PID presets are bandaids. They’re someone else’s tune for someone else’s build — different motors, different frame, different weight, different flying style. If you’ve tried three presets and your quad still oscillates, washes out, or feels sloppy, you need to start from zero and derive your own values. This guide assumes you know the basics of what P, I, and D do. Now we’re going deeper — the how and why of each number.
Deriving P-Gain: The Foundation
P-gain is proportional correction — how hard the flight controller pushes to return to the target rotation rate. Too low: the quad feels loose, mushy, unresponsive. Too high: fast oscillations, hot motors, audible buzzing.
Step 1: Zero everything. Set P=20, I=0, D=0, Feedforward=0 on all three axes in Betaflight. Arm the quad and hover. It will drift and feel terrible — that’s expected. You’re building from nothing.
Step 2: Increase P on roll axis in increments of 5. After each increase, do a sharp roll input and listen. When you hear a fast buzzing (40-80Hz oscillation) on sharp stick inputs, you’ve found the oscillation threshold. Back down by 5 points. This is your P-gain ceiling for roll.
Step 3: Repeat for pitch. Pitch typically accepts 5-10 points higher P than roll because the pitch axis has more inertia (the quad is longer front-to-back than side-to-side). Same process: increase until buzz at sharp inputs, back down 5.
Step 4: Yaw P is different. Yaw uses P and I almost exclusively — D is minimal. Start yaw P at 80, increase in steps of 10 until you hear grinding or feel oscillation on fast yaw spins. Yaw overshoot (bouncing past the target heading when you release the stick) means P is too high.
What If You Can’t Hear Oscillation?
Use blackbox. Log a flight with P at the suspected ceiling, open the gyro trace, and look for high-frequency content on the axis you’re tuning. If the gyro trace has a persistent ~80Hz ripple during maneuvers, P is still too high. Back down until the trace is smooth during aggressive stick inputs. If you don’t have blackbox, watch motor temperatures: landing with motors above 60°C (too hot to hold for 5 seconds) means P is too high regardless of audible noise.
Deriving D-Gain: The Damper
D resists change in error — it’s the shock absorber. Too low: bounce-back after flips and rolls, propwash oscillation. Too high: D-noise amplification, hot motors, “grinding” sound.
Step 1: Start with D at 20 for roll and pitch. With P set at your ceiling values from above, fly aggressive maneuvers — snap rolls, split-S, hard 180 turns. Watch for bounce-back at the end of a roll: the quad overshoots and snaps back 5-10 degrees before settling.
Step 2: Increase D in steps of 3 until bounce-back disappears. If you reach D=50 and bounce-back remains, the problem isn’t D — your P is too high. Reduce P by 5 and restart D tuning.
Step 3: The D ceiling is motor heat. After landing, check motor temps. If motors are significantly hotter with D=40 than D=20 for the same flight style, D is amplifying noise. The gyro noise is being differentiated (rate of change of noise is high-frequency noise), and the D-term is passing that straight to the motors. Back D down to the highest value that doesn’t cause temperature increase.
The P:D Ratio Rule of Thumb
On a well-tuned 5-inch quad running Betaflight 4.5+, the P:D ratio typically lands between 1.3:1 and 1.7:1 on roll, and 1.5:1 to 2.0:1 on pitch. If your P is 55 and D is 25 (2.2:1 ratio), you’re under-damped — expect propwash and bounce-back. If P is 45 and D is 40 (1.1:1), you’re over-damped — the quad feels sluggish and motors run hot from D-noise. A P:D ratio of roughly 1.5:1 is the sweet spot for most builds.
Deriving I-Gain: The Corrector
I accumulates error over time and corrects for steady-state offsets — wind, CG imbalance, bent prop. Too low: the quad drifts, attitude slowly changes during sustained maneuvers. Too high: I-term windup causes slow oscillations (5-15Hz), especially on yaw.
Step 1: Start I at 50 for roll and pitch, 80 for yaw. Fly a sustained full-throttle climb straight up. If the quad pitches or rolls during the climb without stick input, I is too low to hold attitude. Increase I on the offending axis.
Step 2: The I ceiling is low-frequency oscillation. After a sharp maneuver, hover and watch. If the quad slowly rocks side-to-side or front-to-back at about once per second, I is too high — the accumulated error is overshooting. Reduce by 10 and re-test.
Step 3: I-term relax and anti-gravity. For freestyle and racing builds, set I-term relax to 10-15 on roll and pitch. This temporarily reduces I accumulation during fast stick movements, preventing I-term windup during snap maneuvers. Anti-gravity gain at 3.5-5.0 boosts I gain during rapid throttle changes — essential for preventing pitch-up on punch-outs.
PID Parameter Derivation Reference
| Parameter | Starting Value | Increment | Ceiling Indicator | Typical Final Range (5-inch) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P Roll | 20 | +5 | Audible buzz at 40-80Hz | 45-65 |
| P Pitch | 20 | +5 | Audible buzz (higher tolerance than roll) | 50-75 |
| P Yaw | 80 | +10 | Overshoot on fast yaw stop | 90-130 |
| D Roll | 20 | +3 | No bounce-back AND no motor heat increase | 30-42 |
| D Pitch | 20 | +3 | Same as roll | 32-48 |
| D Yaw | 0 | +1 | Rarely needed above 5 | 0-5 |
| I Roll | 50 | +10 | Slow drift during climb → increase; low-freq rock → decrease | 55-75 |
| I Pitch | 50 | +10 | Same as roll | 55-75 |
| I Yaw | 80 | +10 | Slow yaw oscillation at hover | 80-110 |
What Most Pilots Get Wrong About PID Tuning
Mistake 1: Copying someone else’s PIDs digit-for-digit. PIDs are specific to the entire build — frame stiffness, motor size/KV, prop pitch, AUW, battery voltage sag, FC soft-mount material, even ambient temperature. A tune that’s locked-in on one quad can oscillate violently on an identical-looking build with different standoffs. Use others’ tunes as reference for the P:D ratio, not as copy-paste values.
Mistake 2: Tuning filters and PIDs simultaneously. If you change D-gain and RPM filter harmonics at the same time, you won’t know which change fixed (or broke) the behavior. Tune filters first — get the gyro noise floor as low as mechanically and electrically possible — then tune PIDs against that clean signal.
Mistake 3: Chasing perfection on a bent prop or loose arm. A quad with a bent motor shaft will never tune cleanly. Fix mechanical issues before touching PID values. If you’ve been tuning for 30 minutes and nothing makes sense, land, check every motor bell for runout, and torque every frame screw.
Mistake 4: Ignoring I-term entirely and only tuning P and D. I-term is the unsung hero of a locked-in quad. A well-tuned I-term holds attitude during long dives and punch-outs without pilot correction. If you’re constantly micro-correcting pitch during a dive, your I-term is too low — turn it up.
⚠️ Regulatory Notice: The flight recommendations in this article should be followed in accordance with the latest 2026 drone regulations in your country or region. Always verify local laws regarding flight altitude, no-fly zones, remote ID requirements, and registration before flying. Regulations vary significantly between the FAA (US), EASA (EU), CAA (UK), CAAC (China), and other authorities.
PID tuning from scratch gives you full control, but sliders can speed up the process once you understand the fundamentals. Our Betaflight PID sliders guide covers the visual tuning workflow — great for quick field adjustments after you’ve done the manual baseline derivation described here.
For the I-term specific behaviors that take a quad from good to locked-in, our I-term tuning deep dive covers I-term rotation, anti-gravity gain, and yaw overshoot fixes in detail. Your I-term is what makes the quad “go where you point it” without constant correction.
And once the tune is dialed, your rates determine how the quad responds to your stick movements. Our Betaflight rates configuration guide explains actual vs center sensitivity and RC smoothing — the final layer between a good tune and a great flying experience.
A flight controller that gives you clean gyro data makes PID tuning dramatically easier. The SpeedyBee F405 V4 stack has an ICM-42688-P gyro with excellent noise performance out of the box — less gyro noise means you can push P and D higher before hitting oscillation, giving you a wider tuning window.