|
refleks posted:Anybody with some advice on BEC as a part of the ESC vs. stand-alone. Linear BECs in ESCs are generally kinda crappy and are also a point of failure or heat generation. Just get some non BEC (99% of "Opto" ESCs aren't Opto, but I guess "Opto" has come to mean no BEC and not Opto) ESCs and a pololu 5v step down reg. If you're using a Naze or similar you can solder it up like this for a nice clean install: 
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2015 12:41
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 4, 2024 07:17 |
|
|
Arrest that rear end! posted:Linear BECs in ESCs are generally kinda crappy and are also a point of failure or heat generation. Just get some non BEC (99% of "Opto" ESCs aren't Opto, but I guess "Opto" has come to mean no BEC and not Opto) ESCs and a pololu 5v step down reg. If you're using a Naze or similar you can solder it up like this for a nice clean install: Yeah, the additional point of failure was the main thing I could gather from reading around. What do you mean OPTO does not really mean an ESC without BEC, but has come to mean it anyway? Thanks for the advice, I have a KK already, though I will keep it mind for the future.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2015 13:39
|
|
|
refleks posted:Yeah, the additional point of failure was the main thing I could gather from reading around. OPTO means optically isolated. True OPTO ESC's have an optical connection on the circuit board from the receiver/FC so there is no electrical connection between the motor/battery power and the receiver/FC to eliminate the possibility of electrical noise affecting the receiver or shorts/fires frying the rest of the system. Not a big deal on a 3S quad but on a 12S heli being pushed to the limit with a separate 2S receiver/servo battery in the case of an esc failure it can mean the difference between a successful auto rotation or a crash with the loss of all electronics.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2015 15:36
|
|
|
Wojcigitty posted:OPTO means optically isolated. True OPTO ESC's have an optical connection on the circuit board from the receiver/FC so there is no electrical connection between the motor/battery power and the receiver/FC to eliminate the possibility of electrical noise affecting the receiver or shorts/fires frying the rest of the system. Not a big deal on a 3S quad but on a 12S heli being pushed to the limit with a separate 2S receiver/servo battery in the case of an esc failure it can mean the difference between a successful auto rotation or a crash with the loss of all electronics. Great, thanks for that. Are there any particular brand of ESC I should avoid, or choose? Mainly with respect to quality or known issues?
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2015 15:55
|
|
|
GPS is still acting a bit funny on my Bix3. Seems like it goes down to 5-7 stats for a few seconds, then jumps up to 17 or so. Looks like I made the RTH angles a bit too aggressive. Did manage to push out to some personal distance records though. 1.75 KM out, and 500 M high. RSSI was still up around 80%. Was just starting to get a couple randomly colored pixels and a bit of fuzz interference. on 200mW 5.8
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2015 17:06
|
|
|
Several folks have seen me out with my drone, and kids love it. I always let the kids fly a little if they ask (with me holding the controls too) and it's a big hit. A few folks have asked about drones as gifts. What's a good, hundred, two hundred or so drone, maybe with a cheapo camera that a young kid/teen could try that won't be a financial burden when they wreck it? Any recommendations?
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2015 17:37
|
|
|
The Hubsan X4 seems to be the gold standard of really cheap ready to fly quads, comes in FPV, non-FPV camera, and no camera versions, small enough to not cause too much damage if it hits anything, widely available batteries/frames/props that are cheap as hell. Downsides, not TX compatible with anything else, not sure if the FPV ones work with standard FPV monitors/goggles. Bit more expensive is the Blade Nano QX, compatible with DSM2/DSMX transmitters for BnF, also comes in an RtF version, FPV version is compatible with standard goggles/monitors, built in prop guards on the frame, also has a true manual mode (the Hubsan has a standard stabilised mode, and a less stabilised mode). It uses standard 1S batteries, frames and props are fairly easy to get hold of.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2015 17:50
|
|
|
refleks posted:Great, thanks for that. a lot of manufacturer's models are ultimately just rebrands of chinese ESCs (there was a thread somewhere with a big list). for a mini quad, rotorgeeks escs are a popular brand, as well as the dys sn20/30 amps (those still burn out, but they are cheap and have alright performance). HK has some sort of racer spec afro escs now as well.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2015 18:36
|
|
|
Rotorgeeks new RG20 is supposedly the poo poo, and is really efficient if their chart is to be believed. I'm gonna use them on my next build. http://rotorgeeks.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=307
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2015 18:46
|
|
|
New Phantom 3 firmware came out today... I have never been more terrified to update firmware on anything as I am on this. It's such a janky process with terrible documentation.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2015 18:48
|
|
|
Yay, Belgium's upcoming drone laws are fun. For personal use, you can only fly on your own private property (i.e. your backyard) and not higher than 10 meters. Either that, or on RC airfields.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2015 19:04
|
|
|
pzy posted:New Phantom 3 firmware came out today... I have never been more terrified to update firmware on anything as I am on this. It's such a janky process with terrible documentation. If your phantom works fine, don't update (i thought they disabled the forced updating thing ). There is no advantage to not waiting for everyone else to test it for you
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2015 19:09
|
|
|
refleks posted:Yeah, the additional point of failure was the main thing I could gather from reading around. There is literally no reason in this day and age to be running a kk on a 250 quad. the nicker posted:Rotorgeeks new RG20 is supposedly the poo poo, and is really efficient if their chart is to be believed. I'm gonna use them on my next build. A friend of mine is using them with Cobra 2204 1960KV & 6x4.5 props to good effect, he did have some desync issues to begin with, but they were solvable by messing with the blheli 14 settings. For me it's always KISS all the way, but refleks may not want them if he's new to quads and stuff. Arrest that ass! fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Aug 4, 2015 |
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2015 22:35
|
|
|
Picking out bits for my first FPV setup. Any reason to go with a 600mW over a 200mW 5.8 TX? I'm imagining that the 200 would mean better battery life which may be useful for learning, but then 600 would be better range though I'm not sure how far I'll be going in the immediate future. The price difference is only $20 and realistically I'll be happy to upgrade later for a minimal price, so I'm leaning towards the 200mW but I'm open to suggestions. Are there any big differences between brands or will most TX be equivalent? I'm probably going to stick to MyRCMart.com or any of the Canadian retailers for now since their shipping has been better to Canada than HobbyKing (at the cheapest tier, at any rate). Still have to pick an RX, display, and antennas (to replace the stock dipoles), but I'm trying to concentrate on one bit at a time.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2015 23:41
|
|
|
Martytoof posted:Picking out bits for my first FPV setup. Any reason to go with a 600mW over a 200mW 5.8 TX? I'm imagining that the 200 would mean better battery life which may be useful for learning, but then 600 would be better range though I'm not sure how far I'll be going in the immediate future. The price difference is only $20 and realistically I'll be happy to upgrade later for a minimal price, so I'm leaning towards the 200mW but I'm open to suggestions. 600mW is illegal to fly with if you don't have a RC licence. It's main advantage is that it's got a slightly further reach, but if you're ever caught flying one of these by the FAA/FCC/whatever ... you're going to get fined. And possibly jailed. In saying that, I fly 600mW without a RC licence, just like a lot of others do. I'm fully aware of the consequences though. I use immersionRC as my FPV TX/RX, and it's pretty good. Can't comment on other brands though. I do know that you can't mix some brands because the channel spacing isn't exact, so you'll be flying with sub-standard signal & range.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 05:06
|
|
|
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Popular-Vietnamese-Sandwich-Shop-Catches-Fire--320715941.htmlquote:When firefighters arrived, they found heavy smoke and flames pouring from the business. Drones soon started flying above, and while they did not interfere in the firefighting efforts, officials were concerned about them. The SDFD tweeted a request for their operators to stop. this seems to be coming up more and more these days
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 07:50
|
|
|
Ive been reading the Phantom 3 manuals, and I noticed a warning about not turning off the engines mid-flight. I'm pretty amazed that the firmware even allows that. The device knows when it is airborne, so it seems it should ignore commands to turn off the engines until after landing. Or at least require a command that's slightly more complex than the regular one... Are there any scenarios where you would want to do something like that?
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 08:53
|
|
|
enraged_camel posted:Ive been reading the Phantom 3 manuals, and I noticed a warning about not turning off the engines mid-flight. Quadcopter hurtling towards the string somehow keeping a box of babies aloft? I can think of more serious reasons ("airborne" sensor malfunction could cause inordinate issues for example) but it probably just makes sense to allow it and warn against doing it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 09:45
|
|
|
Arrest that rear end! posted:There is literally no reason in this day and age to be running a kk on a 250 quad. Thanks again for taking the time to help me out. I don't have a particular reason for using the KK other than seeing it mentioned as an easy way into quads. I'm open to another suggestions, but I'm in Denmark which kinda puts a damper on some of the shops I can use without paying out the nose.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 12:58
|
|
|
Odette posted:600mW is illegal to fly with if you don't have a RC licence. It's main advantage is that it's got a slightly further reach, but if you're ever caught flying one of these by the FAA/FCC/whatever ... you're going to get fined. And possibly jailed. Ahh, good stuff. I wasn't aware of the legal limitation so I'll check to see what the Canadian equivalent is. That being the case, is there any point in going to 600 vs 200 other than "investing in the future"? I'm thinking I'll just start with a 200 and throw in a new 600 when/if I get to that point. It sounds like you can milk the 200mw for quite a lot of range anyway. Not sure what the benefit of a 600 would be. Does it penetrate objects better? I'm likely to start out flying in open fields but I'd like to not have to worry about trees and such killing my signal.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 13:38
|
|
|
Thanks to the inverse-square law, 600mW doesn't mean triple the range. So be aware of that. --edit: Also, any reason why the OpenPilot Revo isn't available anywhere? Combat Pretzel fucked around with this message at 14:42 on Aug 5, 2015 |
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 14:28
|
|
|
Arrest that rear end! posted:There is literally no reason in this day and age to be running a kk on a 250 quad. Is there any particular reason for this? Sorry, I'm new to all this. I'm playing around learning to fly with a cheap SYMA X1. I've read a bunch of reviews on the KK and people seem to rave about it. I hear people talking about Pixhawk and Naze and CC3D a bunch of other things, there seem to be so many options for flight controllers, and I'm not sure what all the differences are, so I wasn't sure what your reasoning was.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 14:42
|
|
|
Combat Pretzel posted:Thanks to the inverse-square law, 600mW doesn't mean triple the range. So be aware of that. Oh yeah for sure. I'm not really terribly fussed about range. I'm going to want to race this thing, not fly it to the next town and back (yet). I'm more curious about whether more mW means less fuzzy dropouts behind trees and walls.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 14:46
|
|
|
refleks posted:Thanks again for taking the time to help me out. I don't have a particular reason for using the KK other than seeing it mentioned as an easy way into quads. I'm open to another suggestions, but I'm in Denmark which kinda puts a damper on some of the shops I can use without paying out the nose. the KK is usually fine, though I've heard its less than ideal for small quads (david windestål talked about finally getting into naze32 on a podcast a few weeks ago, partially in prep of designing some mini tricopters). There is a lot of shops selling naze32 or a clone of it, in many (most?) regions; hopefully one of them has reasonable shipping to denmark. Martytoof posted:Oh yeah for sure. I'm not really terribly fussed about range. I'm going to want to race this thing, not fly it to the next town and back (yet). I'm more curious about whether more mW means less fuzzy dropouts behind trees and walls. your rx antennae can be a better point of optimization in this regard. Helical and patch are good options, especially in a diversity setup w/ a cloverleaf. If you're going to race, that implies there are other people in the area doing fpv as well, and you don't want to be the dick stomping on other people's feeds with 600mw http://www.getfpv.com/fpv.html?cat=49&frequency=141 moron izzard fucked around with this message at 15:34 on Aug 5, 2015 |
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 15:29
|
|
|
Combat Pretzel posted:--edit: Also, any reason why the OpenPilot Revo isn't available anywhere? IIRC... Openpilot's hardware has always been impossible to buy because the people manufacturing it are relatively incompetent and think that their customer base is willing to sit on a 2+ year waiting list for the chance to buy their poo poo. The reality is that people said "gently caress that noise" and shipped off a handful of finished boards to TaoBao for cloning. Que the whiny baby tantrum-throwing fit from the main guy behind OpenPilot who takes his ball and goes home, loving over all the community dev contributors. Said community decides to take their remaining code base and starts Tau Labs. Tau Labs is basically, "we'll write the software, but you're on your own for hardware" and figures that board makers will fork Tau and keep up with patches for whatever-board-of-the-day they want to sell.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 16:47
|
|
|
I got to take my tricopter to my friend's cottage and had a few successful flights. It flew and my friends thought it was pretty fast but I knew better. It was really sluggish and almost hit the ground a few times due to lack of immediate thrust. 3100kv 1306 motors and 5 inch props were making the motors very hot as well, heating up the bolts making me have to retighten everything when I landed because I printed the frame parts in PLA and they would deform from the heat. The motors never got that hot on the Morphite with 4 inch props. Soooo when I got home I made a new frame. That's the old one on the right, everything there weighs 124 grams. That's just the printed plastic, carbon arms, servo and spacers. no motors or electronics or wiring.  That new one on the left though? That entire thing, frame, motors, controller, EVERYTHING weighs 137 grams. Takes off with much more punch than before, probably because the motors can whip those props around faster. :3  Tricopters are loving sweet. I want to make one that flies in reverse, so the two are at the back and the yaw turns at the front. Make it look like a spaceship.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 16:52
|
|
|
pzy posted:New Phantom 3 firmware came out today... I have never been more terrified to update firmware on anything as I am on this. It's such a janky process with terrible documentation. I updated out of the box earlier and it was pretty easy, actually. I can't find anything about this most recent update.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 17:23
|
|
|
Martytoof posted:Ahh, good stuff. I wasn't aware of the legal limitation so I'll check to see what the Canadian equivalent is. If your on 5.8GHZ, I think its supposed to be limited to 25mW before your supposed to have a HAM radio license. For racing, that honestly would likely be fine, and could mean a smaller VTx. Power helps, but the antenna's, wiring, and keeping electrical noise down are far more important. I'm using an AOMWAY 200mW 5.8 Vtx, with a cloverleaf and Skew planar, and getting over 1Km in any direction around me. Most racers go 25-100m. Most of FPV stuff I've been ordering from Surveilzone. Free shipping, good prices, and reasonably quick too. Golluk fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Aug 5, 2015 |
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 17:41
|
|
|
metavisual posted:Is there any particular reason for this? The KK is a great board and in my experience superior to the CC3D boards for beginners. All of the configuration can be done using the buttons on the board itself instead of having to hook up to a laptop to make minor adjustments, which you'll be doing a lot of at the start. It's great for learning how to fly without spending $100+ on a controller with GPS etc.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 17:51
|
|
|
mintskoal posted:The KK is a great board and in my experience superior to the CC3D boards for beginners. All of the configuration can be done using the buttons on the board itself instead of having to hook up to a laptop to make minor adjustments, which you'll be doing a lot of at the start. It's great for learning how to fly without spending $100+ on a controller with GPS etc. This. Being able to tune from the board is amazing, and I genuinely miss it. You'll move past the KK board, but it's a GREAT starter board.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 17:53
|
|
|
Flying with a 250 on open fields in wind is a loving pain in the rear end.CrazyLittle posted:IIRC...
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 18:19
|
|
|
Combat Pretzel posted:Flying with a 250 on open fields in wind is a loving pain in the rear end. That's the thing - You can buy CC3D boards loving ANYWHERE but they're all clones. The only people really screwed by their decisions were themselves it seems. I just wish GCS had a "Multiwii" mode with proper PID values and not their own weirdo interpretation. Even the numbers in the advanced sections are screwy. They work fine, but I just want to use Multiwii/Cleanflight PID values. EDIT: I dropped my OrangeRX and broke off the ONE switch I need to use, the one that controls flight modes. It is the only switch on the unit with 3 positions so I cannot simply take a switch from somewhere else on the thing. I really want to replace it with a Devo6 but it is hard as hell to find anywhere that sells them. I really like the size of the Devo6. I can find Devo7's easily but they are the same size as the OrangeRX and I want to move down a bit. Any good sources on them? Or any smaller DSM2 compatible Transmitters? bring back old gbs fucked around with this message at 19:17 on Aug 5, 2015 |
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 18:25
|
|
|
Go with naze32 + mwosd and then you can tune all your parameters on your video feed using the transmitter. I don't see any point buying a KK2 any more. There are so many people using baseflight and cleanflight it is very easy to get help with them and in my experience they require a hell of a lot less fiddling to get setup well compared to KK2.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 20:28
|
|
|
Martytoof posted:Picking out bits for my first FPV setup. Any reason to go with a 600mW over a 200mW 5.8 TX? I'm imagining that the 200 would mean better battery life which may be useful for learning, but then 600 would be better range though I'm not sure how far I'll be going in the immediate future. The price difference is only $20 and realistically I'll be happy to upgrade later for a minimal price, so I'm leaning towards the 200mW but I'm open to suggestions. The battery life difference will be negiligable between 600mW and 200mW. 200 works fine, but 600 will help with penetration if you're flying around trees etc. refleks posted:Thanks again for taking the time to help me out. I don't have a particular reason for using the KK other than seeing it mentioned as an easy way into quads. I'm open to another suggestions, but I'm in Denmark which kinda puts a damper on some of the shops I can use without paying out the nose. metavisual posted:Is there any particular reason for this? The KK board is old and pretty simplistic, yes it's easy to set up but you will outgrow it super quick on an FPV miniquad, also the mounting on 99% of frames is not made for its form factor. Get a Naze32 (not a CC3D!) or even better one of the newer F3 boards like the Dodo or SPRF3 and run cleanflight on them, it will see you through for the life of the quad. There's a reason why almost no one runs KK boards any more and it's because it has been surpassed in every way. Refleks: It's worth paying a little extra for decent hardware, shipping shouldn't be too much from a UK or EU retailer.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 20:30
|
|
|
Arrest that rear end! posted:
Thanks, I had been eyeing the Naze, but I'm digging through Danish suppliers to see if any of them have it. I don't mind paying extra, and it is usually not a problem within the EU or UK. Just don't want to deal with taxes and imports from overseas shipments, its a pain in the rear end.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 21:35
|
|
|
Any reason to go with Naze over CC3D for CleanFlight? My kit came with a KK, then I picked up a CC3D to replace it cause I wanted to try cleanflight, but now I'm hearing that things aren't awesome on the CC3D platform?
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 21:56
|
|
|
Martytoof posted:Any reason to go with Naze over CC3D for CleanFlight? OpenPilot GCS is annoying because the PID values that every other flight controller get turned into something weird on GCS, so you sort of have to guess at things. Since I like my mini quads and everyone else who makes minis tend to use Cleanflight I can't just pop in their PID numbers and fly. It's very user-friendly if you've never used a quad before and I really like the FC setup/Tx setup wizards. I don't use GPS or telemetry or servo gimbals or anything like that but it seems to have support for it all. If you've never used another controller before you will like CC3D just fine, but if you come from anything else it will probably seem weird. Also I can't get custom motor mixes working, clicking "CUSTOM" doesn't let me change any of the values and I am MAD AS HECK about that. I was also under the impression that CC3D boards were generally sort of mushy and unresponsive but putting my flight modes to RATTITUDE changed all that, I can fly my CC3D boards like a Naze now. My AfroNaze is probably the best FC I own though.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 22:08
|
|
|
DJI support trip report: Shipped the unit to them around 8 June, unit arrived at their facility on 18 June. Received the invoice for repairs made today, 5 August. I assume I'll have the unit back in a week or so more. Total time about two months. Don't break your Phantoms.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 04:33
|
|
|
Elendil004 posted:I updated out of the box earlier and it was pretty easy, actually. I can't find anything about this most recent update. It worked for me with no issues other than the gimbal getting very hot and making a strange squeaky noise continuously even long after the firmware apparently was completed. You only get a confirmation that it is done by the little faint red/green camera status light turning solid green. After that I updated the RC firmware and the battery firmwares. You have to remove the .bin firmware file from the camera SD card when you're all done and all your batteries are updated.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 08:19
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 4, 2024 07:17 |
|
|
I've got a hubsan x4 and am looking to put a camera on it, and maybe tinker with other bits; is there a beginner's guide you guys would recommend for someone just starting off? Sorry if I've missed an obvious answer, I had a quick check of the OP and last few pages.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 09:11
|
|
