Thank you Joshua. Your knowledge and understanding of open tx is amazing. ill be watching this vid again to work this out for my self....im now in full geek mode...cranked up to 11!! many thanks for all you time and hard work. Im sure you have just blown the minds of most of your followers!! Happy new year from the UK!! All the best for the future!!
Great job. OpenTX is really the Swiss Army chainsaw of our RC hobby. There are so many ways to achieve this. I like the brevity of your method. I usually set all the functions and switch combinations up in the INPUTS tab (as the pure model), and then use the MIXER tab to map them to the quad. This way I have an ARM input, a TURTLE input, a BEEPER input, an ANGLE input, etc.. The mixer then works off the INPUTS. This is in line with how OpenTX was designed.
Hello Joshua, I thoroughly enjoyed this video which demonstrates the versatile power of the Taranis and OpenTx. Also, although not all will fully understand at first, but putting this type of video out there will get people thinking. Thank you.
Thank you! That is my goal here, as much as anything else. The specific technique is not useful to everybody but a deeper understanding of the power of OpenTX is very valuable.
The video left a few things uncertain for me but once I loaded up your profile into OpenTX and simulated the transmitter I had a couple "ohhhhhhh" moments where now it all makes sense. It was nothing lacking with your video, it is just a difficult topic to explain without being hands on. Awesome thing to learn about in the end!
Your channel is awesome. I love how you take your channel and go deep into the topic as you state “learn something”. Please keep that basic foundational approach to all of your content. I just found your channel a few days ago and I am becoming a big fan.
Gawd - I love OpenTX too! This concept can be hard to grasp, and is even harder to try and explain. Users need to take their time and be sure they FULLY understand what is happening.
Great stuff! I just used your video to guide me through combining 5 NAV (eventually 6) options from two switches into a single channel for iNav. More combos planned. Thanks!
Several months ago I used one channel and values 1000 1333 1666 2000 to drive 2 aux channels as two bits. Thanks to your video a nice concept came to my head. We should divide the channel "value line" into 2^N segments with each representing one bit. So from 1000 to 2000 we can have 9 bits of data. Each of bits can switch one mode. This requires some development in both FC and radio firmwares.
For people trying to do this while keeping the functions fully independent from one another: You can put two functions on one channel while keeping them totally independent (none, one, both, or the other) On one channel in the mixer just set it to MAX at an arbitrary value like -100. Then use three logical switches to identify one function, both functions, and another function. Use three special functions to "override" that channel for each of the three logical switches. Then in Betaflight just have the two functions overlap each other for when they are both on.
I'm a huge fan of this for combining some different utilities (beeper with turtle mode, and the PinIO options or if you're adding any LED options). That said, to me there's huge utility to be had with letting Betaflight help sort out the Prearm, Arm, and Throttle states if you only run that. Having OSD messages telling me what to correct has been invaluable for me with split-second recovery decisions, which wouldn't have been necessarily apparent if I was relying on logical switches to achieve the same Prearm/Arm setup. For anybody just encountering this concept, I'd recommend leaving the Arm, Prearm (YES - use prearm!), and throttle as three separate channels and let Betaflight/Butterflight handle those - then test everything else out until you're happy with it. This still leaves you with a RSSI channel and a free multi-use channel if you're trying to use 8ch
I have something similar to this set up and have everything I need on the smaller switch compliment of the QX7S. (Still have my Taranis, but my main flier is the QX7S - love how it feels). One thing I recommend IF you decide to do this, well even if you don't - whatever your system is - take an evening and create a text document that calls out all switch functions, logical switches, and the formulas used to make it all work, I also document a flow chart. This lets you go back and remember what you did in the event you need to change it or add it to another radio. Print out this document and put in in your Quad gear (I carry a log book with all the goodies like specifics for each quad, freq table, and the radio documentation) - you'll be glad at some point you have this information with you. I also copied it onto my radio SD card. My HUGE pet peeve of both Open TX and Betaflight is a lack of the ability to create comments to document the logic behind the syntax.
i have my first open tx radio the nirvana (banggood) and i have set up two models, both working, both done differently??? opentx seems to have multiple duplications of selections... ''oohh set up already has stick in there cool. added switches to set up... didnt work, added switch names, didnt work... named swticthes on the switch page, didnt work, added switches to mixer page, works!!!... second model, just added switches to mixer page,,, works!!!... logic has no real use when learning all the legacy aspects of opentx.
Wow this is awesome, why didn't i think of that sooner? that means i can keep my aux channel back down to 8 and reduce latency, too cool. Thanks you and happy new year Joshua.
This is awesome! I was just thinking about how to do this while driving this afternoon and boom, you post it! Very cool! Well done, very helpful for us xlite guys with 4 switches ;)
I'm doing something similar but I sacrifice a whole channel to the betaflight Prearm mode rather than try to handle prearm in the taranis. It just seems safer and simpler to me to keep that separate. But I referenced this video a ton to set mine up so thanks!
Joshua, I have an idea many guys might find helpful: With googles on, it's kinda hard to find the right switches except the one on the TOP. (SE SF) And it's also hard to smoothly land with airmode on. (except letting it drop on the concrete - just disarm mid air :D ) So following this approach we could use SF when armed again to temporarily disable Airmode. (I use the 2 switch arming method as a lot of guys, who are watching your channel) I got it working with the help of this video, but as it is not straight forward you may create a video on this. So long story shor: Arming: SE and SF for a second with no throttle. As soon as SF is down to low again (momentary switch) it's in airmode. When I land, i just hold SF again until it's on the ground. Then I disarm as usual. For me I decided to add another switch SA to permanently disable Airmode, if I fly indoors, because airmode makes my quad freak out when I hit kids or pets. :D
7:47 You can add a second "Range" to the Beeper. By doing that, you get a second slide bar for "Beeper" that you can possition somewhere else. That way you could have one Beeper-slide (range) for when its armed, and another Beeper-slide (range) for when it is disarmed.
I love this information, thank you! I have to set up a better arming. My winter coat grabbed my transmitter and armed my quad, fortunately, I had the quad on the ground..
Damn, I just relived my conclusion course work... (Something we do here in Brazil in the last college year... And you have to pass this "test" to graduate...) I think I'm going to have nightmares about it again. 😕 But, anyway... That's REALLY interesting, JB! Fantastic!
Happy New year Joshua B.. Very helpful video thanks a lot always feel there is never enough switches but this helped open up some switches for extra functions..
The video had some great ideas. Staying in D8 mode with complex setups was getting difficult. There were times when it was hard to follow, especially looking at the Taranis screen. Maybe there is a better way to explain opentx stuff. I am really glad you shared the opentx file. That will make easy to load in opentx companion and run the simulator so that I can follow along better.
it's easier to divide it into three channels: CH5: Arm; CH6: Flight-Modes (airmode, horizonmode); CH7: additional switches (beeper, osd, turtle, failsafe,...); CH8: RSSI .... then you can switch the receiver down to 8 channels for less latency
You can also use up to 9 different functions on a single channel that are completely independent from each other, so no "2nd function mode" or anything. Use 0 for off for each function and 512, 256, 128, ... 1 respectively for on. Add all the functions together in OpenTX and create modes for all combinations you are interested in in the range from 988 to 2023.
Hey I have a suggestion. You should pick one bnf quad for beginners and make a series of videos for just that quad all the way through then people can copy you and it’ll work. Then once they’ve gone through everything that knowledge can be applied elsewhere
Joshua, good video. The focus on your face is soft; not sure if that is on purpose. (are helluva engineers a little blurry?) Auto-focus is one of those quirky technologies that should be used with care; cameras tend to focus on what is closest to them, like expensive microphones. Really enjoyed meeting you at Kwad Camp Xhover.
Nice video. But, can't you just add ranges to the modes and do all of this in Betaflight instead of the mixer? Doesn't really matter, I guess, but I find it cleaner to see in Betaflight
Doesn’t less aux channels that are set up lower the cpu usage? Great video. This reminded me of what I wanted to do and couldn’t figure it out. Now I can set it and forget it lol. Thank you
I had been thinking it over for a while now but this video prompted me to do it, I took about 10 minutes out of my day and figured this out for use on a Spektrum Dx6. It was actually rather easy. Now using a dedicated arm switch as always, and 2 3 position switches, I have angle mode, horizion mode, horizon with air mode, acro trainer, acro mode, and acro with air mode as well as flip over after crash. Should I make a video outlining my adventure? Might be a good segway into this
Be very very careful that you are preventing accidental arming. On the Taranis I do this with logical switches but IDK if Spektrum has similar function. When you enable angle mode you can't accidentally also arm. If you have a video showing how to do it I'll give you a link. Email me the video link when it's ready.
@@JoshuaBardwell Hey I already made and uploaded it. Also I am using a dedicated arming switch, for ONLY that function. I may need some help to better figure out how to outline it to be useful for someone else. th-cam.com/video/dckO9jOokGc/w-d-xo.html
That is really nice logical thinking, but to be honest, I find it unnecessary as your capable of transmitting 4 aux channels or more if you want slow response. Cramming all that into 1 aux has an advantage of???
keeping your channels used to 8 or less allow you to minimize your latency with a frsky setup. not sure if that's his reasoning, but that is a logical purpose for this.
That is my exact reasoning. With this approach, I have three aux channels remaining. One is typically used for RSSI. So that leaves me two spare aux channels for whatever else I want to do.
@@JoshuaBardwell I'd just figured out how to make 1 channel do 2 functions by using a 3 stage switch with each stage having an offset of 30 with another switch. This seems a much better way and solves my problem with wanting to keep below 8ch on my long range quad. Excellent video. Thanks!
@@JoshuaBardwell would this be equally applicable to the Q X7 as is is limited in the # of controllers they offer? This would appear to be a workaround for those limitations and make an even better value.
Hey Mr Bardwell , not sure if you gonna read this . I wonder why we still use xt60 when we clearly go over 120amp with our crafts , why not change to xt90 , we did the same thing on tiny whoop connectors and it worked :) Maybe you are intrested in performing some simple Tests? I mean xt90 are cheap and easy to solder to normal xt 60 batterys ...we upgraded everything and still using this bottleneck
I learned something that the motor arming charms could be set up as a location beeper. How? Another video idea. A great feature not only for quads but also fixed wing.
Dshot motor buzzer can be activated in the Configuration tab. As long as you are using Dshot, it will work whenever the normal buzzer would work. But it can't be used while the motors are spinning obviously.
Dear Josh, I actually forgot that I have a kinda cinewhoop (80mm on 1103 motors and 40mm props) which flies like shyte and I have to bind it in 16CH mode in order to have enough auxes for modes, RSSI and Runcam Split Mini 2 control. With your technique I can shrink my XM+ down to 8CH mode so I could use Betaflight RC filtering, but -- since it flies so bad, will I really gain anything with RC filtering set to "filter" rather than "interpolation" on 16 channels? Or better don't bother? I ask because introducing your way of sharing a single aux between so many modes is über advanced ))
Hi Joshua I'm a big fan of yours and am getting in to fpv it's addictive. I live in the outback Australia and hard metting people in the hobby. I am learning a lot from you cheers mate and thanks to your vids. I would love own a quad built by the best how can I buy 1 of your qauds if that's possible.
It would be nice if we could just multiplex the switches into a binary number on the Taranis and demux into virtual channels on the FC side. After all, we have approximately 10 bits per channel. That's enough to cram 5 4-pos switches in. Or 10 2-pos switches. Or a combination. Can't this be done with the multiple ranges per mode in BF and some clever scale/add logic in OpenTX?
This is essentially what we are doing here, although we haven't broken it down. The channel range can go from 1000 to 2000 so you can take the number of switches * the number of positions and build the matrix. Then you need to build the mixer logic to implement the matrix.
@@JoshuaBardwell No, you are using a combination of addition and replacement. If for the sake of communication we assume that switches generate a 0-3 value we could encode our channels as 1000+SW1+4*SW2+16*SW3+64*SW4, etc. Or 1000+((SW1
@@JoshuaBardwell just going by what your phone displayed at around the 3 min mark. I was thinking you looked really awake and refreshed for it being so late haha!
I played around with this and now I have more questions than before %-). If you have the value for Angle Mode within the Arm interval wouldn't that mean that if your copter was disarmed and you flipped the Mode switch to Angle you would actually arm the copter bypassing the prearm?
Yes you're 100% right. That's why in the Taranis, the Angle Mode switch is set up to not activate unless the quad is armed. That's where I talk about using Logical Switches and AND logic.
I have 2 questions 1) if a radio is set up like this does that mean you are only using one channel on the radio? If so that will be great for people with 6 channel radios. 2) do you have any idea how to do this with spektrum? If this works on spektrum it will extend the usefulness of 6 channel radios.
That's all fine and dandy but why would you need all inputs to be on the same aux channel? Can you run out of aux channels? Maybe for a fixed wing but for a quad? Granted, I only have turtle and angle set up
Yes you can easily run out of aux channels. Imagine I had one aux channel for each function. There are only 4 aux channels if you are running 8-channel mode for lowest latency.
Very good info, but why is it not safer to make it simpler especially in terms of arming, sticking to 8 channels to get the highest response time (frsky users) i can set up to 12 functions just with betaflight right?
I still love the video very clear instructions and well explained but my objection is if you are teaching some one a safety feature it it safer to go the simple route not the complex one.
Josh - I'm no stranger to logic switches but in my mixer screen & on BF the angle/flip/arm modes are being activated by switch alone and by passing L04 (my L01-L04 matches yours and works). What's a good explanation/source on the difference between selecting "switch" and "source"? Based on what I can freeze-frame on your TX, I'm missing something in the details going into the mixer menu of my x-lite.
For my logic, Source needs to be Max, which sets the channel to a fixed value. Then Switch causes the mixer line to become active when the switch is set to the given position.
After watching this vid about 3x and thinking I got it, I did! Everything worked as planned (def a bit of trial & error) but... for some unknown reason now motor 4 will idle however won't keep up with the others causing the quad to flip on take-off. Not a new build, all worked fine before changing my channels. Question, all motors spin equally in betaflight motor tab and all esc's (4 in 1) are recognized in BL Heli. It's not until I run the motors from the Taranis that motor 4 lags behind and in some cases won't spin. What should I be looking at? Something in the Taranis x7?
@@JoshuaBardwell All stick channels are proper in BF. Today it's motor 3 that's not spooling up with throttle command from X7 (using BF slider all are perfect). Deleted all mixes and logical switches except the basic 4 and arming (using your 2 switch arm mix). Baffled.
Hi Joshua. I hope you can help me out. Why is there nothing moving anything in the Betaflight modes tab after setting all this logical switches in AUX1 ? What do I miss here? Is it because I'm using the Crossfire Micro module? I have your Armattan set-up. F7, crosssfire, the whole rimram ;)
Hi Joshua, I watched this video a few times now. I think I am lost as to what is actually happening with your switches physically. Are you using various switch combinations for one channel or are you flicking one switch back and forth as it goes through the lines? If I understand right, you are still using multiple switches but just using one channel. can you clarify? Thanks!
You are correct, Joshua is using multiple switches to run one channel on the quad. He uses the open tx to customize where betaflight sees the individual switch locations to make it kind of like a logical flow chart. If this dosen't help or is wrong someone correct me.
@@davidkernica9676, good explanation. And always have this scheme and words in mind: In the middle there are the channels, those transmitted and received by tx and rx. On the two sides there are sorta of interpreter ... one is the Open TX inside the transmitter, translating all physical inputs (stick & switches) in signals for each channel. On the other there is Betaflight, which translates on the screen all the channels received and transformed in actions by the flight controller. An old engineer in action ...
Really good information, thanks for that. Heres one I wonder if you can help with. You posted a video on how to make the throttle more gentle by adjusting the weight and adding an offset and I want to have this adjustment to be switchable, Do I just change the channel that the adjusted weight and offset throttle transmits on from a separate flight mode. and then make that the throttle channel on the receiver when in that mode? I only have the X7 q at the moment and don't have a receiver or anything to test it out. pretty much I want to be able to have a switchable mode that has reduced weight on all axis of the sticks as kind of a Low-amp-draw/proximity-flight mode.
Question not related to the video, but how are you recording your audio so uncut and able to switch your camera between you, the computer and your bench camera? Are you making separate clips and in post editing the camera changes in? Or are you doing this in production of the video?
I have a USB mic on my desktop. I record the desktop and the USB mic using a screen recorder program (Xsplit). I have a DSLR camera pointed at my face. I have the GoPro on a tripod on the desk pointed at the Taranis. I hit record on all of them. In post, I sync up the tracks based on the audio and then I only use the audio from the USB mic on the computer. Here is how I do it in post: th-cam.com/video/I6Yqft8xe4E/w-d-xo.html
Joshua Bardwell I guess I need to use the website from now on. It’s the least I can do to show support. Thank you so much for your videos and how you break things down for us.
Hi Joshua, question my friend has a quad so i bound my taranis x9d to his quad but in order to do so i had to write another firmware on it. non eu. after he had flown his quad i tried to put the old firmware back but now my quads arent responding what can i do? happy new years to everyone in the FPV community!
@@JoshuaBardwell f*ck thats f*cked up man now i have to start 2019 by binding al 6 of my quads again.. :( removing the heatshrink from the xmplus module etc.. well thanks for the answer tho
If you don't see the advantage then maybe not. The benefit is that you don't use up all your channels on aux modes. Especially if you are running 8 channel mode on FrSky to keep latency down, that doesn't leave enough aux channels to do all these functions, if you put one function per aux.
Thanks I can understand why you would do it I just didn’t know if it made things run faster or something like that it’s def a lot for me but I think it’s really cool that you can do all of that
Cool! I prefer my arm switch to be ON when it is switched toward me. Toward me is ON. Away from me is OFF. Now I have a bunch more quads to program. I hate you. LOL
I understand everything you are doing but this really over complicates things. When at least 4 aux channels are available why cram everything onto one. And I don't want to have to hold a switch to make my beeper sound off, I want to flip a switch that will keep it on while I look ( just one example). Better use of the momentary switch is for crash flip, hold it up and arm. Seems more of a "look what I can do" video than a learning video. Not that I don't appreciate many of your videos, but this one just leaves me asking why.
Because you get lowest latency by running FrSky in 8-channel mode. At which point you only have 4 aux channels, and one of them is used for RSSI. So that leaves only three aux channels. At which point I want to make the most of them because sometimes I want that extra aux channel for somethign else. Like on my quads with GPS Rescue mode, that's on its own dedicated aux channel... so that leaves only two remaining channels.
@@JoshuaBardwell You still kind-of make it look overly complicated. Of the three available aux channels: 1. Arm/Disarm/VTX off, because those are mutually exclusive operation modes and you really want to configure this part safely, reliably and independently of everything else, hence a dedicated channel makes sense. 2. Angle/Acro/GPS Return/Turtle, because those are mutually exclusive flight modes. Yes, you can regard all of them as "sub"-modes of "Arm" above, but, as noted, having a dedicated arming channel with just two or at most three options makes things conceptually simpler to grasp and less prone to errors. 3. Beeper, because that is an optional functionality, orthogonal to everything else, so having it on a separate channel saves you from the need to think which modes should be combineable with a beeper, without the need to be "a hell of an engineer" who thinks in set theory. Moreover, if you equate Turtle with Beeper (I can't think of a situation where this would be somehow very unsuitable), you'll end up with a two or three position arming switch, a three-position mode switch and a two-position beeper/turtle switch - all configurable without any voodoo even on a FS-I6.
I ONLY have my beepers on the momentary and I turn off the LOS beeper. I frequently fly my minis and micros at longer ranges and I don't want an already low battery running out while I'm still trekking to the location.
@@JoshuaBardwell as discussed on facebook a while ago, if you put rssi on channel 16 you still get 8 channel like latency as sbus from receiver -> fc will always send all 16 channels. The latency comes from the radio to receiver connection where it can only send 8 channels in one package. But yeah the rest of your point is still sound and agree fully with it.
Thank you Joshua. Your knowledge and understanding of open tx is amazing. ill be watching this vid again to work this out for my self....im now in full geek mode...cranked up to 11!! many thanks for all you time and hard work. Im sure you have just blown the minds of most of your followers!! Happy new year from the UK!! All the best for the future!!
Great job. OpenTX is really the Swiss Army chainsaw of our RC hobby.
There are so many ways to achieve this. I like the brevity of your method.
I usually set all the functions and switch combinations up in the INPUTS tab (as the pure model), and then use the MIXER tab to map them to the quad. This way I have an ARM input, a TURTLE input, a BEEPER input, an ANGLE input, etc.. The mixer then works off the INPUTS. This is in line with how OpenTX was designed.
Hello Joshua, I thoroughly enjoyed this video which demonstrates the versatile power of the Taranis and OpenTx. Also, although not all will fully understand at first, but putting this type of video out there will get people thinking. Thank you.
Thank you! That is my goal here, as much as anything else. The specific technique is not useful to everybody but a deeper understanding of the power of OpenTX is very valuable.
The video left a few things uncertain for me but once I loaded up your profile into OpenTX and simulated the transmitter I had a couple "ohhhhhhh" moments where now it all makes sense. It was nothing lacking with your video, it is just a difficult topic to explain without being hands on. Awesome thing to learn about in the end!
Your channel is awesome. I love how you take your channel and go deep into the topic as you state “learn something”. Please keep that basic foundational approach to all of your content. I just found your channel a few days ago and I am becoming a big fan.
Welcome to the channel and thanks for being my Patron!
Gawd - I love OpenTX too! This concept can be hard to grasp, and is even harder to try and explain. Users need to take their time and be sure they FULLY understand what is happening.
Great stuff! I just used your video to guide me through combining 5 NAV (eventually 6) options from two switches into a single channel for iNav. More combos planned. Thanks!
"I'm a hell of an engineer"
Engineering status confirmed.
No, first you have to ask how much is 2 + 2. If he answers "put 5 and it's going to hold up", then it's confirmed. 😊
This is awesome! A whole new way of thinking about programming OpenTX. Now D8 mode can do SO much more! Thanks making this video!
I was literally looking into this for the spektrums for a while now. I am going to make this work
Did you figure it out? I'm trying to set a Pre-arm.
Your One Smart SOB!!! Mr. Bardwell!!!! Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!!
I got this! Finally I figured it out! JB, you demonstrate the hardest version of all things in one AUX so that it is hard to understand the concept.
Several months ago I used one channel and values 1000 1333 1666 2000 to drive 2 aux channels as two bits. Thanks to your video a nice concept came to my head. We should divide the channel "value line" into 2^N segments with each representing one bit. So from 1000 to 2000 we can have 9 bits of data. Each of bits can switch one mode. This requires some development in both FC and radio firmwares.
you are so amazing at explaining things. the fact that i actually understood all that is insane lol.
For people trying to do this while keeping the functions fully independent from one another:
You can put two functions on one channel while keeping them totally independent (none, one, both, or the other)
On one channel in the mixer just set it to MAX at an arbitrary value like -100.
Then use three logical switches to identify one function, both functions, and another function.
Use three special functions to "override" that channel for each of the three logical switches.
Then in Betaflight just have the two functions overlap each other for when they are both on.
I'm a huge fan of this for combining some different utilities (beeper with turtle mode, and the PinIO options or if you're adding any LED options).
That said, to me there's huge utility to be had with letting Betaflight help sort out the Prearm, Arm, and Throttle states if you only run that. Having OSD messages telling me what to correct has been invaluable for me with split-second recovery decisions, which wouldn't have been necessarily apparent if I was relying on logical switches to achieve the same Prearm/Arm setup.
For anybody just encountering this concept, I'd recommend leaving the Arm, Prearm (YES - use prearm!), and throttle as three separate channels and let Betaflight/Butterflight handle those - then test everything else out until you're happy with it. This still leaves you with a RSSI channel and a free multi-use channel if you're trying to use 8ch
I have something similar to this set up and have everything I need on the smaller switch compliment of the QX7S. (Still have my Taranis, but my main flier is the QX7S - love how it feels).
One thing I recommend IF you decide to do this, well even if you don't - whatever your system is - take an evening and create a text document that calls out all switch functions, logical switches, and the formulas used to make it all work, I also document a flow chart. This lets you go back and remember what you did in the event you need to change it or add it to another radio.
Print out this document and put in in your Quad gear (I carry a log book with all the goodies like specifics for each quad, freq table, and the radio documentation) - you'll be glad at some point you have this information with you. I also copied it onto my radio SD card.
My HUGE pet peeve of both Open TX and Betaflight is a lack of the ability to create comments to document the logic behind the syntax.
joshua should pin this comment to the top
i have my first open tx radio the nirvana (banggood) and i have set up two models, both working, both done differently??? opentx seems to have multiple duplications of selections... ''oohh set up already has stick in there cool. added switches to set up... didnt work, added switch names, didnt work... named swticthes on the switch page, didnt work, added switches to mixer page, works!!!... second model, just added switches to mixer page,,, works!!!... logic has no real use when learning all the legacy aspects of opentx.
JB! Almost at the 100k! Early congrats!
did not knew it was possible till now 👍 Thanks, I learned something great today! Happy New Year 😁
Nerdness confirmed! Got my flight modes sorted and and added also BF prearm into the mix on the same channel. Huge thanks, Josh!
Wow this is awesome, why didn't i think of that sooner? that means i can keep my aux channel back down to 8 and reduce latency, too cool. Thanks you and happy new year Joshua.
This is awesome! I was just thinking about how to do this while driving this afternoon and boom, you post it! Very cool! Well done, very helpful for us xlite guys with 4 switches ;)
I'm doing something similar but I sacrifice a whole channel to the betaflight Prearm mode rather than try to handle prearm in the taranis. It just seems safer and simpler to me to keep that separate. But I referenced this video a ton to set mine up so thanks!
Nice video. Complex, but better than not having the option or tutorial at all. I'll watch it again just to make sure it sinks in. Great job!
Joshua, I have an idea many guys might find helpful:
With googles on, it's kinda hard to find the right switches except the one on the TOP. (SE SF) And it's also hard to smoothly land with airmode on. (except letting it drop on the concrete - just disarm mid air :D )
So following this approach we could use SF when armed again to temporarily disable Airmode. (I use the 2 switch arming method as a lot of guys, who are watching your channel)
I got it working with the help of this video, but as it is not straight forward you may create a video on this.
So long story shor:
Arming: SE and SF for a second with no throttle. As soon as SF is down to low again (momentary switch) it's in airmode. When I land, i just hold SF again until it's on the ground. Then I disarm as usual.
For me I decided to add another switch SA to permanently disable Airmode, if I fly indoors, because airmode makes my quad freak out when I hit kids or pets. :D
7:47 You can add a second "Range" to the Beeper. By doing that, you get a second slide bar for "Beeper" that you can possition somewhere else. That way you could have one Beeper-slide (range) for when its armed, and another Beeper-slide (range) for when it is disarmed.
Well I'll be damned. I completely forgot about that.
I learned something today , may not use it but now i know more options. Happy New Year :-)
Dang this is so awesome!! Way advanced for me but I'll def learn it if I need more switches within 8 channels.
Thanks for the insight into more complicated switch settings JB!
I love this information, thank you!
I have to set up a better arming. My winter coat grabbed my transmitter and armed my quad, fortunately, I had the quad on the ground..
Like it! I don’t have a need to do this but am going to try it anyway :)
Very helpful video!! Saving this video for reference since I have a Taranis also
Damn, I just relived my conclusion course work... (Something we do here in Brazil in the last college year... And you have to pass this "test" to graduate...) I think I'm going to have nightmares about it again. 😕
But, anyway... That's REALLY interesting, JB! Fantastic!
Happy New year Joshua B.. Very helpful video thanks a lot always feel there is never enough switches but this helped open up some switches for extra functions..
Brilliant, made me play some more with the logic switches.
You had a lot of questions about this? This was pretty basic, but a very thorough and enjoyable video all the same.
LOL if you think this is pretty basic congrats you are in the top 1% of people who understand how OpenTX works.
@@JoshuaBardwell it's one of the only things I got a greyat on.
set aside how you MAKE it, I'm completely confused just imagining how you USE such a setup! :-D
Works like a dream A+
Oh boy that was pretty nice.
Now i wonder if i can get tis somehow on my Spektrum DX9.
Don't think we have something like logical switches.
I did it... =D you can add a lot of stuff in a single chanel, this is awesome!!
The video had some great ideas. Staying in D8 mode with complex setups was getting difficult. There were times when it was hard to follow, especially looking at the Taranis screen. Maybe there is a better way to explain opentx stuff. I am really glad you shared the opentx file. That will make easy to load in opentx companion and run the simulator so that I can follow along better.
it's easier to divide it into three channels: CH5: Arm; CH6: Flight-Modes (airmode, horizonmode); CH7: additional switches (beeper, osd, turtle, failsafe,...); CH8: RSSI .... then you can switch the receiver down to 8 channels for less latency
Happy New Year!🎆
Thank you, very informative, appreciate your work on this :-)
Have a good 2019
You can also use up to 9 different functions on a single channel that are completely independent from each other, so no "2nd function mode" or anything. Use 0 for off for each function and 512, 256, 128, ... 1 respectively for on. Add all the functions together in OpenTX and create modes for all combinations you are interested in in the range from 988 to 2023.
That is the ultimate expression of this method, but you better 100% trust your channel values and building the matrix is pretty tedious.
I'd been dreaming about doing it this way, but with some number less than 9 to reduce the resolution needed in the mode set up. Good job JB!
You can also add channels to each mode so you can have multiple sliders for each mode.
you should make some more advanced videos like this. along with your non advanced stuff ofcourse. but this was awesome to watch.
A bit over my head but at least I know these capabilities exist and have a goal to work towards.
I'm sure I'll be coming back to this video later.
Hey I have a suggestion. You should pick one bnf quad for beginners and make a series of videos for just that quad all the way through then people can copy you and it’ll work. Then once they’ve gone through everything that knowledge can be applied elsewhere
th-cam.com/video/bmIQOS8Dqqo/w-d-xo.html
Joshua, good video. The focus on your face is soft; not sure if that is on purpose. (are helluva engineers a little blurry?) Auto-focus is one of those quirky technologies that should be used with care; cameras tend to focus on what is closest to them, like expensive microphones.
Really enjoyed meeting you at Kwad Camp Xhover.
I never use autofocus for bench and studio shots. If the focus is soft, then that's my mistake not the camera's.
i learned something today! Won't use it though, never had a problem with to few aux channels :)
Nice video. But, can't you just add ranges to the modes and do all of this in Betaflight instead of the mixer? Doesn't really matter, I guess, but I find it cleaner to see in Betaflight
Great! Thanks for the explanation!
Dual stage arming is a previous video in the Bards arsenal go search for it on his channel if you care .
I at 1 minute in. More more more of this kind of video.
This was quite informative
Doesn’t less aux channels that are set up lower the cpu usage? Great video. This reminded me of what I wanted to do and couldn’t figure it out. Now I can set it and forget it lol. Thank you
I had been thinking it over for a while now but this video prompted me to do it, I took about 10 minutes out of my day and figured this out for use on a Spektrum Dx6. It was actually rather easy. Now using a dedicated arm switch as always, and 2 3 position switches, I have angle mode, horizion mode, horizon with air mode, acro trainer, acro mode, and acro with air mode as well as flip over after crash.
Should I make a video outlining my adventure? Might be a good segway into this
Be very very careful that you are preventing accidental arming. On the Taranis I do this with logical switches but IDK if Spektrum has similar function. When you enable angle mode you can't accidentally also arm. If you have a video showing how to do it I'll give you a link. Email me the video link when it's ready.
@@JoshuaBardwell Hey I already made and uploaded it. Also I am using a dedicated arming switch, for ONLY that function.
I may need some help to better figure out how to outline it to be useful for someone else.
th-cam.com/video/dckO9jOokGc/w-d-xo.html
That is really nice logical thinking, but to be honest, I find it unnecessary as your capable of transmitting 4 aux channels or more if you want slow response. Cramming all that into 1 aux has an advantage of???
keeping your channels used to 8 or less allow you to minimize your latency with a frsky setup. not sure if that's his reasoning, but that is a logical purpose for this.
That is my exact reasoning. With this approach, I have three aux channels remaining. One is typically used for RSSI. So that leaves me two spare aux channels for whatever else I want to do.
@@JoshuaBardwell I'd just figured out how to make 1 channel do 2 functions by using a 3 stage switch with each stage having an offset of 30 with another switch. This seems a much better way and solves my problem with wanting to keep below 8ch on my long range quad. Excellent video. Thanks!
Unless the latency diff is above 20 it seems doubtful it would make a perceived difference. Still cool to figure out!
@@JoshuaBardwell would this be equally applicable to the Q X7 as is is limited in the # of controllers they offer? This would appear to be a workaround for those limitations and make an even better value.
Dude! Its the holidays. Go enjoy yourself damn it! LOL Great video. Thanks man
Hey Mr Bardwell , not sure if you gonna read this .
I wonder why we still use xt60 when we clearly go over 120amp with our crafts , why not change to xt90 , we did the same thing on tiny whoop connectors and it worked :)
Maybe you are intrested in performing some simple Tests?
I mean xt90 are cheap and easy to solder to normal xt 60 batterys ...we upgraded everything and still using this bottleneck
XT60 is fine for the current we use. It can handle 60 amps continuous but we are seldom running that hard. Have you ever melted an XT60? No? Voila.
I learned something that the motor arming charms could be set up as a location beeper. How? Another video idea. A great feature not only for quads but also fixed wing.
Dshot motor buzzer can be activated in the Configuration tab. As long as you are using Dshot, it will work whenever the normal buzzer would work. But it can't be used while the motors are spinning obviously.
I like it I’ll will do this I like the open tx flexibility. Guess every developer will:)
Dear Josh, I actually forgot that I have a kinda cinewhoop (80mm on 1103 motors and 40mm props) which flies like shyte and I have to bind it in 16CH mode in order to have enough auxes for modes, RSSI and Runcam Split Mini 2 control. With your technique I can shrink my XM+ down to 8CH mode so I could use Betaflight RC filtering, but -- since it flies so bad, will I really gain anything with RC filtering set to "filter" rather than "interpolation" on 16 channels? Or better don't bother? I ask because introducing your way of sharing a single aux between so many modes is über advanced ))
Hi Joshua I'm a big fan of yours and am getting in to fpv it's addictive. I live in the outback Australia and hard metting people in the hobby. I am learning a lot from you cheers mate and thanks to your vids. I would love own a quad built by the best how can I buy 1 of your qauds if that's possible.
Hi, SkyExplorer. The shipping would really kill you! Are you sure?
You can email me to discuss.... I occasionally have stuff up for sale.
Looking fit Joshua!
This is cool, I will try it right now =D
A thought, instead of all of the mixers why not use FMs and GVs for channel weight? I'll have to play with it later
So, not in mixer but in inputs using G1 and then change the offset.
could do one for Ardupilot since it has the fixed values and does not allow changing
It would be nice if we could just multiplex the switches into a binary number on the Taranis and demux into virtual channels on the FC side.
After all, we have approximately 10 bits per channel. That's enough to cram 5 4-pos switches in. Or 10 2-pos switches. Or a combination.
Can't this be done with the multiple ranges per mode in BF and some clever scale/add logic in OpenTX?
This is essentially what we are doing here, although we haven't broken it down. The channel range can go from 1000 to 2000 so you can take the number of switches * the number of positions and build the matrix. Then you need to build the mixer logic to implement the matrix.
@@JoshuaBardwell No, you are using a combination of addition and replacement. If for the sake of communication we assume that switches generate a 0-3 value we could encode our channels as 1000+SW1+4*SW2+16*SW3+64*SW4, etc. Or 1000+((SW1
I understand what you are doing. I still run a Spektrum radio. Does a DX8 have a logical switches option?
I am not fully versed on the DX8's capabilities, but I think it does not have the advanced programming ability of OpenTX.
Hola happy Newgrass yaers, very good the video, whicht spektrum is posible ??
You recorded this at 2am? Yikes! Great info for sure with good explanation of it all, thanks.
Ummmm it's really unlikely that I recorded this at 2 AM.
@@JoshuaBardwell just going by what your phone displayed at around the 3 min mark. I was thinking you looked really awake and refreshed for it being so late haha!
Thanks a lot! 😎 😍 👍 👍 👍 👍 👍
Dont know if this question was already mentioned, but why dont you use the BF Pre-Arm mode?
I played around with this and now I have more questions than before %-). If you have the value for Angle Mode within the Arm interval wouldn't that mean that if your copter was disarmed and you flipped the Mode switch to Angle you would actually arm the copter bypassing the prearm?
Yes you're 100% right. That's why in the Taranis, the Angle Mode switch is set up to not activate unless the quad is armed. That's where I talk about using Logical Switches and AND logic.
I have 2 questions
1) if a radio is set up like this does that mean you are only using one channel on the radio? If so that will be great for people with 6 channel radios.
2) do you have any idea how to do this with spektrum? If this works on spektrum it will extend the usefulness of 6 channel radios.
I'm not sure how to replicate this on Spektrum. I think it's likely it could be done but I couldn't say for sure or how to do it.
isn't it much easier to do this in de special functions tab with an override function?
There are limited numbers of special functions. Mixer is much easier to reorder also. Personally I find it easier to do in the mixer.
With an OpenTX radio”jumper”
That's all fine and dandy but why would you need all inputs to be on the same aux channel? Can you run out of aux channels? Maybe for a fixed wing but for a quad? Granted, I only have turtle and angle set up
Yes you can easily run out of aux channels. Imagine I had one aux channel for each function. There are only 4 aux channels if you are running 8-channel mode for lowest latency.
@@JoshuaBardwell ohh! I didnt even think about it impacting latency! You have the most accurate intro of all time. :D Happy New Year!
Very good info, but why is it not safer to make it simpler especially in terms of arming, sticking to 8 channels to get the highest response time (frsky users) i can set up to 12 functions just with betaflight right?
I still love the video very clear instructions and well explained but my objection is if you are teaching some one a safety feature it it safer to go the simple route not the complex one.
Because you get lowest latency by running FrSky in 8-channel mode. At which point you only have 4 aux channels, and one of them is used for RSSI.
so now i can have more useless switches on my x9d? :) I really like the way you have this set up
Please Joshua. Give us an other tuning video. Those are the best. Even though, this is pretty cool.
th-cam.com/video/ywH6cLEsd6E/w-d-xo.html
PID Tuning is dead.
Josh - I'm no stranger to logic switches but in my mixer screen & on BF the angle/flip/arm modes are being activated by switch alone and by passing L04 (my L01-L04 matches yours and works). What's a good explanation/source on the difference between selecting "switch" and "source"? Based on what I can freeze-frame on your TX, I'm missing something in the details going into the mixer menu of my x-lite.
For my logic, Source needs to be Max, which sets the channel to a fixed value. Then Switch causes the mixer line to become active when the switch is set to the given position.
Is that shirt still for sale somewhere?
Can't seem to find it in the Rotor Riot store...
Check the Kwad Camp store but you must be a subscriber to enter.
After watching this vid about 3x and thinking I got it, I did! Everything worked as planned (def a bit of trial & error) but... for some unknown reason now motor 4 will idle however won't keep up with the others causing the quad to flip on take-off. Not a new build, all worked fine before changing my channels. Question, all motors spin equally in betaflight motor tab and all esc's (4 in 1) are recognized in BL Heli. It's not until I run the motors from the Taranis that motor 4 lags behind and in some cases won't spin. What should I be looking at? Something in the Taranis x7?
Make sure all channels move correctly in the receiver tab when you move the sticks.
Make sure no modes are active by accident.
@@JoshuaBardwell All stick channels are proper in BF. Today it's motor 3 that's not spooling up with throttle command from X7 (using BF slider all are perfect). Deleted all mixes and logical switches except the basic 4 and arming (using your 2 switch arm mix). Baffled.
Hi Joshua. I hope you can help me out.
Why is there nothing moving anything in the Betaflight modes tab after setting all this logical switches in AUX1 ? What do I miss here? Is it because I'm using the Crossfire Micro module? I have your Armattan set-up. F7, crosssfire, the whole rimram ;)
Nothing you do in the Modes tab should cause your aux channels to stop moving. Maybe your receiver configuration got messed up or something?
Hi Joshua, I watched this video a few times now. I think I am lost as to what is actually happening with your switches physically. Are you using various switch combinations for one channel or are you flicking one switch back and forth as it goes through the lines? If I understand right, you are still using multiple switches but just using one channel. can you clarify? Thanks!
It's putting multiple functions on one auxiliary Channel it has nothing to do with multiple switches
@@jordanbass3210 Thanks but that did not answer my question.
You are correct, Joshua is using multiple switches to run one channel on the quad. He uses the open tx to customize where betaflight sees the individual switch locations to make it kind of like a logical flow chart. If this dosen't help or is wrong someone correct me.
@@davidkernica9676 I'm assuming you are correct and it does help. Thanks.
@@davidkernica9676, good explanation. And always have this scheme and words in mind:
In the middle there are the channels, those transmitted and received by tx and rx. On the two sides there are sorta of interpreter ... one is the Open TX inside the transmitter, translating all physical inputs (stick & switches) in signals for each channel. On the other there is Betaflight, which translates on the screen all the channels received and transformed in actions by the flight controller.
An old engineer in action ...
Need to create more accounts so I can give more thumbs up on this video.
I mean whats the point. Everyone has a 6th channel. Just leave arming on its own channel and cram everything else on ch 6 if you want to.
Because you get lowest latency by running FrSky in 8-channel mode. At which point you only have 4 aux channels, and one of them is used for RSSI.
Really good information, thanks for that.
Heres one I wonder if you can help with. You posted a video on how to make the throttle more gentle by adjusting the weight and adding an offset and I want to have this adjustment to be switchable, Do I just change the channel that the adjusted weight and offset throttle transmits on from a separate flight mode. and then make that the throttle channel on the receiver when in that mode? I only have the X7 q at the moment and don't have a receiver or anything to test it out.
pretty much I want to be able to have a switchable mode that has reduced weight on all axis of the sticks as kind of a Low-amp-draw/proximity-flight mode.
Throttle setup can be done entirely in the transmitter. There is no need to devote an aux channel to it.
Ah! I didn't finish watching part 2 th-cam.com/video/m9Gf95fapoQ/w-d-xo.html
Thanks the slider idea is good.
Question not related to the video, but how are you recording your audio so uncut and able to switch your camera between you, the computer and your bench camera? Are you making separate clips and in post editing the camera changes in? Or are you doing this in production of the video?
I have a USB mic on my desktop. I record the desktop and the USB mic using a screen recorder program (Xsplit). I have a DSLR camera pointed at my face. I have the GoPro on a tripod on the desk pointed at the Taranis. I hit record on all of them. In post, I sync up the tracks based on the audio and then I only use the audio from the USB mic on the computer.
Here is how I do it in post: th-cam.com/video/I6Yqft8xe4E/w-d-xo.html
Bardwell!
I order amazon via my phone app. Is there a way for me to connect it to you so I can support you that way?
I'm not sure whether the app supports affiliate codes or not.
Joshua Bardwell I guess I need to use the website from now on. It’s the least I can do to show support. Thank you so much for your videos and how you break things down for us.
Hi Joshua, question my friend has a quad so i bound my taranis x9d to his quad but in order to do so i had to write another firmware on it. non eu. after he had flown his quad i tried to put the old firmware back but now my quads arent responding what can i do? happy new years to everyone in the FPV community!
If you change the Taranis radio module firmware you have to re-bind all your quads.
@@JoshuaBardwell f*ck thats f*cked up man now i have to start 2019 by binding al 6 of my quads again.. :( removing the heatshrink from the xmplus module etc.. well thanks for the answer tho
Is there any benefits to this
If you don't see the advantage then maybe not. The benefit is that you don't use up all your channels on aux modes. Especially if you are running 8 channel mode on FrSky to keep latency down, that doesn't leave enough aux channels to do all these functions, if you put one function per aux.
Thanks I can understand why you would do it I just didn’t know if it made things run faster or something like that it’s def a lot for me but I think it’s really cool that you can do all of that
why?
Because it saves aux channels and allows me to run 8-channel SBUS and CRSF mode which minimizes latency.
And because it's cool.
ah, but couldn't you use multi channel and still keep it under 8?
No, I couldn't. Or I would have :-)
@@JoshuaBardwell it takes 5 channels for control?
@@InvertFPV one channel is taken for rssi
You has been removed your SA-SB-SE for BF In-Flight Adjudments...Interesting so.
Cool! I prefer my arm switch to be ON when it is switched toward me. Toward me is ON. Away from me is OFF. Now I have a bunch more quads to program. I hate you. LOL
I understand everything you are doing but this really over complicates things. When at least 4 aux channels are available why cram everything onto one. And I don't want to have to hold a switch to make my beeper sound off, I want to flip a switch that will keep it on while I look ( just one example). Better use of the momentary switch is for crash flip, hold it up and arm. Seems more of a "look what I can do" video than a learning video. Not that I don't appreciate many of your videos, but this one just leaves me asking why.
Because you get lowest latency by running FrSky in 8-channel mode. At which point you only have 4 aux channels, and one of them is used for RSSI. So that leaves only three aux channels. At which point I want to make the most of them because sometimes I want that extra aux channel for somethign else. Like on my quads with GPS Rescue mode, that's on its own dedicated aux channel... so that leaves only two remaining channels.
@@JoshuaBardwell You still kind-of make it look overly complicated. Of the three available aux channels:
1. Arm/Disarm/VTX off, because those are mutually exclusive operation modes and you really want to configure this part safely, reliably and independently of everything else, hence a dedicated channel makes sense.
2. Angle/Acro/GPS Return/Turtle, because those are mutually exclusive flight modes. Yes, you can regard all of them as "sub"-modes of "Arm" above, but, as noted, having a dedicated arming channel with just two or at most three options makes things conceptually simpler to grasp and less prone to errors.
3. Beeper, because that is an optional functionality, orthogonal to everything else, so having it on a separate channel saves you from the need to think which modes should be combineable with a beeper, without the need to be "a hell of an engineer" who thinks in set theory.
Moreover, if you equate Turtle with Beeper (I can't think of a situation where this would be somehow very unsuitable), you'll end up with a two or three position arming switch, a three-position mode switch and a two-position beeper/turtle switch - all configurable without any voodoo even on a FS-I6.
I ONLY have my beepers on the momentary and I turn off the LOS beeper. I frequently fly my minis and micros at longer ranges and I don't want an already low battery running out while I'm still trekking to the location.
@@JoshuaBardwell as discussed on facebook a while ago, if you put rssi on channel 16 you still get 8 channel like latency as sbus from receiver -> fc will always send all 16 channels. The latency comes from the radio to receiver connection where it can only send 8 channels in one package.
But yeah the rest of your point is still sound and agree fully with it.