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Adjusting the tension in your Taranis TX Gimbal sticks can make a big difference to your flying. In this tutorial I will show you how to loosen/tighten the transmitter gimbals for better performance.

Please check out my tutorial on how to choose a TX for mini quad.

Many people focus heavily on PID tuning, expo and rates of their quad for that perfect flight, but overlook the importance of adjusting their TX gimbals for optimal performance.

Everyone has a different preference on how their TX sticks should feel. Some people prefer heavier sticks, some prefer lighter sticks, but anyway you can adjust this by altering the spring pressure in the gimbals.

Tuning PID? How about Tuning your gimbals first? :-p

I will show you how to adjust these different types of gimbals in this guide:

• Stock Gimbals on Taranis X9D-Plus 
• M9 Hall Gimbal (Taranis X9D-Plus)
• M7 Hall Gimbal (Taranis Q X7 & QX7S)
• Taranis X9D+ SE 2019
  

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How to adjust TX Gimbals? My personal preference

Here is what I do with gimbal adjustment, and the reasons I do them that way.

Throttle Stick

Remove Ratchet, Loosen Throttle

On my Taranis, there is ratchet on the throttle (the “clicking” when moving throttle stick), and I really dislike that. The stick also feels too heavy too.

I am told this is designed for RC planes because throttle tends to be pretty stable on these models during flight, so the ratchet and stiff stick keeps your throttle constant while yawing.

However with multirotors, especially mini quad (both free style and racing), we play with throttle a lot (by a lot I mean all the time). I found loosening the throttle stick gives me much smoother and faster control.

I also found the notches of the ratchet skips throttle values so when I hover it’s always either too high or too low, and I had to move my throttle stick forth and back constantly to maintain perfect hover. By removing ratchet gives me much better throttle resolution.

Please experiment different spring tension and find your preference.

Yaw/Pitch/Roll Sticks

Tighten Pitch/Roll (to your liking)

When I got my Taranis, I found the Roll/Pitch/Yaw too sloppy.

I prefer to have these sticks slightly tighter. Not only it helps to keep the quad more locked in when flying straight, it also prevents accidental movement on those sticks (e.g. when doing a flip you can accidentally touch roll a little if it’s too loose).

Some people prefer to have pitch a little lighter than roll, which makes it easier to adjust the quad’s attitude in fast flying.

Stock Gimbals on the Taranis X9D

First off, remove the 6 screws on the back of the Taranis. Gently lift the front housing away from the back housing.

You might find the 2 top switches might be stuck on the back housing, so you have to stop there and remove these switches first by loosening the nuts on them. Do not pull the wires, and make sure to mark the orientation of those switches to remember which way should be facing front, so you don’t mess up when putting them back.

Once you have done it, you can now proceed to the gimbal stick adjustment.

I use Mode 2 TX, so the Yaw and Throttle are located on the left, and Pitch and Roll are on the right, however, this is mirrored (looks opposite) when you flip the TX over :)

The stiffness of the gimbals is basically controlled by the pressure in the springs, which can be adjusted by tightening or loosening the screws on the gimbals. I labelled these screws with numbers 1 to 5 in the above picture:

• “1” is the throttle ratchet.
• “2” is the stiffness of throttle
• “3” is the stiffness of yaw
• “4” is the stiffness of pitch
• “5” is the stiffness of roll

M9 Hall-Sensor Gimbals

Frsky released new M9 Hall Gimbals for the Taranis, they are a more durable and smoother upgrade for the TX. The same stick tension adjustment can be made to them following this photo.

M7 Hall Gimbals – Taranis QX7 / QX7S

Here is how to adjust the M7 gimbal stick tension on the Taranis QX7 and QX7S. Here is my review of the radio.

There are 4 screws to remove on the back of the radio.

Roll, Pitch and Yaw require a 1.5mm hex screw driver for the adjustment. Turning clockwise (CW) is loosening the spring (tension), turning counter-clockwise is tightening the spring.

For throttle you just need a cross screwdriver.

Taranis X9D+ SE 2019

The Taranis X9D+ 2019 uses M9 gimbals which has been explained above how to adjust, but I made this overview diagram hopefully is easier to understand.

Conclusion

It made such a huge difference in my flying after adjusting the gimbals for the first time.

The biggest improvement was with the throttle stick by removing the ratchet, it was almost like taking the invisible hand off my TX that had been slowing me down.

Although I have tightened Yaw/Pitch/Roll sticks to the max, I still feel like they can be tighter. Maybe I need some harder springs :)

But remember, what works for me doesn’t necessary work for you, so experiment, and use whatever you feel comfortable with.

Edit History

• Jul 2016 – Tutorial created
• Jan 2017 – Added M9 gimbals adjustment
• Nov 2017 – Added M7 gimbals adjustment