Your Tour Guide: Bob Russell (modbuilder)
The purpose of this class is to explore the basics of OpenTX using the Taranis radio to set up a basic airplane with throttle, rudder, elevator, and two independent aileron servos. This is not the easiest or quickest way to get flying, but it definitely will take away the mystery of the basic command chain of OpenTX, and your knowledge of the radio will always be with you at the field when you want to make adjustments. That knowledge also will make setting up a basic airplane with Companion a breeze and will be the foundation for additional classes that expand upon this one.
Our process will consider each of the roughly 13 screens in the Model Set Up section of your radio. Some screens will be important to the set up and will be examined in detail. Many will not be needed and will be deferred for more advanced classes. At the end, you’ll know which screens are important for basic set up and how to use the fields in those screens.
At the conclusion of our class we will have control surfaces responding with desired deflections using triple rates/expo on a single combination switch for aileron, elevator and rudder; a throttle and switch warning on start up; a throttle-triggered flight timer; the basic voltage and RSSI telemetry that’s built into the receiver; and some basic sounds. Subsequent classes in the series build on this basic model to explore the power of OpenTX on the Taranis limited only by your imagination and knowledge. So… charge up your radio and let’s get started.
Our button navigation uses LP and SP as abbreviations for Long Press and Short Press, so “SP ENT” is a short press of the Enter button and “LP MENU” is a long press of the Menu button. Please check the assumptions upon which our class is built to know if you need to complete some pre-work to best exploit the class. If so, you’ll find help with the pre-work included here: Basic Airplane Class Assumptions
We’ve tried to get all the terms into the Glossary that are used in the text, which means that they show up as highlighted links and will briefly pop up definitions if you hover over them. We’ve also tried to pull the detail into supplemental posts that are accessed from this main outline. Hopefully, that makes the process easier and cleaner for both of us. We begin with some needed background about the final control element — the servo on our airplane. Click here to continue.