Create drone presets
To create a new drone preset that reflects reality with realistic thrust values, you must first define the following:
- drone mass (total drone weight + lipo) (in kilograms)
- lipo battery cells count
- motor KV
- props diamter (in inch)
- props pitch (in inch)
- props blade count
These values are sufficient to calculate an estimate of the thrust per motor (in grams) that will be used by the simulator.
How is all this calculated ?
First, the simulator calculates the maximum rotation speed for one motor (in RPM) by using the KV indication of the motor * the number of cells of the lipo. This theoretical value is divided by a factor taking into account the air and propeller resistance.
Then is calculated a thrust coefficient determined by the parameters of the propellers (diameter, pitch and number of blades).
An equation allows then according to the maximum speed of rotation of the engine and the coefficient of thrust of the propellers to obtain an estimate of the real maximum thrust force by engine (in grams).
This result is multiplied by 4 (assuming we use drones with 4 motors), which gives the maximum thrust of the drone as well as the thrust/weight ratio.
This force is then scaled in game units and applied to the drone according the throttle factor input and the motor thrust curve.
In reality, all motors have different behavior and thrust curves. In order to be able to replicate the same thrust feeling of an engine we are used to IRL we can adjust manually the thrust curve of the motor by replicating the test values of the manufacturers data as in this example.
By adjusting thrust factors in the simulator to get the same given thrust.
