NinjaFlight
|
Cleanflight supports a number of mixing configurations as well as custom mixing. Mixer configurations determine how the servos and motors work together to control the aircraft.
To use a built-in mixing configuration, you can use the Chrome configuration GUI. It includes images of the various mixer types to assist in making the proper connections. See the Configuration section of the documentation for more information on the GUI.
You can also use the Command Line Interface (CLI) to set the mixer type:
mixer list
to see a list of supported mixesmixer TRI
save
to preserve your changesName | Description | Motors | Servos |
---|---|---|---|
TRI | Tricopter | M1-M3 | S1 |
QUADP | Quadcopter-Plus | M1-M4 | None |
QUADX | Quadcopter-X | M1-M4 | None |
BI | Bicopter (left/right) | M1-M2 | S1, S2 |
GIMBAL | Gimbal control | N/A | S1, S2 |
Y6 | Y6-copter | M1-M6 | None |
HEX6 | Hexacopter-Plus | M1-M6 | None |
FLYING_WING | Fixed wing; elevons | M1 | S1, S2 |
Y4 | Y4-copter | M1-M4 | None |
HEX6X | Hexacopter-X | M1-M6 | None |
OCTOX8 | Octocopter-X (over/under) | M1-M8 | None |
OCTOFLATP | Octocopter-FlatPlus | M1-M8 | None |
OCTOFLATX | Octocopter-FlatX | M1-M8 | None |
AIRPLANE | Fixed wing; Ax2, R, E | M1 | S1, S2, S3, S4 |
HELI_120_CCPM | |||
HELI_90_DEG | |||
VTAIL4 | Quadcopter with V-Tail | M1-M4 | N/A |
HEX6H | Hexacopter-H | M1-M6 | None |
PPM_TO_SERVO | |||
DUALCOPTER | Dualcopter | M1-M2 | S1, S2 |
SINGLECOPTER | Conventional helicopter | M1 | S1 |
ATAIL4 | Quadcopter with A-Tail | M1-M4 | N/A |
CUSTOM | User-defined | ||
CUSTOM AIRPLANE | User-defined airplane | ||
CUSTOM TRICOPTER | User-defined tricopter |
The cli servo
command defines the settings for the servo outputs. The cli mixer smix
command controllers how the mixer maps internal FC data (RC input, PID stabilisation output, channel forwarding, etc) to servo outputs.
A low-pass filter can be enabled for the servos. It may be useful for avoiding structural modes in the airframe, for example.
Currently it can only be configured via the CLI:
set servo_lowpass_freq = nnn
to select the cutoff frequency. Valid values range from 10 to 400. This is a fraction of the loop frequency in 1/1000ths. For example, 40
means 0.040
.set servo_lowpass_enable = 1
to enable filtering.The cutoff frequency can be determined by the following formula: Frequency = 1000 * servo_lowpass_freq / looptime
For example, if servo_lowpass_freq
is set to 40, and looptime is set to the default of 3500 us, the cutoff frequency will be 11.43 Hz.
One method for tuning the filter cutoff is as follows:
servo_lowpass_freq
by half its current value and repeat the previous step.save
.Custom motor mixing allows for completely customized motor configurations. Each motor must be defined with a custom mixing table for that motor. The mix must reflect how close each motor is with reference to the CG (Center of Gravity) of the flight controller. A motor closer to the CG of the flight controller will need to travel less distance than a motor further away.
Steps to configure custom mixer in the CLI:
mixer custom
to enable the custom mixing.mmix reset
to erase the any existing custom mixing.mmix
statement for each motor.The mmix statement has the following syntax: mmix n THROTTLE ROLL PITCH YAW
Mixing table parameter | Definition |
---|---|
n | Motor ordering number |
THROTTLE | All motors that are used in this configuration are set to 1.0. Unused set to 0.0. |
ROLL | Indicates how much roll authority this motor imparts to the roll of the flight controller. Accepts values nominally from 1.0 to -1.0. |
PITCH | Indicates the pitch authority this motor has over the flight controller. Also accepts values nominally from 1.0 to -1.0. |
YAW | Indicates the direction of the motor rotation in relationship with the flight controller. 1.0 = CCW -1.0 = CW. |
Note: the mmix
command may show a motor mix that is not active, custom motor mixes are only active for models that use custom mixers.
Note: You have to configure every motor number starting at 0. Your command will be ignored if there was no mmix
command for the previous motor number. See example 5.
Custom servo mixing rules can be applied to each servo. Rules are applied in the order they are defined.
id | Servo slot |
---|---|
0 | GIMBAL PITCH |
1 | GIMBAL ROLL |
2 | ELEVATOR / SINGLECOPTER_4 |
3 | FLAPPERON 1 (LEFT) / SINGLECOPTER_1 |
4 | FLAPPERON 2 (RIGHT) / BICOPTER_LEFT / DUALCOPTER_LEFT / SINGLECOPTER_2 |
5 | RUDDER / BICOPTER_RIGHT / DUALCOPTER_RIGHT / SINGLECOPTER_3 |
6 | THROTTLE (Based ONLY on the first motor output) |
7 | FLAPS |
id | Input sources |
---|---|
0 | Stabilised ROLL |
1 | Stabilised PITCH |
2 | Stabilised YAW |
3 | Stabilised THROTTLE |
4 | RC ROLL |
5 | RC PITCH |
6 | RC YAW |
7 | RC THROTTLE |
8 | RC AUX 1 |
9 | RC AUX 2 |
10 | RC AUX 3 |
11 | RC AUX 4 |
12 | GIMBAL PITCH |
13 | GIMBAL ROLL |
Note: the smix
command may show a servo mix that is not active, custom servo mixes are only active for models that use custom mixers.
Servos are reversed using the smix reverse
command.
e.g. when using the TRI mixer to reverse the tail servo on a tricopter use this:
smix reverse 5 2 r
i.e. when mixing rudder servo slot (5
) using Stabilised YAW input source (2
) reverse the direction (r
)
smix reverse
is a per-profile setting. So ensure you configure it for your profiles as required.
Here's an example of a X configuration quad, but the motors are still wired using the KK board motor numbering scheme.
``` KK2.0 Motor Layout
1CW 2CCW \ / KK / \ 4CCW 3CW ```
mixer custom
mmix reset
mmix 0 1.0, 1.0, -1.0, -1.0
for the Front Left motor. It tells the flight controller the #1 motor is used, provides positive roll, provides negative pitch and is turning CW.mmix 1 1.0, -1.0, -1.0, 1.0
for the Front Right motor. It still provides a negative pitch authority, but unlike the front left, it provides negative roll authority and turns CCW.mmix 2 1.0, -1.0, 1.0, -1.0
for the Rear Right motor. It has negative roll, provides positive pitch when the speed is increased and turns CW.mmix 3 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0
for the Rear Left motor. Increasing motor speed imparts positive roll, positive pitch and turns CCW.Here is an example of a U-shaped hex; probably good for herding giraffes in the Sahara. Because the 1 and 6 motors are closer to the roll axis, they impart much less force than the motors mounted twice as far from the FC CG. The effect they have on pitch is the same as the forward motors because they are the same distance from the FC CG. The 2 and 5 motors do not contribute anything to pitch because speeding them up and slowing them down has no effect on the forward/back pitch of the FC.
``` HEX6-U
.4........3. ............ .5...FC...2. ............ ...6....1... ```
Command | Roll | Pitch | Yaw |
---|---|---|---|
Use mmix 0 1.0, -0.5, 1.0, -1.0 | half negative | full positive | CW |
Use mmix 1 1.0, -1.0, 0.0, 1.0 | full negative | none | CCW |
Use mmix 2 1.0, -1.0, -1.0, -1.0 | full negative | full negative | CW |
Use mmix 3 1.0, 1.0, -1.0, 1.0 | full positive | full negative | CCW |
Use mmix 4 1.0, 1.0, 0.0, -1.0 | full positive | none | CW |
Use mmix 5 1.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.0 | half positive | full positive | CCW |
``` mixer CUSTOMTRI mmix reset mmix 0 1.000 0.000 1.333 0.000 mmix 1 1.000 -1.000 -0.667 0.000 mmix 2 1.000 1.000 -0.667 0.000 smix reset smix 0 5 2 100 0 0 100 0 profile 0 smix reverse 5 2 r profile 1 smix reverse 5 2 r profile 2 smix reverse 5 2 r
```
Here is an example of a custom twin engine plane with Differential Thrust Motors take the first 2 pins, the servos take pins as indicated in the [Servo slot] chart above. Settings bellow have motor yaw influence at "0.3", you can change this nuber to have more or less differential thrust over the two motors. Note: You can look at the Motors tab in Cleanflight Cofigurator to see motor and servo outputs.
Pins | Outputs |
---|---|
1 | Left Engine |
2 | Right Engine |
3 | [EMPTY] |
4 | Roll / Aileron |
5 | Roll / Aileron |
6 | Yaw / Rudder |
7 | Pitch / Elevator |
8 | [EMPTY] |
``` mixer CUSTOMAIRPLANE mmix reset mmix 0 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.3 # Left Engine mmix 1 1.0 0.0 0.0 -0.3 # Right Engine
smix reset
smix 0 3 0 100 0 0 100 0 # Roll / Aileron smix 1 4 0 100 0 0 100 0 # Roll / Aileron smix 3 5 2 100 0 0 100 0 # Yaw / Rudder smix 2 2 1 100 0 0 100 0 # Pitch / Elevator
```
For this to work you have to make a dummy mmix for motor 3. We do this by just saying it has 0 impact on yaw,roll and pitch. ``` mixer custom mmix reset mmix 0 1.0, -1.0, 1.0, -1.0 mmix 1 1.0, -1.0, -1.0, 1.0 mmix 2 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0 mmix 3 1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0 mmix 4 1.0, 1.0, -1.0, -1.0 save ```