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Since I am a huge fan of answering questions when they are asked, here is my answer to “Is PPM Analog or Digita?“ The easiest way to determine if electrical signal (and PPM in case of RC usage is electrical) is analog or digital is to check how many voltage levels are used. If signal…

One of the things that can happen to brushless motors, specially outrunners, is broken off magnet. Stronger crash, or even extensive vibrations, can cause one one small magnets located in motors bell to tear off. After all, they are only glued to rotating part of motor. Symptoms are: If magnet stays inside motor, it will…

This is third part of Cleanflight PID tuning tutorial with Blackbox. Previously I’ve showed examples of: Excess P gain, Excess D gain, This time it is time for something slightly different: not enough P gain. Usually this problem can be identified without any log analysis. Symptoms are quite visible: multirotor is sluggish during maneuvers, has…

Welcome to second part of Blackbox PID tuning tutorial. Last time I have showed few examples how excess P gain might look like. Today I will write few words about next common PID tuning problem: too much D. Derivative (future) part of PID controller is very useful, since it allows to smoothen control loop output…

I’ve bought first Turnigy 2730 1500KV brushless motor by accident. I needed something small and cheap for Depron airboat. Then I needed something similar for a Depron airplane. At the end, in 6 months, I owned 3 T2730 1500KV motors. Not all of them survived the experience. One got lost in the middle of a lake…

FrSky sells 2 small Taranis compatible receivers: X4R and X4RSB. By default, they offer only PWM signal. 4 channels on X4R and 3 channels plus S.Bus (16 channels over S.Bus) on X4RSB. And that is problematic. Many flight controllers does not support S.Bus very well (no inverters) or just does not offer enough UART ports.…

FrSky X9D Plus Taranis or cheaper FrSky Taranis Q X7 or even more expensive X10S Horus, are incredible radios. But also can be intimidation when migrating from simpler radios. A great example is mixing multiple switches into 1 channel to pass flight mode to the flight controller. Yes, you can do it, but it can…

Multicopter is an unstable machine. It requires constant corrections to keep is stable in the air. This is done with PID control loop. When quadcopter does not fly like you hoped, you will hear: “Tune your PIDs“.  Nice. But what exactly is PID? If you did not studied control theory, and you do not want…

FrSky X9D is an excellent radio. There is a variety of receivers that can work with it. And each of receivers is a small computer itself. With its own firmware that can be changed. Why? For example to enable CPPM mode, or allow receiver to bind with EU or non-EU Taranis (I will write on both…