Multirotor, multicopter and quadcopter discussion - The Drone thread

pazza said:
Love the Talon tricopter,what motors are you using?,they look like sunnysky's 2814-11 700 kv.
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980kv Sunnysky's :)

rhysduck said:
Seeing all these make's me jealous... :(

Pay day Monday so I think I'll spec up a quad tonight - shall post it before I order to see what you guys think!
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Ensure a quad is what you actually want (over other types), I skipped quads as they fly really boring compared to Tri's!
 
Addicted said:
I skipped quads as they fly really boring compared to Tri's!
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O rly? :cool:

I must admit I really wanted a Talon Tri originally but they were out of stock so went for the V2 Quad which was a bad choice with hindsight as it was a bit too small to do what I wanted to do with it, it has now become the main donor of bits to a Dead Cat home-brew thing I'm struggling to decide on which FC to use on, I'm really liking the looks of the Ardupilot Mega + GPS but really don't fancy soldering all those damned pins on TBH... That little Hunter V-Tail sure looks sexy too... I wonder if a Dead Cat V-Tail has been done before? :cool::D
 
Nice setup Addicted :)
Do love those V-tails, but I think the appeal of a tri is bigger for me for the next thing I'll build, with the way I'm going through the arm pieces of my frame I'm going to need to turn it into a tri! I'll take broken arms over broken motors every day of the week however.

I'll certainly be building a custom frame before buying another one. Using plastic pipes and elbow pieces looks to be popular on RCGroups at the moment plus really cheap and tough. Something to tide me over until eventually making a shiny aluminium/carbon frame one day.

I've seen lots of V-tails and similar recently, has anyone seem any other less conventional variations on multirotors? I reckon a tri where the front pair of props are pretty central and hold the weight of the quad - with a small rear prop on a servo for steering and balance would look really cool :) I guess you'd need to really know what you were doing when it came to configuring it if mixing prop and motor sizes though.

My quad as it stands:
HRl0hMm.jpg
 
I might try a tri next. :)
I've got a quad and a hex. The hex is fantastic for stability and AP. The quad (Phantom) is a fun beater but not as maneuverable as a tri.
 
I now have my minimOSD, uploaded the latest firmware and setup the screen...

K9kBAi6.png

I've done the wiring loom including 12v BEC and LC filter but not the board camera wires as I'm waiting for the camera to come from Singapore. I also have have a 'Y' splitter cable on order from BYOD to send telemetry data to the OSD and 433MHz telemetry module for MAVLink. Just a waiting game now.
 
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Would you fpv'ers say that an OSD is vital for fpv? I'm not sure I'd use most features of it, although having voltage readout, speed and a hud to show the horizon (like flight games always have) would all be nice.

quickshot - yes it can be. I'm starting to realise that now, after my budget-ish custom quad that I aimed for £150-200 has already hit £300 all in all. I still don't even own my own charger!

On the subject of charging, when I put my batteries on charge I usually get warned of under/overbalance voltage - how worried should I be of this? I expect to see it but I'm not sure what value is considered unusual. The other day I drained it down to 3.53, 3.6, 3.58 - does that sound normal?

Just went out for a flight. Hard work when windy! :D Although good practise for just trying to fly smoothly at a level just above the ground :)
 
PinkFloyd said:
Would you fpv'ers say that an OSD is vital for fpv? I'm not sure I'd use most features of it, although having voltage readout, speed and a hud to show the horizon (like flight games always have) would all be nice.
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Nah, it's definitely not, I just got this as it was only $20 and the port on my APM is mostly unused. It's handy to have though, it particularly comes in useful if you crash and don't know where it is, if you record the video on the ground you have the GPS coordinates on the bottom of the screen, if you're flying around and can't remember where home is the handy arrow points to where you took off from. I've also setup the second screen to have no info on it so I can switch between showing flight data and a clean video feed.
 
rhysduck said:
Why do you expect to see it? :confused: :rolleyes: it's not good for you batteries.
You really shouldn't be getting them low voltages if you want the batteries to last!
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3.5v / cell is fine. Nothing bad will happen. It's when you let them get below 3v that really bad things start to happen to them.

I run my bats down to 3.5v / cell frequently. No issues at all and I've been using LiPos for years in helis, cars and multis.
 
It's not the 3.5v I'm worried about, everywhere says it's fine to charge them down that low. I'm just querying whether that variation across cells is an issue. I've been fine tuning the alarm so I generally charge it down to about 3.65v ish per cell now before calling it a day.

Working my way up to charging at a higher speed. The battery can allegedly charge at 5c (so 15A), some people seem really apprehensive about this. On reading up on these batteries it seems it's fine though, not that the charge I have can do more than 8A anyway!
 
It's a Turnigy Nano-tech 3S 25c 3000mah
The specs say 5c charge is fine, it just sounds really high for a cheap battery! Found a big thread on RCGroups with plenty of people saying they're charging them at that without any issues.
The cells are perfectly level when fully charged, I always balance charge and also think that realistically, I'll probably charge them slowly most of the time anyway.
 
They'll be fine being charged UPTO 5C but I'd be reluctant to charge them at anywhere near that more than a few times.
I've got a few of them for my 450 heli and I charge them at about 2c usually.

So a quad or a tri? HK don't have many tri frame kits and the one they have takes 6x motors.. probably not best for a beginner! Plenty of quads which i know what I'll get..... 4 v 3 ... hmm.
What do you lot suggest? I'd rather something to build up myself than something prebuilt...
 
I just did a charge at 1.5C and that made a nice difference, I'll probably do the odd 2C charge but I can't really go much beyond that anyway.

Think X-Quad seems to be the most beginner from everything I read. Simple to make as it's 4 identical arms in a cross, the electronics are the same for each side. Plus you don't need to spend time making sure it's well balanced like you might do on a Tri or similar, plus you don't need servos.

From what I've seen most pre-built tri frames are quite expensive due to the servo assembly, I'd be worried about breaking them. I've already broken 3 arms on my quad but as they work out around £1.50 an arm I'm not too bothered - not sure I'd be throwing a tri around so much by this point if the frame was £20-30!
 
doofer said:
O rly? :cool:

I must admit I really wanted a Talon Tri originally but they were out of stock so went for the V2 Quad which was a bad choice with hindsight as it was a bit too small to do what I wanted to do with it, it has now become the main donor of bits to a Dead Cat home-brew thing I'm struggling to decide on which FC to use on, I'm really liking the looks of the Ardupilot Mega + GPS but really don't fancy soldering all those damned pins on TBH... That little Hunter V-Tail sure looks sexy too... I wonder if a Dead Cat V-Tail has been done before? :cool::D
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Yep, I haven't flown a V-Tail so cannot comment, but normal orientation Quadcopters (imo) are really boring to fly.

Tricopters have a nice feeling to them as they have the yaw'd tail, so it flies very similar to a plane in that resepect, and won't just spin on the spot like the Quad's do when you use a bit of rudder :)

It's hard to explain, but if you have a sim try and compare them, you'll be pleasantly surprised :)




For charging, I never personally charge over 1C to ensure the longevity of the batteries. I also use Nanotech's primarily, but I'd rather prolong the life :).
 
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