<p>This comes with an understanding of how the PID algorithm works and what it actually does. Bardwell videos can be good, but non-quadcopter reference on what a PID controller is will be the best way to visualize this.</p>

<p>Look at the individual P, I, D components, and see how they react to the gyros. A properly damped (critically damped) system is what you're aiming for. I don't remember the math, but you also can't just apply straight math to this, because some of it is by feel (looser = underdamped, tighter = overdamped).</p>

<p>Here's a photo stolen from quora (<a href="https://www.quora.com/What-are-over-damped-critically-and-under-damped-systems" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.quora.com/What-are-over-damped-critically-and-under-damped-systems</a>):</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/PmBIB.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/PmBIB.png" alt=""></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-05-06T17:12:46.133Z
2020-05-06T17:12:46.133Z
Brydon Gibson
<p>The defaults in Betaflight generally work very well, but I own and fly very different quads ranging from 2" to 6". It may easily be that there is room for little adjustments I can make with the tuning sliders in the Configurator. How can I use graphs and plots generated from blackbox data to determine whether the PID gains on a certain quad are excessive or too low or about okay? How do these scenarios manifest visually in Blackbox Viewer or other visualization tools?</p>

<betaflight><multirotor><flight-controller><pid><blackbox>
How to visually inspect the magnitude of PID gains?
3k-
# How to visually inspect the magnitude of PID gains?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-05-01)

The defaults in Betaflight generally work very well, but I own and fly very different quads ranging from 2" to 6". It may easily be that there is room for little adjustments I can make with the tuning sliders in the Configurator. How can I use graphs and plots generated from blackbox data to determine whether the PID gains on a certain quad are excessive or too low or about okay? How do these scenarios manifest visually in Blackbox Viewer or other visualization tools?

**Tags:** betaflight, multirotor, flight-controller, pid, blackbox

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2020-05-06. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

This comes with an understanding of how the PID algorithm works and what it actually does. Bardwell videos can be good, but non-quadcopter reference on what a PID controller is will be the best way to visualize this.

Look at the individual P, I, D components, and see how they react to the gyros. A properly damped (critically damped) system is what you're aiming for. I don't remember the math, but you also can't just apply straight math to this, because some of it is by feel (looser = underdamped, tighter = overdamped).

Here's a photo stolen from quora (<https://www.quora.com/What-are-over-damped-critically-and-under-damped-systems>):

[![](https://i.sstatic.net/PmBIB.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/PmBIB.png)


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