Troubleshooting

WARNING! There have been reports of certain PID values over saturating the motor outputs possibly causing a crash if not adjusted properly. Read our forum thread here.

NOTE: If you’re unsure if your values are still consistent you can always start from scratch by performing a factory reset.

Resetting your Board to Defaults aka Factory Reset

You can achieve this in 2 different ways:
– change your CONFIG_VERSION to 0 in the “calibration and parameters” widget of the QGC, transmit and write the changes. After a reboot your values are reset to default.
– create a params.txt file on your sd-card only containing the text line:
#define CONFIG_VERSION 0
Insert the card into your AQ board and reboot.

Here’s a list of possible symptoms and solutions:

Attitude PID

Symptom	Possible solution
My AQ oscillates with large transitions and low frequency.	Decrease your tilt Angle P
My AQ is lazy and sluggish (does not respond very well in all situations).	Increase your tilt Angle P
My AQ is not balanced (I have a special frame or shifted center of gravity).	Increase your tilt Angle I slightly
My AQ is not balanced (There is a relatively strong wind).	Increase your tilt Angle I slightly
My AQ is aggressive with large oscillations (looks like it always tilts by a large angle).	Decrease your tilt Angle I slightly
My AQ oscillates with small transitions and high frequency.	Increase your tilt rate D in steps of 100
I’m changing tilt rate P and tilt rate I but my AQ does not seem to stabilize itself.	Try increase your tilt Angle D
My AQ rotates with large transitions and low frequency.	Decrease your yaw rate P
My AQ rotates with large transitions and very low frequency (< 1Hz).	Increase your yaw rate I slightly
My AQ rotates with small transitions and high frequency.	Decrease your yaw rate D
When I command my AQ to tilt (on roll or pitch axes), it reaches the target angle and starts oscillating around it.	Decrease your tilt angle P
When I command my AQ to tilt (on roll or pitch axes), it overshoots/undershoots the target angle.	Increase your tilt angle I slightly
My AQ does not respond very well to fast and hard tilt maneuvers but it works well in slow/ normal ones.	Decrease your tilt angle D
When I command my AQ to rotate (on yaw axis), it reaches the target angle and starts oscillating around it.	Decrease your yaw angle P
When I command my AQ to rotate (on yaw axis), it overshoots/undershoots the target angle.	Increase your yaw angle D
I have a mix of above problems and cannot seem to find any solution.	Put I and D terms to zero. Start tuning your P alone, and then move to I, and then to D.

Navigation PID

Symptom	Possible solution
When I command my AQ to navigate to a waypoint, it reaches the target position and starts moving around back and forth.	Decrease your navigation distance P.
When I command my AQ to navigate to a waypoint, it overshoots/undershoots the target position.	Increase your navigation speed I slightly.
My AQ is slow (lazy) in navigation.	Increase your navigation speed P or navigation distance P.
When I command my AQ to ascend/descend to an altitude, it reaches the target altitude and starts moving around up and down.	Decrease your altitude position P.
When I command my AQ to ascend/descend to an altitude, it overshoots/undershoots the target altitude.	Increase your altitude speed I slightly
My AQ is slow (lazy) in ascending/descending.	Increase your altitude speed P or altitude position P
I have a relatively heavy payload and my AQ cannot reach the target altitude.	Increase your altitude speed P slightly
My AQ violently jumps up and down in position hold – high frequency.	Decrease altitude speed I in steps of 0.1 . Never set it to 0 because then there is no altitude hold.
My AQ violently jumps up and down in position hold – low frequency.	Decrease your altitude speed P in steps of 10.

Others

Symptom	Possible solution	remarks
Motors will not start or no arming beep	Increase or decrease MOT_START value
I’m changing P, I and D terms but nothing seems to change.	Remember to check the limits on each parameter. Be aware that high update rates (200Hz/400Hz) will make I and D outputs go very high in a short time which means output saturation.
My wife threw my AQ in the trash!	Well, that’s the kind of problems a PID cannot solve! Next time, when you fly indoors, be careful for your wife antiques.