Throttle Stick Centered? OR Throttle Stick Down?

ArduCopter
1

I’ve been flying DJI’s for several years and gotten accustomed to both sticks auto-centering (springs,) but when setting up my Pixhawk based drones, the radios came with the throttle stick down, not centering at half throttle. I haven’t actually flown that way (throttle stick not auto-centered) yet because I’ve been waiting for either the weather to warm enough for auto-tuning process, or for a U.S. distributor to get the Hex board with orange cube in stock.

I was getting anxious not flying, so I bound my Taranis to my little pocket drone (Syma x21) and flew it around with my Taranis. It was difficult! Flying with the throttle stick just loose and not centering required me to always be on the throttle, and centering it while I was just buzzing the house was also a bit of a challenge to get used to.

How do you set your throttle? Do you have it set to auto center the throttle, or do you prefer to manually continually throttle up and down or center it yourself? What will happen if I set my throttle to auto-center? Will it maintain altitude or will it be rising or dropping constantly? Will my MOT_HOVER_LEARN figure it out for me and keep a (mostly) constant altitude when I let go of the throttle if I use the springs to auto-center it?

2

Parameter PILOT_THR_BHV (https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/parameters.html#pilot-thr-bhv-throttle-stick-behavior) changes how the throttle stick behaves. A value of 7 is for a throttle stick that spring centers like a DJI or 3DR Solo. A value of 6 is for throttle sticks that do not spring center, like any normal RC controller.

In either case, you want MOT_HOVER_LEARN set for 2 (learn & save). The throttle will be scaled so center stick is the throttle required for level hover.

3 Likes
3

I have used the Throttle Stick Centered all the time and I can say that my flights are very stable with the exception of a small loss of altitude on some occasions, I think it is due to my vibrations but I still feel very confident flying with the centered accelerator ( AltHold mode) never in stabilized mode.

4

Throttle sticks not centered is something new to me (but then again I come from 1980’s RC cars before DJI.) Good to know there’s an actual setting for what I am accustomed to.

The values you suggest (“7” or “6”) seem to have changed in more recent versions of Mission Planner. My options for PILOT_THR_BHV are:

0: None
1: Feedback from mid-stick
2: High throttle cancels landing

4: Disarm on land detection

So I assume, wanting to use the spring-centered throttle, I should input “1” for my PILOT_THR_BHV

Right? Or am I missing options?

5

The parameter is a bitmask. You sum all the options you want for the parameter value. All of the options sum up to 7. You would always want disarm on land detection, and always want high throttle cancels landing. Feedback from mid-stick is for spring centering throttle sticks.

6

Thanks for clearing that critically important detail up! 7 it is then. I did not realize that is what the bitmask’s are (I’ve noticed several in the params list) so it’s good to know.

7

While discovering the way to change throttle stick centered, realize that you could bind the Taranis with Syma x21!!! How could this be possible? The Syma drone set comes with its controller, any hacks?

Thanks!

8

I’m using a JP4in1 module in the back of the Taranis. It’s a good practicing drone.

9

Very nice, thanks a lot. Just ordered the multi-protocol external RF module.

10

This is one reason the Radiomaster and Jumper radios have become so popular. The Multiprotocol module is the internal radio.

11

Is this parameter not there anymore? Or has it been changed to something else cuz i cant find it on my cube orange.

12

It hasn’t gone anywhere.

13

I am not able to find it on my cube orange. I have currently uploaded fixed wing firmware and I have enabled q parameters as I’m building a quadrotor VTOL. It doesn’t show up when i search for PILOT_THR_BHV.

image
image1736×427 34.2 KB

I have a skydroid T12 transmitter with self centering throttle sticks, so i need to have PILOT_THR_BHV set to 7.

14

It doesn’t exist in Plane. Can’t you remove the throttle spring? I have seen that suggested previously.

15

Is it not enabled by enabling the q parameters? I’ve seen some people use a self-centering throttle with a vtol. I dont have the replaceable sticks ready with me right now.

16

I see no equivalent in the Q parameters. There are some Pilot parameters but not that one.
This is Copter, post in Plane>vtol