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

[Marschy]

I would have to get the other thing too wouldn't I ? BTU coz it has the sockets for iOSD and GPS ?? Is that right or does the mini have a GPS socket ? I'll have go look how its connected . Might be no use to me as I don't have iPad or iPhone ?

You don't need the BTU, but you will need the Naza PMU V2 as this has the additional CAN-Bus port that you will need for the iOSD. My understanding from the links I previously sent to you is that after reflashing, the Lite is then compatible with the PMU V2 from the Naza M V2.

[Crisp Image]

Just wait till i get home so i can process the video i have just taken from the pinnicals fire tower.

EDIT: Home now. Check this out. The Pilot still needs training!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9uNW3M1LhY

Crispy

[CBRK]

Just wait till i get home so i can process the video i have just taken from the pinnicals fire tower.

EDIT: Home now. Check this out. The Pilot still needs training!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9uNW3M1LhY

Crispy

Nice location.  Good clip.  You'll get there with practice, god knows I'm still practicing.  I'm impressed it wasn't extremely windy up there.

I'm thinking you didn't know how far over the cliff you were when you turned around?  You kind of high tailed it back once you spun around.

What camera did you use?  It looks like it was a bit overexposed and struggled with the change in light or was it the weather / environment?  It can be hard to tell sometimes.

Chris

[CBRK]

Goddam HK bearings.....  I've been racking up some serious flight time with my Tricopter over the last month (several hours a week).  Funny thing is I was going to mount the gopro today, but I thought I'd do a warm up flight with the cheap action cam.....  I took it for a warm up spin, was only in the air for 30 seconds, I was trying out my latest config of the 32 bit gimbal controller and suddenly it flips over and hits the deck.  Luckily it was only 5m up at the time, no damage to the frame besides one broken 3mm nylon bolt, couple of zip ties, one less than smoot DT750, all CF and electronics in tact.  After careful review of the flight footage and review of damaged parts I have come to the conclusion that it was again the front left motor that died, this is the same location as the previous one that died for the same reason.  It is down to either the bearings or a failure in the 11x4.7 propeller hub.

Whats funny is I expected this for when I switched to 4s as the DT750's are only 3s rated (but many run them at 4s without any issues and without changing the bearings), whats funny is I'm yet to change over yet, although they have had a 10 min test at 4s.....  So it's possible it was damaged then.

I cannot wait for my emax motors to arrive - why did I choose the slow option!!  Hopefully not too much longer before I get some quality motors on it.  Since I return to work on Wednesday I'll be doing a quick rebuild with a spare motor (DT750) this afternoon and will convert to 4s and be flying again with it tomorrow.  Luckily I have some spare bearings for the DT750's so I can get the dodgy one working again.....

My reasoning behind it is that all parts were found within 10cm of the frame.  It flipped to it's left on the footage, indicating loss of lift or a weight shift to that side.  I could see that the arm which the nylon bolt broke speared into the ground, the motor came off the mount but was still connected by two cables, I think the 3rd cable is due to impact damage, the small bolt end with nut and the head were next to each other.  The propeller was nearby in two parts, a split at the hub.  I think due to the propeller being that location and the split on the hub indicates it occurred when the motor speared the ground while spinning.  The gimbal also had partly separated, 3 of 4 rubber balls had come out of the top plate the 4th came out of the bottom plate.  The left motor is harder to turn than normal, leading me to believe the bearings are not in a good shape.  Only other possibility was that the gimbal bottom plate fell off swinging to that side, but the footage doesn't back that up, in fact the gimbal tried to stabilise the camera on the initial failure.

So it was either bad bearings, or bad propeller which has now damaged the motor....

Oh well more rebuilding......    Lucky I find that part as much fun as flying.

Chris

[Crisp Image]

Nice location.  Good clip.  You'll get there with practice, god knows I'm still practicing.  I'm impressed it wasn't extremely windy up there.

I'm thinking you didn't know how far over the cliff you were when you turned around?  You kind of high tailed it back once you spun around.

What camera did you use?  It looks like it was a bit overexposed and struggled with the change in light or was it the weather / environment?  It can be hard to tell sometimes.

Chris

A gopro is the camera of choice and usually handles things better.
There was a light breeze up on top but nothing too strong. After I landed it increased in speed a bit so it was a case of good timing.
All of the flight was done LOS so I knew how far I was out there. I must say I was a bit worried about the what if it crashes.
The maximum height at Talbotville was 109m. I think I have a couple of batteries that are about shot. Just as I was bringing it in for landing it started to fall from the sky. I went into hover mode and it continued to fall so throttled up and managed to stop the fall and land safely. That was close!
The altitude of the fire tower is about 1500m.

Regards
Crispy

[CBRK]

A gopro is the camera of choice and usually handles things better.
There was a light breeze up on top but nothing too strong. After I landed it increased in speed a bit so it was a case of good timing.
All of the flight was done LOS so I knew how far I was out there. I must say I was a bit worried about the what if it crashes.
The maximum height at Talbotville was 109m. I think I have a couple of batteries that are about shot. Just as I was bringing it in for landing it started to fall from the sky. I went into hover mode and it continued to fall so throttled up and managed to stop the fall and land safely. That was close!
The altitude of the fire tower is about 1500m.

Regards
Crispy

Really?  I'm surprised.  It seemed to struggle.

Great location, nice, 1500m up, that would be great.  It did look like you went up pretty high at talbotville.

I think I'll be taking my Tri with me when I get around to getting to the Vic High Country.

Chris

[Artie01]

A gopro is the camera of choice and usually handles things better.
There was a light breeze up on top but nothing too strong. After I landed it increased in speed a bit so it was a case of good timing.
All of the flight was done LOS so I knew how far I was out there. I must say I was a bit worried about the what if it crashes.
The maximum height at Talbotville was 109m. I think I have a couple of batteries that are about shot. Just as I was bringing it in for landing it started to fall from the sky. I went into hover mode and it continued to fall so throttled up and managed to stop the fall and land safely. That was close!
The altitude of the fire tower is about 1500m.

Regards
Crispy

I started out with the GoPro on mine and while I liked what I was getting from it, a couple of hard landings (one from 50m) had me considering the wisdom of so much money up high. I went to the Mobius and although its not quite the same quality recording, I'm more comfortable with it on the frame.

Your footage was amazing, its a beautiful place and Id be having the same thoughts with the thing hanging over the drop like that.... not so much about the crash, as the recovery! (I still have one frame up the top of a tree not far from my place.... it taunts me....bastard).

The calm conditions helped heaps, I took mine on a fishing trip in November and it was blowing a gale the whole time, it was a 2000k return trip so I wasn't going to waste it, but the footage is really jerky as it tries to stay in the air being gusted around.

Good job!

[Marschy]

Finally got the replacement miniAPM in the mail last night, as well as another miniAPM and GPS for my Trifecta mini tri-copter (note to self, check the power module pin outs before connecting everyting, doh).

It took 6 weeks this Thursday to deliver. I ordered a couple of days prior to Chinese New Year. I have bought other stuff from China after Chinese New Year and received them before the miniAPM's. Oh well, live and learn.

Chance of me getting the ZMR250 in to the air this side of Easter is zero unfortunately.

I'm off to New Caledonia on Friday for a 9 night South Pacific cruise. What an opportunity to get some fantastic footage using the quads, but I don't think the missus would be too happy with me if I took a quad copter along. In fact I know she wouldn't be.

[CBRK]

Grrrrrr, bad luck goes in three's right?  Well item two and three today.....  I worked on the 12V regulator but it's not working, I must have fried it somehow - no magic smoke though......  Then I decide to go fly the tri on 3s for a quick spin and this time 30 seconds in the air and down to the ground it went (from 12m up).

I've got lots of snapped nylon bolts, large number of snapped zip ties and a broken prop or two but it seems the CF is in tact except for the nose space but took the full brunt of the crash.  Now I'm running out of the 11x4.7's, grrrr. 

On review of the footage it appears that the rear motor or tilt mechanism played up as I got a sudden left flat roll that accelerated and ended up in a dive to the ground.....  Lots of bits on the ground.  It will take me a few nights to fix it all..... Sigh.  I wish the emax motors where here already.  I'm seriously thinking of making it a Y6 to prevent this in the future, it would be sloppy in one axis but I'd be able to land it, although I'm hoping the emax motors will work better.  No cameras were damaged!!  Although the action cam failed to record the accident - file is corrupted, but I do have the saved FPV footage.

Hmmm 6 x 2.7kg = 16.2 kg of lift, I'm liking the thought of it.

Chris

[Marschy]

2.8
2.8
2.8

[CBRK]

Grrrrrr, bad luck goes in three's right?  Well item two and three today.....  I worked on the 12V regulator but it's not working, I must have fried it somehow - no magic smoke though......  Then I decide to go fly the tri on 3s for a quick spin and this time 30 seconds in the air and down to the ground it went (from 12m up).

I've got lots of snapped nylon bolts, large number of snapped zip ties and a broken prop or two but it seems the CF is in tact except for the nose space but took the full brunt of the crash.  Now I'm running out of the 11x4.7's, grrrr. 

On review of the footage it appears that the rear motor or tilt mechanism played up as I got a sudden left flat roll that accelerated and ended up in a dive to the ground.....  Lots of bits on the ground.  It will take me a few nights to fix it all..... Sigh.  I wish the emax motors where here already.  I'm seriously thinking of making it a Y6 to prevent this in the future, it would be sloppy in one axis but I'd be able to land it, although I'm hoping the emax motors will work better.  No cameras were damaged!!  Although the action cam failed to record the accident - file is corrupted, but I do have the saved FPV footage.

Hmmm 6 x 2.7kg = 16.2 kg of lift, I'm liking the thought of it.

Chris

Damage is a bit worse than first thought, I'd killed two of the arms as well.  I think I'll order some more square CF tubes so that I can have longer arms for the bigger motors that are on the way.  I think it also killed the tail servo or maybe it was the tail servo that caused it?  It was definately a yaw motion first, so I'm thinking the crash the other day may have damaged the servo.  I might be grounded till the motors arrive as I'm running out of DT750's, I'll know more tonight after I check each of the motors properly.

Chris

[CBRK]

I started out with the GoPro on mine and while I liked what I was getting from it, a couple of hard landings (one from 50m) had me considering the wisdom of so much money up high. I went to the Mobius and although its not quite the same quality recording, I'm more comfortable with it on the frame.

Your footage was amazing, its a beautiful place and Id be having the same thoughts with the thing hanging over the drop like that.... not so much about the crash, as the recovery! (I still have one frame up the top of a tree not far from my place.... it taunts me....bastard).

The calm conditions helped heaps, I took mine on a fishing trip in November and it was blowing a gale the whole time, it was a 2000k return trip so I wasn't going to waste it, but the footage is really jerky as it tries to stay in the air being gusted around.

Good job!

Yep I know what you mean, I will only put my gopro up on it once I've got many hours of crashfree flight and then only for very particular shoots, like if I need or want it in 2.7K or 4.3K.  The rest of the time I use a cheap $80 action cam (gopro sized) which does a pretty good job.  I was so close to putting the gopro on it the other day as I'd had around 6 hours of crash free flight but the very next flight just before I was about to strap the gopro on it crashed.....  I think it if you have quality parts (motors and ESC's) then it's ok, the gopro is designed to take a bit of abuse, just make sure you put a lens protector on it or fly with the case on it.

If though you aren't getting many hours of actual flight time between crashes then I'd rethink it too.

The mobius can take a fair bit of abuse, if you remember in an earlier post I had my quadcopter during a flip move go wrong it hit the ground at very high speed (horizontal and vertical) and the mobius is all good after that.  On image quality, sure it's not the same as a gopro but to be honest it's not far off it for 1080p.

Chris

[Crisp Image]

I started out with the GoPro on mine and while I liked what I was getting from it, a couple of hard landings (one from 50m) had me considering the wisdom of so much money up high. I went to the Mobius and although its not quite the same quality recording, I'm more comfortable with it on the frame.

Your footage was amazing, its a beautiful place and Id be having the same thoughts with the thing hanging over the drop like that.... not so much about the crash, as the recovery! (I still have one frame up the top of a tree not far from my place.... it taunts me....bastard).

The calm conditions helped heaps, I took mine on a fishing trip in November and it was blowing a gale the whole time, it was a 2000k return trip so I wasn't going to waste it, but the footage is really jerky as it tries to stay in the air being gusted around.

Good job!

The recovery is the problem out there. I have not crashed my quad with the gopro on it yet. Well not hard anyway. The NAZA makes it really easy to fly and so I usually don't have a problem. But lately the gimbal has been playing funny games and I am not sure why. I might have to look at a firmware upgrade if there is one available. And I have 2 LiPo's that have gone puffy so I nearly had one of those hard landings. Time for some new packs!

When I get hoe from Europe I will get some more stuff.
Crispy

[Bird]

Nice vid showing up use of Drone with dirtbiking

https://youtu.be/VkPwzjNkvsI

[CBRK]

Well I've decided that I'll keep the tri as a tri (of course with the new motors and ESC's that are on the way).  This will have the 3 axis gimbal on it and I'll mount the action cam or go pro depending on what I need.  I still need to check that I didn't damage the 3rd axis gimbal in the crash.....

I'm trying to decide what length to make my new booms for the tri, I want them to be able to the right size for when I get the MT3515's as I'll have a 14" or 12" prop on it normally.  I'm thinking around 45-50cm's.  That should give me clearance for the propellers, my only concern is that I might see the props spinning when the camera is pointed straight forwards. 

I might experiment with the plywood frame as a Y6 with the left over DT750's once I get the new motors.  I bought a stack of new bearings to replace the ones in the suspect motors.  I don't expect to use it much as I don't like the reliability of the DT750's, I cant justify anything of worth on them anymore.

I think I'll also build an X8 for the future where I'll mount a DSLR for better aerial photography, and to protect it against failure.  That will be a later in the year project.  This will also need a 3 axis gimbal but larger to accommodate the DSLR - haven't bought one yet but I will by the end of the year.

I also plan to start a build of a fixed wing UAV style (Electric pusher, V tail, with a straight or slightly forward sweep wing, big fuselage for stuff), it will be a custom job made from balsa and plywood, with a thin fiberglass coating.  I'll start this in the next month or two but it will take me months to finish.  It will be good for aerial surveying that I'd like to pursue.  I'll have to get to flying the bixler 2 to build up my competency in fixed wing again.

Chris

[Marschy]

Hmmm, next upgrade for the Alien maybe. I wonder how effective they are? Doesn't matter really, looks awesome.

[Mandrake]

Clever whats been done with the legs .. They're mounted to be more splayed - I didnt know you could do that ...LOL  ( Suspensions over the top though really - really !! )

Here's my now six-legged beast waiting for stuff to go on it ....

[CBRK]

Hmmm, next upgrade for the Alien maybe. I wonder how effective they are? Doesn't matter really, looks awesome.

How much does the Landing Gear mod weigh?

If you are really into AP then thats a mod to consider.

Chris

[Marschy]

Weight was my initial thought? Then I remembered

2.8

LOL

[CBRK]

Weight was my initial thought? Then I remembered

2.8

LOL

LOL, how true.  I'm killing for my new motors, I just dont think I will trust the tri until I get them on it.

Well my list of broken items is from the crash, I've checked all items now.

2 broken CF arms, about 6 nylon bolts, had to shorten the GPS mast, 2 lost rubber balls for gimbal mount, 1 dead servo, 1 damaged battery tray, frame lead edge block and lots of bent bits.

I'm happy to report that my brand new yaw servo (35xx) is still working, note that they need weight to make them feel normal.  From the same test it appears my new 32bit gimbal controller is working too.

I'm thinking that I need to crash protect my gimbal mount some how.  I'm thinking two wooden spars that would project 2cm beyond the gimbal mount may offer protection in future.

All 3 DT750 motors feel normal, I plan to run each of them through a 3s 2200mah on the thrust meter and I'll look for uneven lift.  Will have to be Friday nights effort, busy tomorrow night.

I think my crash was caused by the tail servo dying.  It would explain what I saw on the video screen as it looked like a loss of yaw control.  I think I'll need to add a regular check of the tail servo, so all the tricopter flyer's take note that tail servo should be checked regularly.  I have to say I got lazy on that, I checked them at the beginning but it had worked so well for the last 6 months that I figured it was good.

On that note I ordered a couple of bigger tail servos (13g vs a 9g - the 13g puts out nearly 2x the force) as I will need it for the bigger motor on the way, more forces involved.

[Marschy]

Clever whats been done with the legs .. They're mounted to be more splayed - I didnt know you could do that ...LOL  ( Suspensions over the top though really - really !! )

Here's my now six-legged beast waiting for stuff to go on it ....

You're going to have to change the name from the Alien to the Caterpillar 

This has really got me thinking now (you can tell, it's nearly 2 am). I don't know how good that pivot point looks.



I think that is the weak link. I think we should throw this over to the brains trust on some of the suspension threads and get some feedback. 

Seriously though. If the pivot point could be strengthened, because I reckon this could twist and snap the carbon fibre, this idea has a lot of merit. I think from looking at the coil overs, the shockies look like plastic, so the weight shouldn't be too bad. The coil-overs are probably Hobbyking stock, I'll see if I can find them and see what the weight is. Whatever the weight is could easily be overcome by using suitably sized motors, and possibly replace the pivot with the folding arm pivots like these ones from Goodluckbuy and replace the carbon fibre plate with carbon fibre tube.

[Marschy]

Hmmm, weight, price, quality, options are endless.

These ones from Hobbyking list the weight for a pair at 26 grams, but I reckon that weight is more likely for each shockie, and only $5.72 for a pair. So worst case 100 odd grams, plus control horns for securing the top ball joint, say another 20 grams including screws and nuts.



Then depending on how much you lay the arms down the connection point for the shockie ball joint to the carbon fibre motor booms could be achieved using tube clamps.



And for control horns, I'd use some 1.5mm aluminium angle for connecting the ball joint on the shockie to the tube clamp, or as in the pictured example, the control horn appears to be screwed to the motor mount. The angle could screw directly onto the tube clamp if you opted for tube clamp.

So all up, for a very small outlay, if the shock absorbers save your undercarriage once, then this could be a very good modification to consider for bugger all cost and minimal weight added. I think I would only need a prop upsize to accommodate the additional weight.

[CBRK]

Hmmm, weight, price, quality, options are endless.

These ones from Hobbyking list the weight for a pair at 26 grams, but I reckon that weight is more likely for each shockie, and only $5.72 for a pair. So worst case 100 odd grams, plus control horns for securing the top ball joint, say another 20 grams including screws and nuts.



Then depending on how much you lay the arms down the connection point for the shockie ball joint to the carbon fibre motor booms could be achieved using tube clamps.



And for control horns, I'd use some 1.5mm aluminium angle for connecting the ball joint on the shockie to the tube clamp, or as in the pictured example, the control horn appears to be screwed to the motor mount. The angle could screw directly onto the tube clamp if you opted for tube clamp.

So all up, for a very small outlay, if the shock absorbers save your undercarriage once, then this could be a very good modification to consider for bugger all cost and minimal weight added. I think I would only need a prop upsize to accommodate the additional weight.

I know that looks pretty but I'm really impressed with cable ties holding on the landing gear, much lighter and applies a progressive resistance force until they snap.  I'm sure that for me a lot of damage has been saved by them.  Remember even if you have motors that can lift up the wazoo it is still worthwhile on the keep it light principal - unless its got a really good functional purpose - like a camera, etc......  Lets say 120g+50g for the aluminium brackets, that may very well buy you an additional 10-15 secs in the air, if you add up all the decisions like that you quickly get to minutes, we all love long flight times :-)  Motors / ESC are an exception, as generally as you increase them you'll gain flight time and / or power.

Just my 2c, I know Marschy, 2.8...... 

Why are these motors taking so long, why didn't I choose the slightly more expensive but faster option.......  Looks like I'll continue the rebuild on 4s with the DT750's after they are tested on Friday night.

Chris

[Marschy]

Yeah but, yeah but, yeah but, ok , your right, but bloody hell what a cracker idea.

[CBRK]

Yeah but, yeah but, yeah but, ok , your right, but bloody hell what a cracker idea.

LOL.

I like the concept, its good, and I like that people are trying stuff, it only makes the hobby better.  It's like those concept cars they make, some of them are great and if only they ever became production models, but then there are reasons why they stay as concept cars.....

I'm just glad you convinced me to try some alternative motors for the tri.  I still try to follow the keep it light principal.

Chris