Well today I didn't get to fly as hoped. I did however get to calibrate both my HK and one of my non HK Power Modules. Both only needed minor updating for voltage, the current however was a different story. I used a Watt Meter I had laying around (was going to be my output meter on my trailer but I now only have a low draw since the fridge is in the Prado it was surplus to my needs). Note all this was done with a tether to avoid any fly offs indoors.
The Tricopter using the HK PM was almost spot on, only needed minor changes. It was about 5% to high, I almost left it as a safety factor but thought I should have it correct.
The non HK Power Module on the quad was useless. The current was way out, I was drawing 8 amps the PM was reporting 15 amps. No wonder my quad was reporting 1800mah used in 7-8 mins. It looks much better now, reports the right values at load (above 3+ amps), at rest it is reporting 0.3 amps when it's drawing 0.6 amps. I will retest tomorrow that its calibrated correctly, should now get around 11-12 mins which is around what I was planning. Means that I can finally test out the smaller 1300mah battery to see if the lighter load will give me something decent.
Note that when testing the current you need to induce around a 10 amp load. For the mini quad this was very hard to do when 10 amps will get me bouncing around on the ground - had to settle for 8 amps with some minor movement.
Also found my IXUS 115HS and I've loaded CHDK onto it. I've not found my battery charger yet, I ordered a replacement on ebay, so should be here in less than a week. Hopefully my 3 partially charged batteries will keep me going till it arrives or I find my old charger. Will now need to wire up a harness to control it via the APM, then I can try my hand at aerial mapping as well.
Chris
