Sorry, I had to go out, thus the radio silence for the last couple of hours. I'm glad you got some of it sorted. The reason you can't get the next bit working is because you likely have no inputs, mixer, or outputs set up for the auxiliary switches on your Tango 2. Let me find a resource for doing that and I'll get back to you.

Here you go. This is for a different transmitter but the process for configuring auxiliary switches on the Tango 2 is exactly the same, just on a smaller screen...

https://oscarliang.com/setup-switch-opentx

(05-Aug-2020, 10:01 PM)SnowLeopardFPV Wrote: Sorry, I had to go out, thus the radio silence for the last couple of hours.

We expect you to put in 8 straight hours without a bathroom break here. You are not doing your job.

No worry; I can't expect a personal IT support from ya. I'm just grateful for all the help you've given. I count my blessings.

I kind of figured that it had to do with setting it up in the remote, and I watched a bunch of videos on it, but I think that I'm just missing... something. Not sure what, but hopefully that link will give me the answers I'm looking for.

I'm actually about to run out for an overnight backpacking trip (training for the trip I'm doing next week). So I unfortunately won't be able to follow up tonight, but I'll be back tomorrow afternoon, and the quad is my project until we leave for the Tahoe trip. Hopefully I can get it up and running.

I looked into that link you sent (just briefly), and when I get back tomorrow, I'm going to pick up from there. I'll post on here when I have more.

And again--THANK YOU SO MUCH! It really means a lot! You seem to know quads; I know long distance backpacking... maybe one of these days I can help you get out into the mountains

Much love my friend! I'll be back tomorrow!

You are coming to California?

(06-Aug-2020, 12:25 AM)voodoo614 Wrote: You are coming to California?

Going into the woods of California. Won't be visiting any cities or people along the way. Just going to be hiking and sleeping under the stars for a bit.

So the next three days are pretty much free to try and get a flying machine to fly.

Update on Progress (If you're still following): I successfully figured out how to map the switches on the Tango II. I had been mistakenly editing the "Inputs" rather than the "Mixes." The two pages (which come in sequence; 4/12 & 5/12) are strikingly similar, so although I'm still in the dark about what "Inputs" does, and what I may have done in editing that, I did successfully add "arm," "Modes," and "Beeper" into the controller and it is registering those buttons in Betaflight. PROGRESS!

I'm going to keep moving forward from here, and I'll update when I'm either flying or stuck again... whichever comes first.

Again--I can't thank y'all for the support. I seriously owe ya!

Update:
I think I got it.
I haven't put on props, but I've checked all the motors, I've figured out how to map switches in Betaflight, I've assigned Acro, Horizon, and Angle modes. I've got arm, beeper, and turtle modes setup. The motors are spinning in the correct directions. The stick inputs seem to be correct.
Um... I think I'mma charge up some batteries and see what kind of trouble this'll get me into.
OOOOOOOOOOooooooooooohhhhhhhh..... Exciting....!

Great news. Good luck with the maiden flight...and make sure you put on a crash helmet and some body armour 

(07-Aug-2020, 07:24 PM)SnowLeopardFPV Wrote: Great news. Good luck with the maiden flight...and make sure you put on a crash helmet and some body armour 

I'm going to hide in a bunker for safety purposes. 

In all seriousness though, I have high (but hopefully reasonable) hopes. I used to fly collective pitch many years back, I have a lot of hours in Velocidrone, and I've put in a lot of hours with the Fatshark 101. Obviously these are all different than actually being in air with FPV goggles in the real world, but I'm hopeful that this will keep me from destroying it on the first flight. I bought a half dozen 4 cell batteries, so I'm just going to try to get them all charged before I head out, as I want to go a ways outside the city to fly the first time. 

I'll let y'all know when I'm back. 

And seriously... I owe you! Let me know if you ever need a pizza sent to your place of residence or business!

Well, she flies... but not very far.

It was kind of an interesting first flight. Apparently I never received the message that the little "washers" on the motors need to be removed before flight, because after clicking the blades into place, it seemed like they were holding, but then I went to lift off and 3 out of the 4 blades vanished into the atmosphere. About fifteen seconds later they individually came back down, and I'm amazed that I found them all considering that it was a grassy field and they took some hunting to find.

So that was an easy fix; just took the washers off and we were good to go.

I flew line of sight first just to check controls, and it was very stable and responsive.

Problems came when I put on the FPV goggles. I'm using the Fatshark HDO2 with Rapidfire module.

At first everything was fine, but after flying for less than a minute, the image went static, and it was all I could do to bring the quad to the ground without crashing. Thank god it was a grassy field, and thank god I set a beeper mode!

The goggles also started beeping non-stop right after I stated flying. They weren't doing that to me before I tried flying. But now, they just beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, and try as I might, I couldn't get them to stop. I tried changing the channels, the bands, and everything.

I worried when the goggles went static so quickly that maybe I had opposite antennas, but both the one on the quad and the one on my goggles read right handed polarity.

So I'm going to dive into the internets and figure out what I can find. But if this rings a bell for anyone and you're thinking, "Oh! I know what it is; you forgot to do the thingamathing!" then feel free to chime in.

Regardless, I got into the air today and I didn't destroy anything or anyone. So I'm going to count it as a success. Sort of.

ONWARD AND UPWARD!!!!

Beeping from the goggles usually means low battery, or was it the RapidFIRE module beeping?

Did you calibrate the RapidFIRE module before you used it, and do you have the correct antennas on them (SMA ones, not RP-SMA). Also, are you running RapidFIRE on Mode 1 or Mode 2?

Oh Jesus... these are questions that I don't know the answers to.

I do believe that the batteries may have been an issue. The kid who sold them at the shop said "they carry a good charge when you buy them" but upon plugging them in, they've now been charging for hours. I thought that it was reading 25% battery in the OSD though.

As for calibrating the RapidFire... this is the first I've heard of such a thing (obviously a beginner, but thank god I have y'all's help!). That'll be my project starting now. And the antennas are the ones that came with the package bundle... let me check.

And I literally don't know anything about these RapidFire Modes... another piece of research to dive into.

I feel really silly now. Buuuuuuut, I also feel really grateful for your guidance. Reporting back tomorrow. THANK YOU! Thanks you thank you thank you! I don't know where I'dd be if I was trying to get this all alone.

Just to avoid any crossed wires, when I was talking about low battery I meant on the batteries connected to your goggles, not the one connected to your quad. What battery type/voltage/capacity are you using for your goggles?

As for your antennas, if you are using the ones that came bundled with the RapidFIRE then I would hope they supplied the correct ones. If you look at the connector on the end of the antenna there should be a pin sticking out of the in the middle. If there is then they are the correct SMA connectors. If there is a hole in the middle instead of a pin then they are (incorrect) RP-SMA connectors.

To calibrate your RapidFIRE module, just follow Oscar's guide below...

https://oscarliang.com/rapidfire-calibration

Also, make sure you MANUALLY tune the module to the exact same band/frequency that your VTX is outputting video on. Don't use the Auto Scan / Auto Search feature of the module because it quite often doesn't lock onto the exact same frequency (it might be a few GHz off) and that can also cause issues.

One final point to make regarding Mode 1 and Mode 2 of RapidFIRE. Mode 1 is the best performance but it can be sensitive to certain types of camera / VTX combinations in that it can lose sync lock on the video resulting in black & white rolling screens. And if that happens a crash is almost inevitable because you can't see where you're going. You just have to hope you're not above a tree or somewhere that quad retrieval will be impossible if that happens. People say the rolling screens are a thing of the past but I still see people regularly  complaining about it on RCG and Facebook groups. The safest mode to use is Mode 2 as it has more compatibility with different camera / VTX combination, but the performance is less than Mode 1, so it's a trade-off. I would also advise that you change the "Sync Lock" setting to "Short" which can help to mitigate the rolling screens.

Another thing to help mitigate video sync issues are to ensure that in the OSD tab in Betaflight Configurator that the Video Format is explicitly set to either PAL or NTSC (make it the same as what your camera outputs) and NOT the AUTO setting. Also, make sure you power up the VTX first and then the goggles second. The googles will then correctly detect the video format type (PAL or NTSC) coming from the VTX and will automatically configure themselves to the same format accordingly.

(08-Aug-2020, 11:47 AM)SnowLeopardFPV Wrote: Just to avoid any crossed wires, when I was talking about low battery I meant on the batteries connected to your goggles, not the one connected to your quad. What battery type/voltage/capacity are you using for your goggles?

As for your antennas, if you are using the ones that came bundled with the RapidFIRE then I would hope they supplied the correct ones. If you look at the connector on the end of the antenna there should be a pin sticking out of the in the middle. If there is then they are the correct SMA connectors. If there is a hole in the middle instead of a pin then they are (incorrect) RP-SMA connectors.

To calibrate your RapidFIRE module, just follow Oscar's guide below...

https://oscarliang.com/rapidfire-calibration

Also, make sure you MANUALLY tune the module to the exact same band/frequency that your VTX is outputting video on. Don't use the Auto Scan / Auto Search feature of the module because it quite often doesn't lock onto the exact same frequency (it might be a few GHz off) and that can also cause issues.

One final point to make regarding Mode 1 and Mode 2 of RapidFIRE. Mode 1 is the best performance but it can be sensitive to certain types of camera / VTX combinations in that it can lose sync lock on the video resulting in black & white rolling screens. And if that happens a crash is almost inevitable because you can't see where you're going. You just have to hope you're not above a tree or somewhere that quad retrieval will be impossible if that happens. People say the rolling screens are a thing of the past but I still see people regularly  complaining about it on RCG and Facebook groups. The safest mode to use is Mode 2 as it has more compatibility with different camera / VTX combination, but the performance is less than Mode 1, so it's a trade-off. I would also advise that you change the "Sync Lock" setting to "Short" which can help to mitigate the rolling screens.

Another thing to help mitigate video sync issues are to ensure that in the OSD tab in Betaflight Configurator that the Video Format is explicitly set to either PAL or NTSC (make it the same as what your camera outputs) and NOT the AUTO setting. Also, make sure you power up the VTX first and then the goggles second. The googles will then correctly detect the video format type (PAL or NTSC) coming from the VTX and will automatically configure themselves to the same format accordingly.

Awesome! This is helpful. 

I do think that the batteries for the goggles were near dead. I should have had the smarts to charge them before heading out, but after the kid at the shop told me that they come with a "good charge," and after I connected everything at home and it was showing clear video, I just assumed that I was all good. But after it took 5 hours of charging to get them to a full charge after returning from that first flight, I indeed think that it was a goggle battery issue (and maybe more on top of that?). The batteries are 2600mAh 3.7V 1865 Li-Ion Batteries by "Streamlight." They recharge via micro USB. 

I was a bit confused about Mode 1 and Mode 2. Struggled to find much info online, but your explanation clears that up. I'll play around with that a bit this morning when I'm out there. 

I did confirm that they are SMA connectors on the antennas. (I'd have been concerned too if the bundle came with the wrong ones, but that checks out.)

I found the OscarLiang article after your last comment and it seems pretty straight forward. I took a screencap and will bring it with me to the field where I'm flying this morning. 

Yesterday (with the goggle issues) I managed to get about 1/2 way through a single battery pack. I have 7 fully charged. I'm hoping this gets me a bit further and farther this time around. 


Thanks as always for the help! I'm headed to the bagel shop for breakfast (priorities), and then out to the lake where there's a massive, open, grassy field that seems ripe for crashing. 

Will report back. 

Keep in mind with LiPos is that if you don't use them then you should really return them back to storage charge as soon as possible and not just leave them fully charged (or discharged either for that matter), because doing so reduces their lifespan. They only really like being left unused at storage charge (3.8V per cell), so the minimum amount of time you leave them fully charged or discharged, the longer life they will have. I charge mine just before I go out flying and I storage charge them as soon as I return back home, even if I intend to also fly the next day (I just charge them back up again on the day). Some people do leave LiPos charged for a 24 hour period, but any more than that and you then risk doing damage to the cells.

I guess you already know not to go below 3V per cell (3.5V per cell to allow for some safety margin).

Maybe you already know all of this and I'm just teaching you to suck eggs. If you do then apologies  but some people don't so it is worth mentioning / reiterating to avoid ruined LiPos.

Happy flying