Flight Modes

[Bladecpnitro]

Does anyone use Flight Modes for helicopters?
I have been using Taranis X9D+ for what 4 or 5 years now and have never used a single Flight Mode ever.

I always use the mixer. I've been able to do whatever I want with the mixer, special functions and a few logical switches.
I pulled up Arch Mages Gob 570 eepe files yesterday in Companion that I downloaded a long time ago and was looking through the program and noticed that he had all his switches setup with Flight Modes.

That's some of what has got me interested in Flight Modes.
The other is that I would like to be able to set up a plane should the need arise in the future.

The more I learn about the Taranis the more I realize how lucky we are to live in this generation and have this technology to enjoy. Folks in the 70's thru 90's and early 2000's even were so limited to what they could do with their radios. Not to mention the 72mhz interference thing.

One of my neighbors flew a 60 inch powered glider and a 42 inch Blue Sessna 150 in the 10 acre field right across from my house. That was late 70's early 80's and when I heard him out there I'd run out with all my might to watch him fly when I was a kid.

One day I saw him crash the Blue Sessna 150 Balsa wood frame because of interference.
He took off on a CCW path and flew around the field. Soon as he turned on base it took a cork screw nose dive over revving all the way to where it made a tiny crater in the ground. Sad day! I think that was the last time I saw him fly out there.

It is unreal what open TX is capable of compared to my old Spektrum DX7. I love that radio and have kept it to fly Blade stuff but man was it limited.

Anyhow here is a link I found on FM's for helicopter.
I think I'll set up a model like this and see how I like it.
OpenTX Heli Flight Modes | OpenTX University

[Mikej]

I use Flight Modes - I started moving to the QX 7 (also from a DX7) about a year ago and was somewhat confused to start with so I set my QX 7 in a similar manner to the DX7 where possible to make the transition as easy as possible,

I now have 6 models on the QX 7 and slowly moving others over, I really like the access to Telemetry, voice prompts, integration into Spirit + HobbyWing etc..

I have 4 Flight modes - imaginatively named FM0, FM1, FM2, FM3 - FM) is Throttle Hold, th eothers are the 3 flight modes with different headspeeds. I have Arduino-based telemetry for HeadSpeed, Battery Voltage and could add others.

Really like the flexibility

[Bladecpnitro]

Originally Posted by Mikej

I use Flight Modes - I started moving to the QX 7 (also from a DX7) about a year ago and was somewhat confused to start with so I set my QX 7 in a similar manner to the DX7 where possible to make the transition as easy as possible,

I now have 6 models on the QX 7 and slowly moving others over, I really like the access to Telemetry, voice prompts, integration into Spirit + HobbyWing etc..

I have 4 Flight modes - imaginatively named FM0, FM1, FM2, FM3 - FM) is Throttle Hold, th eothers are the 3 flight modes with different headspeeds. I have Arduino-based telemetry for HeadSpeed, Battery Voltage and could add others.

Really like the flexibility

I did the same I was limited to where I could put switches on the DX7.
I like having FModes and Thold in my right hand so pitch can always stay steady as a clock in the left. Which on my particular DX7 I could have those functions on the right side so I do the same on the Taranis.
SC is Thold and SG is flight mode on my Taranis. I use SA to toggle different low speed settings that also automatically alter my tail gains.

[Mikej]

I can't remember the switch names, but I have Hold on the right, Flight modes are top Left and Banks front Left

[Bladecpnitro]

Yea and once you get used to using them Its hard to change.


I hit the jack pot with this link while searching for logical switches.
https://opentx.gitbooks.io/opentx-ta..._switches.html


I wish there were examples of each one.
I use a>x to automatically kill the throttle and start autorotation while I'm siming in neXt. Power fail occurs 10 seconds after starting. Then toggling the Thold will reset the timer to go another 10 seconds.
For it to work SE- switch has to be selected.


I've used AND and OR also.


Another awesome reference guide! Holy crap this is good!
http://rcadev.info/OpenTX%2014%20Log...tches%2010.htm

[xoexoe]

Hi Bladecpnitro.

I do use Flight Modes always. I like that I can ensure I'm always in exactly one flight mode, and it's easy to trigger other things off of which Flight Mode I'm in

Last week I made a mini tutorial on showing how to set up flight modes with helis. Take a look at "Method 3a" in this link:

https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=851303

I'm also copying it below.

There is also method 3b which shows a nice advantage of using Flight Modes and that is to also use Global Variables, but you can follow the link if you're interested in that.

Originally Posted by xoexoe

Method 3a: Using FLIGHT MODES and CURVES

In the examples above, particular switch positions (or combinations of switches) enabled particular lines in either the Input or Mixer pages. An alternative method, and the one shown here, is to have a certain combination switches enable certain "Flight Modes" in OpenTX, then use whatever Flight Mode is active to do the dirty work in either the Input or Mixer page.

Sounds complicated, but it's not as bad as it seems. Think of it as a dedicated set of Logical Switches where ONE and ONLY ONE flight mode can be active at a time. Let's see how it works...

Here is my Flight Mode page. (I have disabled trims on all flight modes that will be used, but I actually suspect that you only need to disable it on the FM0... I didn't experiment.)




The "TH" and "IU1" labels are names I created to help keep me organized. How OpenTX deals with Flight Modes is that beginning at "FM1" it will just go down the list and look for the first line that has a TRUE switch field next to it. This can be a physical switch, a logical switch, or probably something else. As you see, FM1 will be active if L01 is true, FM2 will be active if L02 is true, etc.

But what if none of the required switches are true? In this case OpenTX will default to FM0. That's why there is an "N/A" next to the required switch for FM0.

It is best practice in my opinion to have FM0 to be your throttle hold flight mode while FM1–FM3 are for your different in-flight modes.

Let's now take a look at how L01, etc. are defined.



I used an AND function so that, for example, L01 is true only if BOTH my throttle hold switch is in the up position (disengaged) and my flight mode selector is in the up position (low head speed). Similarly for the other two logical switches.

(By the way, there is a secret third field/switch that you can enable in the AND line so that you can have an additional safety switch build right in to this screen. I chose not to do this for simplicity.)


Okay, we have logical switches that are turned true depending on our physical switches, and Flight Modes that are active depending on which logical switch is true. But how do we use the actual active Flight Modes to do something like select a head speed? You can do this in the Input or Mixer page just like the examples before. I personally did it in the Mixer page because I find the Mixer more flexible than the Input page.

Here is my Input page to show you it's nothing special.



And here is my Mixer page for using Flight Modes:



As you see, each Replace line is active only if a particular flight mode is selected. Order isn't as crucial here because ONLY ONE of the flight modes can be active at a time, so I didn't have to put throttle hold (FM0) at the bottom position. I bet you can even get away with using the default ADD function instead of replace, but it doesn't hurt to be cautious.

I suspect Flight Modes are underused in OpenTX. So I wanted to show what it looks like when you go into the EDIT details for the the Mixer line for FM1 (low head speed):




In the "Mode" line I selected only FM1 and selected the "low" flat throttle curve.

[ridge-runner]

Originally Posted by Bladecpnitro

... I wish there were examples of each one. ...

Check out: FrSky Taranis - OpenTX data flow diagrams

"Boomerwing's" Full Logical Switch Tutorial (linked to in the first post) includes many examples.

[xoexoe]

Originally Posted by ridge-runner

Check out: FrSky Taranis - OpenTX data flow diagrams

s.

Great PDFs that show the logical flow! Thanks for sharing that resource. It even gives the warning about overriding channels and an alternative method for doing it.

[Bladecpnitro]

Originally Posted by ridge-runner

Check out: FrSky Taranis - OpenTX data flow diagrams

"Boomerwing's" Full Logical Switch Tutorial (linked to in the first post) includes many examples.

Ok thanks for the link I will check into it.


I downladed a pretty complicated Cessna 301 Twin engine setup yesterday to look at. It has electric brakes, retractable landing light, retractable gear and nav lights.
Its pretty well thought out. If he loses one engine and the plane begins to yaw he can dial in S1 to trim it right or left.


https://rcsettings.com/index.php/vie...t-brakes-flaps

[Bladecpnitro]

Originally Posted by xoexoe

Hi Bladecpnitro.

I do use Flight Modes always. I like that I can ensure I'm always in exactly one flight mode, and it's easy to trigger other things off of which Flight Mode I'm in

Last week I made a mini tutorial on showing how to set up flight modes with helis. Take a look at "Method 3a" in this link:

https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=851303

I'm also copying it below.

There is also method 3b which shows a nice advantage of using Flight Modes and that is to also use Global Variables, but you can follow the link if you're interested in that.

Thanks for sharing that XOEXOE! It doesn't seem so complicated this way.

Looks like in each mix line for throttle you just have to make sure that only the FM0, FM1, FM2 and FM3 are selected in their appropriate mix lines.


Are you using curves in all of your throttle mixers to set head speed?

[xoexoe]

Yes I did use Curves everywhere. It's the most flexible in my opinion.

[Bladecpnitro]

Originally Posted by xoexoe

Yes I did use Curves everywhere. It's the most flexible in my opinion.

Originally Posted by xoexoe

Yes I did use Curves everywhere. It's the most flexible in my opinion.

I set up 6 Switch conditions for SG as my main Idle up switch.
SA- when applied lowers all 3 flight modes to whatever value I want just like I have done it in program mixes for several years now.


SC up Thold = L1 FM0

SG Dn = L2 FM1
SG mid =- L3 FM2
SG up = L4 FM3
Sa mid and SG dn = L5 FM4
SA mid and SG Midddle = L6 FM5
SA up and SG UP =L7 FM6

When I simulate it FM 6 will not let go of FM3's 100 percent throttle curve for the 60% curve I have.



FM's are assigned in the inputs page where

there is no Multiplicity function. I wonder if that is the reason?

[Bladecpnitro]

This is working! 6 speeds all assigned to logical switches that could trigger any number of events.


AND SCv SCv = L1 FM0 Thold
AND SA^ SG^ = L2 FM1 Nor
AND SA^ SG- = L3 FM2 IU1
AND SA^ SGv = L4 FM3 IU2

AND SA- SG^ = L5 FM4 Low Nor
AND SA- SG- = L6 FM5 Low IU1
AND SA- SGv = L7 FM6 Low IU2


I usually just fly on the low setup and switch to the high setup up when I get warmed up and feeling a bit more brave.I had to add SA^
to the 1st section so L2,3 and 4 would go off during 5, 6 and 7.

[Bladecpnitro]

I fully understand the Cessna 310 eepe now except the Edge switch. I know its supposed to check which position the landing gear is in but I can't get it to light L22.


He used 8 Flight modes to have SA and SG going from 0, 10, 20, 30 and 40 degree flaps and he can start the process on either side.
FM0 is Flaps Up


The cool thing about logical switches is you get the Flight Mode name on the screen and also get to play any sort of track you might like when the conditions of the switch are met.

What I'm not sure of is when to deselect FModes in the mixes.
I've noticed in the Cessna 310 setup that not one of his Flight Modes in inputs or mixes is deselected yet the Flight modes work just the same depending on what condition the flaps are in.

[ridge-runner]

Originally Posted by Bladecpnitro

I fully understand the Cessna 310 eepe now except the Edge switch. ...

The EDGE switch is one of the most useful features of the OTX environment. It defines a "window in time" with the first number being the opening time of the window and the second number being the closing time. Both of these times represent elapsed seconds since the triggering condition became and stays true. The closing time has two special cases: instant "<<" and forever "--". The EDGE switch itself triggers only when its triggering condition becomes FALSE during the edge's window.

I did a video a while back explaining how to use EDGE logical switches to perform multiple functions using a single momentary switch...

Taranis - Adding multiple functions to a single switch (5 min 34 sec)

[xoexoe]

Originally Posted by ridge-runner

I did a video a while back explaining how to use EDGE logical switches to perform multiple functions using a single momentary switch...

Wow I just saw the intro to your video there, ridge. That is clever as hell to have one switch do different things depending on how long you hold it.

I didn’t view it all the way through because I’m at work, but I’ll be checking that out and mimicking it later tonight.

Looooove OpenTX.

[Bladecpnitro]

Originally Posted by ridge-runner

The EDGE switch is one of the most useful features of the OTX environment. It defines a "window in time" with the first number being the opening time of the window and the second number being the closing time. Both of these times represent elapsed seconds since the triggering condition became and stays true. The closing time has two special cases: instant "<<" and forever "--". The EDGE switch itself triggers only when its triggering condition becomes FALSE during the edge's window.

I did a video a while back explaining how to use EDGE logical switches to perform multiple functions using a single momentary

Awesome Ridgerunner! I searched for a video that might have the Edge function but nothing came up under Edge search.


I see you have the SH switch as V1 in your setups.



I moved SH to V1 and SF to AND in the Cessna 310 setup and now the switch works.
SF is up for gear down so the switch goes back out of the way while he's flying with gear up.
When ready to land if he's not sure that he did put gear down he wants to be able to hit SH quickly to make sure that SF is up.


L22 Edge SHv (V1) 0.3(instant) (V2) SFv (AND) 0.8 duration 0.0 delay


Flight Modes in the inputs and mix page.
I did not know that the TX stays in FM0 by default until FM1, 2 ,3 and so on are assigned to a switch and functioning.
Give FM0 a name and it will never leave your screen until you program FM1 and leave FM0


If I go to the inputs page and deselect Flight mode 0 in the edit menu for all of the aileron mixes, ailerons will not function at all during Flight Mode 0. Switch to FM1, 2 or 3 and they come back on again.
Same goes for the mixer page. Deselect all FM0's for the ailerons in the mixer and leave the input page FM's all selected and ailerons will not function at all in FM0.


I suppose there might be rare areas where you wouldn't want something to function in some Flight Modes.
So you simply turn it off for that FM in the mixers.

[Bladecpnitro]

Wow! I delved into the Flight Mode thing hard and have had a blast. While at it I discovered that practically all of my models that I've ever used have stemmed from Arch Mages Goblin 570 that he shared in 2016.
I know it because of the Global variables he had named in that eepe.

It was setup completely on Flight modes and selecting only the correct FM in the mix for the mode. But starting out I found it much easier just to used the mixer and a few Logical switches to get 2 switches to work together so I adapted what was there and made it my own. What a blessing!

I've gone through and cleaned up all of my models in Companion and found some things I wonder how they even worked, nothing major just had some different sources in inputs than they were in the mixer.

Anyhow I've setup flight modes for my models now and I'm truly amazed at how much control you have with the input page Fm selectors. If you don't have the right FM selected in your mix edit you could be in for a big surprise maybe going without pitch or throttle through a mode. Not sure how long that will last.

Its something to watch out for. If you don't have the right curve and FM selected in your mix you might find you switch to FM3 and and have no pitch or any number of functions. When you fool with flight modes you have to work through every Mode and every switch and make sure that pitch and throttle are there and not doing something crazy. Make sure pitch still works with throttle hold on.

I like to have a setting so I can auto and bail out without soft restart.
SC- is my -90 Autorotate function and SCv is my THold -100 and now they have their own FM.

Castles seem to like about -76 to not do the soft start.
I like Castle ESC's but don't like their price, at least they aren't as expensive as some of the other brands.

I think its definitely faster and safer for newbies just to use mixers, switches and a few logical's, you really have to watch those flight modes in the mixers .

But with flight modes you could trigger say a -2 degree pitch curve that's not even used most of the time so you can practice autoing in with the throttle down long as you have a FM to call it up.

I wish I knew and I a still don't know till this day what I did when I first set up my 1st model. I copied my throttle settings over to channel 6 so I'd have a working collective but somehow my idle up switches would make my blades act like my flat throttle curves. I bet you that I never changed my pitch curves to linear on the pitch mix.

Someone told me to copy all the throttle mixes over to channel 11 and then on channel 6 Pitch use channel 11 as source. It worked and that's what I've used for 4 years. I'm sure I could figure out now what was going on but then I was totally lost.

In fact that's one thing I cleaned out. All those channel 11 mixes in all my models. Every time I got a different FBL system I copied my current model and made it work with the new FBL unit and it worked.
With iKONs though all of the endpoints are different in the outputs page. So it might be a bit of a pain to copy that model and adapt. In Companion though all things are possible.

Now in my X3 with iKON I only have one Pitch mix with a linear curve and it flies like a dream. I realize the old radios from the past had a different pitch curve for every FM and you can certainly do that. Some folks like the 2degree negative on Normal and some don't . I've tried it. Its fun for practicing autos but I don't care to have it all the time.

Oh well it'll all be all right after the long slow walk. Ha HA!

[xoexoe]

It’s fun learning new OpenTX stuff.

Glad you are fiddling around with flight modes. While they are my preferred method, you do have to be sure to go through EACH flight mode in your mix or input and make sure everything is set properly, just as you said. It’s not the easiest method but I like the “flat” logic of it, if that makes any sense.

[Bladecpnitro]

Originally Posted by xoexoe

It’s fun learning new OpenTX stuff.

Glad you are fiddling around with flight modes. While they are my preferred method, you do have to be sure to go through EACH flight mode in your mix or input and make sure everything is set properly, just as you said. It’s not the easiest method but I like the “flat” logic of it, if that makes any sense.

I had actually fooled with FM's but just enough so that my screen gave me Normal, IU1 and IU2 when I flipped my switches and that's far as I went with that.

I want to know how to set up GV's and find some uses for the many logical switches that are available to us in OPEN TX.

From the get go I've been a heli guy who wanted to try planes one day but never got around to the planes.
I have a nice Plane setup though to use with Pheonix sim. It has flaps, landing gear and switchable DR's at 100, 85 and 75% for aileron, elevator and rudder. I'm starting to like the DR's for heli as well especially in piro flips.

Planes are a good bit more unforgiving than heli's since they have to keep moving forward.

Here is another awesome link on Logical switches with examples and explanation. Very Nice!

An example is like a picture. Its worth a thousand words.


Logical Switches ? RCdiy