Betaflight change vTX band channel power on a switch? Yes! 

Hey JB, thank you for making this video and all your other great stuff. I was searching sooo long for a solution to change the vtx channel during the flight. Made the short clip to show other betaflight users how to do it, but I'm really not good in making videos :) So thank you for bringing this information this to all interested pilots. The direct translation of "Schon Richtig" is "already right" from german, can't remember why I used this :) Kind regards Steffen

Thanx Joshua! I tested this method and I found two issues. 1. there is only 10 positions of vtx index (from 0 to 9) so if you want set one swith for channels and second for power then there is not enough position in the index for all. 2. swhitching channels worked only until first arm, after that, channel cannot be changed. I have to unplug battery and plug it back then I can change the channel by switch again.

I keep my low power disarm on all the time, if I need full power to see where I am after a crash, I switch to turtle mode and arm

This feature just came in handy for locating my quad lost in a snowy forest. I crashed into the trees. I used the directional patch on my goggles, and via this switch dialed down the lost quads VTX's output to 25mAh allowing me to triangulate with precision the video strength, and I located my downed quad.

I love that you upload almost/every day, I just got into the hobby and this is really helping me dive down the rabbit hole ☺️

As a German I had to laugh a lot when you pronounced "schon richtig": D translated it means: already correct

Oh Josh you should know it better, PIT Mode is lower then 25mW, it is only about 1mW and by the way In Inav it is much easier to setup VTX Chanel or Power to a Switch. There you not need the CLI you can easy setup it by the configurator

All who learned this have now achieved geek power level X. Even JB learned something today :)

Did anyone else notice that Ghost and tracer were laying on the table next to each other all the time? So happy you finally got it. Cannot wait for the review/comparison 😍

"schon richtig" Is german for "thats right/correct". The "schon" implies that there might be a "but/however" coming. Its pronounced the almost same as past tense of shine "shone" but without the e. The "richtig" is pretty close =)

If you tied changing channels to the armed state with logical switches, you could make it impossible to accidentally change channels while flying and you would not be adding another switch you had to remember to flip.

6:00 did you look at your own notification? 🤣🤣

💥💥 GAME CHANGER 💥💥 I wanted this forever and asked in several FPV communities. I even started programming my own LUA script to change VTX settings with a dial but without success. Now I will finally replace a pot on my QX7 with a 8-way rotary switch and some resistors and can happily switch channels without the OSD/LUA script. BTW: "Schon Richtig" isn't a name. It is German and means "quite right" (mostly in the context of a fact being contested).

Hey Joshua, "schon richtig" is German and means "already right". It's spoken like "shon rihjtig" or "shon rihjtihj" while you speak the "ch" almost like the "h" in "Hugh" or "human". I hope you learned something, today. BTW I learned something from your video, today. Great work and keep it up! Love your content.

Great video! I really fell hard for programming microcontrollers in college, and this is the kind of stuff I love. Don't blame the computer programmers for starting the count at zero. The microcontrollers, by nature, like to start at zero. So if you have an 8-bit port called Port B, the pins will be manufactured in that the bits (pins) of Port B are labeled PB0-PB7. The programmers just have to follow that convention. When we write code to use the first bit of the port we say PB0.

So WE'RE going to learn something today

Well, I'm digital and analogue. I remember asking you about this last year. You've so made my night! Thanks !

Hi JB. Thanks for again a great tutorial. This isn't for analog pilots only anymore. It also works on HDZero. With BF 4.4 you can even do it without SA and just use the UART for OSD. I've done this myself and I can now switch channels of my VTX using the six position switch.

Welcome to the party! The VTX command is awesome. I recommend putting VTx power on a dial. Much better than fumbling for buttons when wearing goggles.

This might be my favorite video EVER. Total game changer for us analog loving nerds!!

This is definitely awesome! I got a kick out of how excited you were when you got it all set up lol.

Mr. Bardwell, you are definitely the best. Every time I see a video of you, I learn, and sometines it makes me smile. The end of this one is very funny, and of course the content in this case, very interesting. Greetings from Spain

Pro tip set default channel value to 2000 so if you failsafe it kicks it to full power so you can still find your quad.

That channel change feature for the transmitter is really cool, and would work well with TBS cloud to auto change to goggle channel as well.

Whom ever figured this out first THANKS. N Jb thanks for passing it along. This is great.

I like the idea of using the two knobs for power and channel. That is so cool. Only caveat is making sure you have wide switches enabled if you are using the six or a knob on ExpressLRS.

Pretty cool. For an overheating VTX you might set it to low on disarm + high on beeper.

Hi Josh Great news !! Thanks for showing us these methods. I have been waiting to do this for my wings. I just wanted to use the lowest settings on startup and be able to go to full power after I'm up and flying. I just hope I can follow the computer. lol. Thanks again for the video and information.

The 6 position switch is useful for what it was intended for, us Ardupilot flyers who have a million different flight modes, even different kinds of RTH :)

Finally a use for pots on my radio! Thanks Joshua and Schon!

Thank you a ton JB, My job deals with radar tech and we use drones as a method of testing our equipment which i find extremely fascinating. My company is looking to grow the roster of pilots and all your videos have provided answers to all my questions including this video. I couldn't learn anything from my co-workers as most ( all ) of them fly... erm.. i mean... tell a Mercedes Benz where they wanna go ( Cough cough DJI cough cough ) Iv been flying basic off the shelf " toy " drones/helis/planes my whole life but always wanted to get into FPV and learn free-style. thanks to you and the FPV community iv been absorbing all the content on youtube.. Now im no freestyle crazy pilot with advanced skills. but i make all the DJI users look bad xD

Indeed this is a thing that many of us probably dreamed for years. SmartAudio/Tramp was a big progress, but it badly needed easier VTX control for things like you described. By the way noticed DJI like "PIT mode" in Betaflight 4.3 where Betaflight itself keep VTX on low power before first arming.

Oh man thanks for sharing this. I just set this up for my quads and love this simple trick. I used a POT dial for adjusting my 4 power settings. Thanks again for sharing.

This is amazing. Did they ever do anything like this for digital? I know the channel is right on the side of the goggle v2, but changing it from inside the goggle would be more annoying than switching a switch I imagine. I am heading off to watch your smart audio stuff again. Getting back into quads after a year or two and my quad has smart audio but I remember NOTHING about it. I always have to fumble for 5-10 minutes to remember the secret stick code to even get into the menu, lol. I love flying quads, but I am disabled so anytime I crash I need to get someone else to go fetch my quad, makes it really hard to get stick time in, and I am more panicked than most I suspect about crashing. I need to find a friend who is into quads. Have some grandkids, but I would not trust them on the quad without a lot of stick time. Need to get them a tiny whoop or something.

Damn dude. Very cool! I followed your instructions and it works. I always worried about crashing far away in the summer and the vtx overheating. SA is nice but a pain in the ass when you're in a hurry and want to immediately start walking to your quad and not stand there while you flip through menus. Plus I assume if you're far enough away that 25mw won't let you see video, you can flick the switch back to 500 or 800mw to take a quick peek and flip back to 25mw. Which might also make it easier to find if you go down in a large field with no landmarks by going down to 25mw and using a patch antenna on your goggles to get the direction of the quad. It's great to just flick a switch and get down to 25mw. Much faster than going through SA.

The is one of my favorite updates for any quad

Thanks for making a video about this feature from 2017. I hope you learned something today.

Thanks Joshua, I was able to configure the potentiometer to change the channel! That's awesome!!

Awesome! Wins most helpful info of the year award. And it’s only January.

Finally Betaflight. INav has this for a while now and it saved my skin many times. Last thing I want is powering up my wing and vtx would go straight into 1200+mw while waiting for gps lock.

Josh! I've been trying to do this for too long. Thanks!

I've been using low power disarm awhile now, it is definely handy, keeps vtx nice and cool

Awesome video... this is a game changer. Kudos to you and your sources for bring this largely unknown feature to light. Cheers 🍻

Just tried this in EmuFlight works perfectly.. thanks Mr Bardwell

just finished building my quad, the timing is perfect. thx!

Fantastic it will now fill another day at home as we have to stay indoors for another 6 months UK 🇬🇧 thank fuck for this hobby otherwise ithis situation would do my head in. Thanks for vids,( think its my 4th year ! With you now )!

Hey ! I'm sorry that I deleted my previous comment before I see the answer, I watched the video again and found out about the index. Thanks a lot for your help !

Surely if you disarm far away being perched and it goes to 25mw you can just arm it again and it'll go to 800mw again because the signal is going through the radio not the goggles. So shouldn't be an issue with the second setting?

I'm such a lucky guy.. getting into fpv last year. skipped analog all together so i'll never have to suffer performance loss switching to digital. and/or let tons of my gear go obsolete , lol

Great video you knocked it out of the park with this one. This is a great idea and I would love to use my six buttons for power selection. This is cool

That's awesome Joshua, great video, great info. Now just need to get the tx16s. Your radio looks awesome.

If you use Low Power Disarm and crash and disarm, you can get VTX to go max power again by arming Turtle Mode. Then you get full VTX power without actually spinning the motors

I'll be playing with this this week.

That's pretty interesting! 😃 Thanks a lot, Joshua!!! Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊 BTW, about the "thank you programmers"... You're welcome. 😝

Thanks so much JB. I am having a issue with my Mach 3 vtx starting power is 200mw. Is there any way to set default to 25

hei @Joshua Bardwell here is what i've learned today : First if it says "Device Ready = No" chech the Port -> Peripherals to see if the VTX (TBS SmartAudio) is configured on the right UART (check the FC blueprints to see where is connected). INDEX RCVrA Band Channel Power StartRange EndRange 0 0 5 1 1 1000 1250 RC = Remote chanel VrA - the remote control chanel is a knob on Flysky FS-i6x values are from 1000 lowest to 2000 highest Band = RACEBAND look in the Video Transmitter tab Channel = whatever chanel you want to use Power = look at the numer above 'value' - this is where i screwed up StartRange/EndRange = i've split the range into 4 smaller ones here are my settings : # vtx vtx 0 0 5 1 1 1000 1250 vtx 1 0 5 1 2 1250 1500 vtx 2 0 5 1 3 1500 1750 vtx 3 0 5 1 4 1750 2000 save

Cool stuff about the channels switch, BUT don't use the range close to 1500! Guess why? If your radio is off you have about 1500 on that aux and you don't want this.

Wow, this is totally going on a knob. Thank you!

So I just set this up on my Tango 2, had to change the offset of the button/switch to -3 the allowed ranges has a max of 2000 and I was on 2011.. couldn't wrk out how to remap button/switch ranges as rxrange only seems for TAER..anhooo fixed, works gr8! Edit: for future me, this works as you want.. - and have a nice day, you deserve it! vtx 0 1 0 0 4 975 1400 vtx 1 1 0 0 4 1400 1500 vtx 2 1 0 0 1 1550 2000

Oh thanks, now I can fly 800mw in Europe :)

Hey I'm new to FPV but wanted to let you know that you make things so much easier to do and learn,and I am running betaflight 4.4 and this works perfectly and it doesn't have to say yes device ready. Mine doesn't, it says no on device ready, but I am using smart audio UART... Thanks

In order to make this work you might need to make an extra vtx power level. On my GepRC Phantom the CLI didn't take the 3rd power level of 200 mW and gave me a 'parse error' until I made a 4th level (which I set to 0 mW)

Ya, analog for the win

Wow 👌, i was just trying to setup this exact feature. THANK YOU!

Great video thanks have my first smart audio vtx on the way and will definitely use this!

You can use a sticky with global variables on a trim switch to trigger all 8 channels.

Eh... Smart audio FTW. Combined with pit mode (love my Unifys)

This are the type of videos I really like !

thank Schon and JB, very helpful.. ps: @ JB why no link to the schon's video here?

6-position switch is perfect to set flight mode in ArduPilot or PX4

Alternatively use the RX RSSI telemetry value as a value in logical conditions to switch VTX power levels. Then you don't even have to think about flicking a switch when flying far away or behind objects.

We also can put power and channel in one aux channel =)

I’ve been telling the TBS guys to do something like this for crossfire so u can have 1-2W on a switch and not just putting a switch on the external battery

Amazing setup. Thanks so much for sharing this info!

that channel change would be incredibly handy if used with the orqa, immersion rc rapid fire and an additional ghost receiver (soldered on to the fpv connect module in the googles) this would let you change the videoband mid flight on your Quad and simultaneously on the googles! o.O .... well, under the condition that the fpv connect can be set up like this

It is interesting that beta has this recently added as Kiss/Fettec dose vtx power for many years now(adding to a knob makes it even better, 0 to what ever you want).

This is awesome, thanks Joshua for this video!

I always catch these videos right before i go to bed,i always download it and watch it Tomorrow, also i leave a like😄😄😉

Hello Joshua, please make a video on installing a backup battery on the Crossfire Diversity Nano Rx, and how it works. ID APPRECIATE IT!!! also worth mentioning, I also have the TBS Unify pro 32. Thank you SO much

Like the sound of power on the buttons but channel when you pull switch then press button. But then buzzer if you only pull switch... That's schon richtig!

If/when racing starts again... great way to get better video, mess with others, still pass tech inspection... NO MULTIGP HAMMER!

Hahaha, JB learnt something the other day! Thanks for the guide!

Fantastic! I think you learned something Joshua

My 2 cents. Channel switching by easy accessible switch may and will cause accidental channel switching for someone in air. For guys without VTX and VRX band/channel synchronization like DJI and some TBS gear do, this will end with sudden FPV feed loss and crash.

Great content, Joshua. Happy to support you in Patreon and encourage others to do the same.

Mein Gott unser Schon Richtig freunde had his name butchered today. Great video, as always. Wunderbar!

Thx Joshua B. It works fine :) I learned something, today. :D Happy Fly

Thanks DUDE! You help me a lot!

Been thinking about this since I got in fpv.

That six position switch could be used to control six different quads one at a time. So, for a race practice you could have six quads on the line. Then if you crashed out, you could select the next quad and take off again and repeat.

Inav has this option in the GUI now. I have the activation tied to the arming switch and then another 3 position switch cycles through 4 power levels up or down. Works well.

That's German 😂 7:06 it sounded pretty fun Keep up the great work!! This was soo soooo helpful!!!

Would be nice if you just would say it and the RC would recognize the command, i mean...it's about time to save some switches there.

I'm a programmer and I had a wide grin on my face when you said "Computer programmers like to start counting from zero". Actually, it took me by surprise all you Fpv experts fear LUA scripts and indices that start from zero.

This is so kool! Love it JB. Thank you.

I tried this on my Mobula7 that has an all in one board withthe VTX built in, the target is - CRAZYBEEF4SX1280 I didnt seem to work and it also made the voltage displayed in the goggles way off, it was either half (around 2.0v) or 0.0v displayed, I checked the voltage with my charger and the batts are fine. Has anyone else managed to do this with a AIO board / Tinywoop?

I obviously learned something today, thanks!

That's so cool thanks to all

I did learn something today! 👊🏼

You’re welcome Joshua. - A computer programmer. 😉