The best video I've watched so far explaining flight modes in apm. Excellent! Thank you!

Thank you so much for making these. I would never in a million years be able to get this APM going if not for this playlist. Thanks so much for your time and effort!

Pretty much everything I have learned about the mini 3.1, I have from your videos. Thank you very much for your time and effort.

This is THE best video on APM that I have come across. THANKS! :D

Lee... You Rock! :) Every time I get brain lock or just don't know, I come to one of your posts and BAM! Answered! APM is an amazing system! Have a great weekend brother!!!

great vid, man! ive watched a bunch, this is definately concise and real easy to understand, great images, too!

Great job mate!! Best video I’ve seen on apm! Thanks

Last year I download the then current firmware for my quad, and had one brief flight. But health and personal reasons had me shelf my quad until just recently. Thank you for these video tutorials, as they are just what I need to get caught up on the current state of flight modes, etc., and I'm very anxious to get back in the air.

Boy...:) If you are a Teacher So I can Understand that :) If you are not a Teacher, You really should Work as one. You are So good to introduce new Things to people, in a very simple and sweet way. Thank you Brother...:)

Your videos are AWESOME :) thank you soooooo much

This is wery helpful in the configuration THX

Awesome series of videos... keep doing this!!

Thanks, think I have found out where I am going wrong? I have the HKPilot 2.7 Mega version and I think I have plugged the GPS's external compass in the wrong port, the one right next to the GPS port (Well it made sense to me!!!) Any way, it worked ok on Stabile & Alt Hold modes, but RTH & Loiter it wanted to make for the hills, QUICKLY!!! So I turned that mode off very quickly before I lost the model. Cheers for the vids, you explain things very well! So even a numpty like me can understand. lol.

Thank you!

Thank you very much !!!!

awesome video

Great, thanks👍

The hardest part was getting a 3-way switch mixed to get 6 flight modes in Er9x. Now that I have that I can start to use my Pixhawk . Here for a refresher. CHEERS!

Thanks for these videos! May I know how to setup altitude hold mode? Do I just connect a maxsonar range finder to the apm or is there extra settings I have to do?

I really enjoy your video tutorials. One quick concern- on my setting for rtl in mission planner, I have measurements in cm. I read, but forget whether it is actually meters or centimeters for my pixhawk fc. I need it to rise to 200 feet to compensate for tall trees at one of my flight spots. In fact, many of those sub settings, or advanced settings have cm and I am not worried about conversion as much as what the actual defaults are- cm or m. That makes a huge difference, lol!

Very helpful videos and watched this series many times to get a good understanding of everything which you explain in great depth (next time I'm back in the UK - I can promise you a beer or cider if I'm in your neck of the woods), and yes, the software is changing really quickly! I just built a Quanum Trifecta with an HKPilot Mega Mini APM board. Hooked up to this, I have an OrangeRX and OrangeTX ... The FC takes mini connectors for the RX and the massive problem I have right now is that the flight mode switch I'm wanting to use is on channel 6 and not 5 as Mission Planner accepts ... I'm using Mission Planner (latest version 1.3.19) and checked the advanced parameters for anything that remotely offers a chance to set the channel for Flight Modes, but find nothing ... The only option I have for flight modes is on the Gear switch on the TX, but that only gives me an option of two modes, but obviously, I'd like to use this channel for autotune once the Tricopter is able to get into the air without Yaw Of Death (figured that out this evening, I was reversing the channel on the TX, not in the software - which kind of helps!!!) ... I'd be grateful for any pointing in the right direction with regards to swapping the channels in Mission Planner :)

The super simple mode saved me on one of my first flights XDD i didnt have the rtl modes setup yet and no fpv gear, and i have poor sight, It flew away and i couldnt see how it was turned

Hey Painless, first let say thank you for having some of the most informative and well produced videos!!! Question out of all the FC's you have reviewed which would be your favorite for filming videos? I love my Naze32 but I built a filming rig Cinetank MK1 and right now I am using Naza Lite which is ok but it doesn't have that circle mode like APM does, and I think that is critical if you are doing filming

Hi, impressive set of videos they really have helped me with the set up of my hexacopter, just one quick question, cannel 5 only controls 3 flight modes, how can I go to the rest, I know they speak about mixing channels 6&7 but I don not know how to do it, my radio is a Futaba 14 SG. Thanks for this excellent series fo videos, very helpful indeed!

Oh this demystifies everything. Great stuff..!! By the way, is 'SIMPLE MODE' the same as 'HEADLESS MODE' on those toy quads...?

I've fitted a six position switch for selecting APM flight modes to my Taranis and it works fine. What I'd like to do is have these positions applied to other functions. Is there a way to assign functions to a percentage of S1? I believe it's PWM settings although I barely know what PWM means. Thanks for any help, John.

Hi Painless Thanks for your prompt reply, maybe I have found a problem, I have 3.4 firmware installed to the board, I do have an earlier version 2.71 in a downloaded file but do not know how to load it using mission planner, ( afraid I'm not real computer smart), I looked for Arduplane 3.2.1 version but could not find it, I can't find anything on line explaining how to backtrack to an earlier version, I apoligise for being a pain Regards Geoff.

Hi Painless360 I have a problem with my APM 2.6. Why did my quad only turns about its place? I have configured the radius to 8m, not zero. and also the speed to 20deg/s. Thanks.

Thank you very much... very informative. Have you ever setup APM for a Land vehicle?

great video. i have a pixhawk 2. i am trying to find a setting which will stop the drone from drifting after you release the yaw it continues to spin. i have it in stabilize mode.

Hey bro! Nice vid! Do you tink you could answer me a few questions? I have a bait boat, and I want to be able to read the distance from my boat and remote,so I know how far I send it,and also, I want it to return to the starting point without me to drive it. I know I will need the 1. APM 2.8 (this is what i want to use cuz its cheaper) 2. GPS 3. Mini OSD Questions: Will I need the 3DR Radio Telemetry? If yes, what is this for? Will I need a Power module also? My bait boat is functional, can I connect the AMP to the power source of the boat? Thanks and I hope you can answer me as I am new in his :)

Hey there! I just built my first drone (f450) and took it out for a test flight.Everything went fine,everything was responsive,so I decided to test the RTL on the drone.It was 6-7 meters away from me.As soon as I activated RTL the drone started going up to like ~15 meters or so,then stopped and the randomly it started tilting on every side and began falling.It was a soft crash because I immediately set it to Stabilize mode and full throttled it.Any idea to why it did that? Thanks :)) (APM 2.8,3cell 4200mah)

Hi I have a plane with apm 2.8 and gps neo 8m ublox... I set a mission in mission planner with waypoints and I takeoff manually , and when I switch to automode the plane goes towards to ground and not to 1st streetpoint. And on the ground when i Switch to auto the servos are moving to maximum position. Any suggestion?

Hi tks for the video, what is the difference between Stabilize and sport?? GRACIAS

Great videos. I am not sure how long it would have taken to get my bearings had I not had them, so thank you. i do have a question however. I seem to not be able to display volts, in mission planner or through osd (mini osd) running a 3dr PM. I have the current pin assigned to twelve. My voltage works fine. Anything I might be missing? The only think I haven't done is directly hooked my meter up to the current wire coming from the PM. Thanks Barrett

Good day to you Mr Lee(Painless360), I have a quick question for you regarding tuning of the POSHOLD and/or ALTHOLD, but mostly POSHOLD. My outcome of this question is that I require a stable hover before using other flight modes, especially LOITER mode. When I activate POSHOLD or LOITER, the quad begins to climb with a few pauses now and sometimes I hear the props whizzing faster and it climbs again, then suddenly drops height as if its about to fall from the sky, drops about a meter to two, then suddenly increases throttle again, so in other words, its not getting a stable hover. I just changed the THR_ALT_P from 1 to 0,7 but I decided to ask you if theres anything else that I should change ? Going out to test now. Many thanks in advance!

when I change my flight mode to either loiter or RTL, my quad copter keeps on turning right by itself. I have no idea what is going on

Good morning, another problem, kkkkk is complicated my learning with APM, I'm having problems with the modes of flight in the apm, it's FBWB and the other one with problems is CRUISE, everything works, except the pitch, even though I Of command in the radio he does not move, in flight and in ground, it does not matter, I take off in stabilized mode and mute to the FBWA and everything goes well, when I change to the FBWB or CRUISE, mysteriously the pitch command that is my elevator to To operate, even by making the motion on the transmitter is this correct?

Hi Sr. Question. If I put the model with ultrasonic unit in operation the mode LAND, What happend with the sonar? Is deactivaded the barometer and take in consideration the sonar?

Any chance you could do a video on auto tune configuration using a d4r-II please? Got myself a quanum nova for av but can't figure out how to get it to do auto tune. I currently have 4 flight modes configured on it, stabilise, loiter, alt hold and rth as a panic switch. Really need help in getting auto tune set up if you have time please.

Hi, Thanks for this video, explains alot... I do have a question though.... On setting up my flight modes, I have fitted a 6 position switch to my Taranis Plus but when I switch from mode to mode in MP, I have over lapping PWM's (I get 2 modes within 1 range) i.e. Modes 1 and 2 will be in PWM 0 - 1230. Can I adjust this somehow?

veri good

Hi! Great videos! Thanks for posting!!! The only "complained" I have is, that I am losing track of the videos. It would really help if you would number them in the description... i.e. 1/5, 2/5 and so on... Anyhow, great work!!! Thanks!!! G.

Thanks for your great videos , really helpful i have one question though ; i want to use APM for my plane just for the purpose of RTL in the case of controller signal loss , how can i do that , i will be grateful and happy if you could direct me many many thanks

hi i have a small question wen i flicker my 3 position swich to the midle to have let say the loiter mode on the pwm playes from 1489 to 1492 wich is letting the apm jump to the flight mode thats before it sometimes .. how can i fix that on the apm or the DX6 ? thanks bud for all you efforts! !

Hello thank you for the tutorial. This is my first time in your Chanel. Congratulations. I am just begginer, sorry if you already answered my questions: 1- is It possible to configure it for a Hexadecacopter? Eight motors up and eight down? 2- is it possible in that case to using more than one flight controller to safety reason? Redundance? Thank you!

Hi Painless360; Thank you, sharing was very useful. My can not fly quadcopter 4 engines. There are 6 engine described here. What should be the 4 engines for flight modes, please samples Have a link or picture

Nice videos on the APM !!! they are of big help. When I put my quad on loitter the speed is very slow when I try to move it forward or backwords, is it posible to set the loitter speed to go faster? and if so how can it be done? Thank you !!!

Very useful explanation, thanks! I've been experiencing some problems with my external compass (in fact I've never been able to make it work due to a faulty I2C plug). Just wondering, is it possible to fly autonomous waypoints, RTL, guided mode, etc. without having a compass? The APM gyros an accelerometers detect angular accelerations, so without a compass you still have heading reading. The only problem is that it considers North is in the direction the drone was pointing at when you powered it up. So if I just power it up with the nose of the vehicle pointing at real North, then the APM should be able to orientate itself by means of angular acceleration detection, right? I guess the compass is only used to provide initial North detection and probably for redundancy, but the APM alone should be able to orientate once North position has been determined (either using the compass or "manually" by starting it up pointing North). This way I should be able to fly without the need of a compass. What do you reckon? Thanks!

Hi painless, what flight mode would u suggest to be aerobatic. Ie doing flips and rolls. Cheers

I got a problem with motors spinning, that was mean only 2 of 4 motors spin when I made throttle up. If I change Yaw stick to left, then 2 motors on the left spin. And I made Yaw stick on the right, then 2 motors on the right side spin. I can't made 4 motors spin at a time, that's why my quadcopter can't fly up. But I did esc calibration, all of 4 motors spin at the time, I dont know how to configure, please help me through, tks a lot

good video! a question, how I can do for adjust the altitude in AltHold mode? I want to reduce it. I use a APM 2.6 quadrucopter F450

Hello. Thank you for these videos!! Very helpful. Iv got mine up and flying. I dont think im getting gps lock though. The led on my gps module is red light and blinks green. I cant find any info on this. Can you please give me an idea of what is happening? THanx

3DR Solo... Do you know how to change the startup mode from Fly to Stabilize? Apparently the setting is in Parameters, but I do not know what the specific setting is. Thanks.

I hope my question makes scent. If you have a video on this I haven't found it yet. I have a FrSky X8R Receiver, understand channels 1-8 PWM, the S-Bus confused, pins, + -- pretty simple, servo pin to get 16 channels. What does that plug into so you get 16 channels? I do have a 2.8 Arducopter APM. On the left side on the APM pins labeled 0-11 that are male pins, then say pins 12-13 are female with USB labeled next to them. All the videos I see on KZfaq explain very well on how to bind and show channels 1-8 then they talk about the S-Bus channels 1-16 but never explain what that would plug into. I thinking some kind of bar, I don't know. Can someone explain to a bumby ?

is there an indicator on the board or gps module that let you know you have a GPS lock? if so what is it.

How does circle mode work and how do you set the radius and center of it?

What parts do you need in order to use the FOLLOW ME mode?

Hi there once again! Thanks Very much for your videos! I'm having trouble setting the channel 5 to select diferent flight modes...What I see in MissionPlanner is that when I move the Thottle stick up or down, channel 5 moves too. I cant find the way to separate these two. I'm using a Spektrum DX6i. Do you have any idea how can I set this things?

Question -- Still learning about flight modes... how would you access the different modes from the RC transmitter? Would each mode require a separate channel to invoke, or via a rotary switch, or would they be activated via a combination of switch inputs? Would you be able to produce a video about this? Thanks!

Hi My 2.6 APM wont fly level it just flips right over, I try to hold it and at 25% throttle and it goes forwards backwards faster slower????????

APM 2.6 with external GPS and Compass. MP says "PreArm Check Compass not calibrated". GPS is getting 5 Sats. However after multiple attempts at compass calibration, nothing works. Suggestions?

hi +painless360 thx for your video, as i can see you are confident with apm. now i have an issue, maybe you can help me out, i am not getting any luck on diy forum, this is my problem: power the plane, switch in manual flight mode , throttle works. lets say i move the thro stick to 50% then switch to stabilized mode( or any assisted mode), after two sec, throttle is cut, and if i switch back to manual mode, can t get the throttle to work, unless i unplug and replug the lipo any ideas? drives me mad thxx for your time. best regards

How to Enable OF_Loiter (optical flow loiter mode ) in mission planner 1.3.43

Hi Painless Wonder if you can help ,I have the HK Mega Mini board and am having trouble with flight modes, I operate aircraft on the bigger standard boards with no problems but for some reason if I switch from Manual, Stabalised, FBWA to Auto, Cruise or RTL the motor stops, It appears that the automatic control of the motor does not function, I have it setup the same as the larger boards, but cannot see why the motor should stop, Thanks Geoff

Hi! i got one question, isnted of waiting to scan the gps, can I start in stablize and then when I am flying it will keep searching for gps for when I needed (like changing to loiter mode)? thanks

Hi again :) I have a question about the RTL fuction: will the RTL mode always override the other modes? Say I'm in loiter and flip the switch for RTL. will that work? Or while in the middle of a mission or simply flying around in stab- mode, will RTL override that modes? Not clear about that. Greetings.

I was planning to install apm board with telemetry in my four channel rc plane so which modes should i select?

are compass and barometer necessary for flying APM 2.8

Hey man, im using a pixhawk mini. But the altitude mode seems to malfunction. Quad dips in altitude and hits the ground as soon as i flick on the altitude mode. Please help.

Sir , can we choose 3 flight modes for aux 1 and additional flight mode for aux 2 ?

Does stabilize mode need any manual tuning to be done? btw can you make a video on landing a quadcopter ? I just crashed my new one :(

hi, plz can u tell me which wires i have to connect to the hobby king 6 channel reciver for flight modes in apm 2.6 i have connected the gps module wire but as iam a beginner i dont know which wires i have to connect to the reciver's channel 5&6 in order to us the flight modes or simply i have to set it in the misson planner ???

Hello, I'm using a Ardupilot 2.6 and I just need to use it to get roll, pitch, and yaw data for one of my projects. I need to show these data on one LCD connecting to Arduino. Is there any way to do that? Thanks.

dear sir in my apm2.8 in alt hold mode when i increasing thortle 50 percent to 60 the motor spining its full power its behaviour like 100 percent thortle and after in this situation when i decreasing thortle to 50 percent its not decreasing motor speed (motor is rotating full speed) and when i minimise thortle to 0 percent then after feu second the motor responding to low rottation ...why this happenning any solution i m ur big fan from 10 years

sir i finished calibrating everthing , my qaudcopter is nt even lifting above the ground i dont know y ..could you please help me ?

Hey sir I am using flysky FSCT6B I am not able to switch flight modes in this transmitter Can you please how to switch in this.

Hello. Thank you for your video. I have a problem and perhaps you can help me. I´ve lost my flight modes.... I go to go to "Initial Set up> MAndatory Hardware>Flight modes>" I set up my flight modes and click on "Saves modes", but really my quad doesn't save these flight modes because in the display of flying ("Flight Data menu") in Mission planner when I select one flying mode in my transmitter it doesn't appear in this screen. What do you think that I´m doing wrong? Thank you for your help and for your channel!!

Do I need more than 6 channel receiver and transmitter for all these modes?

can I upload a custom (hex/code) file or download it from the apm2.8 ?

is it possible to change from cell phone WiFi controler to a traditional style controler, WiFi. Great little quad, but I have arthritis and can't use the cell phone.

hi I have a problem with my cherson cx20 it arm motor and do everything good but when I try to up my trotle the motors doesn't do nothing also I saw a red light in the reciver

I'm having a problem with the Tricopter I just built. When I throttle up, the Tricopter lifts the right front arm up 1st and the Tricopter beings to slide across the floor. (To much throttle and it flips?) I've tried adding weights to that arm, but no luck? Any thoughts on how to correct this? I'm just want to get it to hover for starters...

I have a question on stabilise mode. When I takeoff and say it is in 5M high and it is very stable, move it fast to forward then fast backward the quad will lift itself mush higher. Is this normal? 2nd I find it very difficult to land using the stabilise mode, any tip on the thro?

Good day to you My second question for you posted it on other places but can't get no answer yet so here's it I can't get my hexa to go follow me I'll activate it in the GUI (tower) and the button stays red does never go blue my drones hdop is 1.2 and the tablet is 0.8 so could you tell me what other conditions need to be ok I'm using a wiffi telemetry and I notice that if I move around the tablet takes a while to update my location Again thanks upfront

i have a with the speed of my motors .and it won't give me full throlle to left off after i did a firmware update. went back to old firmware still the same . what to do

i have no gps module and which mode slect for without gps

hi there please help me . i have the FLY SKY 6 Channel im setting my flight modes but i see my channel 5 and 6 have the same PWM value . now that both channels read the same value im only able to use one flight mode how do i get to change or what must i do so that the one channel reads a different PWM value so i can use another flight mode ?

hey boy do you know cx20 drone ? if you know about that pz explane to the mission planner

can I use your step for programing APM 2.8?I want to make a quadcopter. so can I use all 8 parts of your videos instructions? I will making my quadcopter with APM 2.8 .can I change with APM 2.6?what is your opinion? please tell me.

how can I change the ch for my flight modes via apm?

I have a little issue with my APM, don't know if you can give me a hand, my problem is with the RTL feature, the APM turns on the motors when in RTL but on a really low RPM not enough to keep the plane in the air, is there any way to set up the throttle for RTL?

I have a normal radio and my HKpilot mega is on it's way, can I make loiter work with a normal throttle stick (not centering).

hello i have a question about land mode. Basically my DIY drone for specific purposes really weighs heavy like 5-6kgs. If i use Land mode im confuse if the APM will land it slowly because the weight really affects the way the drone lands because of the gravity. Will the Land mode really lands well in this kind of weight im having? Please i need your help.

Hey I really need some help. I am setting up my apm 2.6 and I have a Futaba T8J, using the R2008SB receiver. No matter what channel I assign mode change to, nothing happens. I can't change any of the flight modes. The apm doesn't even recognize that I have anything other than the first 4 channels.

Do I need miniosd for these modes?

Did you buy the APM board from 3DR or did you buy a clone from somewhere? Cheers

hi,i have a problem with my apm 2.6 ,i set it up but it dont stabilize the quad,it fly not stabilized ,do you have some idea,thanks

hi, me again with different issue. my second quad wirh apm2.6 flies away when rtl activated. checked altitude, gps is locked, tried 3 different gps+compas+all calibration.watched yor videos. please help

Can someone create a VTOL setting for Inav? The UI for Ardupilot sucks!