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Coxswain Balls posted:Got my first flights in yesterday and today where I was able to land without incident, which was a really fun time. I'm also really glad I got Realflight; the handling characteristics felt exactly the same as in real life when mimicing today's conditions with wind and such. I'm also really thankful for the "random flight failures" option you can select to practice recovering when various things mess up. On my last flight today I lost my radio link while making a steep roll, which put my plane into a death spiral. When I regained control, I was able to recover enough to make the crash a lot better than it could have been. The nose is crunched and cracked in a few spots, but at least the cockpit didn't snap off in multiple pieces like last time. that's totally fixable with some hot glue and tape.
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Sep 23, 2014 17:16
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CrazyLittle posted:that's totally fixable with some hot glue and tape. If you enlarge the pics, you can see the yellow Gorilla Glue seams from my first big crash where the cockpit broke off and split into a few pieces. Stuff's magic on foam.
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Sep 23, 2014 18:23
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Cirque du Soleil did a neat show with dancing quads : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C8OJsHfmpI Behind the scenes, doesn't have that much detail but still cool. : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YqUocVcyrE
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Sep 23, 2014 18:54
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deong posted:Cirque du Soleil did a neat show with dancing quads : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C8OJsHfmpI They're using cameras in the ceiling to track the position of each craft, and it's all centrally controlled by computer.
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Sep 23, 2014 20:14
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deong posted:Cirque du Soleil did a neat show with dancing quads : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C8OJsHfmpI There is a TED talk with pretty awesome autonomous quadcopters. http://www.ted.com/talks/raffaello_d_andrea_the_astounding_athletic_power_of_quadcopters?language=en Edit - Now that I watch the making of, I think it's the same group doing the TED talk that helped put together the Cirque Du Soleil thing. So you can get more detail about how it's done from that video 
subx fucked around with this message at 01:03 on Sep 24, 2014 |
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Sep 24, 2014 00:50
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Being a gambling type, I popped that puffy battery into my 9x and went to continue in Mister Sinewaves time honored tradition of abusing Bixlers. I tried the taxiing thing for a minute, vainly trying to steer with the rudder, then went for a take off.  Probably should have tried getting it higher than ~10' in the air before trying to get it turning in a circle. It was banking further and further right, so I tried giving a bit more throttle, left rudder, up elevator, and a bit left aileron... but ended up doing a cartwheel on the ground instead. Nothing a bit of water and Gorilla glue won't fix though.  Landing gear back in...  And the rest in place. I'm thinking of cutting a grove along both sides, a bit below the servos, and gluing in a length of carbon fiber tube. Or I just let it keep breaking apart there since it broke fairly cleanly along the previous repair seam.
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Sep 24, 2014 02:38
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YOU MONSTER
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Sep 24, 2014 03:49
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My latest one has been repaired a few times but holding up nicely. I did work to put the FPV gear 100% self-contained in the wooden cockpit-platform. So when it pops off it doesn't yank stuff with it.  Side note: is landing gear useful on anything other than a road? I took it off and have so far been belly-landing (or whatever the term is) on grass. I landed with them on in tall grass once and it yanked the gently caress out of them. It seems to me that the wheels won't be that useful on anything not nice and flat and even, but what do I know? I'm new to all this. 
The Eyes Have It fucked around with this message at 04:01 on Sep 24, 2014 |
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Sep 24, 2014 03:58
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That has been my impression of the landing gear as well, nice for take off. But great leverage for the ground to tear off the front fuselage. I was having a look through the serveilzone website, and with the recommended camera, vtx, vrx, and a set of antennae, its 120.00 bucks (shipping included). Still short a power supply/filter on the plane, and monitor/googles. I noticed Hobbyking has a kit, http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...d_Antennas.html , which has the vtx and vrx I'm interested in, antennae, as well as a camera. Even ordering the other camera I think I come out a bit ahead, so I'll likely be ordering this, along with those $30 ghetto goggles. Just need a couple power converters and I should be good to go crash gloriously with a front row view.
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Sep 24, 2014 04:28
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Mister Sinewave posted:Side note: is landing gear useful on anything other than a road? I took it off and have so far been belly-landing (or whatever the term is) on grass. I landed with them on in tall grass once and it yanked the gently caress out of them. It seems to me that the wheels won't be that useful on anything not nice and flat and even, but what do I know? I'm new to all this. I wonder how it would behave if you ditched the pants, added larger wheels and some forward rake to the gear? It'll never work in 'tall grass', but it may help in mowed grass.
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Sep 24, 2014 13:14
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Mister Sinewave posted:My latest one has been repaired a few times but holding up nicely. I did work to put the FPV gear 100% self-contained in the wooden cockpit-platform. So when it pops off it doesn't yank stuff with it. No, and that's true of almost any foamy with landing gear. Widdershins posted:I wonder how it would behave if you ditched the pants, added larger wheels and some forward rake to the gear? You can, but you have to be pretty careful of weight and balance. If you are going through that much trouble, I think it's easier to just ditch the landing gear altogether and do belly landings. That should be fairly safe especially on something like that Bixler where the prop is protected from hitting the ground.
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Sep 24, 2014 13:36
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Actually having a bit of trouble finding on limitations for broadcasting on 5.8ghz in Canada. The closest I found was an exemption from exposure limits. The amateur license doesn't even seem to cover 5.8ghz. The closest is iaround 4.7ghz and then up at 7.7ghz (going by memory). Edit: More searching and its either 1W, or no restrictions... But then supposedly that is only for data, and not video transmissions. I wonder if it would be worth splitting my order up, so if customs throws a fit over the VTX, the rest won't get held back. Golluk fucked around with this message at 22:07 on Sep 25, 2014 |
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Sep 25, 2014 21:49
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http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregorymcneal/2014/09/23/drones-are-coming-to-hollywood-faa-will-announce-approval-this-thursday/ Proof in the commercial drone world (which sucks right now let me tell you, at least in the US), if you can pay you can play (more official than not). Not sure if this is good or bad news for the little guys.
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Sep 25, 2014 21:59
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Elendil004 posted:http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregorymcneal/2014/09/23/drones-are-coming-to-hollywood-faa-will-announce-approval-this-thursday/ Section 333 requires that the drones be operated within line-of-sight so this sounds like the another case of someone rule lawyering the FAA away from dumb decisions. Its not surprising that the movie industry drone companies were the first industry to apply for a section 333 exemption. If you're an actual manufacturer, you would want a real wavier so you can fly out of line of sight. But camera operators specifically want to be close enough to their drone that section 333 works well for them.
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Sep 25, 2014 22:11
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Put my order in to HK. Bixler3 6x4E props D2826-6 2200Kv outrunner motor Turnigy dlux 30A SBEC Turnigy TGY-50090M Metal gear 9g analog servos OrangeRX 6ch 3-axis flight stab receiver Skyzone PnP FPV 200-set: Camera Sony CCD (Likely replace this shortly) VTX TS5823 200mW 5.8ghz 32 chan Antennae Circular polarized x2 VRX RC832 5.8ghz 32 chan Qaunum DIY Googles Along with 2m of 14 awg silicone wire, I had 10 grams of weight to spare before I hit the 3kg limit. I already have some batteries, though I'll be ordering a new transmitter pack from the US warehouse. Thankfully I'll be working overtime this weekend, because that all came to $300.00 bucks.
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Sep 26, 2014 04:55
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Trabisnikof posted:Section 333 requires that the drones be operated within line-of-sight so this sounds like the another case of someone rule lawyering the FAA away from dumb decisions. Its not surprising that the movie industry drone companies were the first industry to apply for a section 333 exemption. If you're an actual manufacturer, you would want a real wavier so you can fly out of line of sight. But camera operators specifically want to be close enough to their drone that section 333 works well for them. The biggest problem is that Line of Sight, under FAA rules means no FPV, which is dumb and silly.
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Sep 26, 2014 05:21
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Elendil004 posted:The biggest problem is that Line of Sight, under FAA rules means no FPV, which is dumb and silly. It looks like FPV is allowed for these companies if they have: a licensed pilot, keep the drone within line of sight, and keep the drone within the set. So a different weird exception I think.
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Sep 26, 2014 05:39
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Hi thread! This thread was recommended to me since I am a new quadcopter owner and just getting into the hobby. I have had a little RC experience over the years and just picked up a DJI Phantom Vision 2+ the other day. I've had my eye on a Phantom for some time now and with a recent price drop I took the plunge. Only had a chance to take it out once so far due to 30 MPH gusts yesterday, but I can see this is a rabbit hole that could go really, really deep... especially the appeal of building your own. It was kind of funny because the DJI ground station software requires android 4+ and my ancient Galaxy phone is only 2.3 or something. So I made the inaugural flight a family affair and roped Mrs. Slidebite into helping. She watched the ground station telemetry and controlled the camera with my comically massive GalaxyTab Pro 12.2" while I flew. Worked out pretty well. I still have to play more of the settings to see what they do and try out the GPS navigation features, buy the Mrs was content snapping photos and taking video and reading off telemetry. Surprisingly, no crashes or anything (not even any close calls really) and the Phantom flight software seems to work really well. I watched some youtube videos of these before but I was still pretty surprised at the stability. Had a chance to try the autonomous return to home feature. Turning off the remote was a bit of a leap of faith for me but it worked marvelously save some very slight drifting as it was an inch or so from touchdown. Anyhow, have a photo she took from the longer second flight 
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Sep 27, 2014 16:56
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I'm sure you've heard about the "flyaways" that idiot phantom owners seem to have, you can protect yourself by not ever taking off without getting a GPS lock, with a calibrated compass, and familiarizing yourself with emergency procedures like how to regain control, how to recognize when it's coming home on its own, etc. If you want to be extra safe, get a GPS lock, walk the phantom 15-20 feet away, and get a second lock, this will ensure that your first GPS isn't magically wrong. Otherwise, enjoy, the P2V+ is great, and if you wanna get fancy you can do stuff like this:  edit: oh lots of people love to hand catch, which is fine but can be dangerous. My rule of thumb is hand catch if I'm landing somewhere iffy (mud, on a boat, water, etc), otherwise just be gentle on landing. Another thing to watch out for, much like the mighty V-22 Osprey, if you descend too fast through your own rotor was you can enter a Vortex Ring state, and crash, so either descend in circles (so you're never directly passing through your rotor wash) or descend slowly (which is smarter). When powering down, don't hold both sticks down and in, hold just throttle down, after a few seconds it will stop. Often times if you hold both sticks you can tip the bird over. edit2: If you want to test the come home, don't kill the remote (because you'll never get it back), just flip the upper right S switch all the way down. Then you can flip back up to regain control. Elendil004 fucked around with this message at 17:13 on Sep 27, 2014 |
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Sep 27, 2014 17:06
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I'm lucky enough to have a park nearby that seems to be a hotspot for model fliers of all stripes; there's always been other people flying there each time I've gone, and it's awesome being able to learn about the hobby with other people. Today I met two brothers who had, among other things, a hexcopter they had just got together and were learning its ins and outs. I got to check out their FPV kit firsthand, which only wants me to get into it sooner, as the park has a river going through it and a bunch of hiking trails that seem like they would be awesome to explore. The best part was watching them test out the autonomous waypoint functionality on the hex. "First waypoint is 20' up, then it'll go around the park." "I don't think it's going to clear those trees, dude." "Nah, 20' is way higher that the treeline." As soon as they let it go and do its own thing, it makes a beeline straight for a tree and smashes into it.
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Sep 27, 2014 22:30
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjSf43fhGco This is the closest I've come to crashing this drone, my first was a SteadiDrone QU4D that crashed all the time because it was poo poo.
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Sep 27, 2014 22:36
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I went back out with the Bixler after another quick repair. Seems I mostly tore off a wing mount, though not completely. I also played around with the stabilizer adjustments, and gave it more aggressive response, especially on roll. I was getting dark, but given my past flight times, I wasn't going to be long anyways. Started off with taxiing again, and was finding I could actually steer it a bit once it had a bit of speed and throttle. Seeing as I could get it going in a straight line, next step was to see about how fast I'd need to go before it started to lift off. I had a pretty big grin when it got up 4', and I brought it back down gently enough to stay in one piece. Managed to perform this a few times and I have allot more confidence in taking off now. It did at one point seem to be going towards a basketball post, so I veered it off into the field, and saw it rolling over again... but I leveled it back out this time. The practice earlier paid off in getting it to land gently enough even on grass to not break. Actually bringing it home in one piece after getting it air born a few times is encouraging that I may not be far off from risking flying with FPV gear. At the very least I can roll along the ground with it in, which the Bixler3 should be much better at. Golluk fucked around with this message at 02:22 on Sep 28, 2014 |
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Sep 28, 2014 02:19
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slidebite posted:I have had a little RC experience over the years and just picked up a DJI Phantom Vision 2+ the other day. I've had my eye on a Phantom for some time now and with a recent price drop I took the plunge. Cool! Did you get it from somewhere in Canada? I'm interested in expanding my online retailer-ness beyond HobbyKing.
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Sep 28, 2014 06:44
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Elendil004 posted:edit2: If you want to test the come home, don't kill the remote (because you'll never get it back), just flip the upper right S switch all the way down. Then you can flip back up to regain control. That didn't seem to work, just hovered. Gave it about 20 sec before I just put it back up. I was able to regain control again though last time by just turning the controller back on and flipping S1 down and up. Is that bad? Mister Sinewave posted:Cool! Did you get it from somewhere in Canada? I'm interested in expanding my online retailer-ness beyond HobbyKing. Nothing bad to say about these guys. Got it 24 hours after I ordered, no extra freight charges. http://www.multirotorheli.ca/
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Sep 28, 2014 07:52
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A case for a Vision 2 should also fit a Vision 2+ fine, shouldn't it?
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Sep 28, 2014 17:32
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slidebite posted:A case for a Vision 2 should also fit a Vision 2+ fine, shouldn't it? Yes, they have the same form factor. slidebite posted:That didn't seem to work, just hovered. Gave it about 20 sec before I just put it back up. I was able to regain control again though last time by just turning the controller back on and flipping S1 down and up. Is that bad? Odd, if it worked though that's good!
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Sep 28, 2014 19:38
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To be clear, I didn't flip it back up until after it landed and powered down. No matter how I moved the sticks it didn't power up again, but as soon as I flipped S1 down/up I had full control so it might not be what you were thinking
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Sep 28, 2014 22:51
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More success today. Had a bit of a rough start, with a not so gentle landing onto the grass damaging the wing mount, and flying ever so gently... directly into a basketball post. Oddly the later caused no obvious damage. Decided to go for it, and brought it up to 20-30', and got it flying around in a few large circles, doing much better keeping the wings at a gentle roll. Cut throttle, leveled it out, and did a damage free land onto the grass. Did this a few more times, until I didn't quite dodge a chain link fence on a landing attempt. Hit the ground just in front of it, and flipped over into the fence. But not much damage. Its glued up and ready for another go... except the rear landing gear, so I might have to go for some hand launches, or drag the tail. Would this be a decent choice for powering the camera and Vtx? http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__60529__12V_3A_UBEC_2_5S_LiPo_6_23v_US_Warehouse_.html Golluk fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Sep 29, 2014 |
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Sep 29, 2014 02:11
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I did some miniquad racing at a paintball field today. First time I've flown in terrain this dense. It was tons of fun but many props paid the ultimate price. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUUfBvLZhWA
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Sep 29, 2014 03:06
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Mike Wargo on RCgroups has a nice thread about learning 3D and has designed a progressive sequence for people to test their skills on. He's currently running a small contest, where anyone who submits a video of the sequence(s) will enter the draw for a plane. I had only just gotten my mobius and velcro'd it to a baseball cap and it actually turned out ok. Wind was super tricky to deal with and any other day I would have given up, but with a submission deadline and a brand new mobius, I stuck with it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfhxodYOxU4
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Sep 29, 2014 05:34
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Anytime I get up in winds over 25 kts I get nervous, it's gusting pretty good today...going to be touch and go.
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Sep 29, 2014 14:50
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I was pleasantly surprised how well the Phantom handles the wind, mostly scary on the low level stuff like coming in for a landing though. My last flight of the day yesterday did NOT end up well. Planned a really nice aerial tour via groundstation of the small lake in our neighborhood. Programmed all the waypoints, made my first waypoint really close with 150' so it would climb and clear everything in the area and wasn't flying for 3 seconds and smacked hard into a lightpost in my front yard. I thought I gave it a wide enough berth but guess I didn't. Still works, but the worst is it bent the gimbal a bit. I'll have to see the best way on how to straighten it out. My poor little phantom 
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Sep 29, 2014 17:37
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At least it didn't go in the drink!
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Sep 29, 2014 18:02
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Mister Sinewave posted:At least it didn't go in the drink! Like my poor sk450 Dried it off, but I think it weakened the power board's terminals (I know nothing) since they have all come off. That said, it was also my Babby's First Adventure in Soldering, so that probably has something to do with it.
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Sep 29, 2014 18:19
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I'm finding learning to fly is progressing much faster now that I actually get time in the air to practice. Still flew into a small tree, and the top of a 30' light pole was kind enough to stop my plane when it was about to fly out of site/control. Same old broken wing mount damage, pushed it in and kept on flying. I'm getting much better at slow controlled circles around me, and recovering from not so much in control moments. Had a very smooth final landing, and an awesome banking/turning drift landing narrowly avoiding a fence. I can't wait to get FPV going.
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Sep 30, 2014 01:46
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I have no place around to fly but had bought a parkzone umx radian soaring plane earlier this year. My parents just moved into a farm house with a few acres field visible from the front porch. That combined with a beautiful weekend= holy poo poo. I think I must've flown 20-30 battery packs. I only had two with me, charging one while I flew another. Having a USB battery charger + a portable battery is a godsend. It didn't charge during my flight times (8~10 mins) but it made for nice porch sitting inbetween. on the Micro Radian-- great plane if you have a spektrum controller. I'm no good at the sail plane thing. Sometimes I'd fly my entire timer (6 mins) without ever hitting a thermal. The plane is extremely sporty and perfectly capable of aerobatics with only a rudder/elevator but its still disappointing that I couldn't use it for what its meant for. But every now and then.....I'd hit a thermal and holy poo poo. The thing would climb like a loving rocket poo poo. To the point that I'd have to dive to get out of it. Then I'd lose it. I'd try the exact same spot and never find it again. Still fun. 
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Sep 30, 2014 02:37
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Bob A Feet posted:I have no place around to fly but had bought a parkzone umx radian soaring plane earlier this year. My parents just moved into a farm house with a few acres field visible from the front porch. That combined with a beautiful weekend= holy poo poo. I think I must've flown 20-30 battery packs. I only had two with me, charging one while I flew another. Having a USB battery charger + a portable battery is a godsend. It didn't charge during my flight times (8~10 mins) but it made for nice porch sitting inbetween. Looks like a nice place to fly. Try one of the Parkzone normal size planes, you have plenty of room there.
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Sep 30, 2014 03:18
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I saw a recommendation for osd a few pages back, but it seemed to be more suited for a quad. Any recommendations on a system that shows: voltage ground speed altitude mah (current sensor) direction to home ideally a virtual horizon, but not required. Under 100 would be nice, but I'd think 150 should get me something decent. Edit: the remzibi one looks fairly nice. It seems like I'd have to add a current sensor and program it. https://sites.google.com/site/remzibiosd/ Cyclops Nova also looks nice, and seems to have the current sensor ready to go. Golluk fucked around with this message at 20:00 on Sep 30, 2014 |
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Sep 30, 2014 15:01
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Golluk posted:I'm finding learning to fly is progressing much faster now that I actually get time in the air to practice. As my wife would say, you're getting TITS (time in the sky) 
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Sep 30, 2014 17:52
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Golluk posted:I saw a recommendation for osd a few pages back, but it seemed to be more suited for a quad. I have a TBS EzOSD and it does just about all of that except for horizon I think. FWIW I assumed I'd want poo poo like direction to home, etc on an OSD when I was buying my FPV stuff, but as it turns out I really didn't need it. I mean, range is only several hundred meters - it's not like I can just fly out into the bright blue yonder or anything. I never get LOST. I don't even need battery readout really - I can just set a timer. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure I'll get that stuff rolling but FPV was totally usable and not limited without any of it. What's actually really useful for me so far is HobbyKing's simple OSD - one (or two) voltage readouts and a timer. My FPV video has plane battery on one side, video transmitter battery on the other side, and timer in the middle. The battery feeding my FPV screen has a low voltage alarm plugged into the balance plug. In this way I avoid killing the battery out of inattention (which happened once already) since it gets used so "out of sync" with the actual plane stuff.
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Sep 30, 2014 18:00
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