Tutorial on writing a model config file

I've written a longish tutorial on how to write a config file for a model. It's targeted at experienced RC pilots who aren't really familiar with deviationTx, so incorporates rewritten chunks of the manual at the start which people who are familiar with deviationTx can skip.

After that, it walks you through creating the config file I fly on my 200QX starting with protocol selection. It covers dual rates, flight mode setup, channel configuration, sticky throttle hold, a panic switch, all the timers and toggle icons, dialable stagility and the dial safety setting, and finally the automatic init sequence.

There are two extra sections. One covers how to figure out channel mappings for off-brand RTF & BNF models, and the other all the nifty things you can do with trim buttons.

I've attached a PDF if you want it, or you can read it on my blog and comment on it there.

Update: uploaded the model.ini file.

Update 2: I've deleted the PDF attachment. Follow the Google docs link, select Download as from the file manual, and download a PDF of the current version instead.

Update 3: moved it to my blog so I no longer get mail when people accidentally make suggestions.

Good job!

For any of you using this, I've found a problem in the timer setup. I've been flying with this for months and never noticed it before, but I've updated the document to fix this.

And it turned up a bug in deviationTx as well. A pull request has been submitted to the team repository.

Amazing job !!!!

Bravo

Thanks, this is awesome!
It's easy to read and I find to learn from very well.

Just a quick note to say thanks for this, it's been a big help.

Awesome work! Thanks

Would anyone be interested in a youtube video series inspired by SebyDocKy's 7e tutorials that followed - more or less - the setup in the tutorial? If so, there are a number of choices to investigate, and your opinions on those would be important:

• Do it on a real 10 so you can see the model's work, or a screen capture of the 7e emulator so it's a 7e? The main difference would be switch names.
• Or do it for real for one of the popular toy-grade quads (my Proto X, etc.), except that would be on a 6s. Different UI, and still switch names for a 73

Yes! Absolutely. I found your step by step very helpful, thank you.
A video tutorial would be great.

Yes, a video how-to using a real Devo 10 would be awesome!

mwm wrote: Would anyone be interested in a youtube video series inspired by SebyDocKy's 7e tutorials that followed - more or less - the setup in the tutorial? If so, there are a number of choices to investigate, and your opinions on those would be important:

• Do it on a real 10 so you can see the model's work, or a screen capture of the 7e emulator so it's a 7e? The main difference would be switch names.
• Or do it for real for one of the popular toy-grade quads (my Proto X, etc.), except that would be on a 6s. Different UI, and still switch names for a 73

Were these videos ever posted? This stuff is greek to me and would take any info I can get. The above doc was good but there were some places where I wish things were explained a bit more. I guess I'm looking for an idiot's guide where the author assumes we know nothing

Sorry, but they never got done. Just to many things going on, and not really enough interest to get them to the top of the list.

Awesome job guy, thanks for all that time and effort.

Fantastic! Thank you sir.

Thanks for taking the time(!) to do this.
Cheers.

MVM, thanks for this guide!! I'm still super-new to all this, and I appreciate this guide and the other answers you have given me since I joined here!

I know this thread is old, but...any chance you could clarify a few things for me? If so, here they are, in no particular order:

1. I'm confused about switches. I've got the devo 7E with no physical mods done yet; only deviation so far. The 7E has 2 physical switches. When you show, for example, this line in a config file on page 10: "switch=AIL DR1", what "switch" exactly is that referring to? What do I "do" to actually enable DR on the AIL stick once that config is in place?
1a. I see that same thing (switch=AIL DR1) down on page 13, but it's in the ELE channel setup as well as the AIL channel setup. Totally unsure why that would be...wouldn't it be "switch=ELE DR1"?
2. Down on page 16, as it gets more complicated I see virtual switches and RUD DR0. I think I understand the concept (sort of) but my question is the same: what do I "do" to actually turn on the throttle hold once that config is in place?

I think I'm probably confused about more than just those things, but this is a good start to my questions. I'll re-read that document a few more times of course and maybe it'll start to sink in, but I'd appreciate any input you may have on these questions. Thanks!

These configs are all for the Devo 10, so they use the Devo 10 switches. The switch names for all the transmitters can be found in bitbucket.org/PhracturedBlue/deviation/w...ansmitter%20switches

As you can see, the switches ELE DR, AIL DR and RUD DR are all available on the 8, 10 and 12. For fixed wing, having separate switches for those three control channels makes sense. For 'copters, not so much. So I use one for the two cyclic rates, and RUD DR for the throttle hold.

On a 7e, you have a HOLD switch, so I'd use that instead of RUD DR. Which leaves you with FMODE for the dual rate switch. Just change the "AIL DR" to "FMOD" and "RUD DR" to "HOLD" everywhere, leaving the trailing 0 or 1 if present as is.

After you do that, throwing the "HOLD" switch will turn on the throttle hold. Throwing it the other way will let you turn out of it you get the throttle output down to -100.

You might want to swap the 0 and 1 on the HOLD switch, as "RUD DR" is also an FC init switch, so 1 units the FC and 0 sure it down and enabled a throttle hold as well.

Ahhh...I see! Thanks mwm, that helps a ton, and seeing the switch names for the different transmitters really helps too.

I'm beginning now to start playing with throttle hold and dual rates.

This has moved to my blog at rc.mired.org/p/writing-deviationtx-model.html , so I no longer get suggestions that are pretty much random. Many of the early ones were very helpful, but that's been a while now.