Multirotor, multicopter and quadcopter discussion - The Drone thread

I'd go for a second hand Spektrum DX8 or DX7. Great radios and there's tons of support online.
Also, with you can use all the E-Flite Bind and Fly copters and planes without having to mess about with extra modules.
 
Flukester said:
I use a imax b6ac from ebay, seems good. You can get cheaper imax b6 with a separate psu for a little cheaper though, or really cheap if you provide the psu yourself.

For that battery you need a charger that can balance charge at 3.5 amps which is the max rate you can charge at. (No real point charging slower)
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Cheers mate, I'll take a look. Will definitely want one where I can plug into a UK wall socket, having a standard kettle lead on that one is just plain handy! With the DC input too I can charge from a car battery or similar, which is ideal if I'm off camping and don't have power!

shroomz said:
This whole flying thing is really, really hard. Going to get at it again tonight but for now I can just make my little x4 crash in a variety of different ways :(
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Keep practising. I'm getting half decent now I think. Been doing some long smooth turns at high speed with the X4 which is dead satisfying when you nail it :D

Still torn on transmitters. Might just grab one of the cheapish Turnigy ones to start off with. I'd love to dive in with the 9XR (looks awesome and quite cheap) but not sure what I need with the modules and my google skills seem to be failing miserably today.
 
I caved in and after reading through this Thread and a Hubsan x4 V2 arrived at 10:30 this morning, took about 15mins to charge the battery, attempted to get it to hover but it just won't have any of it, keeps veering off to the side, trim doesn't seem to do anything, always end up over-compensating and ending up in a mess (One prop has flown off to god knows where and I've taken out an LED already :p)

Fortunately I have a very large open tiled area that I'm using to skim along on using just enough power to manoeuvre without actually leaving the floor so I can get used to the controls before attempting 'altitude' again. Great fun though and I'm amazed by it for the price.


Off to order some more props... :o
 
doofer said:
I caved in and after reading through this Thread and a Hubsan x4 V2 arrived at 10:30 this morning, took about 15mins to charge the battery, attempted to get it to hover but it just won't have any of it, keeps veering off to the side, trim doesn't seem to do anything, always end up over-compensating and ending up in a mess (One prop has flown off to god knows where and I've taken out an LED already :p)

Fortunately I have a very large open tiled area that I'm using to skim along on using just enough power to manoeuvre without actually leaving the floor so I can get used to the controls before attempting 'altitude' again. Great fun though and I'm amazed by it for the price.


Off to order some more props... :o
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Don't forget to place hubsan on level floor and calibrate gyro before before take off... should stop the veering.

Also, it will become much more stable once out of ground effect and up in the air. Just power down if you lose tail in orientation, best to let it down powered off rather than get disorientated and pile it into a wall full throttle
 
Cool to see a thread on multirotors! I have a Phantom with GoPro 3 and the Zenmuse, here's a vid before I got the Zenmuse (when I first got the Phantom) and I was surprised how stable the footage was without it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sltNiju1WUA&feature=c4-overview&list=UUYwItWswMwsQMDAxR05c3oA

I also have a Hubsan H107L and use that to practice indoors, much less stressful!

I've been so busy recently that I haven't had a chance to take any footage with the Zenmuse but hopefully over winter I'll get myself a larger rig (maybe Arducopter or a F550) and do some more, it's great fun if scary at times. :)
 
Flukester said:
Don't forget to place hubsan on level floor and calibrate gyro before before take off... should stop the veering.

Also, it will become much more stable once out of ground effect and up in the air. Just power down if you lose tail in orientation, best to let it down powered off rather than get disorientated and pile it into a wall full throttle
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I did do the calibration but I'll have to try it shimmed I think, one of the motors doesn't spin up with the others which seemed to be a bit odd to me, not sure if this is what might be causing the problem? It seems to fire up around half a second after the other three when powering up for take off, is that normal?
 
doofer said:
I did do the calibration but I'll have to try it shimmed I think, one of the motors doesn't spin up with the others which seemed to be a bit odd to me, not sure if this is what might be causing the problem? It seems to fire up around half a second after the other three when powering up for take off, is that normal?
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Err, mine all go at the same time, strange....
 
Sounds like it isn't getting calibrated properly doofer. Are you doing the right stick wiggling calibration that's been mentioned a few times in this thread?

You can check the gyro is definitely working by picking up the Hubsan, adding a little throttle and then just tipping the Hubsan towards each corner - you'll hear the respective blades spin up when they are the lowest. If it's not doing that at all you might have a fault one :(
 
With regards to model simulators. If you really want to practice (which I highly recommend) then buy Phoenix RC. It's superb and you'll make the money back in avoided crashes very quickly.
 
Doing an offset calibration with a piece of cardboard seems to have sorted it out, floor is definitely level and flat I even checked it with a spirit level just in case :p.

It's so much easier to fly now it doesn't wander off on it's own and I'm getting awfully cocky with it and can see a huge crash happening very soon... :D


I found this FREE RC Sim, works with an Xbox 360 PC Controller, just needs mapping/calibrating if it's any use to anyone:

http://www.marksfiles.net/HeliSim/index.htm
 
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Flew the F550 tonight to test the new Turnigy Nano-tech 4S 5000mAh batteries I bought.

What a difference.
For starters, compared to the Zippy Flightmax 4S 5000mAh I was using, the voltage drop at load was halved. 0.90V to 0.45V.
The Zippy would fluctuate it's voltage drop as the battery ran down to the point it was 1.0V by the time the battery was measuring 14.5V without load.

The Nano-techs held their 0.45V drop right the way to when I called time at 14.0V loaded.

My all-up-weight is 2.54kg with gimbal, aux battery, fpv gear, gopro etc.
It hovered for 12 minutes. I'll take 2 minutes off that to allow for higher current useage in forward flight.

10 mins conservative flight time... Me happy.
 
That's really good flight time... I have heard of a 550 getting close to 30 with two larger packs. Though 30mins fpv would give you a very sore head
 
I tried the Android app. The Hubsan is easier! Now I've had practise, I find the X4 easier to fly in advanced mode, can change direction faster if need be :D

Would love 30 minute flight time. The 10 minute flight time with the X4 seems like it's gone in 2 minutes when I'm zooming around outside!
Sounds like the Turnigy batteries are definitely the way to go then.

Think I'll try and finalise the bits I want tomorrow and just order away. Even if I haven't decided on a the charger and radio stuff it'll take me some time to put everything together I reckon.
 
Thats good to hear although i'm now getting around pretty well on that app using a pad :)

So whats the gear to get with a hubsan? Spare rotors for sure, spare batteries? what type of is there just one?
 
There are 2 types of battery I've seen. Stock and then a larger one, 380mah instead of 240mah iirc. I've ordered a 380 and 3 sets of spare props. Not seen the need for anything else yet.
 
I have a couple of the 380mAh ones for the Hubsan. They work great.
They do push the CoG a bit further backwards though so you may need to mess with your trims a little.
 
Another try at a 9 image panorama shot from Gopro on Phantom

harbour_sml.jpg
 
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