Thanks for the video. Learning something today: motor noise is much stronger than before, still fly well, but strange noise + some noise like backfire. Find out it is one of the prop get bend a little bit close to the motor side... replace it, everything back to normal --> Lesson: always double check on props integrity after crash or hard landing :-)
Free tip: make sure your motors are spinning the right direction after you have replaced one. Had a "flip out" this weekend, motor wires soldered in same order but turned wrong direction 🙁
Haha, learned that the hard way huh? I was lucky enough to have watched Bardwell's video about it at the time so I checked the motor direction first without just flying it.
Oh bruh I just did the stand half mile away arm and hover today and it's still a very tense momment lol. If only I'd seen this 20mins prior. Thanks bruh you have help me to achieve a flying custom-built by me quadcopter. I must have watch easy over 100 of your videos x 3 hoorah Bardwell
this is a good tip, i've had every kind of flip out possible, wrong prop, motor direction, and faulty FC. its made me super cautious on take off, not just arming....
Good one. As I come from fixed wing background hence I always do pre flight checks 'always'. Cause it's a Quad so the only way check whether all controls are working properly is by arming it and checking control inputs. Good one again!
I just finished a quad, decided to check it. All four motors were rotating the correct all props on right direction and still did it. The motors are numbers different but they all spin in the direction they should.
Loc Tran Something simar happened to me on the last weekend. after 9 batteries, after landing, it took few seconds for quad to land on the grass after spinning in the air with screaming sound. No idea what happened there. after that, couldn't bind again.
Nice tip Joshua! I stumbled across this same check while testing my micro a few months ago. Glad I did cause the prop were all the wrong way and it tried to rock itself apart. I do this now for every build/rebuild safety check, because even 2.3" props can bite the hell out of you. Better to freak out on the ground than while airborne!
My Wizard flipped out after I updated the firmware, as I forgot to set the board to -90° in the GUI, it was pretty close to me as well, it freaked me out big time!!
Nice tip. I take the blades off pretty often right now since I am always experimenting (or crashing and replacing blades) and I have never considered that I might put them on wrong. I'm going to make this a regular pre-flight item.
Yeah, it works like that because at minimum throttle just after arming, airmode is not engaged. Josh's method also works for copters that have vibration issues. Ive had copters want to keep on going because with airmode engaged, the PID controller has full control at minimum throttle, this means the PID loop can feed back onto itself, causing a runaway copter. The only means of retrieval at this point is to disarm. So like Joshua said, arm the copter, do his checks, also listen for weird motor sounds also, because if you use airmode (and you should) once you crack the throttle, the PID loop has control until you disarm. So maybe as a safety measure, have airmode on a switch for maiden purposes.
I do this in combination with a very loosely connected battery lead. If for some reason it does flip out it will likely unplug itself quicker than you can disarm it. I don't heavily rely on it but it's just another layer.
Note that if you do this and are even slightly aggressive on the pitch/roll while testing at 0% throttle, you will still flip out if you have airmode on. I would keep airmode on a switch and activate it when you are certain the quad wont try to kill you.
On my KISS'd Chameleon if I so much as touch the roll and pitch stick throttle continues to increase for some reason, min throttle is set to 1050 as well, I assumed it was air mode that was the cause.
DavyBoy its accelerometer issue i just had same thing thought it was airmode but turned off accelerometer and it went away i only fly acro anyhow so its better any way for cpu load
Whenever I have a newly built copter, I first test it in my hand. Holding it on the bottom, arm and switch to autolevel. Then tilt it in every direction and look if it works against it. If that works, I slightly move pitch, roll and yaw to see if it works into the right direction. That works totally fine on those small quads. I even did that with a 65cm Hex, but that is a bit scary. Would not recommend a beginner to do it. When I change props, I just look really carefully which prop I use.
@@JoshuaBardwell It depends on the size of the quad and how experienced and confident you are doing it. I do it all the time and if you do it right, it is safe. Just hold it above and away of your head and only use as less throttle as necessary. I would not recommend it to a beginner though and you are right not to do it.
Josh, does this apply to when motor stop is off or airmode is on? Or what if the FC is oriented incorrectly? The 1 time I had a bad injury was my fault, & the issue was I reoriented the FC and forgot to reflect this in betaflight. Upon arming alone, it isnta-flipped out. This was with airmode on, so I don't know if that's why or not. Back in the KK FC days - I used to do the right stick movements with almost zero throttle (no airmode or motor stop back then!) but would tie down the copter & note that it was correctly rolling/tilting/yawing as expected.
I have a problem with my kiss setup (fc and escs) which is fine when it is on the ground but as soon as in leaves it it flips out. i also noticed that, with props off, picking it up causes it to yaw left 45° and then right 45° and then left again then right. I have flashed different firmware to both the fc and escs and replaced the fc entirely because of accelerometer problems with no changes. It did fly once but that was in December and its been having problems ever since. I have checked the most common causes (motor direction, props, motor layout, etc). Any idea what it could be?
Another tip... make sure ur min throttle is not set to 2000... nearly killed me and my dog last week with that one... no idea how or when I changed it... scary.
the first time i built my full size mini quad, after it lift off for 30cm, it just flips like ultra-over P that scared the shit out of me, props are right, stock BF and SP F3 FC after i lower the PIDs and retune it and that just turn normal again
hi Josh, when you have a time could you do a video on how to organise the electronics ? it just drives me mad how many electronic components I have since getting into this hobby. It takes a lot of space.
Ok so my drone flips out when I'm flying mid flight only when I try doing backflips. Any fix for that? It spins out of control for like 1 sec and then I get control of the drone again. I just want to have 360 capability 😢. Any fix for this? Motor direction are in correct order. Its something else.
Hoping you can test and give your thoughts on the "RUNCAM THAT KILLS THE SESSION 5!" the new "HD+analog that goes on your stack!" Lol -But seriously I am very much looking forward to your thoughts on the new runcam. Cheers Josh!
All good reasons to place the quad majorly far away from people, places, or things (sound familiar?) when testing a new confiq or a simple prop install first flight. We've all done this and it's not an expensive mistake if you take these precautions.
hi there mr bardwell could I ask you for advice I have a storm racing drone srd 250 v4 its a 6in prop designee could you recommended me some motors for it ,I have the betaflight f3 board to start with thanks for your help and all your videos
Sure it would. If the copter doesn't tilt the direction you commanded with the sticks then something needs to be fixed. Any one thing wrong will make the copter flip out. Works best on copters with underslung batteries in my experience. You simply bump the pitch or roll a tiny bit and observe that the copter tilts as expected.
Un-screw the lens to loosen the lock nut. Spin the lock nut out to get it out of the way. While watching the feed from the camera, turn the lens to focus on something about 20-30 feet away. Once you find the right focal length, spin the lock nut back down to the base, without moving the lens. Then spin the lens out about 1/2 turn while holding the lock nut in place against the base. Now twist both the lens and the lock nut inwards 1/2 turn to restore focus. This will tension the lock nut and keep everything in place.
Hey Joshua, is there any performance gain to using airmode? I just disable motor stop and accelerometer and fly great. When I come in for a landing I just kill it right before I touch down. Air mode seems useless.
You don't lower your throttle to idle when you fly then. If you lower your throttle all the way to idle, you will immediately notice the difference between air mode and no air mode.
Yeah of course, min throttle is set to 4% so when I hit 0 thottle, it drops to I assume 4% which lets me stay solid while flying upside down and flips and what not.
I have personal experience of this. About 200 feet of experience, onto the only asphalt pathway 1 metre wide in about 20k sq. metre field of soft, yielding grass, and can vouch in ouchy quad way that Joshua speaketh truth.
Hi Joshua! New pilot here, and I have a question. I just got my Eachine Trashcan and after updating the firmware it immediately engages runaway upon takeoff. Any idea what the problem might be? I'm running on the most recent BF4 build.
My guess is you did not enable the "props reversed" option when you set it up after flashing. Go into the configuration tab and it's under the mixer setting,under the graphic that shows motor layout.
@@JoshuaBardwell thanks for the response! I made sure to take a backup prior to the flashing and can confirm that that's still enabled. I'm beginning to worry something is broken 😔
Could've used this the other day. lol Quad flipped out and shot a broken prop into a railroad tie! Any ideas why I can't choose DShot in BF even though both my Speedix 30A ESC's and Omnibus F4 V3 Pro FC are supposed to support it? I only have OneShot, MultiShot and a few other irrelevant options (going from memory) available in the dropdown box. ESC's have the most current FW on them. Thanks for all of the great videos!
+Joshua Bardwell, Any ideas? I just got everything put back together after my last test hover and after changing the Gyro Refresh rate from 8k to 2k (per a local flyer's advice) the quad basically did the same epileptic breakdancer on PCP thing again. I can't switch to DShot and I have a feeling that's the issue.
Hey Joshua, I know this is an older video but I have a quad that flips out after takeoff. Motors are spinning in the correct direction, props are on right. I bump the pitch stick forward back left right and the quad leans that direction but when I try to hover it goes crazy. It almost just shoots backwards and to the left or right almost every time. 3 inch cinewhoop. Any idea?
If the quadcopter instantly flips over when you arm and raise the throttle with props on, it is almost 100% certain to be one of these things: 1. Clockwise prop installed on counter-clockwise spinning motor or vice versa. 2. Flight controller not facing forward. Go to the Setup tab in the configurator. Tilt the quadcopter on all axes (pitch, roll, yaw) with your hands. The 3D model in the configurator should move the same as you move it with your hand. If it does not, use the Board Alignment parameter in the Configuration tab to fix it. 3. Motors not wired correctly. TAKE OFF YOUR PROPS. Plug in a battery. Go to the Motors tab. Turn on the "props are off" slider in the lower-right. Raise the individual sliders (1, 2, 3, and 4) one at a time, just enough that the motor begins spinning. The motor positions (1, 2, 3, and 4) should match the graphic in the upper left. If they do not, then either move the signal wires so that they are correct or use resource reassignment to virtually "move" the motors. 4. Motor spinning wrong direction. Do the same as step 3 but compare the motor direction to the arrows on the graphic in the upper left. If a motor is spinning the wrong direction, either reverse it using BLHeli (or whatever ESC software you are using) or swap any two motor wires with each other, which will reverse the direction. Many times, people swear up and down they have checked all of these things, and then come back to say oops I missed one you were right. So if you think you have checked all of these things and your quad still FLIPS OUT, go back and check again. If your quad is insta-flipping on takeoff, it is almost always one of these things.
You’re the man! The motor direction and props in the front of the quad were spinning the wrong way. It was still able to climb to a very low hover and not do an instant flip on take off so I didn't think to re-check the props and directions. All is good now!
@@JoshuaBardwell Hi Joshua. I am new in this hobby. I learned so many things from you. I bought a new version of the reptile cloud 149. I couldn't fly with it due to I have the same flip over problem. I checked a million times what you wrote above. 1- Propellers installed in a true direction. (CHECKED-OK) 2- The flight controller position is true. (CHECKED-OK) 3- Motor's number and orientations are true. (CHECKED-OK) 4- Motor spinning directions are true. (CHECKED-OK) But still, I have a flip-over problem. PLEASE HELP ME I have a video about that : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4qyMEPldU04.html
Hey Jochua Bardwell nice Idea! But i think this won't work if your board alignment is wrong. My first build totally flipped out while i was slightly pushing the roll axis... Got it even on video if you want to see it xD
Let's say you want to roll slowly left(command) and you got your alignment 180° wrong. Motor 1+2 will go faster to roll the quad to the left. But the gyro detects a rotation to the right so the error of the PID gets higher-> the motors will go faster-> the quad rolls faster left-> the gyro thinks its going faster right-> bigger error-> motors will again go faster --> escalation. While the quad flipps to the side it will also slightly rotate in roll axis. So the same thing will happen to roll. The PID has no chance to bring the quad back in a stabe position because its always getting worse and in the end all motors will spin up. Are you with me? EDIT: Tell me if i missed something.
I had the board rotation in beta flight incorrect on my last build and the damn quad flipped out and chased me.. ended up catching a motor on fire before I got it disarmed... I had to check my undies after that one.. I stand inside the house behind the glass door now to test a new build..
after replacing the escs\fc about a month ago the quad span and throttled upward, fucking teerifying, but i disarmed and caught it and it was the most badass fail ever
Everything was normal until one day, my quad crashed because of kite string and went brutal.. I tried to fix everything and then fly again, it was normal at the beginning when I smoothly increase my throttle, cruising around... but when I push the throttle up from 25% to 75% it flipped away... Try another flight using 4s batt, still the same, safe for cruising (linear throttle increase), but when sudden increase the throttle, always flips and causing crash... what went wrong? ESC Problem?
I watched your other video about how to know if one of my motor or esc is broken, using blackbox and that is give me the ideas about one motor is bad, we're lucky to have you in this hobby, thanks a lot!
Man not sure what happened after i updated to betaflight 4.4 i made sure my props motor directions and all settings were correct im still getting flip ups
I’m flipping :(. . Using a custom motor mix but the correct motor responds when isolated on motor tab. I’ve tried your method of bumping pitch and roll and my quad responds properly, BUT still flips on throttle up. Just beware you aren’t safe just because it didn’t flip on this test.
Just reset my setup(removed motor mix) and aligned board per manufacturer intentions and I’m still flipping! Wtf I’ve had this issue before and have always been able to fix it. Don’t know wth is going on with this build
Ok. I worked it out. Don’t trust the sellers page for firmware target. It recommended Omnibus F4 but I needed to use F4 SD. Reflash worked like a charm.
It would help of you had the camera on the qaudcopter so people can see what it's doing for the ones who are newer to this hobby. Thx again for all your great helpful videos and tips
Not sure if this will work with cc3d on librepilot, with "always stabilised when armed" turned on. I think thats similar to airmode?. nasty stuff happens when you do whats in the video and something is wrong. I just believe and full throttle punch takeoff :D
When i do a motor test in beta everything seems to spin correctly and the motors push the direction they should when moving the stick but soon as i try to take off without betaflight hooked up it flips and shuts down lol
I have a airbot f4 clone little bee 20a bl heli (normal not s), Dys mr2205 2300kv, X-Faktor (like Alien 5'). When I go to th motors tab and throttle up, at around 1300 it starts oscillating really badly. At around 1500+ it starts fliping out comletely (slow twitching). It does the same thing when it's unscrew and I hold it in my hand strongly pressed so it doesn't get the high freequenc noise. I already did the most radical filtering but I just won't go away. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE help me. :(
If it flips out from the motors tab, then the issue has nothing to do with PIDs, filters, gyro, props, or motor direction. It is entirely some kind of issue with your ESCs and motors.
It doesn't matter if air mode is on or off because air mode doesn't activate until the throttle crosses 1350 for the first time. So already we've shown an advantage here. And yes, it does help if you have FC orientation wrong. It may not prevent every single flip out but the situation where the throttle is down is always better than the situation where the throttle is up.
I did the same thing, only I tried to do a test hover in my kitchen at about 1:00AM and it went completely nuts full throttle into the wall just by flipping the arm switch :D almost gave myself a heart attack and woke up everyone else in the house lol.From now on i'm not doing maiden flights in my kitchen.
Even if you don't want to ruin your video tipping it back and forth, you can pitch forward just a skoshe in anticipation of takeoff. It will look smooth and still give you the indication whether anything is wrong.
dam I did it again..i needed to set my flight controller to 90% degrees..lmao..did this before dah..lol so yea guys make sure your flight controller is positioned right cause soon as you flip the switch the quad will go crazy...but thanks anyway josh..keep up the great work man..
