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More amazing things this gyro can do. Imagine a fly by wire mode where you can set the parameters of how you want your plane to behave when you're flying it. The tradition gyro "Rate Mode" is a "Rate of Change" buffer. The other one detailed below is much cooler.
"Rate Command" is used if you want the plane to behave exactly the same all the time, example, if I set the "Rate Command" for the Ailerons to 360 degrees / second. Regardless of how much or how little throw I program into the Aura, the gyro will move or deflect the surfaces and make the plane rotate at 360 degrees / second.
In the old Pattern Days, there as a maneuver for 3 rolls in 5 seconds, so how you'd do that is to divide 360 x 3 / 5 = 216 per second then put that number into the Rate Command mode for the gyro and your plane will rotate that amount all the time at full deflection. Here's the added bonus, the rudder and elevator input is done automatically too, just like heading hold mode, but without the funny Heading Hold weird actions.
Yes, need more data in the FAQ and so forth. Basic information is available in the Aura Config tool by Mousing Over the related terms and fields.
Here is a Cross Posting from the other Forum....
Thanks!
RATE COMMAND
Hi Joe,
Perhaps a difficult topic to communicate, but hopefully possible if one already understands the basics as a foundation.
Much of the documentation is built into the Config Tool.
If you 'mouse over' the various settings in the Config Tool, you will get a pretty good feeling for the 'what and how'..... (and some more over the 'rate command' word in pull-down)..... as to the when and why, I will try to fill in a bit more. Frankly, there has not been a lot of user interest up till now, so feedback has been minimal.
Basically there is no stick priority in rate command, it has full gain across the pilot input, but it does not 'damp' all motion to 'none', instead, it uses the gain to try to drive the 'rotation' to a rate of rotation' based on the pilot input.
With this, you can see the settings and how they work.
The Rate Gain is Aura's magnitude of input to 'track' the commanded rotation rate. on the same scale as the Rate Dampener, so start with a similar setting here. (Will oscillate if too high as is normal)
The Feed Forward Gain is how much direct pilot surface command movement (aileron for ex) is put-in that the user feels should provide the desired and set rate of rotation. Experience says 70% is often a good ballpark number if the settings are appropriate for the models capabilities. (Surfaces may move a little less than you are used to as Aura will add to this if not rotating at commanded rate)
The Max Rate is the rate of rotation desired in that axis at full stick deflection (ex roll at 360 degrees per second). It will be proportioned by stick input from Zero (stick center) to Max Rotation Rate (full stick deflection)
The Defaults are certainly safe places to start with many models.
Some Tips:
Start with Rate Command on axis in one flight/control mode. Strongly suggest Aileron as it will be the most natural feeling.
Suggest when you are comfortable, for experimentation/testing purposes, use the transmitter expo some for quick adjustments of that feeling.
The controls will feel a bit 'different' and require some user expectation adjustment.
Use caution on rudder and elevator especially if you have a plane that is prone to tip stalls or the like as user inputs can be amplified more as the vehicles are typically NOT free to rotate on these Axis.
Ailerons should feel most conventional, and since the Aura will now try to track a roll rate in real time (no integration over time), your roll rate will be much more constant in the face of varying airspeed and 'load'. This can be helpful when doing (or learning) harrier rolls and things like that. It will generally make things more consistent.
If you use on Elevator and Rudder on a plane like the QQ Extra, and say you are 'harriering, hovering, torquing'... expect the controls to feel much more Powerful around center (at first you might think 'sensitive', but strangely very well damped as well!).
Why?... Say the plane is yawing left... as the un-commanded rate increases, increasing correction is made by Aura to compensate.... if the pilot then gives the proper correction, this is ADDED to Aura's command, and Aura's command is not reduced by stick priority... it is full gain, AND commanding Aura to rotate the other way, so Aura's correction is increased by kind of a square function since it is now rotating the wrong way as commanded, and the users correction is summed with all this via feed forward! This makes the controls VERY powerful in making Corrections, but still quite subtle and damped when all is correct (much smaller corrective inputs will be needed). Expo can adjust this, but it will always 'feel different' on rudder and elevator in particular (because it is different). Kind of a power steering when fixing 'errors'.... (but it does not correct (in a heading lock sense) or fly for you.)
A different feeling, but probably in a couple of flights one will start to get the 'feeling' for it. I really liked it once I had the feel for it in applications like normal flight, harriers, torques, etc.... Just very powerful yet oddly subtle controls.
Because of this additive control, be careful on planes that have tough stall characteristics.
Because the gain does not decay and Aura's commands are added to the Pilots, it can be quite possible to 'overdrive' the servos and damage them or the linkages. Use the Min/Max Servo Pulse Width settings on the Servo Ports Tab to adjust the servos limits as needed to protect things.
For 'Aerobatic/3D' flying and aggressive/advanced flying with snaps and so forth, Rate Command will likely never be an 'always-on' one-stop solution. Because the gain does not decay, the gyro is very much in the loop. If you set the Max Rates high enough to command the type of 'snap' or 'waterfall' you want, it will likely always feel too 'hot'. One could try two rate command modes with high and low Max Rates, but one may be better with rate command for some maneuvers and rate dampener for others.
Rate Command has some of the positive aspects of 'heading lock', but without some of the negative aspects, as it has no time component, no memory... It just tries to make the vehicle rotation rate more as-commanded in real-time, regardless of stick position!
Hope this Helps,
David
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Originally Posted by bob_nj
