Config¶
The Config tab is the baseline-settings surface — the “everything else” knobs that don’t warrant their own tab but that you still reach for on a fresh build: airframe geometry, board orientation, RC and arming settings, and system identity/logging. Attached hardware — GPS, compass, gimbal, rangefinder and optical flow — lives on the Peripherals & Gimbal tab instead. It edits the same parameters the Parameters (Expert) tab exposes, but grouped into a product-shaped layout with the staged-draft workflow used across the app (edit → review → apply).
Category tabs¶
The settings are grouped into category tabs across the top, so you only see one area at a time instead of a wall of cards:
Airframe & Powertrain — frame class/type, board orientation, and the whole power train: ESC protocol, DShot rate, BLHeli, motor poles and reverse mask.
RC — receiver protocol and options, and the RSSI source.
Flight Modes — which mode each switch position selects, the mode channel itself, and the live position the vehicle reports.
Arming — arming checks and arm/disarm behavior.
Power — battery monitor, capacity, and the arming thresholds that depend on them, with live voltage and current.
System — MAVLink identity, logging, and the system rates (main loop frequency, gyro rate, fast-sample mask) plus active IMU selection.
Note
The beeper/LED card moved to Peripherals & Gimbal (LEDs & Buzzer), where it is one card rather than two copies of the same parameters, and the camera trigger moved to that tab’s Camera & Gimbal group, beside the mount that carries the camera. The main loop rate is no longer mirrored on the ESC card either — it is a System setting, and having it in two tabs was the confusing part.
A category holding a single card takes the full width and flows its fields into as many columns as fit, rather than leaving a tall single-file list in a narrow column.
Note
System rates and active-IMU selection used to sit under a Sensors tab. They are how hard the flight controller runs rather than which sensors are attached, so they moved to System — and the GPS and compass settings that shared that tab moved to Peripherals & Gimbal, which is where the rest of the attached hardware is.
Each card leads with the settings you actually reach for; rarely-touched fields (trims, expo, boot delay, log bitmask, and the like) fold under a per-card Advanced (n) disclosure — click it to reveal them. A field with an unsaved edit keeps its Advanced section open, and any category tab holding an unsaved change is marked with a dot.
Board orientation preview¶
The Board orientation card (under Airframe) shows a small 3D picture of
the flight controller as it is mounted, driven by the selected
AHRS_ORIENTATION. It reacts to the dropdown before you apply: a flat/yaw
orientation rotates the board, a 180° flip shows the board upside down, and an
on-its-side (Roll/Pitch 90) mount stands it on edge — so you can confirm the
mounting matches reality rather than reading an enum value. Custom orientations
(set by explicit angles) show a note instead of a posed board.
Compass¶
The Compass card (on the Peripherals & Gimbal tab)
collects the compass settings ArduPilot
otherwise leaves in the raw parameter tree: which compasses to use for yaw
(COMPASS_USE / USE2 / USE3), auto declination, how the primary
external compass is mounted (COMPASS_EXTERNAL) and its orientation
(COMPASS_ORIENT, the same rotation set as the board orientation), the
auto-orientation check run during calibration (COMPASS_AUTO_ROT), and —
under Advanced — a mask of driver types to block (COMPASS_DISBLMSK).
ArduPilot auto-detects compasses; an internal one follows the board orientation,
while an external one uses its own orientation set here.
Applying changes¶
Edits stage as local drafts and don’t touch the aircraft until you apply. The Apply Config / Revert toolbar at the bottom is global to the tab — it commits (or discards) every staged change across this tab’s categories in one press, so you can range across categories and apply once. Reboot-sensitive changes prompt you to reboot afterward, the same as elsewhere in the app.