Naze 32 Board Setup

by FliteTest | February 9, 2015 | (24) Posted in How To

*For all links metioned in the video, please scroll to the bottom of the article.

Josh and Eric are back with the Naze 32 Setup this week.

With the Naze being a fan favorite for race quads, we will be using one on the Electrohub. Eric made this one special.

Most boards come without the pins soldered in, so Peter helped walk through the process of getting the board ready for programming.

Eric and Josh cover what you will see when plugging in the board for the first time, and explain how to select the proper configuration.

Eric made the arms for the Quad special, and are now on our store! Check them out and pick up your own pair!

Eric explains how he set up his arming switch, as well as Atti and Manual flight modes.

The race quad handles better then expected! Easily zipping around at a good pace.

The Naze works well for acrobatics, easily doing forward and backward tumbles, as well as rolls.

With this being a basic Naze setup video, we will be working in the future with more tips on the board.

 Click here to download the full Naze32 Manual

For Balancing your Props, check out the article here: http://flitetest.com/articles/balancing-props

For Oscar Liang's in-depth article on PiD tuning, click here: http://blog.oscarliang.net/quadcopter-pid-explained-tuning/

For the Drivers needed to pull up the Naze Board on your computer, clikc here: http://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/pages/usbtouartbridgevcpdrivers.aspx

- Find this article & others like it at www.FliteTest.com -

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COMMENTS

banditjacksRC on February 25, 2015
I would like to recommend a video on this build as well. I would love to build this exact quad with the angle arms and think a quick build video for the brackets would be awesome.

Keep up the GREAT work flitetest crew!
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thejimohalloran on April 18, 2015
Agreed, I'd love to see a build episode on Eric's Mini Electrohub. So many things I'd love to know. How are the angled arms built, how long are the segments. What motors, props, etc is he using, etc. Looks like an awesome little machine. I'm waiting for my first Electrohub kit to arrive in the mail. Planning to build it in the regular spider configuration first, but I'd love to make the conversion later.
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hoggdoc on February 11, 2015
Where can I get a list of the parts used in this build Motors, Esc's frame kit etc.?


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Lukster on February 11, 2015
Hi guys,

Where can I get one of those covers to put on the electrohub? Looks pretty cool!

Thanks

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The-One-Who-Never-Crashes on September 10, 2015
Here's a link to one of the possibilities:
http://forum.flitetest.com/showthread.php?20293-Dome-for-electrohub&highlight=electrohub+dome
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pjwadamson on February 20, 2015
I would like to see a build of this quad. The boom lengths seem to be about 6 inches. If you look at the images and compare the electro hub which is about 5 inches. As for the angle I would also like to know, I would guess at 5 degrees. Great information on the naze 32 board. I just bought a KK2.1.5 and found that I need to also buy a USB programmer to update the firmware. I would have bought the Naze 32 if I knew that.
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ludodg on March 15, 2015
But then, you can tune everything up straight with the buttons and display on that board itself. Why should you use a pc?
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jon.eat.3 on February 10, 2015
cPPM allows up to Octo-X
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jon.eat.3 on February 10, 2015
btw for PID tuning a multiwii bluetooth module has correct baud to work with naze, i am using an Afromini so it is a must!
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nxc on February 10, 2015
Hey guys, I love the angle arm idea! Do you mind telling us what angle you are using?
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Tomagner on February 10, 2015
I too would like to know what is the angel on the arms and if the arms are cut with the angel or are mounted on the hub with the angle cut at the base of the arms.
Thaks
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akmk10000 on February 17, 2015
They sell angle brackets for the arms in their store. They are just strips of plywood that bolt through the arms that have been cut and drilled to accept the bolts. It looks pretty simple. I am sure they would not have a problem with you making your own, but would like you to buy a set to copy.
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Heath on February 10, 2015
I also want to know the angle of those arms!
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trademark on February 12, 2015
For me, the idea of the tilted arms was an awesome and DUH moment. I too would like to know the angles Eric used and if he has any other results at different angles. I am hoping to apply this Idea to an hquad I am currently building only I will have to angle and cant the motors to the C.O.G..
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Heath on February 10, 2015
I'm guessing around 10 to 12 degrees?
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goeland86 on February 16, 2015
Thanks a bunch for this guys! I'm going to try and 3d print a quad with Eric's angled arms trick. Will post back when/if it works! Can't wait to use my naze to its full potential!
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nUUb on February 10, 2015
Hey. What motors and ESC are you using on copter

Thanks
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DEW2448 on February 10, 2015
Can you flash a Flip 1.5 with Clean Flight?
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Heath on February 10, 2015
No. But you can flash a Flip32 with CleanFlight. The Flip32 is a Naze32 clone.
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Scott1308 on February 13, 2015
Is this a pretty easy thing? What's been your experience with it? good? bad? I'm currently using a plain Flip from RTF Quads, thinking about upgrading to Naze32. Flip32 seems logical.
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ftwingnut on February 10, 2015
I've been using the Naze32 board with my Windestal-style tricopter since right after FlightFest 2014. I love the board. I had not heard of CleanFlight, I'm going to check it out. I have been using BaseFlight.

I have to admit I chuckled at the sight of you guys using a "Bixler puft-pack" battery for your quad! LOL!
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KiwiRCFlyer on February 11, 2015
There is an interesting history between Timecop (the developer of the Naze32 board) and one of his programmers that jumped ship from the baseflight gui to develop cleanflight. From what I understand unless you are interested in competitive racing and having oneshot 125 enabled ESC's then it may not make a difference.
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bgrimmett on February 11, 2015
When connecting ESC's to the board, can you just connect them all without making changes? Do you need to remove power from all but one? Probably an obvious question but it's one that I'm having a hard time finding out.
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KiwiRCFlyer on February 11, 2015
That's correct, you need at least one 5v power supply to the board from either a ubec plugged into and unused port or an esc plugged into a motor port. If you leave them all connected there aren't any problems in my experience. Just make sure that you esc doesn't output 6v as a batch of HK afro esc's was doing this at one point.
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bgrimmett on February 11, 2015
Thanks!
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nevyn1 on April 22, 2015
Is there going to be a build vid for this quad?
I would also like to see a Naze32 set up for the spider quad.

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Felix pratt on February 10, 2015
Hey, saw that u guys have a dream flight libelle on the back wall there. When r u going to do an episode on it? Would be nice if u could do an episode on the elf dlg from vladmiers models too.
Thanks

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HarleyRev on February 12, 2015
Great video ! Thanks ! Perfect timing as my acro naze FC board arrived yesterday, I want to play with it for awhile then move on to a full naze with all add on to build a video coptor.
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Chioxin on March 13, 2015
Just thought I'd add in here, users of the naze board may need to try several differenet USB connectors before they find one that works. It took 4 different connectors for me until I found one that the PC would recognizes the board with. Kinda annoying, but, it is what it is =) At first I was terrified that it was broken or something [the lights come on and everything, just the PC didn't recognizes it] ... so anyhow! Ya! That!!! =D
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Heath on February 10, 2015
Can I plug my favorite vendor for a Naze32 clone board? FreebirdRC.com. I've bought one Swift32 (and some other things) from him and I'm about to buy another Swift32. Fast shipping and, more importantly, the best customer service.
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joshcarz on February 10, 2015
What motors and props are those? I want to built one just like that.
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Rain1dog on February 11, 2015
Hey guys great show. I had my FC fry on my 350qx2 just after two days of ownership, made me sick, I had a BLAST with it. I'd like to start building my own like I've done with fixed wings. I was looking in your shop for the arms that have dihedral in them. I really loved the way that Multirotor looked. Did I just over look them?
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UncleBob on February 18, 2015
Wouldn't you get the same effect if you shimmed each motor a few degrees? Seems like a stronger way than cutting and rejoining the arms

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ludodg on March 15, 2015
I do have a question chaps.
Eric tells he has been hours on the skype-phone with someone to be able to tune the naze32 ...
Then how is it that it is considered such a straight-forward FC?
Why should we choose it?
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TimmyGT on February 10, 2015
Guys horizon mode is basically auto level but if you hold the stick all the way in a certain direction it will not stop the quad at a certain bank angle, so basically it allows you to do flips or extreme maneuvers while still having the convenience of auto level, I use it on the flip 1.5 board and it's pretty cool, especially for a noob like me :) I'm sure I'm over simplifying it but that's my experience with it.
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Crashpilot1000 on February 10, 2015
Yep you are right. Horizon is a combination of angle and gyro ("rate") mode with a proportional factor wich is derived from the stick position. So on the "edges" of your roll/pitch stick it becomes pure rate mode, and in the center angle mode.
Here is the code (sorry, just a link into my codebase) that makes that transition:
https://github.com/Crashpilot1000/TestCode3/blob/master/src/mw.c#L844
And here is the part that "calculates" the proportional factors:
https://github.com/Crashpilot1000/TestCode3/blob/master/src/mw.c#L819
You may notice that I reduced the range for the angle mode so rate mode takes over a little quicker - better flips in horizon mode on my setup :)
Cheers Rob
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Garethgr on February 10, 2015
Awesome article, thanks so much for this. Could you do a more in depth one on PID's please ;)
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FlyTexas! on February 19, 2015
Just a thought... and it probably belongs in another conversation since it involves the booms: If you intend to use the quad as a racer, flip the front 2 booms over where they are pointing down. Re-orient the motors to what is now the tops of the booms. Now all 4 motors are tilted foward - more forward speed! The FC will need to be recalibrated with the fore and aft props "level" to maintain a good hover. This seems like an easy and quick change (what, maybe 8 screws to loosen and re-tighten?) Sound plausible? BTW, I recently purchased a set of the brackets and an electrohub kit. Just waiting on my pack from Altitude!
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Jyunte on March 29, 2015
I just purchased the kit to build the Electrohub, with the Flip 1.5. Would swapping the Flip 1.5 out for a Naze32 be of any advantage?
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The-One-Who-Never-Crashes on September 10, 2015
The Naze32 is compatible with CleanFlight, which is a more convenient software to use, while the Flip 1.5 isn't. But if the Flip 1.5 is working for you, leave it on your copter!
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sailorJohn on February 10, 2015
Wantabe professional videographer ----5, average rc'er ----0.
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chaz4jc on March 7, 2015
Just a thought... would the angled arms work on a tricopter?
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The-One-Who-Never-Crashes on September 10, 2015
Yes! It is beneficial for almost any multirotor.
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KiwiRCFlyer on February 11, 2015
Alright flite test guys - what a great START! But now you need to show us some of the cheap additions that you can make to the board for fun and experimentation.
One example that comes to mind is adding a Sonar altitude limiter - I can't wait to try this. HK has them for about $3-4. http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__31136__Ultrasonic_Module_HC_SR04_Arduino.html
That's crazy cheap for something that, if it works well, could stop a noob from pile driving his shining new special bent arm quad straight into the ground.
Here is a video -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seVDPjSFRrE
What do you think?
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etegration on April 7, 2015
yeah, a follow up to this basic setup with GPS and all possibilities please Flitetest?
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f4ucorsair on February 9, 2015
please do more horizon hobby reviews
Thanks
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s367828 on February 10, 2015
Great video guys. Very informative and a great step by step setup. I jumped on the naze bandwagon just before Christmas last year and unfortunately had a series of mishaps with the voltage sensor pins where I cooked 2 boards (I know I know. It's not that hard, I was just careless). I'd recommend soldering a jst connector on some short wires to the voltage and speaker pins. Makes it so you can't connect anything the wrong way or accidentally brush the exposed pins.
The other thing that I found is that as I only have a very basic 6 channel radio with no screen or detailed limit adjustments I couldn't get the board to arm using sticks until I changed the mincommand settings on the board. Hope that helps some other newbies.
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TurboNinjaStix on April 29, 2015
What min command settings did you use? I have a Spektrum DX8 but O can't get my tricopter to arm either.
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s367828 on May 1, 2015
To be honest I can't remember. Found it very hard to get it working and had to use the trims to get it working. I just use aux switch to arm now. Easier to setup.
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KiwiRCFlyer on February 11, 2015
Next thing you need to cover with the Naze32 - installing a bluetooth module so you can change the PID's in the field from you phone.
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nebulous on February 11, 2015
If you have an Android phone and an OTG cable (which is a USB host cable), you can use Multiwii EZ-GUI to change settings on the fly as well, by plugging the Naze into your phone.

Not quite as convenient to use as bluetooth, but also requires no extra components on the Naze.
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KiwiRCFlyer on February 14, 2015
Thanks. I didn't know about that! The BT modules are light (12g) but this would be easier than disconnecting them when tuning multiple quads at the field.
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abieex on February 10, 2015
I've never been a big multicopter fan 'cause it always seemed confusing. This episode was excellent and helped me understand the control board a little better. Maybe theres a copter on my horizon after all! Thanks guys, great job and well done.
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Overflight on February 10, 2015
FT, Great start on the intro into Naze32. Carbon fiber angle arm brackets, please?
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Kendrick57 on February 18, 2015
FT I like the idea of the angled arms as well.
I'm starting to cut my own carbon for a mini quad of my own should not be too hard to make angled arms out of carbon would need the thickness and angle so I can match them.
I can cut 3d as well so might have a go at cutting wedges for carbon mini quads.
kendrick
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Chioxin on March 1, 2015
I would really love to know the motors, and the props you are using here! Also, how'd you make that top piece! That's fantastic =D
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JulesHam on February 10, 2015
What do the testflite guys think about the autotune feture that cleanflight has?
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seiran73 on March 3, 2015
I am hanging out to build myself an FPV quad, and have been doing my homework to put together a shopping list. I stumbled upon this video while researching the Naze32 and I love the simplicity of Eric's racing quad, and I suspect I will go down a similar avenue. Any chance you could elaborate on his electronics setup? I would love to know what motors and ESC's he is running. Brilliant show guys, I am busy catching up on 4 years of awesomeness!
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Chawnerb on June 16, 2015
Hey Seiran, if you have questions, feel free to send me a message. I've built 450 sized quads (have 2 of them) and also built two 250 sized quads to date and am currently in the process of building a new 250 blackout mini H quad. So I'm more than willing to help out someone new in the hobby since there is alot! They did a great job in this video, but there is still things missing on overall setup. Good luck!
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thejimohalloran on April 18, 2015
Has anyone flown an Electrohub in the spider configuration on a Naze32, and would like to share their settings? Currently waiting for my first electrohub to arrive in the mail, which will have the same Emax motors and ESCs from the FliteTest power pack onboard. This will be my first scratch built quad, and I'd love to get some PID settings to use as a starting point.

Thanks in advance!
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ahawk89 on February 16, 2015
I purchased the angle arm brackets from the store, but I am missing a piece of information. What are the boom lengths for the two segments? Are they the standard Electrohub booms or modified? Thanks.
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The-One-Who-Never-Crashes on September 10, 2015
To make an Electrohub Racer, shorten the booms to 6 inches. Then split them in half and attach the angled arms.

Eric explains the process in the Electrohub Y6 Build video.
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UncleBob on April 25, 2015
FT Electrohub
Naze32 Acro V1.7.0 / Cleanflight
2300KV Cobra motors
12amp T-Motor esc's Simon K
6x4.5 HQ carbon reinforced props

Thats what he is using
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Flying Cirkus on February 9, 2015
Scratching the surface.. =D
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Mostly Harmless on June 5, 2015
Excellent discussion of setting up the board! Using this (and some other references around the interwebs), I was able to configure my Dragonfly -- just waiting until the weather clears a bit before heading outside to for the maiden flight -- I'll fly my Syma X5C-1 inside, but NOT a bigger machine! ;)

I did run into a problem where I couldn't get the initial connection made -- I kept getting a "no response from bootloader" error from Cleanflight.

I found the solution here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVF-gQsUu50

Thanks, again, for a great kit and build videos!

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securelpb on August 11, 2015
I had a heck of a time getting the board to arm, so I wanted to share my experience. This is a great video and it really helped be get my first quad going, but they brushed over arming and it doesn't seem to be well covered else where. I liked the idea of the arming switch, so I went that way. At first everything was great and I was able to see the Arm control in the Cleanflight GUI change state. However, after disconnecting and trying it for real, no worky. Odd, I power off get back in to cleanflight check things, don't really change anything, disconnect and tada it works! Great, put the props on and took it outside for my maiden flight. Armed right up took it up for a quick hover check and landed and disarmed to make a couple adjustments. Quad never armed again!! Back inside, props off, cleanflight up, battery hooked up and tada props arm. Repeated this three times (armed then wouldn't arm)!!!! Finally I found this guys video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U-rjC39EXQ) and everything fell into place. My throttle range wasn't consistently going low enough for the board to consider throttle off. Would have been nice if the debug log or something would have indicated why the board wouldn't arm, but whatever I finally fixed it by increasing the throttle range to 125% at the bottom. This allowed the throttle to go below the range the NAZE was looking for. Not sure what you would do on a non-computerized controller (mine is a DX8) to make this happen. Hope this helps!
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mr.shadey on August 18, 2015
I had exactly the same issue.
I fixed it by watching this video(https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W0vOVZPzIMo)
It must be difficult fitting all the info into a short video.
The Flite Test guys do a great job though.
Thanks
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jason.pavelka. on July 29, 2015
I'm not sure if anyone else has said this yet, but it was made clear to me buy all of the retailers i was going to purchase the Naze32 board through. If you purchase it un soldered, connect the board to USB and flash it before you solder the pins. Your Naze board will not be returnable if its been soldered.
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mr.shadey on November 28, 2015
I made some angled spacers and could not get it to fly very well. I waited for ages, for the set ups page that Josh and Eric spoke of, to be started but it never came. They just seem to ignore everyone's questions.
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mr.shadey on August 18, 2015
It would be great to know what P I D settings Eric ended up with just for comparison. I have built an angle armed zmr250 which was inspired by Mr Monroe. I attempted autotune and ended up with a Roll setting of "P" 15.8, "I" 0.238, "D" 1.
15.8 seems very high compared to all other settings that I have seen
Should I be concerned.
Thanks for everybody's hard work
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ddcook07 on July 18, 2015
What do I choose from the receiver menu for a 2.4G futaba on the clean flight program?
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Naze 32 Board Setup