How to: Adjust VTX output power while flying.

Just sharing this video showing “how to” setup a transmitter switch to control your VTX output power while flying. I’ve been using this feature since the summer and find it really useful when flying FPV and also when testing and tuning drones.



Feel free to ask questions, if I don’t respond here post in the YouTube comments.
Cheers!
-Pete
 
Unless you know what he's talking about, you become lost in the acronyms.What is BETAFLIGHT and how does it interface with the controller? As I said the acronyms will cause an inexperienced pilot to go DUH and probably not look at it further. Like me.
 
Betaflight isn't an acroym really it's "just" a piece of software/code that reads sensors on and it runs on the micro-controller [MCU] (stored in memory and executed by processor in there). There is also a windows/mac/linux compatible "Betaflight configurator" which you can use to connect to and modify the configuration of any "betaflight compatible" flight controller. The "configurator" program can also download and "flash" or update your MCU with new versions of betaflight as developers make updates.

Betaflight is an open source project so basically anyone can look at the source and offer contributions and certain people who "own" or created the repository of code retain rights to allow or deny any code from getting in. Basically they will review it and make sure it is up to snuff and shouldn't break anything, then they do extensive testing with their own gear and then roll it out to the community (this process changes over time for different open source projects).


https://github.com/betaflight/betaflight-configurator/releases <-- scroll down to "assets" to see the installers for different OSes for betaflight


^^ if you browse these sites you can find all the parts or kits of parts needed to build from scratch


Acronym soup is an easy way to get lost, for the uninitiated to the build it yourself from scratch "scene":

TX = Transmitter (generic term sometimes refers to the controller/transmitter in your hands that sends control signals sometimes refers to a wire sending data out from one board to another board so they can control each other or otherwise communicate)
VTX = Video Transmitter - it takes in an analog video signal from a basic analog camera and converts that video signal into radio waves so they can be transmitted out of an antenna and then received by a ground video receiver (usually the video receiver is built in or added as a module to goggles)

FC = Flight Controller it is the "brain" of the quadcopter, physically it is a printed circuit board (PCB) with an integrated processor on there called a micro-control unit (MCU). The MCU stores the program that runs to fly your quadcopter that reads inputs from a control receiver and sensors and sends control signals to electronic speed controllers (ESCs) which in turn control the speed of each motor to keep the thing level.
Another way to say that is the FC is the flight computer that does all the actual flying (keeping thing level or responding to your control input)

FPV = First person view, flying with goggles or a screen where you see from the perspective of the camera on the drone, the camera video signal is hooked up via a wire to the VTX ultimately and transmits the video signal to the pilot on the ground

LOS = line of sight, flying without goggles/screen, no VTX or camera even necessarily required any off the shelf toy quad can do this
 
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The TLDR (too long didn't read) is betaflight is software that allows you to customize basically everything about the sensors that your quad works with, that said it is made by people in their off time with whatever funding they can muster up from board manufacturers etc. who benefit from their work, so it isn't going to be "plug and play" or super "user friendly" it takes some digging and guessing to get things to work well (or in specific ways outside of make my quad go vroom :D )
 
Betaflight isn't an acroym really it's "just" a piece of software/code
Yes, I went on the internet and looked it up. None of my quads are designed to interface with it. It and of itself is difficult enough just to do the downloads. Since I build nothing it is pointless for me.
 
Yea, this video admittedly isn’t for everyone, in fact only a small group of people will probably find it helpful... I made it simply to help anyone who may want to setup this feature.

For those flying FPV with an adjustable VTX this is a really great feature to have; or at least I find it extremely useful.

LoneRanger, if you ever venture into building quads all of this will quickly make sense. Consumer drones certainly don’t require this level of setup, but there’s some real benefits to building custom drones. Search: FPV mountain surfing or cinewhoop footage for examples of what people are doing with custom drones.

Wafflejock, thanks for providing more details to the thread for others who may need some direction.

Cheers and happy flying to you both!
 
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