How do I change the power setting for a high powered drone?

I have seen videos, that I can’t find again. I looked through variables but I can’t find the right one.

I am installing more powerful motors on my drone and I need to reduce the throttle setting. It isn’t the one that is usually 0.2. I believe it is usually 500 or 400. I just can’t find it

https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/ac_throttlemid.html

Thank you. I believe I need the other one. I have tried this one before when I had powerful motors but it shot up when I just pushed the throttle slightly

do you mean throttle minimum?

https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/set-motor-range.html

Isn’t that just the idle speed?

I need to kind of reduce the power that I am allowed to get out of the drone.

There is something else

It is mot_spin_max.
https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/parameters.html#mot-spin-max

I will try all these but I think the number I saw the guy change in a video was 500 to 300 because his drone was too powerful.

I am hoping there is something that reduces the power available to me but not limit the power the drone has in case it needs it to stay level.

If you saw a video from ~2015-2016 perhaps they were talking about these parameters?
THR_DZ,100
THR_MAX,1000
THR_MID,400
THR_MIN,130
THR_RATE_P,5
TRIM_THROTTLE,219

Ancient Arducopter history.

I will start then with MOT_THST_HOVER
I believe mine is now at 0.157 and the motors sometimes hit 1900. The new motors are 50% stronger. I will start at 0.1 but the range starts at 0.2

Why don’t you try MOT_HOVER_LEARN,2? Might save you some guessing. Or do a short hover (1minute) and check the logs.

https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/tuning-process-instructions.html#test-althold

Last time I used motors like these the drone shot up to the moon at 10% throttle so I couldn’t reach loiter throttle. I don’t want to make the same mistake so want to be ready by the time the new motors arrive. I understand I can change the loiter band that is 40% to 60%. That is probably an option.

The 360kV motors are too weak and the 520kV too strong. I couldn’t find 400kV so went with 520kV again like the first batch that I destroyed because I saw there is a way to reduce the power.

I can change from 6S batteries to 5S. 4S isn’t enough but I rather want to save that money for lidar.

I can also reduce the Props but I have a bunch in stock so don’t want to lose that money.

The only option that is financially viable then is to reduce the power in code. I saw there is a Max voltage variable. Maybe I can reduce that.

I rather want to be extra safe this time with the new carbon body vs my first body that was balsa wood. This body cost a lot.

Seems this guy was planning on using mot_spin_max. So I might also set that to make sure I don’t crash on first try

You could maybe reduce MOT_SPIN_MAX a bit but in reality I dont think it will help much.
The motors and props will work well in a specific range - trying to artificially limit their PWM range will also severely limit the attitude control. In fact I’d suggest with the over-power level you describe I suspect there’s already almost no attitude control other than “up”.

I would leave all params as per normal and try smaller props and adding some dummy payload.
The motors need to be operating in mid-range PWM where they can both increase and decrease RPM for attitude control and altitude control.

I will add all my weight and see how it goes. It might mean I just have to take the loss then and go to 5S. I have 4S from when I started that I will test now with all the settings that have changed and the body that has changed.

You probably should retune with the new motors from scratch. Different motors drastically changes the UAVs behaviour and requires new tuning (PID, etc.) values.

Good idea. Will do. Thank you

I think a better option would be to just make the drone heavier by adding bigger batteries, that will bring your hover throttle up without reducing flight time or requiring new motors, if you already have a lot of batteries just double them up.

That is a good idea. Is there a tipping point where you actually lose flight time when adding batteries?

Not really, your flights will be longer but but you’re using more power to carry the extra batteries. so doubling the batteries might only give a 50% improvement in flight time.it really just depends on how much of your machine’s weight is its batteries. Normally it’s not recommended as you could overload the machine, but since your machine is severely underweight it could actually fix your issues.

why do you need so much power if its flying with less than 10% throttle?