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

[Spartan]

Well finally some good news from me!

I found a motor with bad bearings on my tri so I replaced that the other day. Plus I was able to borrow a mates transmitter today and managed to fly 4 batteries through it without a single issue!

It still needs more tuning as it has a bit of a wobble here and there where my mates tricopter was so smooth, but I was so happy just to have it in the air and actually flyable. I even had a tail first crash that was pretty hard and only broke one ziptie (that I have found so far).

So that has narrowed the fly away problem down to the transmitter. I'm hoping it's just the module and not the transmitter itself - I'm waiting eagerly at the door every day for the postie to bring the replacement module I ordered.

[Crisp Image]

Waiting is the worst part.
Like the last 2 hours of night shift before i get to go home to bed. Looking forward to that and then maybe a flight this afternoon.

[Spartan]

Waiting is the worst part.
Like the last 2 hours of night shift before i get to go home to bed. Looking forward to that and then maybe a flight this afternoon.

I know - the waiting kills me! I'm cheap so I by stuff from HobbyKing but then I pay the price by having to wait.

On a side note, I'd work night shift any time over day shift! I go back for night shift this Thursday.

[Crisp Image]

Back from another flight and I tried the auto feature. Well something is not right as all that happened was the quad went up quite a way and then stopped there. I waited for it to go somewhere but it did not. I guess my mission was not set up correct so I decided to bring it back with RTL. When it got close I changed to Stab and had a bit of fun flying at high speed. All went well and even the ODS kept going too. I flew for about 7 min on the battery which is about the time I go for but never use a timer. (The OSD told me I was 7:40 powered up time.)
The battery is now on charge and I will see how much power was used. I need to get a power meter so I can calibrate the PM.
Anyway it was a good flight and the wind was stronger than I wanted which threw the quad around a bit but it was still controllable.
Lost a screw on the camera bracket so now I need to find one to replace it. Tiny little one it is too.
That is it for today. Off to watch some youtube videos about droid planer and mission planner again to see where I went wrong.
Regards
Crispy

[CBRK]

Hi,

I too got in around 30 mins of flying today.  I didnt do as much mission stuff as planned as the wind was way higher than I was hoping for.  I tried for some slow stabilised shots, I'll see how they came out.

I switched it up and flew at another oval near my local headquarters and gee did I draw a crowd, I had about 10+ people from various parts of the ovals stop and watched me.  I had to make sure I looked the part so no major stuffing around.

Crispy, it sounds like your mission wasnt uploaded correctly.  If using droidplanner I firstly save the mission, then I upload it to the APM / Pixhawk, then I download the mission from it to verify it got it correctly.  It is also a good way to check that home is where you think it is :-)  That should show you straight off if it uploaded correctly, if not load the saved file and try again :-)  Also when you say fast speed, what sort of speeds are you talking.

I now take my Tri upto 65km/h, I had an issue earlier on where I would try to keep below 40km/h but it's handles the fast speeds well (it does a better job than the mini quad does) - it was due to a dodgy motor so I lost trust - it's now regained.  I'm thinking since I've had 3.5 hours of crash free running on the Tri since the motor change, I'm thinking of putting my gopro on the gimbal :-)  But I'll most likely wait till I've got the CF frame completed and have a few hours of running on it.  I really want to get some 2.7K - 25fps footage, 1080p is good but, nothing like some real HD footage.

Chris

[CBRK]

I know - the waiting kills me! I'm cheap so I by stuff from HobbyKing but then I pay the price by having to wait.

On a side note, I'd work night shift any time over day shift! I go back for night shift this Thursday.

Hi Spartan,

I get my HK Aus stuff usually within 48 hours of ordering (if i order before midday), sometimes 72 hours (I was hoping to get some of my CF today, but looks like it will be tomorrow - see I'm also waiting :-( ).  How fast you after or expecting?

If it's international it's typically less than 7 days.

I think that's pretty damn good considering it's coming from the south coast for the Aus Warehouse.  I've had stuff arrive 30 hours after ordering, that was pretty damn excellent.

Chris

[Crisp Image]

Chris,
I loaded the mission to the apm from the PC at home. I could not get the points to upload to the phone. So what I think is it had no wp loaded so went to the default height and then sat there waiting for something to do.
I am also going to make a bt module so I can use the Samsung tab for droid planner.
I have ordered one from the evil bay. Once I get it I need to set it up and make a wiring harness. The tab does not have a micro USB port so bt is my only option for that.
Like others have said it is almost as much fun building as flying.

Not sure on the top speed. I will try and get from the log. [edit] top speed was about 45kph. Via the log

Regards
Crispy


Sent using fat fingers on the iPad thingy

[CBRK]

Chris,
I loaded the mission to the apm from the PC at home. I could not get the points to upload to the phone. So what I think is it had no wp loaded so went to the default height and then sat there waiting for something to do.
I am also going to make a bt module so I can use the Samsung tab for droid planner.
I have ordered one from the evil bay. Once I get it I need to set it up and make a wiring harness. The tab does not have a micro USB port so bt is my only option for that.
Like others have said it is almost as much fun building as flying.

Not sure on the top speed. I will try and get from the log. [edit] top speed was about 45kph. Via the log

Regards
Crispy


Sent using fat fingers on the iPad thingy

Hi,

I thought you had the telemetry radios?  If so you can connect the radio to your phone via an OTG cable (the HK radio's come with one) - if not there are plenty of them floating around for a few dollars on ebay.  A BT module would be nice, so that you dont have to cart an extra item along when you go flying.  I tuck mine in my pocket and have the voice warnings turned on so I can hear it.

The 915Mhz antenna is pretty compact so it all fits in the pocket.  I think you said you have the 433Mhz radios which have an antenna that is a fair bit longer so it might look odd with it tucked out of your pocket :-)

Edit:  Yes it sounds very much like the mission wasnt loaded.  Use the same system but with MP, read from the APM just to be sure :-)  Dont forget to save the mission to disk though, I lost one to that once, wasnt happy....  Also reading it back means that you are 100% sure that you have the right mission loaded, now you are doing them the last thing you want is for it to do the previous mission when you are at a new location....

Chris

[Crisp Image]

I have the cable from HK. but the cable connection on the Samsung tab2 is the 30 pin connector. The radio connects to my phone no problems I want something bigger for my blindness. I have found an otg cable that gives me a standard usb connection so I might be able to use the standard cable connected to that. Should have the bt module and the new otg cable on Friday or early next week.


Sent using fat fingers on the iPad thingy

[Marschy]

I have the cable from HK. but the cable connection on the Samsung tab2 is the 30 pin connector. The radio connects to my phone no problems I want something bigger for my blindness. I have found an otg cable that gives me a standard usb connection so I might be able to use the standard cable connected to that. Should have the bt module and the new otg cable on Friday or early next week.


Sent using fat fingers on the iPad thingy

You wont need the OTG cable with the BT module

[Crisp Image]

You wont need the OTG cable with the BT module

Yes I know that but giving myself options!


Sent using fat fingers on the iPad thingy

[Spartan]

Hi Spartan,

I get my HK Aus stuff usually within 48 hours of ordering (if i order before midday), sometimes 72 hours (I was hoping to get some of my CF today, but looks like it will be tomorrow - see I'm also waiting :-( ).  How fast you after or expecting?

If it's international it's typically less than 7 days.

I think that's pretty damn good considering it's coming from the south coast for the Aus Warehouse.  I've had stuff arrive 30 hours after ordering, that was pretty damn excellent.

Chris

It's been a little while since I ordered something from the Oz warehouse but I think it took 5 or 6 working days - I live 1 hour out of Perth in WA (Wait Awhile). It's not HK - it's Australia Post that are slow. Everything we get from over east takes a minimum of 5 working days with Australia Post.

My order arrived today from China which makes it 13 days. I paid for express shipping which made it about 1 week quicker than it normally is - it's normally close to 3 full weeks from China to me.

I have no complaints with HK - they're emails suggest that they send stuff out quick - it's just Aus Post and also me not living in the metro area (although I'm literally 1 hour from Perth airport so I'm not that far out in the sticks).

I just replaced the Tx module and did a range check in the front yard and so far so good - just need to wait for the storms to bugger off so I can fly now! I've got a spare receiver for the next one now!

[CBRK]

It's been a little while since I ordered something from the Oz warehouse but I think it took 5 or 6 working days - I live 1 hour out of Perth in WA (Wait Awhile). It's not HK - it's Australia Post that are slow. Everything we get from over east takes a minimum of 5 working days with Australia Post.

My order arrived today from China which makes it 13 days. I paid for express shipping which made it about 1 week quicker than it normally is - it's normally close to 3 full weeks from China to me.

I have no complaints with HK - they're emails suggest that they send stuff out quick - it's just Aus Post and also me not living in the metro area (although I'm literally 1 hour from Perth airport so I'm not that far out in the sticks).

I just replaced the Tx module and did a range check in the front yard and so far so good - just need to wait for the storms to bugger off so I can fly now! I've got a spare receiver for the next one now!

Ah, yes WA is known for slow deliveries.  At least you have it now :-)

Yep from China things do seem to take a while but for usually free delivery, got to love these reciprocal agreements.  Its not any better on this side either.  It could be worse I remember when I was a teenager and we used to order our books from a shop in a Hawaii and we had to wait for it to come via sea mail, now that took time, it was in the order of 3 months from memory.

[CBRK]

Here is a pic of the tiny lemonRX, I cant believe a full range RX is so small, the satellite is even smaller..  I've included my R800X in the picture for reference.



I haven't tried using in any airframe yet, will let you know how good it is on that front when I get to it.  It was originally for the Tricopter, but now that I've got sbus working I'm not sure I will use it in that.  It might find it's way into the mini quad for testing (and to autotune it) but it will be wasted on that frame, as the 6 channels is heaps.....

Chris

[Spartan]

Ah, yes WA is known for slow deliveries.  At least you have it now :-)

Yep from China things do seem to take a while but for usually free delivery, got to love these reciprocal agreements.  Its not any better on this side either.  It could be worse I remember when I was a teenager and we used to order our books from a shop in a Hawaii and we had to wait for it to come via sea mail, now that took time, it was in the order of 3 months from memory.

Yeah I'm spoilt really. My Dad was saying the other day that when he was into rc planes in the 80s the only time he could stock up on parts etc was when he went to Perth every few months. Just need to stop being an impatient prick really  .

I probably should look around at some other suppliers too rather than just sticking with HK.

[Marschy]

Here is a pic of the tiny lemonRX, I cant believe a full range RX is so small, the satellite is even smaller..  I've included my R800X in the picture for reference.



I haven't tried using in any airframe yet, will let you know how good it is on that front when I get to it.  It was originally for the Tricopter, but now that I've got sbus working I'm not sure I will use it in that.  It might find it's way into the mini quad for testing (and to autotune it) but it will be wasted on that frame, as the 6 channels is heaps.....

Chris

I hate it when someone post a reply on this thread about cool stuff that I could do with when I have already spent my monthly allowance. Curse you Chris. LOL

Looks bloody excellent for mini's

[Crisp Image]

I have to curtail my spending for a few months so no new frames or motors. We have 2 big expensive trips this year so any spare cash is being put into that. It would be nice if the exchange rates were not going down.
Crispy

[Marschy]

Interesting, someone has just reported the same problem with their HKPilot mini throttle going to 100% all by itself. Same problem I had while tuning my X-mode Alien. They recovered by changing flight mode, same as I did. But unfortunately they had already set their throttle to zero with the tri-copter still throttling itself at 100%. So when they changed flight mode and the throttle issue went away, their tri-copter dropped like a brick.

Trying to find out the common denominator. I've asked the guy on rcgroups what flight mode he was using when this happened. It happened to me in acro mode.

[CBRK]

Well I received my CF flat sheets today, unfortunately I spent all day building a frame at SES to hold some cribbing in the truck, so got nothing done nor any flying :-(

On a plus the package also included a prop balancer so I'll give it a crack tonight.

Going for a 4WD day trip tomorrow so wont get to play with the CF sheets till Friday as long as SES doesn't eat my entire day on Friday (have several chainsaws to service and move the cribbing onto the new frame).  Hoping that two parcels arrive before too long, the other HK parcel with the CF square rods (now at 5 days - should get here on Friday) and the 3rd axis gimbal package from Goodluckbuy (15 days and counting - should get here within a week).  Really wishing that HK Aus had the square tubes....

Hang in there Crispy, just think about the fun you'll have on those trips.  You can have lots of fun with what you've got.  I know that diving Aus dollar is why I decided to spend a bit more now.....  It's looking like it will only go down for now.

Chris

[CBRK]

Interesting, someone has just reported the same problem with their HKPilot mini throttle going to 100% all by itself. Same problem I had while tuning my X-mode Alien. They recovered by changing flight mode, same as I did. But unfortunately they had already set their throttle to zero with the tri-copter still throttling itself at 100%. So when they changed flight mode and the throttle issue went away, their tri-copter dropped like a brick.

Trying to find out the common denominator. I've asked the guy on rcgroups what flight mode he was using when this happened. It happened to me in acro mode.

Hi Marschy,

Can you send me your DF log, I'll have a look for you.

Chris

[CBRK]

I hate it when someone post a reply on this thread about cool stuff that I could do with when I have already spent my monthly allowance. Curse you Chris. LOL

Looks bloody excellent for mini's

Hi Marschy,

LOL, it was my turn for once :-)  Wow the months barely started and you've done the monthly allowance 

I know it's making me rethink what the plans are.  So hard a choice, I guess it will come down to if the CF caused RF interference, if it does I'll use the lemon rx as I can mount the satellite on a piece of FR4 as it's pretty tiny.  Otherwise I'll use the large R800X as SBUS to the Pixhawk.

Seems I really need the 3rd axis gimbal as I'm convinced my tricopter wiggle is because the tail boom is out by a few degrees.  Doesnt matter what I do on the tuning front, it's a lot less but still present.  Can't wait to do the CF frame as I'll use my drill press to be a tad more accurate than I was on the plywood (was too eager to build it - dodgy hand drilling let me down).  Will be nice to remove the wiggle (by removing build fault in tail boom) and also stabilise the image with the 3rd axis gimbal.

I've been working on the ODROID, I now have power supplied via UBEC (it draws about 500ma which is not bad - 650ma with a webcam going).  I plan to design the Tricopter to add this on as an option over the top of the pixhawk.  I've got some image processing software for objects that look different kinda working - uses the images from a webcam, I've spun up MavProxy now to get the APM/Pixhawk to ODROID working.  I'll do up the cable on Friday evening and see if I can get mavlink packets, then it should be a case of setting up the telemetry radio off the ODROID and getting an SSH link up and running.  I now have 6 telemetry radios (4 V2, 2V1) - all 915Mhz, so I'll move the V1 pair I'll use on the ODROID to Ground station on a different ID.  Once the SSH link is up and running I'll be able to do lots over this link.  If all goes well I may look at some of the RFDesign 915Mhz radios.  Not that I'm planning on going 10Km out but nice to know the link is likely to be more reliable at 1km or slightly further.  Lastly I need to get my nicer cameras to somehow save it's data onto the ODROID's disk, instead of the SD card or at least access it while pictures are being taken.

Chris

[Marschy]

Hi Marschy,

Can you send me your DF log, I'll have a look for you.

Chris

I sure can, I must start looking at my log data too.

[Marschy]

Chris, how do I retrieve the dataflash log?

Never mind, my logs were disabled. I will reenable them and try again this weekend. The problem was happening consistently so I'm confident it will happen again.

What should I set the Log bitmask to?

[Artie01]

Hi Spartan,

I get my HK Aus stuff usually within 48 hours of ordering (if i order before midday), sometimes 72 hours (I was hoping to get some of my CF today, but looks like it will be tomorrow - see I'm also waiting :-( ).  How fast you after or expecting?

If it's international it's typically less than 7 days.

I think that's pretty damn good considering it's coming from the south coast for the Aus Warehouse.  I've had stuff arrive 30 hours after ordering, that was pretty damn excellent.

Chris

lol...I get my Aus HK stuff within hours of ordering...of course I live about 12k's from the warehouse who do self collection ... 

[Marschy]

lol...I get my Aus HK stuff within hours of ordering...of course I live about 12k's from the warehouse who do self collection ... 

I'm a tight arse. I nearly always go for the cheapest delivery option.

I ordered some Blueseries 30A ESC's to replace the HK SS30A's from the international warehouse using international registered mail. It doesn't get more tight than that I reckon.