'Atti' mode, could someone provide a simplistic explanation??

[mmurfitt]

Hey,
I have a F550 and have flown it a handful of times, and I'm fully aware of 'Atti / Manual' mode, but if I'm honest I don't entirely understand what they are.

My understanding is 'Atti' mode holds the altitude and 'Manual' mode is fully manual, can someone let me know if this is correct please?

The reason I doubt my understand is when I used Atti mode my hexa lost and gained altitude, not as rapidly as when in manual mode, but enough for me to not trust it..

Any help would be very gratefully received.

Thanks

 

[flitelab]

ATTI mode self levels and has the altitude hold feature. In this mode the throttle acts as an up/down control with center begin hold position. There can be some variances since it is using a barometer to measure altitude so they can fluctuate some.

Manual is fully manual, not auto level or altitude hold, you are basically flying it full time with gyros only.

 

[ChrisViperM]

Maybe you should play with the gain settings.....check this out (under Basic Parameters, the last two paragraphs):

http://wiki2.dji-innovations.com/en/index.php/WooKong-M_Autopilot_Setting

Chris

 

[mmurfitt]

ATTI mode self levels and has the altitude hold feature. In this mode the throttle acts as an up/down control with center begin hold position. There can be some variances since it is using a barometer to measure altitude so they can fluctuate some.

Manual is fully manual, not auto level or altitude hold, you are basically flying it full time with gyros only.

Thanks for this explanation (especially as it's language I can understand . It's kind of what I was thinking....kind of. I didn't know it used a barometer however, the fluctuations I've experienced haven't been anything too big, just a couple of feet in either direction, I just wasn't sure if that was ok or not...but I guess it's 'within acceptable parameters'.

Maybe you should play with the gain settings.....check this out (under Basic Parameters, the last two paragraphs):

http://wiki2.dji-innovations.com/en/index.php/WooKong-M_Autopilot_Setting

Chris

I've had a small play with the gains, but not remotely, I have a DX8 so I'm going to be configuring the Aux3 'knob' for the gains (once I've figured out how to map Aux3 to the gain function).

 

[flitelab]

A few feet is about as good as it will get. You aren't going to get any system locked in much more than that be it altitude or position hold with a GPS. It can vary from day to day based on weather and other conditions as well.

 

[mmurfitt]

A few feet is about as good as it will get. You aren't going to get any system locked in much more than that be it altitude or position hold with a GPS. It can vary from day to day based on weather and other conditions as well.

Ok, that's good to know.
I guess my 'fluctuations' seemed a little more severe to me as I was only about 6 feet off the ground to begin with, so to lose half that had me wondering whether I'd understood the 'atti' mode correctly.
I guess when you're 50/100 feet in the air a couple of feet either way doesn't make a massive difference anyway.

I'm just thinking about the altitude hold part of it... When in atti mode it maintains the last vertical input? So it's ok to land in atti mode?
When I used it last I took off in manual mode, the flicked the switch in to atti mode, had a fly around, then flicked the switch back in to manual to land, is there any reason to use manual mode to take-off and land or can it all be done in atti mode?

 

[flitelab]

Close to the ground it may even be worse, you are flying with prop wash affecting it as well potentially.

I typically take off and land in one mode, I don't like switching modes in flight with NAZA from manual to ATTI and vice versa as the throttle input works differently in each mode so you could end up with a quick climb or decent as a result.

ATTI mode only holds position when at 50% throttle otherwise it climbs or descends based on the input, so you can land in ATTI mode by moving the throttle below 50%, the more you move it from 50% the faster it will climb or descend.

 

[mmurfitt]

Close to the ground it may even be worse, you are flying with prop wash affecting it as well potentially.

I typically take off and land in one mode, I don't like switching modes in flight with NAZA from manual to ATTI and vice versa as the throttle input works differently in each mode so you could end up with a quick climb or decent as a result.

ATTI mode only holds position when at 50% throttle otherwise it climbs or descends based on the input, so you can land in ATTI mode by moving the throttle below 50%, the more you move it from 50% the faster it will climb or descend.

Lol, that's exactly what I had. I took off in manual, flipped to atti, flew around for a bit, then when it came time to land I flipped back to manual and the hexa shot skywards!! A little unnerving and scary for a newbie

That's interesting about the 50% throttle thing. To get to 50% throttle that would mean you ascend to an altitude just by virtue or getting the throttle stick to the half way point, and I presume that '50%' point can be adjusted by use of the gains??

Darn it! I'm dying to get out there and try all this out..

 

[flitelab]

At 50% it will hold the current altitude, to climb move the throttle above 50%, the more you increase the faster it will climb. When you reach the desired altitude you go back to 50% throttle to hold. To descend you go below 50% throttle. The gains have nothing to do with the 50% throttle, it merely uses the stick mid point for hold and above and below for climb and descend. Think of it merely as an up down lever in ATTI mode, with the center being stop. When you takeoff in ATTI mode it shouldn't start to lift until just above 50% throttle.

When you switch modes to manual the throttle becomes a normal throttle control so if say you quad hovers at 40% throttle in manual, then if you switch from ATTI at 50% to manual then you are automatically going to be at 50% real throttle and thus climb. If you hover at 60% in manual then going from ATTI to manual at 50% ends up with you dropping.

 

[mmurfitt]

Thanks so much for all the advice and explanation Flitelab, I'm going out shortly to give it a go and see how the old 'Atti' mode works out..

What transmitter do you use?

 

[mmurfitt]

Ok, so that was a lot easier, using Atti mode that is.
This was only my fourth flight, ever, and using atti mode makes it quite a bit easier. There's still plenty of room for error, but at least I didn't crash it this time (it came close a couple of times, but nothing too bad).
I just gotta get out there and practice, practice, practice.