[sewell]

hi all. I have the nighthawk pro 280 and have bonded with FS i6 controller.  it's working well but not sure how to assign the 3 stage switch to drone for 1-stable flight
2-semi stable
3-full Control
at the moment it's just flying in stable mode.

[jbarchuk]

Do you come from a fixed wing background? In multicopters there are no 'levels of stability.' I either flies or or faceplants.

The purpose of flight modes is to set how comfortable it flies for your level of experience and flying style desired.

You need only one flight more for now. In the Input - Flight Mode Switch Settings screen, Flight Mode Switch Positions,  Attitude - Attitude - AxisLock - Manual

There are two modes of control. In attitude mode a stick controls how far the vehicle tips over in pitch and roll which controls its speed in those direction. Rate mode controls the speed of the change of Attitude. Beginners should fly only in Attitude mode. Use Rattitude to learn how to fly in Rate mode. See the wiki to read more explanations about different modes.

Your most useful tool in the GCS is Stabilization - Basic - Responsiveness - Attitude. The default value of 55 is TOO HIGH for beginners and you should cut that in half till your mode comfortable flying. Actually that's the only control you need in that page for now.

Also see Vehicle - Throttle Curve. You'll find that the change in motor RPM is very fast, and the highest RPM is very high. Look for other posts that describe how to 'flatten' the curve to make it a lot easier to learn how to fly.

[sewell]

quite new to  racing quadcopters. the original controller has  a 3 stage switch self levelling, semi self levelling and full rate mode.

[sewell]

on the switch 0- self levelling  can't  do flips. 1- self levelling but can do flips and 2- full control

[edwardsdigital]

It sounds to me like you want to set up 3 flight modes on your 3 position switch. As long as you have verified that the switch is controlling your stability modes you can use this to get what you are looking for:

0-Attitude, attitude, rate, manual
1-Rattitude, rattitude, rate, manual
2-Rate, rate, rate, manual

But you will need to do some adjusting and tuning to make it fly just right for you in each mode. I am working on a similar setup for my quads, but I have a DX6i so I am limited to a 2 position switch so I am going to be running Rattitude and Rate only.

[jbarchuk]

on the switch 0- self levelling  can't  do flips. 1- self levelling but can do flips and 2- full control

What edwardsdigital said, plus...

The flips vs can't flip thing has nothing to do with the mode. Again see Stabilization, but go to Advanced and see the Responsiveness description when you hover the mouse over 'Attitude mode response.' (The description is different from the Basic mode.) It says 'maximum tilt at full stick.'

And again, related to your first Q, there is no 'manual' mode as such. There is Attitude and Rate, plus about half a dozen other variations with different features.

Most basically, Attitude mode includes self leveling and Rate does not. See the wiki for detailed descriptions of the other variations.

The FC is ALWAYS in control of the motors. The human brain CANNOT control the RPMs of all four motors that cause the quad to hover, move forward, move sideways, yaw in a circle, or do whatever. The FC 'interprets' what the pilot -intends- the vehicle to do, by stick input. The two modes plus half a dozen variations -assist- the pilot in controlling the vehicle, to make the vehicle do what the pilot intends.