How to Calibrate Hand Controller Joysticks

Your hand controller joysticks will need to be recalibrated if you notice either of the two issues discussed in this article

Joystick Calibration

The joysticks on your hand controller come pre-calibrated by SmartDrone. Over time, and with frequent use, the calibration may drift. The drone software can detect calibration issues, and will not allow launch if calibration is outside of the safe limit. 

Failure to Arm Due to Joystick Calibration Error

If the joystick calibration has drifted enough, the hand controller will not allow you to arm the drone, in order to prevent flight issues. Although joystick calibration issues will not affect auto flight, manual flight controls will be affected. Therefore, if the calibration has drifted this far, you must calibrate before operation.

This is an example of an alert you would see when calibration drift is major:

"PreArm: Throttle (RC3) is not neutral"

You could also see this alert for the "yaw", "roll", or "pitch".

If this happens, you will need to calibrate the joysticks in order to clear the error and launch the drone. We will demonstrate the calibration process in this article. 

Identifying Minor Calibration Drift

Before the pre-arm alert comes up, you can observe minor calibration drift by opening the herelink settings app and looking at the "Joystick" tab. If you see dots that are off-center or flickering, your calibration has started drifting. Minor calibration drift can make manual flight less efficient, and you may experience the craft slowly drifting in one direction, even when you're not touching the joysticks

You should calibrate your joysticks when you see minor calibration drift, in order to improve manual flight performance. 

How to Calibrate the Hand Controller Joysticks

See the video demonstrating the joystick calibration process. It is best to sit the hand controller down, on a non-slip, stable surface. A stable surface will allow more precise manipulation of the joysticks during the calibration procedure.

Step 1: Calibrate the Rollwheel

1. Turn the hand controller on (drone does not need to be powered on)
2. Go the the Herelink Settings app and open the "Joystick" tab
3. Click on "HW WHEEL CAL"
4. Click "Start Rollwheel"
5. Roll the wheel on the top left side of the controller, to the left and right extremes, a few times in each direction
6. Click "Complete Rollwheel" and "Pass"

Step 2: Calibrate the Two Joysticks

1. Click on "HW JS CAL"
2. Click "Tap here to continue" and click "Start Calibration"
3. Move both joysticks to the left and right a few times, then let them return to center
4. Click "Next"
5. Move both joysticks to the top right corner, then allow them to spring back to center
6. Click "Next"
7. Rotate each joystick, one at a time, in 5 clockwise circles, allowing them to return to center after the 5 circles are complete
8. Click "Next"
9. Now you will move the black circle for each joystick to meet the red circles. Complete this for one joystick at a time
   NOTE: You may experience difficulty when attempting to calibrate the joysticks. If you are not able to reach the red circles, or experience several errors, click "Fail".
   You will then click on "HW JS CAL" and repeat this calibration step, until you are successful. Repeating this step several times is not uncommon
10. Click "Pass" chen you receive the green "Check pass" message

Step 3: Calibrate the RC Out Channels

1. Click on "SBUS OUT CAL"
2. Look at the icon with the yellow dots, and move the joysticks and rollwheel to meet the dots, allowing the joystick to return to center after each move
3. Click "Save" to save your new calibration

PROCESS COMPLETE!