memory. This will take a minute or two, and then you
should power cycle the flight controller.
Transmitter Setup
The next step is to set up the transmitter so that the
flight controller knows which inputs correspond to which
channels. You can launch the transmitter setup wizard from
the welcome screen or from the prompt following, saving
the configuration to the flight controller.
During the process of calibrating the transmitter, we
will move the controls to their full extent and assign them
functions. From the factory, the transmitter only has the
thumb sticks enabled. Using the menu on the transmitter
itself, you can enable other switches and knobs if you wish
to use them. For now, we’ll stick with the basics.
One of the most important settings is the arming
setting for the quad. This is how you will enable and disable
the motors, and is how you ensure that you don’t end up
going to the hospital with propeller related injuries. When
setting up the transmitter, the settings revert to always
disarmed to ensure that the quad is not accidentally
powered up during transmitter setup. When we are done
with the calibration, we’ll re-enable this and assign our
arming sequence.
In the RC input setup tab, we follow the onscreen
prompts, answering that our controller is an “Acro: normal
transmitter for fixed-wing or quad” type and will operate in
Mode 2. These settings mean that the left control stick will
be throttle (up-down) and yaw (spin about the vertical axis)
and the right control stick will be pitch (forward-backward)
and roll (left-right; Figure 6). This is a “standard” way to
configure your transmitter, but Mode 1 is available if you
Mode 1 vs. Mode 2 can be found at www.spektrumrc.
com/Articles/ Article.aspx?ArticleID=2105.
The software will then
ask you to toggle various
switches. Since we didn’t
configure any of the extra
channels, you can just skip
over them. The most
important step is centering
all of the controls when
prompted and then moving
them to their maximum
extent. This allows the
software to calculate the range of inputs expected. You
may notice that when you move the sticks on the controller
that the sticks on the screen follow, but in the wrong
Figure 6. Our controller will run in “Mode 2” with the
control stick functions shown here. You can set up the
system for another mode if you prefer to fly in a different
configuration.
Figure 7. If the controls on
the screen move in the
opposite direction than you
are moving them in real
life, tick the invert box for
that axis. In my setup, only
the pitch control had to be
inverted.
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