Calibrating and Performance-Tuning your ELEV-8 v3

While it is possible to fly your ELEV-8 v3 after you've completed the ELEV-8 v3 Assembly Guide and UAV Safety, Laws, and Good Citizenship tutorials, taking the time to calibrate and tune your ELEV-8 v3 will improve flight performance and extend the life of your quadcopter.

Here you will find instrustions for gyroscope and accelerometer calibration, basic roll, pitch, thrust, and gain tuning, and mechanically balancing your frame and propellers.

In these tutorials, you will use the Parallax Ground Station software, which provides a set of tools and adjustments that will help you optimize your ELEV-8 v3's flight performance.  It is also possible to do further tuning by adjusting parameters in the ELEV-8 v3's firmware. 

• If you have not done so already, download and install the Parallax Ground Station software.
• If you plan to do tuning via the Flight Controller firmware, download and install the SimpleIDE software for your operating system.

In this tutorial, it is a good idea to perform the tuning activities in the best-bang-for-your-buck order they are presented. But, since they are all optional, you may stop at any point.