Good day! If this is your first time to the channel, welcome! I'm TMac.
I help pilots just like you start and continue their "Journey to Better" FPV
fun through videos like this one and the Fast Track FPV course which will get you
in the air having fun flying fpv in minimal time, at less overall cost, and in
a safe and responsible manner. It's through the Fast Track FPV course I'm
able to provide more detailed instruction and on a more individualized
and personal basis. You're welcome to check out the course curriculum and
student reviews through the Fast TRack FPV course link in the video description
below. Let me ask you something. Honestly, how often do you fly at full throttle?
That much huh? Haha. Okay, I'll come back to that question in just a bit.
Over the past week I received a couple questions from folks wondering how they
could "tame down" their quad to make it easier to control. In this video, FPV
Beginner Tips I go over three ways to do just that. 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. The first tip we'll be going over is the
FPV camera angle. The more the camera angle, the faster forward speed you will
have to maintain that altitude. The second of our FPV beginner tips is to
use Acro Trainer mode. And in this video,
Better FPV Throttle Control, I show you how you can use a throttle curve
with Betaflight or your transmitter to get better throttle resolution around a
specific throttle percentage or altitude which can result in smoother videos.
Today I'm going to show you another simple, yet effective tip you can use
with the Jumper T16 and OpenTX to better control your throttle which can
also give you longer flight times and smoother video. It's useful for both
rookie FPV pilots just learning how to fly and is also used by experienced FPV
racers as well. It's called throttle limit (or scaling). Now I'm going to show
you how to do it with your Jumper T16. Ready to get your throttle control
dialed-in? Then give this video a thumbs up below, share it with your pilot
buddies, and subscribe to your TMac FPV channel - your home for your "Journey
to Better" FPV fun, flights, and racing stuff!
Okay, back to that full throttle question. First I'm briefly gonna explain what
we're about to do and why it's gonna be helpful for you. Then I'm gonna show you
how to make it happen and here in a few minutes I've even got a little Bonus for
you to go along with it! So stay with me here. Most folks think of their current
throttle percentage going from 0% at stick minimum to a 100%
throttle at stick maximum. Let's just say for the sake of argument that some of us
don't use the top 25% of our throttle or 75% throttle on up.
This means the top quarter of your throttle stick movement, from here to
here, is seldom if ever used. You can find out how much you actually use that
portion of your throttle by enabling the throttle position element in your OSD
and replaying your DVR footage to see how many times (if at all) you used it. You
may find (or already know) that the majority of your flying is done within
25 to 75 percent depicted here in green. Or, maybe even within 25 to 50 percent as
shown here in purple. Let's put these two over here on the side on the floor for a
minute. If you rarely or never use the top 25 percent portion of your throttle,
you're wasting that amount of stick movement (or what I'll call stick throw)
when you could actually be using it for something else to improve your flying
skills. Let's take a look at how we can do that. I'm gonna give you something
that's going to allow you to change what your throttle percentage is when your
stick is at its maximum position. So instead of your throttle being at
100% when your stick is at its max throw, you can make that max
stick position be . . . say 75% throttle, or 50% throttle or whatever
percent throttle you want it to be. So how is that going to help you out and
what does it do for you? First of all, it means you're gonna be using the entire
range of movement of your throttle stick - its entire throw. This means you're going
to have better resolution (throttle resolution) for the range of percent
throttle that you actually use. By better throttle resolution what I mean is
you're able to move your throttle stick rather significantly which results in
smaller movements from your Quad than previously. It, in effect, becomes less
sensitive and easier to control. What you're actually doing is changing the
scale of your throttle to more effectively use that portion of
your throttle range in which you normally fly. Or, another way of looking
at it is this, you can now move your throttle the same amount as before and
your quad will increase its motor speed less. This of course in turn means your
quad is going to be less responsive to your throttle stick inputs. However,
you're going to gain much more precise control of your quadcopter speed in any
given direction. This greatly improves your ability to control the altitude of
your quadcopter in flight. The bottom line is this - it can be a VERY good thing!
So let's see how to make it happen. Let's get our throttle control dialed-in! To do
that we're gonna go to our Jumper T16 OpenTX Mixer page. Okay, we go to our
Mixer page, and if you'd like a refresher on what mixers are and how they interact
with the rest of the flow of information within OpenTX, check out this video
Jumper T16 OpenTX Basics which I'll link to in the video description below. Let's
take a look at what our throttle channel values are within OpenTX before we
start changing our throttle scale. Remember I mentioned earlier, OpenTX
uses -100 to +100 as its scale for most things. So we look down here at our
throttle channel values with a throttle in its minimum position and we see it's
right around -100. With a throttle at its maximum position we get a value
of +100. We're about to change these values by programming our switch 2 (or S2)
as a source for two new mixer lines for our throttle. So these -100 and +100
values don't really intuitively mean anything. However, they ARE important for
doing the math in order to get the right numbers we need to input into our mixer
lines. The math behind each of the mixer lines is described by the equation shown
on the screen where Mixer Line Value equals Source Value times the Weight,
with the Offset Value added to that product. The result of our two new mixer
lines will be that we can change the maximum value of our throttle when at
full stick deflection simply by turning S2 to our desired position! We're
literally going to have our throttle "dialed-in!" The way that I'm gonna
program S2 is such that when it's at its max position (all the way to the right)
the throttle is not limited at all and it acts
as it normally would when at it's fully deflected max position. When S2 is at its
minimum value (all the way to the left) the maximum throttle value will be 50%
of what it would have been without throttle limit. When S2 is in the
middle (at its detent) the throttle value will be 75% just as we described using
the range scales earlier. Of course you can set S2 to any position you want
between 50% and a 100% max throttle with these two mixture lines
were about to employ - I'm just using those three values for demonstration
purposes. So let's go ahead and make those mixer lines. We go down to our
throttle channel and "insert after" and plug our numbers in, with a multiplexing
down here as "multiply." Our "Source" is going to be S2. Sso we click on that and
then we just turn S2 and it auto-fills. Click to exit. Our "Weight" we're going to
change to 25. Once again, these numbers are derived
from the equation I mentioned earlier. The "Offset" we're gonna have at 75.
Click on that. That's the important stuff - our "Source," "Weight," "Offset,"
and "Multiplex." Now we can go back up here in the "Mix Name" and name it whatever we
want or we can leave it blank. For the sake of saving time I'm just gonna leave
it blank. So let's exit out of here. Now we see
that we've got this one mixer line with a multiplication sign underneath channel
3 for our throttle. Let's go ahead and add our second line which is needed just
because the math works out that way. So we're going to "insert after," this time
we're going to keep our multiplex at "Add" because of the math. Our "Source" is
going to be S2 just as it was earlier. Our "Weight" we're going to change to 25
and our "Offset" is going to be minus 25. Once
again these numbers are derived from the equation mentioned previously. Okay, now
let's see what our throttle values are when our stick is in its fully deflected
max position. So with S2 in its max position to the right (all the way to the
right) our throttle values have not changed. Max is at 100, minimum is at -100.
With S2 in its minimum position (all the way to the left) our throttle value has
changed as indicated, which corresponds to our initial scale of 50% throttle.
With S2 in its middle position (at its detent), our max throttle value has
changed as indicated here corresponding to our intuitive scale of 75%
throttle. As mentioned, you can change your max throttle value to anything in
between what's normally 50% and 100% throttle with these mixer lines. Okay, now
I promised you earlier a little Bonus. Just as a reminder, I've programmed an
"audio alert" to remind me anytime I've got throttle limit engaged. That way I
won't inadvertently be flying with a max throttle of 50% when actually what I
want to be flying with is 75%. I've made a custom soundtrack for that purpose and
if you'd like to know how to make your own custom soundtrack, check this video
out on Jumper T16 Custom Sounds. In addition to the custom soundtrack, we
need to add a "Logical Switch" as depicted here on line 5. I used line 5 for my
logical switch where I've stated a is less than X, where the variable a is
actually our switch S2 and X is the value 100 when S2 is in its full max
position to the right. So this logical switch L5 will be activated . . . let me move
up here so you that you can see it - anytime S2 is less than at its max
position of 100 (which means the throttle acts as it normally would). So
anytime S2's value is less than 100, which means
throttle limit has been activated to some value, this logical switch is going
to be activated. Watch this L5 as I turn S2. See how it got bold? That means it's
activated. Let me turn it back to its max position - and its inactive. Next we need
to make a Special Function using this logical switch. To do so we go to our
Special Functions page. I've used the special function 6 line to be
initiated when L5 is active. So special function 6 is initiated when L5 is
active, and it plays a track. The track it plays is the custom sound I
made. So when the logical switch is activated, this special function will
play my custom sound track like this when I turn S2 to limit my throttle. So
that's another way you can get your throttle control "dialed-in" using your
Jumper T16 and OpenTX. If you liked this video, make sure to hit the like button
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If you want more good info to speed you on your "Journey to Better" FPV fun, make
sure to check these out next. Thanks for your time. I'll see you next video.
Clear skies friend!