The hidden secret sauce to finer control

[Skybuyer]

I have been struggling mightily to get a real handle on control of my Mini 2. I've been indoors a lot these past few months and been trying to get some precision, only to be frustrated. Did the Mini 2 controller have dead spots? How did I manage to crash my Mini 2 into the ceiling? Why doesn't it respond to my stick commands when close to objects. These are some of the things that I ran into.

Then came a firmware update with EXP adjustments. Surely those would help. NOT. The thing is that it took me until today and some testing to figure things out. I hope to share what I've discovered that might not be "intuitive". At least it wasn't intuitive to me. But I can be slow at times especially when it comes to software and double so with hidden menus. I hope to share what I've discovered for myself and hope someone else can benefit.

All along the Mini 2 has had advanced gimbal settings. You could set your gimbal rise and fall with speed and smoothness, and do so individually in each mode. Same thing with yaw rate and smoothness. Really handy settings. But the one thing that the Advanced Gimbal settings doesn't address is rate of L/R (drift) speed and Up/Down speed and acceleration. So today I discovered THE SECRET, AND MY MISTAKE...

1) Yaw speed/smoothness [and gimbal pitch] in all modes is best handled via Advanced gimbal settings (with EXP at default settings).

2) Stick input/output for L/R Drift and Up/Down is best handled and adjusted via EXP.

3) EXP only covers Normal and Sport Modes. Cine seems to want to do its own thing.

4) Simultaneous multi-directional commands often (maybe always) have one dominate and the other either do nothing or sublimate.

5) Each device, phone or tablet needs to be set separately. In my case I have an iPhone and an iPad Mini 6.

I've done a screenshot of the different screens as my PHONE was set a bit ago. I'll probably still end up making some adjustments, but sitting in a small room, trying to make precise movements in each direction I was much more satisfied with the precise control. I HAD NEVER THOUGHT THAT THE ADVANCED GIMBAL SETTINGS AND EXP SETTINGS MIGHT AFFECT DIFFERENT STICK DIRECTIONAL COMMANDS.

Maybe I'm slow as I've been flying the Mini 2 since they first came out. When we didn't have EXP there wasn't even a choice. I'm sure I'll have more, but this is what I have for now. I hope this might at least provide something for folks to look into and try. Thanks for taking time to sift through this.

 

[CactusJackSlade]

Although I don't even have a Mini 2 (perhaps a Mini 3 when it arrives) I appreciate the time you took to post all this

 

[Skybuyer]

I realize I’ve got kind of long-winded, so I think I’ll try to just give the short concept here.

If we’re just talking about the movement of the mini 2, exempting gimbal movement. The advanced gimbal settings only affect yaw, but do so effectively.

The precision of stick input to response covers moving the drone laterally, forward and backward and up and down. There are EXP settings for yaw as well. I think those have to be set to fault and left alone. Before figuring some of this out I did a short video for myself where I could see the drone movement and record the stick movement in the same frame. I was astonished at how far I had to move the sticks to get any response. But when the sticks got to a certain point the movement was like “off to the races“. Stick movement watching drone response was like “nothing, nothing, a little, go!“. So it’s really get the drone to do anything ultimately there was a very long stick movement involved in very little subtlety. It doesn’t seem to make a world of difference when you’re outside and big space, but it still felt like they were dead spots in the sticks themselves, when in fact I just didn’t have the settings properly worked out.

And so I wanted to have something put up that people could look at and try out to see if that helps get a little more control of the mini twos. I couldn’t understand why somethings were so sensitive and other commands or so slow to respond. In the above is what I came up with. I hope that my approach helps others.

 

[Tiger64]

I fly fixed wing models as well as drones . I found for the first 3 years I didn't use any exp (exponential) as I wanted to get used to making fine adjustments on the sticks.
Then I had a warbird that was very unruly, it seemed that even the finest movement over corrected.. one of the guys at the club suggested I try some exp and 15 minutes of playing around had tamed the beast so to speak.
Exp does not slow down control from sticks. You still get the same overall response at full stick movement. It reduces response at centre of stick but makes up for that by increasing response at outer end of movement,.
So once you get past a certain point the movements will appear more jerky.
I now use it on any aircraft that seems a bit jumpy on the controls and find each one has its own sweet spot.
For the drone it is useful if recording video and you want to smooth your fine movements at a quicker pace than cinema allows. If you only take photos or already just use C mode for your videos there is probably no need for it.
I guess it might be useful if trying to fly in a confined space like through trees in forest.

 

[Skybuyer]

I fly fixed wing models as well as drones . I found for the first 3 years I didn't use any exp (exponential) as I wanted to get used to making fine adjustments on the sticks.
Then I had a warbird that was very unruly, it seemed that even the finest movement over corrected.. one of the guys at the club suggested I try some exp and 15 minutes of playing around had tamed the beast so to speak.
Exp does not slow down control from sticks. You still get the same overall response at full stick movement. It reduces response at centre of stick but makes up for that by increasing response at outer end of movement,.
So once you get past a certain point the movements will appear more jerky.
I now use it on any aircraft that seems a bit jumpy on the controls and find each one has its own sweet spot.
For the drone it is useful if recording video and you want to smooth your fine movements at a quicker pace than cinema allows. If you only take photos or already just use C mode for your videos there is probably no need for it.
I guess it might be useful if trying to fly in a confined space like through trees in forest.

What I was getting at, essentially that the Yaw rate is best handled in the advance gimbal settings and no more needs to be adjusted for yaw other than that in the Advanced Gimbal Settings menu. However all of the other vectors remain unadjusted. As you point out the controls are non-linear, but the default is awkward, and in my opinion unbalanced. At the default EXP settings you have the quickest, most jerk movements at the very top of the stick position, and then as you move the sticks for the to the maximum the rate of increase of the physical response of the drone does not get greater as you move the sticks further. Consequently precision becomes extremely difficult. A more balanced approach of those other factors in the EXP settings can balance the response or reverse the nonlinear responds to the Pilots needs.

Before the implementation of EXP settings in the framework, everything other than yaw was what it was. What I’m saying to people is, again, adjust the speed in smooth this in the advanced Gimbal settings, then go to EXP and leave the yaw alone there because it has already been adjusted in the other menu and the take care of the rest of the vectors in EXP. It appears to me that it all could’ve been applied like it has in the Mavic 2 with only EXP settings. But I suppose there’s no way that they could have added the EXP settings without just over laying them on top of everything else. While rate in smoothness are similar to adjusting the linear or nonlinear rate of the sticks, I just found it confusing, and in the duplication I ended up making the control imprecise. Once I figured out the best way to employ both sets of settings, which was a combination l, I found control of my mini 2 easier to remain smooth in all 10 potential movements.

 

[Skybuyer]

One more thing...
After some more testing and setting refinements, interestingly and strangely, I seem to have more control in the normal mode than the Cine mode as the EXP adjustments only exist for Normal and Sport. In some ways I find the Cine mode next to useless. I have a Mavic 2 Pro and the Tripod mode is what the Cine mode should have been (IMO). Rock solid, governed down to 2.5mph (I think that's the speed). The tripod mode just allows finer control. It just gives you more room for error on the sticks before you ruin your shot. Cine? Not so much.

 

[Flashheart]

For finer control forget playing about with the advanced gimbal and EXP settings. I’ve spent may wasted hours trying to perfect slow speed control. In the end I made a mechanical stop and used a lever for vertical control. These are far more accurate.

 

[Skybuyer]

By the pictures I’m not sure exactly how your levers function. But if you have an extra pair on the side I wouldn’t mind if you sent me them so I could try them myself. I have to presume that somehow they present extra leverage and resistance. You have me curious.

 

[Flashheart]

By the pictures I’m not sure exactly how your levers function. But if you have an extra pair on the side I wouldn’t mind if you sent me them so I could try them myself. I have to presume that somehow they present extra leverage and resistance. You have me curious.

Like any lever, it transforms alot of movement into little movement which allows finer control. This lever has roughly a 2.5:1 ratio compared to the normal stick and transfers the gimbal movement into a slide movement which is far easier to control and lock into place. To descend simply push down on the end of the lever and slide your thumb up the lever to increase descent speed. To ascend slide your thumb under the lever and drag your thumb towards the gimbal to increase the ascent speed.
I made these using zip ties for use filming in a forest where it demanded flying very slowly around and through branches. The mechanical speed stop on the right gimbal works flawlessly, the lever on the left gimbal is much better than than the standard gimbal stick but does take getting used to.
Look at the attached pictures, note where my thumb is and how my thumb position changes the gimbal position.

 

[Skybuyer]

Like any lever, it transforms alot of movement into little movement which allows finer control. This lever has roughly a 2.5:1 ratio compared to the normal stick and transfers the gimbal movement into a slide movement which is far easier to control and lock into place. To descend simply push down on the end of the lever and slide your thumb up the lever to increase descent speed. To ascend slide your thumb under the lever and drag your thumb towards the gimbal to increase the ascent speed.
I made these using zip ties for use filming in a forest where it demanded flying very slowly around and through branches. The mechanical speed stop on the right gimbal works flawlessly, the lever on the left gimbal is much better than than the standard gimbal stick but does take getting used to.
Look at the attached pictures, note where my thumb is and how my thumb position changes the gimbal position.

Looks interesting. I see the levers but I can't visualize how it functions. I can see the lever moving the stick forward but don't know how you move the sticks in the other vectors.

 

[Faster]

Another thing that helps is using longer sticks. You can buy them on the net but I made my owns using screws. Here you have two pairs compared with the stock sticks.