Taking Flight
We suggest reading all the way through these instructions before beginning.
There are 3 things you need to do to with your controller to fly. Pairing it to the
flight control board - that ensures the two pieces of equipment are “talking”.
Arming, which means props are able to spin. And finally disarming - stopping
props from spinning. If you’re flying with the app, go ahead and follow the
1, 2, 3 steps on the homescreen to get airborne. It may be handy however, to
read through the external controller instructions to better understand how the
app operates.!
External Controller:
Make sure the mode on your RC controller is set to mode 2 (It’s the switch
above the power). It should already be set to mode 2. If there isn’t a switch
between modes 1 and 2 on your controller, ignore this step.
BINDING:
Your R415x board and Controller come factory bound. Which
means you are “paired” there are no additional steps you need to take to con-
nect your R415x to your controller.
ARMING:
Once you’re paired, there are two modes: idle and armed. To arm
the airframe, make sure the left joystick, the throttle, is all the way down
(pointing away from the antenna on the controller). Press in the right joy-
stick like a button. Once armed successfully, the LEDs change to blinking
blue. You’ll notice the blinking goes into “airplane mode”. That means the
motors will start to spin when you increase the throttle. After you’ve success-
fully paired the first time to your controller, arming and disarming are the only
steps you need to do to fly from now on.
At this point, you’re ready to fly. There’s a bit of a delay for the controller to
activate the motors. You’ll be able to notice the blinking blue lights change
pattern subtly when the flight control board is armed.
As you increase the throttle (left joystick moving it up toward the controller an-
tenna) the motors will start to spin. From there, you can increase the throttle
moreand get into the air!
DISARMING:
To stop the motors from spinning, let’s say you happen to crash
(yes, everyone does)! Push in the right joystick like a button, same way you did
to arm the controller. That stops the motors from spinning immediately. Now
you’re back in idle mode. It’s important to stop your motors from spinning
as quickly as you can after a crash. If the motors are stuck in a position that
doesn’t allow the props to spin, they can burn out.
Pairing, Arming and Disarming Recap:
Time to fly! See the next section for a brief description of flight controls, pro tips and
troubleshooting. For more detailed how-to-fly information, visit the user forum on
www.flybrix.com.
FLYING TIPS / TROUBLESHOOTING:
If you’ve flown drones before, you’ll be able to fly your airframe just like a ready-to-fly
drone. Flybrix is about experimenting and learning through trial and error, Here are
some tips and tricks for flying.
Always take off from a flat, even surface. Every time you’re ready to fly, the flight con-
trol board calibrates to what it believes is “flat”. So, if you take off from an uneven
surface, the tilt or angle your airframe starts from will cause it to fly off in that direction.
This also means that any airframe you build should have a flat bottom, unless you want
to experiment with flight!
Throttle-up for a clean takeoff
rather than letting your flyer sit on the ground with the
motors spinning and gently increasing the throttle. After a few tries, you’ll get a feel for
how much to throttle-up for a clean takeoff.
Wobbly takeoffs?
You may notice that your first few flights start off a bit wobbly. May-
be your flyer goes off to one side when you first take off etc. (barring operator error, like
activating yaw, pitch or roll) What is happening is called “ground effect”. If you have
your flyer on the floor, the air from the motors is swirling around causing you to have
an off-kilter takeoff. Those types of takeoffs are hard to control and course correct. The
best way to deal with this is to commit to getting your airframe in the air.
Controls are opposite?
You’re trying to bank right using your roll controls and your
airframe goes left. Make sure your airframe is facing with the battery leads on the flight
control board are facing you. If you have the leads pointing away from you, the con-
trols are flipped and you’re flying like it’s “opposite day”.
Erratic flight?
This is a little tricky, because erratic flight can be caused by a number of
things, like piloting skill, the weight and balance of your builds etc. But let’s say you’ve
built an airframe according to the instructions we gave you, for example. You shouldn’t
experience erratic flight. Check to make sure your battery is fully charged and your
software is completely up-to date. (We’re making improvements all the time). Also try
taking off the minifig and windshield to reduce weight, that makes flying easier.
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