04 The Gamepad Screen - Details

The Throttle Control

The throttle manages the rate of climb (or descent) of the airplane. Increasing the throttle will increase the airspeed, and due to the airplane design, this will also cause the airplane to ascend. The angle of attack is constantly measured and controlled by the on-board autopilot.

Set the throttle to 100% and you will get maximum climbing; this is usually required during take off and when you want to increase altitude quickly.

Set your throttle to 80% to maintain the same altitude (levelled flight).

The Throttle Control is a sticky controller. Wherever you put your finger on the left side of the screen, the throttle bar will appear under your finger. You can set the motors power by sliding your finger up and down the bar. When you take your finger off the screen, the throttle command stays where it was left.

You can see the percentage either by the slider (TBD) or in the top part of the Control Box.

The Roll Control

The Roll Control is a sticky controller, so wherever you put your finger on the right side of the screen, the center of the controller will appear under it. With this controller you can set the differential thrust between the left and right propellers, which will cause left or right turning.

When you let go of the controller, the button will jump back to the zero position and the airplane will maintain it's last heading direction.

The value of the command is shown in the Control Box.

You can make adjustments to the maximum roll command in the setting screen. Maximum values can be between 15% to 35% (TBD).

The Control Box

The Control Box represent the vector the airplane is advancing toward. It is also showing the value of the commands to the airplane. If you open the throttle to maximum and set the roll to a slight turn to the right, the box will move to the upper right side, illustrating that the airplane is going to climb and turn right. Since the airplane does start to climb and to turn right, you can see in the video that the airplane flies toward this area. 

Launch/Abort

This button has two functions.

The first is to enable a launch. Our airplane has a double safety feature to avoid running the propellers while the airplane is on the ground, or in your hands. To enable takeoff, first press Launch. Now you can launch the airplane. Note that the LEDs of the airplane flash rapidly. The motors will start only when the airplane senses forward movement.

Once pressed, the button changes to Abort, so if you do not want to fly now, you can abort this launch by pressing it. The button will return to the Launch state.

If you do take off the Abort will command the airplane to land. While airborne, press Abort, and the airplane will descent with a slight right roll, until landed. After the landing, the button will change back to Launch.

Video Recording and Taking a Picture

By pressing the button with the camera icon, a still image is taken on the airplane, and saved on the SD card (not included). 

Press once on the red circle button, to start recording. The button is fully red when recording has been activated. Press again to stop recording. The button will change to a smaller red circle.

You can download all recorded media later on to your smartphone. For the Beta phase, it is only accessible by reading the SD card on your PC.

Buzzer

You can activate a buzzer to help you locate the airplane if it's landed beyond your line of sight.

Press the button to activate and press again to deactivate it.

When the airplane has lost control, it will start to beep, to alert you that connection is lost, and to assist you with locating it. When you do locate the module initiate a connection to your smartphone device to stop the buzzer. 

Indications

We have three indications:

Battery, showing the level of charge. When battery is too low to maintain a safe flight the airplane will land automatically.

Wi-Fi presents the signal strength. The values are in dBM, so the lower the value (in minus) the better the reception will be. 

Flight Timer - On the right side there is a timer representing your flight time, from takeoff to landing. It resets after the next take off. (Not active in the beta version)

VR Mode

You can switch between Gamepad mode of control and VR mode of control. Press this button once to go to VR Mode, and press again (note that it is located on the bottom now) to return to the Gamepad mode.

Setting

On the top right corner the Setting Wheel icon get you into the Setting screens.

Back

Press this to return to the Home screen.

Go to the next page - The VR Screen

Back to the PowerUp FPV User Guide