Fantastic! Thank you so much for this video. I set up my DX9 using your numbers and it was perfect. Probably saved me a lot of time and frustration. Thanks again!
Hello James! Well, I've flown my F550 a few times now and I'll tell ya it has a big presence in the air, actually intimidating the first time, but a heck of a nice machine to fly, off setting the NAZA GPS dome by 10 degrees to coincide with magnetic north makes for a rock steady hover! Not an inch of movement, thanks for all your input, great help!
That's amazing James! I thought I was going to start looking for a different radio, RTH on signal loss is critical, so you say if after initial binding prior to initial assistant setup, I then,when done setting up assistant, REBIND radio with lets say flight mode switch in different positions, attitude position REBIND, GPS position REBIND, and when flying with switch in those positions it will go to failsafe when signal is lost, REBIND in every channel I want it to failsafe on lost signal! Yes you just saved me $350 was looking at the T8J as replacement, thanks a million James! with IOC programmed, I'll barely make the channel limit, was looking at my setup, radio is nine chnl, module is DM8 (8chnl) my AR7010 receiver is 7 channel, so I really have 7 channels to work with right ?need 4 for control, 1 for gimbal, one for flight modes, and have one 3 pos switch left for IOC, am I correct! Flew phantom countless times, never had to program radio though, first build, bare with me lol
You only have to rebind ONCE after completing setup, just set all switches/sticks to the position you want for failsafe (for Naza >10% throttle and flight mode in failsafe zone). 7 ch receiver you have one spare channel for gimbal tilt, which should be all you need.On the phantoms I ran a servo extension off the bind port on receiver, so I can easily rebind without taking top off, but f550 shouldn't have that issue. With any model its a good idea to rebind once you've completed all setup, as often you will have trims/servo reverse etc (on throttle a big risk), so always sensible to rebind again when your all done for failsafe settings, and test with props off on the ground.
There is no receiver setup, the channels just plug in as shown in description, then you bind as shown in video: Naza to Receiver connections A - Aileron E - Elevator T - Throttle R - Rudder U - ch6/pitch - flight mode select GPS/Atti/Manual X2 - ch5/gear/gyro - IOC select off/Course Lock/Home Lock
Thanks, I have very bright red LED's for the front, I found that in order to make my 3 pos flight mode switch fall in the correct GPS,ATTI,failsafe tabs in the assistant,I had to mess with trim then sub trim for the centre ATTI position.W as real tricky though cause trim only adjusted for GPS and failsafe positions, was confused on center ATTI tab cause trim would not adjust for middle tab,only throw off other two again, by some miracle I tried sub trim. It worked, I tell ya the little details to work through can be daunting for first build lol.
I played round with gains, out of the box I found yaw would wander quite badly, my best advice is to use spare channel connected to X1? (I used aux3 knob on DX8) so you can adjust gain in flight by using the drop down under the gain number INH->X1>X2 - I did a sweep from around 80-180 on yaw and nothing bad happens (manual says it will oscillate at high gain, I never saw this as high as I went - if your nervous you can use ATV on aux3 to limit the range of adjustment to +/- 40 and then adjust in several passes), I found I couldn't see any improvement above about 140. When I added the gimbal/gopro I also did the same with pitch/roll gains (tied both to X1 again) I think to a similar sort of figure, and wasn't convinced it made it better but certainly no worse, so I left it like that. However I have a 2nd phantom and that one was fine on stock gains out of the box, so I suspect there is a tolerance issue so you need to play with gains on your actual phantom not just use someone else's numbers blindly. Also as you add weight of camera/gimbal you can increase gains higher. Don't be afraid of big numbers either, I've read about people flying phantoms on 200-220 gains, and even higher on heavier/bigger quads so there doesn't seem to be an upper limit.
Cheers for that.i'm not using a phantom, i' scratch building a bumble bee quad with naza m lite on it. You can see it on my facebook. facebook.com/antony.phillips.336 I'm not sure i fully under stand what the gain are about so will read up abit more cheers james
AHHH! Seen too many people use ACRO and followed suit, well I got everything working now so I'm not gonna start over now, switches all ok, falling in right tabs, just now wondering about the receiver satellite, it should be mounted a few inches away from the main receiver, but everywhere I try it's close to an ESC, not sure that's good, ESC's give off lots of EM noise, gonna try to elevate on little pillar like GPS dome, away from electronics
Helluva video! Great job! I'm thinking of using NAZA V2 on my F550 flamewheel, how has your experience been so far with V2? Has it scared you silly on any occasions while flying? Thank you!
I've been very pleased with Naza V2 on phantoms, no scary moments ever, it did need a bit of gain tuning to get smooth flight/video, but nothing scary happened it just wasn't flying smoothly. I have recently played with Naza Lite on F450 frame and that has scared me a couple of times and I've had to switch to manual to fly back.
**** I gave you four stars -Would have been 5 if you were not so bloody fast and you had a better camera :-) , or was it my old ears and eyes?? Great job and a wonderful service - I got it all working after I calibrated the TX through the Assistant etc. Should have done that first. I also struggled a little bit until I figured out the DX8/9 vagaries. They allow you a much wider switch selection and it took me a while to get my heli-X to read like yours. Once that was done right, it was lovely. Thanks again, Ex-Pat Eric.
Afternoon James, ok I have now got in my possession a Spektrum DX8 and my Dji controller is the Naza M with the latest software. The only difference between your video setup is I use the Dji Zenmuse H3-2D Gimbal. Would you happen to have a file saved in your DX8 that you could provide a copy of so that I could try out......????? Regards Terry
The DX8 file doesn't really help you, as would take as long to download/copy to card/import as running through setup on this video, the zenmuse gimbal I believe is controlled through a port on the naza so you just need to connect that to whichever channel you want to use for gimbal tilt, on my DX8 I use the governor switch/channel so i can have 3 positions (almost straight ahead, 45deg and straight down), which I find easier to flick when flying without distracting me - those are the only angles I generally want.
James sorry to be a pain,I've just took my first test flight and she was mint. But the flashing red light came on after a couple of mins saying bat low.Landed check bat was at 60%. I've done the calibration on software but its trying to land to early. cheers tony
You can set the trigger voltage for the red flashing LED (stage1) and autoland (stage2) in naza assistant, they come very conservatively set and both very close together. I've turned stage 2 right down to 9.9v - I'd rather cook a lipo than lose the quad, and fly to Tx timer anyway, stage1 you can tune to taste, probably best to reduce it 0.2v at a time until you're happy with mah recharged after it comes on. Don't forget DJI supply this with a noddy charger and no tx timer so they want to play it safe and not have people complaining the lipo only lasted 2 flights as they ran it all the way out.
TONY PHILLIPS I don't blame you, generally I'm flying through goggles so don't see the LED in flight anyway, and tx timer is much more reliable way to manage battery usage.
cheers for that. just one more problem to solve. my quad when i take off starts to turn once its up.i trim it and its ok and i land. go up again starts to turn again trim it fine again. after a few flights my trim bar is right over to the left on my dx8. cheers tony
TONY PHILLIPS do you mean it drifts in yaw/rudder ? I would run through advanced IMU calibration from a cold startup (ie leave Naza for an hour on the bench then power up and plug straight into USB and run IMU advanced calibration, don't leave it on for a few minutes first). Also I would redo compass calibration. If that doesn't fix it probably caused by vibration affecting gyro's so check/balance props and check motors are all straight etc.
Thx for everything James, almost done, just wanted to hear your opinion about NAZA and some of the horror stories you see on TH-cam, I myself never had an issue with my phantom, always been strict about procedure. Calibrations and such have always been my priority, I know it's only a matter of time though, as relying on GPS can never be truly "failsafe". In your opinion, using attitude mode more often and ideally manual, would significantly reduce risk of disaster no? I'm not sure to what extent ATTI mode relies on GPS if any? Thx! Your opinion is appreciated, kinda paranoid about losing my 550. Please share any precautions you might use, as mentioned I'm a stickler for procedure but I can always learn something new!
I've not had any mishaps with Phantoms/Naza V2, have had a couple of scares with Naza lite though. My understanding is most of the issues people had were older firmware, not waiting for home position flashes before flying, or ignoring compass issues. Atti mode uses no gps or compass (self levelling only), so should allow you to fly back manually if there was a GPS/compass issue. I calibrate compass every couple of weeks or if I move anything about on frame, and ALWAYS wait for fast green flashes (two sets normally - one at 2reds, and another when all green) before taking off. Main issue with F550 will be orientation as its very easy to get confused when all sides look the same (coloured arms are hard to distinguish at any distance), so I'd suggest using bright LED strips red on the back another colour on the front (white/green) so you can easily turn and fly back to yourself in atti mode if needed. Also check and test failsafe and all switch positions with props off on the bench before you fly and you should be golden.
Another guy said to use an airplane model not a heli in his video. He reasons that even tho it looks like a heli the controls are more like that of an airplane. I don't know that I agree, what's your thoughts?
You can use whatever mode you prefer, quads definitely don't fly like any plane I've had. Planes hover mode3 (rudder/aileron swapped) etc. Issue is having one switch for failsafe/return home from any flight mode, to do this in acro requires multiple complex mixes to set U and throttle correctly, but can be done. I am lazy so do whats easy, this tx setup takes 3 mins and failsafe works regardless of flight mode/throttle position/signal loss.
Good video. Unfortunately my radio, an older Spektrum DX7, won't allow to bind in Throttle Hold. Won't even go past the "WARNING! T.HOLD" alert screen, actually, and doesn't seem to be configurable to bypass this alert. Real pity, will need to waste a channel just for this and dig into some cumbersome channel mixing and will probably lose the RTL from any flight mode that is so cool with your setup.
I think you can start to bind then flick throttle hold on quickly and it will work, may need some careful testing with props off to be sure before flying though, but I think it can be done. Failing that you can set a dummy pitch curve just for binding to force failsafe, then change pitch curve back for normal use.
***** Thanks a million for your help James, I am considering going for the Spektrum DX8 seem to be the best option it having the two 3 position switches only problem is I have only had the DX7s a few days so will be having to sell that first......cheers
Medusa Gorgon I love my DX8, had it since they came out, but its out of date now - I would try to stretch to the DX9 if I were you (unless you can get a used DX8 at a good price) OR wait for the new DX6 which looks amazing and great value. I believe it has 3 position flight mode switch and some of the other switches are 3 position also, and it has all the other new features, voice prompts, wireless trainer - looks like an amazing radio ! See www.rchelicopterfun.com/spektrum-dx6.html
On my DX6 in F-mode setup I see Switch 1 and Hold switch, for Switch 1 I use Switch B (which as three positions GPS/Atti/Manual), Hold switch - Switch H (failsafe) - this works fine for my phantom. You can also setup voice announcements for the flight modes (the GPS/self levelling announcements are right near the end)
Thanks James! I noticed you mentioned that with previous NAZA unit you were forced to fly back on manual a couple of times, I've never flown my phantom in manual, but now than I'm building an F550.I'd like to ask, how difficult is flying manual? And would it be even easier on a hex, being inherently more stable than a quad?.Should I practice with the phantom first? I fly planes but not heli's, can't see it being as hard as flying a collective pitch helli no? Thanks!
I've only had to flick to manual on Naza Lite and think it wouldn't have gone too far (TBE) but it wasn't stopping so I flicked over to manual while I could see clearly to save it. I've never had to do this on V2 - I have flown RC heli's for years so I'm very comfortable flying manually (as long as I can see the quad clearly for orientation) - its like flying a fixed pitch heli - 550 won't be any more stable in manual than a phantom/450 but without LEDs will be harder to orientation than a phantom, so its probably worth trying to fly something small like a hubsan X4/nano QX to master manual controls just in case you ever need them on something bigger. If you've flown heli's before then manual is fine, try it on the phantom first maybe.
paul foster I don't have that controller, but if it has a similar channel for flight modes, it would probably get you started, you may need to tweak the values to hit the specific hotspots.
I don't use Futaba but setup would be pretty similar using a heli mode and flat pitch curves for flight mode. I am sure range with any proper tx will be better than the stock DJI controller, and you get features like timers and access to all 4 flight modes etc which are essential to me.
Hi thx again, I used your video years ago to bind my Phantom with Spektrum receiver. Now when i switch to another rc model and come back to phantom cfg, i loose the binding. wpuld you have any idea why and how to avoid this? Thx.
If your using DX8 or other spektrum radio then the bind is linked to the model number in memory, so if you have copied/moved the config then you will have to rebind, but shouldn't change other than that. Its possible the receiver has an issue where its stuck in bind mode (if it works fine for other receivers/models that would be my best guess), hope you manage to solve it.
Hello again James! If you could maybe advise on something I'd appreciate it to no end, I received my NAZA V2 and am now just assigning channels in my radio, I don't care about IOC, never touched it before in phantom, only need gimbal tilt and flight modes, that's easy. Setting up failsafe in flight mode 3 pos switch is no problem, I'm cracking nuts over fail safe on loss of signal because my futaba 9C is converted to spektrum 2.4, therefore operates in PPM, I'm evading in my futaba manual that failsafe on loss of signal is only possible in PCM, which I cannot do since it's converted, is there another way? Thank you james!
You can ignore the 9C manual - thats for PCM 35/72Mhz failsafe only which worked differently (Tx sent failsafe positions every x frames) - your 2.4 module manual will explain failsafe, normally whatever stick/switch positions you bind the receiver are used for failsafe (stored in receiver), so you just need to rebind with failsafe active and test with props off to confirm fast orange flashing LED when you switch off Tx. You SHOULD setup IOC even if you don't plan to use it as its needed to reset home position and height which can be useful ie flying near tall tree's, you can reset home position 30ft up over clear landing area so failsafe would fly 60ft above THAT height to avoid tree's on a failsafe return.
Will this Orange RX upgrade to Spektrum work on the DJI PHANTOM FC40 or just the Naza V2.? Just asking because I want to buy the FC40 & Hate the FC40 TX.! Also I Own a DX7s & have lots of the Orange RX
I understand the FC40 has Naza V2 so it should work exactly the same, if you have the receiver its easy to try, just don't try to unpluge the aerials from the receiver board, they are glued on so snap - I broke two before I learned my lesson, if you unscrew the ESC you can poke aerial up through bottom of body (remove rubber bung also) and remove receiver without disconnecting the aerials.
Good to know,thanks! I've used my phantom for FPV and aerial video with the Tarot gimbal, I love the phantom, it's the little drone that could.You can achieve amazing video with it, TH-cam search "Eddiecj" or I'm sure my username shows up in my reply message, click me and see my cathedral test video.No post stabilization, just testing gimbal, the older video flying over a harbor was post stabilized,before my gimbal arrived,but regardless,it's great having not used a gimbal at all,Thanks for the reply.
Thanks Eddie, cathedral video looks great !! The cheap gimbals work so nicely, I'm not doing any stabilisation at all, just editing out any rough yaw bits - hopefully in a few months the 3 axis gimbals will be small and cheap enough to sort that out too !!
Fantastic! Thank you so much for this video. I set up my DX9 using your numbers and it was perfect. Probably saved me a lot of time and frustration. Thanks again!
Hello James! Well, I've flown my F550 a few times now and I'll tell ya it has a big presence in the air, actually intimidating the first time, but a heck of a nice machine to fly, off setting the NAZA GPS dome by 10 degrees to coincide with magnetic north makes for a rock steady hover! Not an inch of movement, thanks for all your input, great help!
Very useful video! Just the video I've been looking for. THANK YOU!
awesome vid thanks for the info now I can set up my new dx9
Thank You soooooo much for the info above!
Awesome, thank you! I owe ya!
Great stuff James! Lol I'll tell Greg you say hi!
That's amazing James! I thought I was going to start looking for a different radio, RTH on signal loss is critical, so you say if after initial binding prior to initial assistant setup, I then,when done setting up assistant, REBIND radio with lets say flight mode switch in different positions, attitude position REBIND, GPS position REBIND, and when flying with switch in those positions it will go to failsafe when signal is lost, REBIND in every channel I want it to failsafe on lost signal! Yes you just saved me $350 was looking at the T8J as replacement, thanks a million James! with IOC programmed, I'll barely make the channel limit, was looking at my setup, radio is nine chnl, module is DM8 (8chnl) my AR7010 receiver is 7 channel, so I really have 7 channels to work with right ?need 4 for control, 1 for gimbal, one for flight modes, and have one 3 pos switch left for IOC, am I correct! Flew phantom countless times, never had to program radio though, first build, bare with me lol
You only have to rebind ONCE after completing setup, just set all switches/sticks to the position you want for failsafe (for Naza >10% throttle and flight mode in failsafe zone). 7 ch receiver you have one spare channel for gimbal tilt, which should be all you need.On the phantoms I ran a servo extension off the bind port on receiver, so I can easily rebind without taking top off, but f550 shouldn't have that issue. With any model its a good idea to rebind once you've completed all setup, as often you will have trims/servo reverse etc (on throttle a big risk), so always sensible to rebind again when your all done for failsafe settings, and test with props off on the ground.
Do you think maybe possibly in the future you could do a video on the specifics on how to set up the receiver on the phantom?
There is no receiver setup, the channels just plug in as shown in description, then you bind as shown in video:
Naza to Receiver connections
A - Aileron
E - Elevator
T - Throttle
R - Rudder
U - ch6/pitch - flight mode select GPS/Atti/Manual
X2 - ch5/gear/gyro - IOC select off/Course Lock/Home Lock
ok thank you
Thanks, I have very bright red LED's for the front, I found that in order to make my 3 pos flight mode switch fall in the correct GPS,ATTI,failsafe tabs in the assistant,I had to mess with trim then sub trim for the centre ATTI position.W as real tricky though cause trim only adjusted for GPS and failsafe positions, was confused on center ATTI tab cause trim would not adjust for middle tab,only throw off other two again, by some miracle I tried sub trim. It worked, I tell ya the little details to work through can be daunting for first build lol.
Thats why I setup in heli mode which avoids all those problems and gives you all 4 flight modes on switches (GPS/atti/manual and failsafe).
I thought you needed t ouse ACRO for the naza?
James that was mint.I have a question what did you do with the gain settings
cheers tony
I played round with gains, out of the box I found yaw would wander quite badly, my best advice is to use spare channel connected to X1? (I used aux3 knob on DX8) so you can adjust gain in flight by using the drop down under the gain number INH->X1>X2 - I did a sweep from around 80-180 on yaw and nothing bad happens (manual says it will oscillate at high gain, I never saw this as high as I went - if your nervous you can use ATV on aux3 to limit the range of adjustment to +/- 40 and then adjust in several passes), I found I couldn't see any improvement above about 140. When I added the gimbal/gopro I also did the same with pitch/roll gains (tied both to X1 again) I think to a similar sort of figure, and wasn't convinced it made it better but certainly no worse, so I left it like that. However I have a 2nd phantom and that one was fine on stock gains out of the box, so I suspect there is a tolerance issue so you need to play with gains on your actual phantom not just use someone else's numbers blindly. Also as you add weight of camera/gimbal you can increase gains higher. Don't be afraid of big numbers either, I've read about people flying phantoms on 200-220 gains, and even higher on heavier/bigger quads so there doesn't seem to be an upper limit.
Cheers for that.i'm not using a phantom, i' scratch building a bumble bee quad with naza m lite on it. You can see it on my facebook.
facebook.com/antony.phillips.336
I'm not sure i fully under stand what the gain are about so will read up abit more
cheers james
AHHH! Seen too many people use ACRO and followed suit, well I got everything working now so I'm not gonna start over now, switches all ok, falling in right tabs, just now wondering about the receiver satellite, it should be mounted a few inches away from the main receiver, but everywhere I try it's close to an ESC, not sure that's good, ESC's give off lots of EM noise, gonna try to elevate on little pillar like GPS dome, away from electronics
Helluva video! Great job! I'm thinking of using NAZA V2 on my F550 flamewheel, how has your experience been so far with V2? Has it scared you silly on any occasions while flying? Thank you!
I've been very pleased with Naza V2 on phantoms, no scary moments ever, it did need a bit of gain tuning to get smooth flight/video, but nothing scary happened it just wasn't flying smoothly. I have recently played with Naza Lite on F450 frame and that has scared me a couple of times and I've had to switch to manual to fly back.
That was a very clear and helpful video - Thanks!
One question: Why "Heli" rather than "Acro" when the DJI Wiki advises to use "Acro"?
**** I gave you four stars -Would have been 5 if you were not so bloody fast and you had a better camera :-) , or was it my old ears and eyes??
Great job and a wonderful service - I got it all working after I calibrated the TX through the Assistant etc. Should have done that first. I also struggled a little bit until I figured out the DX8/9 vagaries. They allow you a much wider switch selection and it took me a while to get my heli-X to read like yours. Once that was done right, it was lovely.
Thanks again,
Ex-Pat Eric.
Hello. Xxxx
Afternoon James, ok I have now got in my possession a Spektrum DX8 and my Dji controller is the Naza M with the latest software. The only difference between your video setup is I use the Dji Zenmuse H3-2D Gimbal. Would you happen to have a file saved in your DX8 that you could provide a copy of so that I could try out......?????
Regards
Terry
The DX8 file doesn't really help you, as would take as long to download/copy to card/import as running through setup on this video, the zenmuse gimbal I believe is controlled through a port on the naza so you just need to connect that to whichever channel you want to use for gimbal tilt, on my DX8 I use the governor switch/channel so i can have 3 positions (almost straight ahead, 45deg and straight down), which I find easier to flick when flying without distracting me - those are the only angles I generally want.
James sorry to be a pain,I've just took my first test flight and she was mint. But the flashing red light came on after a couple of mins saying bat low.Landed check bat was at 60%. I've done the calibration on software but its trying to land to early.
cheers tony
You can set the trigger voltage for the red flashing LED (stage1) and autoland (stage2) in naza assistant, they come very conservatively set and both very close together. I've turned stage 2 right down to 9.9v - I'd rather cook a lipo than lose the quad, and fly to Tx timer anyway, stage1 you can tune to taste, probably best to reduce it 0.2v at a time until you're happy with mah recharged after it comes on. Don't forget DJI supply this with a noddy charger and no tx timer so they want to play it safe and not have people complaining the lipo only lasted 2 flights as they ran it all the way out.
***** i've turned it off. i'll rely on my timer and experience cheers james
TONY PHILLIPS I don't blame you, generally I'm flying through goggles so don't see the LED in flight anyway, and tx timer is much more reliable way to manage battery usage.
cheers for that. just one more problem to solve. my quad when i take off starts to turn once its up.i trim it and its ok and i land. go up again starts to turn again trim it fine again. after a few flights my trim bar is right over to the left on my dx8.
cheers tony
TONY PHILLIPS do you mean it drifts in yaw/rudder ? I would run through advanced IMU calibration from a cold startup (ie leave Naza for an hour on the bench then power up and plug straight into USB and run IMU advanced calibration, don't leave it on for a few minutes first). Also I would redo compass calibration. If that doesn't fix it probably caused by vibration affecting gyro's so check/balance props and check motors are all straight etc.
Nice.. If your radio loses contact will the phantom automatically go into failsafe?
Yes, if you bind correctly failsafe will activate on loss of signal - its shown in the video at the end when I switch off transmitter.
Thx for everything James, almost done, just wanted to hear your opinion about NAZA and some of the horror stories you see on TH-cam, I myself never had an issue with my phantom, always been strict about procedure. Calibrations and such have always been my priority, I know it's only a matter of time though, as relying on GPS can never be truly "failsafe". In your opinion, using attitude mode more often and ideally manual, would significantly reduce risk of disaster no? I'm not sure to what extent ATTI mode relies on GPS if any? Thx! Your opinion is appreciated, kinda paranoid about losing my 550. Please share any precautions you might use, as mentioned I'm a stickler for procedure but I can always learn something new!
I've not had any mishaps with Phantoms/Naza V2, have had a couple of scares with Naza lite though. My understanding is most of the issues people had were older firmware, not waiting for home position flashes before flying, or ignoring compass issues. Atti mode uses no gps or compass (self levelling only), so should allow you to fly back manually if there was a GPS/compass issue. I calibrate compass every couple of weeks or if I move anything about on frame, and ALWAYS wait for fast green flashes (two sets normally - one at 2reds, and another when all green) before taking off. Main issue with F550 will be orientation as its very easy to get confused when all sides look the same (coloured arms are hard to distinguish at any distance), so I'd suggest using bright LED strips red on the back another colour on the front (white/green) so you can easily turn and fly back to yourself in atti mode if needed. Also check and test failsafe and all switch positions with props off on the bench before you fly and you should be golden.
When i move my throttle it changes my control mode, what have i done wrong?
You haven't set your pitch curves flat as shown in video at 1m43s
Another guy said to use an airplane model not a heli in his video. He reasons that even tho it looks like a heli the controls are more like that of an airplane. I don't know that I agree, what's your thoughts?
You can use whatever mode you prefer, quads definitely don't fly like any plane I've had. Planes hover mode3 (rudder/aileron swapped) etc. Issue is having one switch for failsafe/return home from any flight mode, to do this in acro requires multiple complex mixes to set U and throttle correctly, but can be done. I am lazy so do whats easy, this tx setup takes 3 mins and failsafe works regardless of flight mode/throttle position/signal loss.
Good video. Unfortunately my radio, an older Spektrum DX7, won't allow to bind in Throttle Hold. Won't even go past the "WARNING! T.HOLD" alert screen, actually, and doesn't seem to be configurable to bypass this alert. Real pity, will need to waste a channel just for this and dig into some cumbersome channel mixing and will probably lose the RTL from any flight mode that is so cool with your setup.
I think you can start to bind then flick throttle hold on quickly and it will work, may need some careful testing with props off to be sure before flying though, but I think it can be done. Failing that you can set a dummy pitch curve just for binding to force failsafe, then change pitch curve back for normal use.
***** Thanks for the good idea, James. Will try that.
James this is a great informative video, is there anyway of contacting you for some help on connecting my DJi Phantom with a Spektrum DX7s ???????
I don't have a DX7S, am sure if you google it or search rcgroups people have all flight modes working using mixes on two switches though.
*****
Thanks for getting back to me James, I have searched all sources available and I cannot find the info I need to attempt my desired setup.
Medusa Gorgon www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=564157
*****
Thanks a million for your help James, I am considering going for the Spektrum DX8 seem to be the best option it having the two 3 position switches only problem is I have only had the DX7s a few days so will be having to sell that first......cheers
Medusa Gorgon I love my DX8, had it since they came out, but its out of date now - I would try to stretch to the DX9 if I were you (unless you can get a used DX8 at a good price) OR wait for the new DX6 which looks amazing and great value. I believe it has 3 position flight mode switch and some of the other switches are 3 position also, and it has all the other new features, voice prompts, wireless trainer - looks like an amazing radio ! See www.rchelicopterfun.com/spektrum-dx6.html
thanks!!
great tutorial:-)
hi james tryed to follow ,but on dx6 the swith mode, as i f setup it only shows 1 switch. not 2 like yours.
On my DX6 in F-mode setup I see Switch 1 and Hold switch, for Switch 1 I use Switch B (which as three positions GPS/Atti/Manual), Hold switch - Switch H (failsafe) - this works fine for my phantom. You can also setup voice announcements for the flight modes (the GPS/self levelling announcements are right near the end)
Cheers James. I'll have another bash at it. But if in trouble again .Can I contact you again ? Cheers brian
Which Orange receiver were you using?
+socalbimmer This was the R800X I believe, which is no longer current, but the new R820X should be perfect also and is even cheaper!
Thanks James! I noticed you mentioned that with previous NAZA unit you were forced to fly back on manual a couple of times, I've never flown my phantom in manual, but now than I'm building an F550.I'd like to ask, how difficult is flying manual? And would it be even easier on a hex, being inherently more stable than a quad?.Should I practice with the phantom first? I fly planes but not heli's, can't see it being as hard as flying a collective pitch helli no? Thanks!
I've only had to flick to manual on Naza Lite and think it wouldn't have gone too far (TBE) but it wasn't stopping so I flicked over to manual while I could see clearly to save it. I've never had to do this on V2 - I have flown RC heli's for years so I'm very comfortable flying manually (as long as I can see the quad clearly for orientation) - its like flying a fixed pitch heli - 550 won't be any more stable in manual than a phantom/450 but without LEDs will be harder to orientation than a phantom, so its probably worth trying to fly something small like a hubsan X4/nano QX to master manual controls just in case you ever need them on something bigger. If you've flown heli's before then manual is fine, try it on the phantom first maybe.
Hi James will all these settings work on the cx-20 quanum nova flight controller thx Paul
paul foster I don't have that controller, but if it has a similar channel for flight modes, it would probably get you started, you may need to tweak the values to hit the specific hotspots.
Does your receiver support Preset Failsafe which is crucial for proper Naza Failsafe function to work and Return To Home in the event of signal lost?
Its demonstrated in the video, when I turn off the transmitter - thats signal loss ;)
How does this setup compare to the Futaba? With the DX8, do you have better range and control (and gimbal control) than with the stock DJI controller?
I don't use Futaba but setup would be pretty similar using a heli mode and flat pitch curves for flight mode. I am sure range with any proper tx will be better than the stock DJI controller, and you get features like timers and access to all 4 flight modes etc which are essential to me.
Thanks, that's helpful!
Hi thx again, I used your video years ago to bind my Phantom with Spektrum receiver. Now when i switch to another rc model and come back to phantom cfg, i loose the binding. wpuld you have any idea why and how to avoid this? Thx.
If your using DX8 or other spektrum radio then the bind is linked to the model number in memory, so if you have copied/moved the config then you will have to rebind, but shouldn't change other than that. Its possible the receiver has an issue where its stuck in bind mode (if it works fine for other receivers/models that would be my best guess), hope you manage to solve it.
jamesb72 thx for your answer! I just reminded that I had a switch to test radio cut, as you said cfg was still there! My bad thx for your time.
Hello again James! If you could maybe advise on something I'd appreciate it to no end, I received my NAZA V2 and am now just assigning channels in my radio, I don't care about IOC, never touched it before in phantom, only need gimbal tilt and flight modes, that's easy. Setting up failsafe in flight mode 3 pos switch is no problem, I'm cracking nuts over fail safe on loss of signal because my futaba 9C is converted to spektrum 2.4, therefore operates in PPM, I'm evading in my futaba manual that failsafe on loss of signal is only possible in PCM, which I cannot do since it's converted, is there another way? Thank you james!
You can ignore the 9C manual - thats for PCM 35/72Mhz failsafe only which worked differently (Tx sent failsafe positions every x frames) - your 2.4 module manual will explain failsafe, normally whatever stick/switch positions you bind the receiver are used for failsafe (stored in receiver), so you just need to rebind with failsafe active and test with props off to confirm fast orange flashing LED when you switch off Tx. You SHOULD setup IOC even if you don't plan to use it as its needed to reset home position and height which can be useful ie flying near tall tree's, you can reset home position 30ft up over clear landing area so failsafe would fly 60ft above THAT height to avoid tree's on a failsafe return.
Will this Orange RX upgrade to Spektrum work on the DJI PHANTOM FC40 or just the Naza V2.? Just asking because I want to buy the FC40 & Hate the FC40 TX.! Also I Own a DX7s & have lots of the Orange RX
I understand the FC40 has Naza V2 so it should work exactly the same, if you have the receiver its easy to try, just don't try to unpluge the aerials from the receiver board, they are glued on so snap - I broke two before I learned my lesson, if you unscrew the ESC you can poke aerial up through bottom of body (remove rubber bung also) and remove receiver without disconnecting the aerials.
Good to know,thanks! I've used my phantom for FPV and aerial video with the Tarot gimbal, I love the phantom, it's the little drone that could.You can achieve amazing video with it, TH-cam search "Eddiecj" or I'm sure my username shows up in my reply message, click me and see my cathedral test video.No post stabilization, just testing gimbal, the older video flying over a harbor was post stabilized,before my gimbal arrived,but regardless,it's great having not used a gimbal at all,Thanks for the reply.
Thanks Eddie, cathedral video looks great !! The cheap gimbals work so nicely, I'm not doing any stabilisation at all, just editing out any rough yaw bits - hopefully in a few months the 3 axis gimbals will be small and cheap enough to sort that out too !!