Betaflight PID tuning: sliders, the gain grid and angle mode

The slider mode has three positions. Manual turns the sliders off and leaves a warning that the gains are now the raw numbers. Roll and pitch lets the sliders rescale those two axes. Roll, pitch and yaw includes yaw. The footer on the card changes with that switch so you can see whether the sliders are in charge.

Master, damping, tracking and stick response each run from 0 to 2 in steps of 0.05, shown as a multiplier. More sliders adds the I gain (drift), D-max gain (dynamic damping), and separate pitch damping and pitch tracking. Moving a slider rewrites the grid. If you then type in the grid, you are fighting the slider. Switch to manual first when you want a single number.

P is how hard the craft corrects a present error. Too much P and you hear a fast oscillation as soon as you fly. I holds the craft against a steady error, such as a heavy camera on one side. Too much I and the craft slowly winds up and overshoots. D damps the motion. D max and D min let D be stronger in some conditions and quieter in others, which is why the grid has both. Feedforward adds a push in the direction of the stick so the craft does not wait for an error before it moves.

Yaw usually wants less D than roll and pitch, and its feedforward is its own cell. Copying roll numbers onto yaw is a common way to make a quad feel harsh. The grid keeps them separate.

The mode switch is on the Modes tab. How strongly Angle holds level is angle strength, 0 to 200, here. Horizon strength and horizon transition are the same range. Angle limit, 10 to 90 degrees, is how far the craft will tilt in Angle mode. Raising the limit without raising your rates does not make the craft faster in acro. It only changes the self-level modes.

Acro trainer is the learning mode with its own limit, 10 to 80 degrees. It is a different field from the Angle limit. Turn the mode on from Modes, and set the limit here.

Feedforward averaging smooths the stick over 2, 3 or 4 points, or not at all. Transition, smoothness, jitter reduction, boost and the max-rate limit shape how hard that push is and how much radio noise it copies. If the motors sound busy in a hover when your thumb is still, look here and at the filters before you drop P.

Anti-gravity raises I while the throttle is moving fast, so a punch-out does not change the craft's attitude. I-term relax lets I decay when the sticks move, so a flip does not wind I up and then snap back. The type is gyro or setpoint. The cutoff is 1 to 50 Hz. Leave these at the firmware defaults until a log shows I building during flips.

Dynamic idle holds a minimum RPM when DShot telemetry is on. The slider is disabled until that telemetry switch, on the motor config, is on. The hint on the disabled slider says why. It is not the same number as motor idle percent on the Motors tab.

Voltage sag compensation, 0 to 150 percent, counters the way a battery sags in a punch. Motor output limit, 1 to 100 percent, caps the command the motors receive. The chirp autotune page reads a chirp blackbox and suggests slider positions. It does not replace this tab, and it is not a live in-flight autotune.

Profiles matter. The tab has a profile bar, and a slider change writes the profile you are looking at. Rate profiles are a different set, on the Rates tab. If a tune feels right on the bench and wrong at the field, check you did not save it into a profile the radio is not selecting. Stick to one profile until the hover is quiet.