Remote controlled flying things-Quads, Hex, Octo or anything

[Mandrake]

On the Naza its 2 single pin cables .. Pitch and Roll .. to the 2 top left pins on the multi connector on the gimbal board ..( Far left top is Pitch next one across is roll .) On the Naza its a 3 pin vertical setup and the top 2 are used .. can't remember if its M1 , M2 or something else ... If you need to know I can open it up and take a photo .. But its a pain to get to  easily !!  Steve

Edit - F1 socket top pin is Gimbal roll , F2 socket top pin is Gimbal Pitch .. ( Forgot I had the manual !! )  Mandrake

[Marschy]

On the Naza its 2 single pin cables .. Pitch and Roll .. to the 2 top left pins on the multi connector on the gimbal board ..( Far left top is Pitch next one across is roll .) On the Naza its a 3 pin vertical setup and the top 2 are used .. can't remember if its M1 , M2 or something else ... If you need to know I can open it up and take a photo .. But its a pain to get to  easily !!  Steve

Edit - F1 socket top pin is Gimbal roll , F2 socket top pin is Gimbal Pitch .. ( Forgot I had the manual !! )  Mandrake

Righto, so I'm assuming, but want to check, the pins on the gimbal control board you are referring to are the ones in the picture below next to the arrow. I can see one of them is marked 'Roll' and I'll check tonight when I get home as I assume the other side has the pitch pin.

Are these the ones you connect to the flight control board?

[Mandrake]

Yup !! The 3 pin sockets at the back are motor control for pitch and roll .. The top pins on the 6 pin socket on the side are Pitch and Roll - You may need a 3 wire connecting cable for all 3 vertical pins --  but the Naza only needs one for control as the battery negative is common for the main control board and the gimbal control board .. Mandrake

Still too f@@@ ing windy down here .. I'm waiting on the 2.4Ghz FPV unit , OSD and GPS unit and a nice big back pack to carry all this stuff ... Might have to invest in a donkey to cart it all around !!

[yogi]

Well finally got my gimbal hooked up on the bottom of the 350 QX with GoPro quick release mount. Have my 7 inch monitor mounted to my TX ..... hooked up all the cables for FPV and it actually works ..... lol .... Now I just need to do the V2 software upgrade to the 350 QX once my new battery tray and 3000mAh batteries turn up next week. Have done all the GPS relocation modes the 350 QX AP has so should be interference free

yogi

[Crisp Image]

I had time to put the bird in the sky last week while on holidays.
I am yet to do a video of it but I will do this week I hope.
I had to do a temp repair on the beach as my gimbal stopped working but after a short delay it was up and running again.
I have made an order with Hobby king for some replacement parts and a new battery. Didn't break anything just reconfiguring.
When I get the video done I shall post up.
Regards
Crispy

[Mandrake]

Well I am stoked ( I think ?? ) I bought this and it arrived today and although it has not been up in the air yet it works really well .. I won't be able to have OSD on it but the FPV
will be good - It even has a X2 zoom option on the mini-screen / recorder -
http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/6240034397.html
Normally if I walk through my house I lose contact with these types of 2.4 Ghz things - I had all 5 bars right through to the garden ..
There seems to be a little trick to switching on the camera which I am having a small amount of difficulty with but i'm sure I'll get it ok soon and then when
the wind decides to P off I'll fly it ...
I also am looking at this for my next toy now .. Project 2015 it will be ...
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__29600__Hobbyking_X650F_Glass_Fiber_Quadcopter_Frame_550mm.html
Seems pretty good - Opinions ??
Steve

[Marschy]

G'day Steve,

I had a good look at both this frame, and many others when I settled on the Alien 560 quad from Hobbyking.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__61221__HobbyKing_174_Alien_560_Folding_Quad_Copter_Carbon_Fiber_Version_Kit_AU_Warehouse_.html

Now, I haven't put this frame together completely yet, but the noticeable difference between the 560 frame and my F450 frame was the real estate that you have for putting everything on the frame.

Having said that I would choose the following frame over the Hobbyking Alien 560 anyday. Very similar but the crab landing gear is apparently not a 'brittle' as the Hobbyking Alien.

http://www.goodluckbuy.com/atg-tt-x4-12-reptile-4-axis-quadcopter-folding-frame-kit-with-tall-landing-skid-gear-gopro-ptz.html

The amount of space on these frames influenced me so much that the next frame I bought was the Reptile-Aphid from Goodluckbuy.

http://www.goodluckbuy.com/reptile-aphid-x450-fpv-quadcopter-aircraft-frame-kit-with-700tvl-camera-lens.html

Now this frame is a ripper. It comes with a built in 700tvl FPV camera on a single axis tilt servo that I have hooked up to the flight control board (APM 2.6) and channel 8 on my radio (trimpot). It has allowed all my electronic hardware to be mounted within the frame in an extremely tidy manner.

Have a look at some of the frames on Goodluckbuy. Search for 'quadcopter frame'. They have some great frames that have varying amounts of real estate to mount all of the electrical components and many come with gimbals. A bit more expensive than Hobbyking, but a far greater choice of frame types and sizes. The built in FPV camera is a brilliant idea, and one that I will look for options for first in the future. The reason being that the in-built FPV cameras seem to fit like a glove and because this is typically what we are trying to do, why stuff around doing it yourself.

Here are a couple of pictures on my new Reptile-Aphid. Note, I've changed the arms because the frame comes with black acrylic (I think) arms which appear quite brittle, so I swapped them over to red/white nylon arms.





Short of a bit of velcro for holding the battery in place, this frame is now ready to fly. I'm hoping to get some video this weekend. (And yes, the yellow legs are tent pegs from our ensuite tent, never used the bloody thing that often anyway. And who showers when they go bush anyway?)

Cheers, Marschy

[Marschy]

Hello Steve,

Here is another well priced frame with built in single axis gimbal for a go-pro style camera. This is single axis gimbal similar to the gimbal you and I are already familiar with. But importantly, the frame has lots of room, and the arms allow stuff to be mounted to them if you need to get your FPV camera transmitter as far away from your GPS receiver if need be, or even like in my photos from the previous post above, for mounting the telemetry radio.

http://www.goodluckbuy.com/reptile550-v2-quadcopter-frame-kit-and-1-axis-gopro-3-brushless-gimbal-for-fpv.html

or for a few bucks more, a two axis gimbal frame.

http://www.goodluckbuy.com/locust-quadcopter-frame-and-2-axis-gopro-3-aluminum-gimbal-bgc-3-0-mos-controller-for-fpv.html

Cheers, Marschy

[yogi]

Something like one of these would be cool

http://www.fpvguy.com/2014/05/walkera-goes-pro-the-tali-h500-hexa-copter.html

https://www.airdog.com/products

Do any of the cheap MAV type boards have a follow me and circle type function ?

yogi

[Mandrake]

Was looking good for a while - Those battery units $150 each - ouch !! Price on the complete kit hurts a bit too .. But nice VERY nice - Love th controller

[Marschy]

Do any of the cheap MAV type boards have a follow me and circle type function ?

Yep APM 2.6
http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/flight-modes/
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/APM2-6-ArduPilot-UAV-Flight-Controller-APM-2-6-6M-GPS-w-Compass-Power-Module-915Mhz/2021736205.html

[yogi]

There are 14 flight modes available in APM:Copter

 ?Stabilize
 ?Alt Hold
 ?Loiter (& OF_loiter)
 ?RTL (Return-to-Launch)
 ?Auto
 ?Acro
 ?Sport
 ?Drift
 ?Guided
 ?Circle
 ?Position
 ?Land
 ?Follow Me
 ?Simple and Super Simple

That's a few modes Does it do OSD and telematry ?

Thanks
yogi

[Marschy]

That's a few modes Does it do OSD and telematry ?

Yes to both.
MinimOSD
Telemetry

For the money spent and features, they are a bloody great board.

Look at the upper white arm on the photo above, you can see the antenna for the 915MHz telemetry radio.

Also check out the videos for the flight modes. Drift caught my attention, basically flying in mode 2 using only pitch and roll stick and throttle only needed if altitude needs adjusting.

[Mandrake]

Here's what the Phantom looks like now...


The camera on the leg is my FPV unit. It doesn't have OSD . Monitor at left is velcroed to the radio ..Flew it yesterday and needed a clear LOS for reception will be trying a different antenna to see if that makes a difference...

[Marschy]

No footage this weekend. Lots of stuff broken. 4 props, landing gear, one motor boom. My first F450 is behaving very erratically, reckon it needs recalibrating. The second F450 has demonstrated my poorly designed undercarriage which snapped the motor boom right near the motor. New undercarriage should be arriving soon so I'll get that sorted and tune the quads before I go on my next outing rather than trying to tune them when I've got an audience.

[Crisp Image]

I was all prepared to fly this weekend on our camping trip however the wind came up and I really didn't feel like flying between the trees with wind.
On the up side I tried out the Solar Panel I got from Mandrake. Seemed to do the job keeping the battery charged so I can then charge my quads batteries in the field without worrying about the fridge stopping
Regards
Crispy

[yogi]

Looking good guys .... Finally found a mob that have a Taranis Plus in stock and worked up enough courage to ask the wife permission .... Web site is now undergoing maintenance .... Lol

Got the 2.4 DSM module ordered from HobbyKing using DHL .... Anyone used them before and got an idea how long I will have to wait ?

Looks like the Taranis telemetry receiver can interface with a MAV board for all of the telemetry stuff on the radio and OSD ..... My next project will be a fully functioning MAV enhanced hexocopter ..... Full autonomy But for now I just need to get the gimbal and 350 QX working with my new radio once it turns up

yogi

[Mandrake]

I ordered some Hobbyking stuff last Thursday got it tonight by DHL... M

[yogi]

Not as long as I thought then .... Thanks

yogi

[Marschy]

Looks like the Taranis telemetry receiver can interface with a MAV board for all of the telemetry stuff on the radio and OSD

If you need any help with the setup of the OSD board, shoot me or CBRK a message. I'm sure he would be willing to help as well. May save you blowing up a board or two. They are very temperamental.
My last one worked first attempt and even though it is wired up to my camera and video transmitter exactly the same as the first one, and the same board, the second board wouldn't allow the video to work with the ground wire connected to the video in pins, I had to disconnect the ground for it to work. They say they are all the same, but there appears to be subtle differences, which can make setting them up very frustrating.

[yogi]

Thanks Marschy will keep it in mind

Anyone ordered stuff from BoltRC.com ?

yogi

[Mandrake]

Was trying to wire up OSD and transmitter etc this arvo and let the smoke out ... apparently my 12 volt camera was actually 5 volt !!  THATS IT !!! No more wasting money -
LOS for me !! LOL ...
Next bird will be a Naza M plug and play job !! ...

[Marschy]

Bugger. I know how you feel. My fried components list is getting longer all the time.

[Markoutback]

Hi all have just purchased my first quad a Phantom 2 with FPV looking forward to flying it this weekend. Will keep you posted

[Marschy]

Cool, this aerial photography gig is getting very popular.