User:Qballm1a1/enes100/project3/quadcopter settings

Adjusting the Flight Settings on an A.R. Drone
To access the quadcopters settings, you must first enter the pilot mode of the application. Once entered, there is a small gear symbol visible at the top of the screen. Pressing this takes you to the settings interfaces. This interface consists of several pages of settings and preferences adjustable by the user.

Page One Defaults- Personal Settings


The first page of settings is the Personal Settings. The defaults on this page are Pairing, the AR Done network name, the Interface Opacity, and the Auto Record. The pairing setting automatically connects the quadcopter to your remote device. The AR Drone network name specifies the name of the network that the quadcopter will connect to. The interface opacity controls how visible the flight buttons are on the screen (these can block the camera view). Finally, the auto record switch determines if the camera starts to record video as soon as the flight starts. The button at the bottom left resets the settings back to the default settings and removes any changes you have made. The arrow at the center right is used to navigate to the next settings screen.

Page Two Defaults- Flight Settings


The settings on the second page are the Flight Settings. The adjustments consist of an altitude limit, a vertical speed limit, rotation speed adjustment, and tilt angle. In addition, there are adjustments for outdoor flight and the addition of the outdoor hull. The altitude limit setting controls the maximum height the quadcopter will fly. The default is automatically set to 3 meters. The vertical speed setting controls how fast the quad copter can climb to reach the maximum height. Its default is 700.0 millimeters per second. The rotation speed setting adjusts how quickly the quadcopter can flat spin 360°. It is defaulted to 100° a second. The tilt angle setting is defaulted to 12.00°, and this setting ultimately adjusts the speed of the quad copter forward, backward, left and right. The outdoor hull and outdoor flight settings adjust the quadcopters sensors to fly with the lighter outdoor hull.

Page Three Defaults- Piloting Mode


The third settings page is the Piloting Mode settings. It has adjustments for joypad mode, left handed flight, and an iPhone tilt limit. The joypad mode setting turns off the iPhone's motion sensors, so that the quadcopter is controlled by the two joy sticks instead. The left handed mode setting flips the two flight pads on the piloting screen for a left handed flyer. The iPhone tilt limit setting is defaulted to 20.00°, and controls how far the iPhone must be tilted to reach a maximum speed in any given direction.

Page Four Defaults- Video Settings


The fourth settings page consists of the video settings. There are two adjustments on this page: Adaptive Video and Video Codec. The Adaptive Video setting can be turned on and off, and the Video Codec setting has adjustments for VLIB and P264. The Video Codec setting is defaulted to P264. P264 is a custom and simple implementation of the H264 encoding process, adapted to the processing power and the hardware of the AR.Drone.H264 is a video compression standard, and it is commonly used for formatting for the recording, compression, and distribution of high definition video.Setting the Adaptive off and VLIB gives you the best flight handling, but reduces video quality. P264 and adaptive on produces better video, but the quadcopter becomes sluggish and slow to respond.In case of a disconnection, the drone will switch back to the default settings.

Page Five- Status


The final settings page is the Status page. It does not have any adjustments.However, it shows the software version and hardware types installed on your current quadcopter and each of the motors.

What to adjust
After several failed test flights, I have found it best not to modify most of the quadcopter's settings. The main problems arise from adjusting the maximum altitude limits. The ultrasound sensor in the quadcopter, which measures vertical distance, only works at heights below 3-5 meters. Above this height, the drone cannot determine its height, and will tend to start climbing to no limits. Adjusting the climb rate and rotation rate will not have any negative impact, but the quadcopter may be faster and a bit harder to control. Adjusting the maximum tilt will control the horizontal speed of the quadcopter, but too much adjustment may allow the quadcopter to flip upside down or cause a high angle emergency, which will cause emergency shutdown. This may be dangerous at higher altitudes as a fall could damage your quadcopter. I do suggest turning off auto record unless you have ample memory to store videos, as you will quickly find that your flights will record several 5-10 minute videos. They joypad mode may be useful to use because the iPhone will flip the screen upside down at times, and reverse the flight sticks. This can cause you to lose control, and i found that the joypad helps to prevent this.