and level to the ground
horizontally, the camera must be angled upwards. The more the camera angle, the
faster forward speed you will have to maintain that altitude. So, both you and
your camera have the same view. In order to move forwards, you want the camera
angle to be angled upwards. The greater the camera angle, the greater you're
going to have to increase your throttle in order to overcome gravity and
maintain your altitude - which also means by your increasing the throttle you're
gonna be flying forward faster. So when you're just starting out learning to fly
FPV, you want this camera angle to be somewhat small, on the order of 0 to 10
degrees, and especially if you're just starting out learning hovering (which I
would recommend) you want the camera angle to be on the order of 0'ish or
just a couple degrees - almost level to the ground so that your quadcopter is
also level to the ground. That will enable you to learn hovering.
As you progress and start learning to move forwards, then you'll want to
increase your camera angle to just a couple degrees, up five degrees, but
the point here is when you're just starting out learningFPV your camera
angle is directly proportional to the forward speed that your quadcopter will
be moving. Therefore, when you're just starting out learning FPV, you want your
camera angle to be on the lower end somewhere between zero and ten degrees
depending upon the maneuvers that you're trying to learn. By the way, this
"Quadcopter Flight Basics" is an excerpt from our Foundation's Section in our
Fast Track FPV Course and if you want more information on our Fast Track FPV
Course you can obtain it through the link in the video description below. The
second of our FPV beginner tips is to use Acro Trainer Mode -
not Angle mode nor Horizon mode. Those are two self-leveling modes which can
lead to the formation of bad habits you'll need to break later on. If you use
angle or horizon modes the quadcopter doesn't react to your stick movements the
same way as in Acro Mode which is ultimately the mode you want to be
flying with. Acro Trainer mode is not a self-leveling mode and in this Acro
Trainer mode the quadcopter does act the same as if it were in Acro Mode. However,
you can limit the angle at which the quadcopter is allowed to move so it's
unable to make drastic maneuvers one way or the other potentially leading to
crashes. So the best way to begin learning how to fly in Acro mode is with
this Acro Trainer Mode initially. There are two aspects of setting up this Acro
Trainer Mode. The first is you'll need to set up the mode switch on your
transmitter. This is done through two screens on your transmitter operating
with OpenTX firmware. It's not difficult at all and to save some time here we've
developed a simple, one-page, step-by-step checklist to accomplish
this which you can download for free at the link in the video description below.
The second aspect is to enable the mode in Betaflight and let's go ahead and
take a look at how we can do that now. Now in Betaflight there are three
things that we want to do in order to enable our Acro Trainer Mode
appropriately. The first is go to Configuration Tab and ensure that your
accelerometer is turned on by toggling the switch. Save and reboot. The second is
to go to your Modes Tab and note we don't have anything enabled for Angle
Mode or Horizon Mode. Those are the two self-leveling modes which we do not want
to use. We want to go down here to Acro Trainer Mode and "Add Range" and, in our
case, both on the previous screens in this video and also in the diagrams of
the checklist (which is down at the link in the video description below) we've
used channel 6 which is Aux 2. So we enable Aux 2 then with the switch on our
transmitter, which we've set up using the checklist, we flip the switch to
enable Acro Trainer Mode. I've used the three position switch which is switch
C both in the checklist and in the previous pictures of this video. So in
the middle position I've activated Acro Trainer using my switch and we just want
to move the yellow bar over to where that little yellow blip is
located. So when the switch is in the Acro Trainer position, this little
yellow blip is covered by the yellow bar. If I turn the switch off it's over here
and Acro Trainer mode is no longer active. Or, it's on a three position
switch now so, if I put it in the third position it's over here and once again
Acro Trainer mode is not active. So, since we do not have Angle or Horizon modes
enabled and the only mode that we do have enabled is Acro Trainer mode
(which you can see after I save click Save here-it's in yellow highlighted),
when I turn it off this goes away on both sides. Therefore, whenever the little
yellow blip is in this position or in this position, since we don't have
Horizon or Angle mode enabled, that means that we'll be in Acro Mode here and also
here and Acro Trainer mode here. Now, if you wanted, to you could put it on a
two-position switch. I've just gone ahead and put it on a three position switch
for convenience. So, that's how we enable Acro Trainer using Aux 2 or channel 6 -
and you don't have to use the same channels that we did just use an open
channel by going to the Modes Tab in Betaflight. The last thing we want to do
is go to our PID Tuning Tab and we actually want to set the Acro Trainer
Angle Limit. The default is 30 degrees and the range is from 10 to 80 degrees.
Now this angle that you're setting, with the default being 30, is the maximum
angle that the quadcopter will roll or pitch in the Acro Trainer mode. So, you
could start out with the default of 30 degrees and as you get comfortable or
more comfortable with the stick movements in this Acro Trainer mode
(which is duplicating Acro mode except for this angle) you can increase this
angle to let's say 45 degrees. And from there, as you gain more experience, keep
increasing it to 60 and eventually once you're comfortable with
stick movements in this Acro Trainer mode duplicating Acro mode, you can
eventually just turn off the Acro Trainer mode using your switch or
disabling it in the Modes tab and just start flying Acro. The only difference
between Acro Trainer mode and Acro mode is this angle that you're setting up
here. And the advantage of using Acro Trainer over that of Angle or Horizon
modes is that you're mimicking the stick movements of Acro mode when you're using
the Acro Trainer mode so you're forming good habits as opposed to potentially
forming bad habits using those other two self-leveling modes. Go with Acro
Trainer. Remember before you exit after setting your Acro Trainer Angle Limit
here you want to click Save, otherwise it won't save the angle that
you previously set up. Our third and final FPV beginner tip is to set up
Throttle Limit. To do that, we go to PID Tuning, scroll down to this "Throttle
Limit" area, hover over the question mark, and it tells us to select the type of
throttle limiting. Whereas "Off" disables the feature, "Scale" will transform the
throttle range from zero to the selected percentage using the full stick travel.
That's what we want. It goes on further to say "Clip" will set
a max throttle percentage and stick travel. Above that will have no
additional effect. So we don't want to use "Clip." What we want to use is "Scale."
Here, under "Throttle Limit Percent," we set the desired throttle limit percentage.
Setting it to 100 disables the feature. So, what we're doing here is, we're
allowing our stick to travel from its lowest position on the transmitter to
its highest position on the transmitter. Normally that would go from zero
throttle to 100% throttle. Here we're going to say - you can either do this two
ways, click on the arrows or just highlight it and type in 70 percent - so
here we're telling Betaflight that the maximum position of our throttle is only
going to be 70 percent of what it normally is. So, basically you're slowing the
quadcopter down by setting this throttle limit percent. You can set it to a
minimum of 25 and a maximum of 100. Just starting out, learning how to fly FPV, I
would say set it - I don't know - set it somewhere between 60 and 70%. Let's go
with 70% and then whatever percentage you change, remember to click
Save, similar to what we did with the Acro Trainer Angle Limit where we're
moving it from the default to 60 or 75, you can do a similar thing with the
Throttle Limit Percent. As you gain more experience and become more comfortable
with the speed of the quadcopter you can increase your Throttle Limit Percent
from 70 to say 85 - which is halfway between 70 and 100 - remember to click
Save. And eventually if you want to use the maximum throttle, set it to 100
because at a hundred it disables the feature. Or go back here and turn it off.
Now I will tell you this. FPV beginners are not the only FPV pilots that use
this feature. Actual professional FPV racers limit their throttle on some
courses or some tracks. Sometimes (even all the time) and what they want to do to
allow precision in their racing maneuvers is to enable better throttle
resolution by limiting the throttle using throttle scaling. Because you're
still using the maximum stick throw on your transmitter in order to gain a
certain percentage of your throttle. Which means you're able to move the
stick more without the quadcopter increasing its thrust as much as it
would if you were to have this set to OFF. In essence, what this allows you to
do is help you manage your throttle better while you're racing. So don't
think that just because you're an FPV beginner that this is only for FPV
beginners. Many other people use this feature as well. So, you're not alone when
you're using this feature and it's actually a good thing
to experiment with. Alright, click Save. Alright, those are the three FPV
beginner tips that'll get you started on your "Journey to Better" FPV fun, flights,
and racing stuff! If you're new or fairly new to FPV, I encourage you to check out
our Fast Track FPV Course description and curriculum through the link in the
video description below or simply check out this video over here. Remember to
share this with your friends - because sharing is a good thing! Give it a thumbs
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Clear skies friend!