Well I managed to get some flying into today!!!! Thank you mother in law who was able to babysit for an hour to let me do this. I put the tricopter up and I was right about my previous front left motor, I replaced it after last time and the issue has gone away, no random stalling of the motor. Got about 35 mins in of actual flying time, and used about 8500mah off two 3s 5000mah (not mounted at the same time), so very happy with the flying times. Would have gotten nearly 18 mins a battery with 20% spare.
I'm happy with my reinforcing of the battery tray, I had some strong winds today and when I was flying at around 30km/h with a -45 degree pitch it became unstable in the wind. Had a spinning wild pitching blackhawk down type moment. Felt like I was recovering with stabilise mode but stupidly thought loiter would be better.... Nope, another 1m higher and keeping it in stabilise and I would have recovered. No real damage with a hit to the ground from several metres with an vertical impact speed of 2m per sec..... Wasn't my plan to test out the new mounts but it certainly did handle it well.
Rest of the flying went well but I kept the pitch to less than 30 degrees and kept to less than 30km/h. I think my autotune needs to be done again, seemed to have to correct excessively, but it might have been the wind. Will test again in still winds to see if it was just the winds today.
On another note, I have the mini 250 quad build happening. I have the frame assembled, mounted the motors and props (wow not much clearance at all, 5inch is the largest I can put on this thing. I have a good use for a rp-sma extension cable, so I have the FPV Tx antenna mounted off the frame nicely. Most stuff will be kept to to inside of the frame, so far only the battery (2200mah) is going to be mounted on the bottom but still clear of the ground with the landing gear and the FPV tx is sitting horizontal on the top. I will most likely move this to the inside as I should have spare room for it. Will leave plenty of room for the action cam if I want it in the future.
I had one of those moments....... You know the kind where you ask yourself, "are you stupid....." I thought I had everything to put this together.... Nope I realised that I forgot to buy 2mm bullet connectors..... I'd have to direct solder the motors but since this wont be the frame I use in the long run I thought It was best to use the connectors so now I have to wait till Tuesday for a rush order to arrive, otherwise I'd have had the quad up today too. I'll swap over to the mini APM when it arrives too.
I plan to do everything else tonight on the quad so that I can take it for a spin as soon as I get the connectors (will post pics later tonight). Best part is that after it's first test flight (at my normal oval I fly at) I can do some serious testing out the front of my place as I've got a small reserve that has a few trees. If all goes well I should be zipping around those by the end of the week :-)
Marschy, I should be able to do the sonar testing tonight (once my daughter goes to bed) and plan to mount it to the Tricopter if it works well. Will let you know hoe it goes.
Chris
