# FAQ / [How-to] Bare minimum tune Betaflight

## Prerequisite

#### Radio affects PIDs:
- Make sure ADC filter is disabled in EdgeTX/OpenTX.
- Make sure to apply proper `RC_LINK` preset. (250Hz, 500Hz, etc.)

## Safety

#### Test hover tunes before full-send:
- Recommend test hovering tunes in short increments while checking motor heat. (10 second, 25s, 50s increments.)

## Tuning

#### Presets:
- Try them.

#### Tuning Workflow:
1. Always tune a quad with the same components you expect to fly. (HD Cam, prop-size, etc)
2. Hardware first -- make sure everything firm and secure. no floppy wires, no floppy antennas, etc. no soft-mounting except the FC's gummies. (LiPo straps should not rub gyro, but have flown fine regardless.)
3. Then tune filters, as per blackbox. For older Betaflight `set debug_mode = gyro_scaled`, `save` for anything useful. For 4.5 and later, skip this.
4. Then tune pids (without feedforward, without dmin/max for step-response analysis)
5. Repeat Filters and PIDs until no reasonable gains.

#### Filters:
- Tune filters "***first***", but i won't go into this here, defaults are pretty good on a 5-inch if you use RPM filtering. If not using RPM filters, then maybe reduce Gyro-LPF-2 to cover the same area (Hz), but it flies either way. When using the latter, typically disable Gyro-LPF-1 if your craft handles it fine. (Maybe even the same for the former, but depends on your craft's noise profile.)

#### Generally (Filters):
- Defaults are for 5 inch quads.
- Smaller quads will need higher cutoffs (Hz)
- larger quads will need lower cutoffs (Hz)
- larger quads will need less i-term due to inherit authority of larger wingspan/propellers.

#### PIDs - The idea is (in this order):
- start with defaults
- use sliders
- turn off FeedForward (Stick response slider)
- turn off D Min/Max (Dynamic Damping slider)
- reduce i-term to 0.3 to 0.5 (Drift-Wobble slider)
- find a good P/D balance ***first*** by adjusting D-Term (Dampening Slider) (with PIDToolbox)
- ~~increase master multiplier (MM) as needed, but not excessive.~~ (this is potentially mis-information, but still works. see next item)
- After finding a good P/D balance, in lieu of MM, raise both P and D sliders ***in sync***, and only as needed, for a more responsive overall system. (preferred rather than Master Multiplier as per @ctsnooze, a Betaflight developer)
- return i-term but not excessive (sometimes 0.7 or 0.8 is fine; i don't see a need for more than 1.0 , but that's opinion)
- revisit filter/PIDs as needed, but do not chase your tail, at some point there is diminishing returns.
- enable FF as desired
- maybe enable D/Min/Max again (i don't know enough about this, i know people use it, especially racers to keep motors cool, but my experience i prefer without because i tend to get weird jitters with it [if D-Min is too low].)
- ***Or find presets that match your rig.***

## Resources

#### How to Tune from BlackBox log data:
- How to perform blackbox: https://oscarliang.com/blackbox/
- How to tune filters and PIDs: https://oscarliang.com/pid-filter-tuning-blackbox/

#### Recommended videos for tuning: (Brian White/PIDToolbox):
- https://youtu.be/cUzNuMVxkBM
- https://youtu.be/XxPBlMckeEg
- https://youtu.be/NPS3aJqoFko
- Note: PIDToolbox (PTB) free versions were removed from GitHub, but some copies can still be located via repo-forks or otherwsie shared by users.

#### Legacy Line Of Sight (LOS):
- Legacy LOS method (PID values no longer applicable, but the general idea does still apply): https://youtu.be/ehyXLsvaEhw