Multirotor, multicopter and quadcopter discussion - The Drone thread

Was you on the naze before? I still feel like this isnt tuned 100%

Its not ocslilating i think thanks to ghandi but it doesnt feel like it should do. Dont really know what im doing wrong on my 250.

I dont really have the time in the winter. Summer maybe abit more time but i still get confused on where the issue maybe.
 
Been rocking Quanum V1 goggles and the last 6 months the V2s but seriously considering something more portable. My FPV case is bigger than the quads I'm flying! What goggles is everyone using? Anyone had both the Dominator v2 and v3 care to say if the latter are worth the near 400US outlay?
 
+1 for the Hubsan X4.

Love mine. I used to be big into my RC aircraft and helicopters and my mate does a lot of documentary work with his big camera rig (2x Red Dragon CF's), but I never really got into the whole drone thing. My better half bought me the X4 for my Christmas and I completely love it. Just buy some spare props for it and a few extra batteries. Broke the leg off it last night when I flew into my roof at high speed, but a few quid and it'll be flying again.

IMG_20160123_120328.jpg

(Shot with Nexus 6p, one hand on controller, the other on phone)
 
d_brennen said:
Been rocking Quanum V1 goggles and the last 6 months the V2s but seriously considering something more portable. My FPV case is bigger than the quads I'm flying! What goggles is everyone using? Anyone had both the Dominator v2 and v3 care to say if the latter are worth the near 400US outlay?
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IME, all of the small goggles are junk. They have a tiny FOV of just 30 degrees (or 35 for some) which makes them not immersive at all. I really don't get why people rave about them so much.
I had a set of Attitudes and I've also tried some Zeiss Cinemizers. The Attitudes when on Ebay 2 weeks after I got them.

Then I got a set of Headplays. Not much use to you as they are huge but the immersion is incredible with their 90 degree FPV.

This is purely my opinion and I'm sure there are tons of people who love their Dominators but for me, I thought they were very poor.
 
Skeeter said:
Ok guys. So, as expected after enjoying learning about and then building a quad, its ended up in a box in a cupboard gathering dust :(.

I've realised that I just don't have the skills or patience to spend large amount of time tuning the craft, plus because I don't have any other benchmarks to compare to, I don't have any idea if my craft is handling well or awful. I've no idea what a really good quad flys like, I've only ever flown one, mine.

But I want to try again. So, whats the simplest, easiest, out of the box and it "just works" control board setup? I've got a KK2 and while I like the screen and the ease of tuning, I litterally have no idea what I'm doing, and have spent hours and hours and batteries and batteries flying around my garden getting more and more frustrated by it just always feeling "meh". I'm prepared to invest a bit of money in getting it flying, but ultimately I expect any home built craft is always going to require more time/tinkering than I have the patience for.

Basically, is there a super easy control board/firmware out there that makes any self build fly great, or should I leave my quad in a box? Quads like the Vortex 250 Pro make me think that If I want to fly well, I really should just buy a pre built, pre tuned quad. But I can't splurge more money.
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Have you flashed a decent firmware onto the KK2? I think it goes by the name of "steveis" If not, try that, it's supposed to be much better than the default FW.

The KK2 is getting a bit long in the tooth now compared to newer offerings so it may be worth swapping it out. I can't remember what you're flying?

Naze32 with Betaflight FW is pretty good, as is the new KISS flight controller but you will need to tweak the settings a little although having said that, both fly really well on the stock PIDS. Both are also quite cheap at around £20-£25.

I can't speak for DJI, APM, Openpilot or other FC's as I've never used them.

Let me know what you're flying and what sort of style - Acro, Line of sight, FPV etc and I'll try to be more specific.

There are other considerations such as ESC's. motors, props and frame setup that can all affect the flying experience.
 
DJMK4 said:
Was you on the naze before? I still feel like this isnt tuned 100%

Its not ocslilating i think thanks to ghandi but it doesnt feel like it should do. Dont really know what im doing wrong on my 250.

I dont really have the time in the winter. Summer maybe abit more time but i still get confused on where the issue maybe.
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Flash the latest version of betaflight onto it. It should fly very well on the stock PID set up unless you have really bad vibrations in the frame and even then, the new FW works really well to filter a lot of noise out. All you will really need to change are your rates. The world of the Naze32 and all it's clones has been making exponential jumps in performance over the winter :)
 
Rilot said:
IME, all of the small goggles are junk. They have a tiny FOV of just 30 degrees (or 35 for some) which makes them not immersive at all. I really don't get why people rave about them so much.
I had a set of Attitudes and I've also tried some Zeiss Cinemizers. The Attitudes when on Ebay 2 weeks after I got them.

Then I got a set of Headplays. Not much use to you as they are huge but the immersion is incredible with their 90 degree FPV.

This is purely my opinion and I'm sure there are tons of people who love their Dominators but for me, I thought they were very poor.
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I get what you are saying. I tried some Predator V2 iirc that a random guy in my usual spot had with him and wasn't impressed. Was hoping the Doms were that much better... Quanum V2s it is for now :( They're excellent but the biggest multi I fly is 160mm lol
 
After a lot of thought I've decided to get shot of my S900 and all the associated kit it carries. The main reason for this is lack of use.
I've logged maybe 2 hours of flight time on the S900 since I got it but my Inspire is up in the air all the time. I think it comes down to ease of deployment. I can have the Inspire in the air and shooting pictures within 5 minutes. The S900 takes a lot more time and effort.
So, I'm going to buy the X5 for the Inspire. Should get me better results than the Nex5 that my S900 currently carries. This also provides me the opportunity to go "all in" with Micro 4/3 and get a GH4. Something I've been wanting to do for a while.
I'll miss the big beastie on my desk but it's just sitting there most of the time.
 
Not really sure if this is the place for it, if not can a mod move it? I can't find another thread.

I've got some older, not sure if still current heli stuff, I sold all my decent heli's when I stopped flying about 2 years ago and kept my test Copter X 450, DX6i and a BNF Blade 3d thing, which is kinda broken.

It's been about 10 months since I used any of it, I powered it up earlier and the 450 and controller work fine, Blade thing, not so much. I was wondering if it's worth anything?

Thanks guys :D
 
gandhi said:
Flash the latest version of betaflight onto it. It should fly very well on the stock PID set up unless you have really bad vibrations in the frame and even then, the new FW works really well to filter a lot of noise out. All you will really need to change are your rates. The world of the Naze32 and all it's clones has been making exponential jumps in performance over the winter :)
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Sounds interesting I will give this a go :) is it stable? I'm assuming someone's taken cleanflight and tried to polish it up to make the tuning process easier?
 
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gandhi said:
Have you flashed a decent firmware onto the KK2? I think it goes by the name of "steveis" If not, try that, it's supposed to be much better than the default FW.

The KK2 is getting a bit long in the tooth now compared to newer offerings so it may be worth swapping it out. I can't remember what you're flying?

Naze32 with Betaflight FW is pretty good, as is the new KISS flight controller but you will need to tweak the settings a little although having said that, both fly really well on the stock PIDS. Both are also quite cheap at around £20-£25.

I can't speak for DJI, APM, Openpilot or other FC's as I've never used them.

Let me know what you're flying and what sort of style - Acro, Line of sight, FPV etc and I'll try to be more specific.

There are other considerations such as ESC's. motors, props and frame setup that can all affect the flying experience.
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I have a QAV250 clone with some SimonK ESCs and the DYS gold motors. I've tried a number of Stevie's firmwares as well as those RC911 ones. I am not after acro or extreme speed, I just want predictable, stable and smooth flight. I find I prefer having auto level on for line of sight and then switch it off for FPV.

The problem I have is no matter what firmware I run, I don't understand enough about what the settings do in relation to how the craft handles. So I end up just chasing my tail fiddling with settings not really knowing what I'm doing. There also seems to be multiple possible reasons why it may handle a certain way. It could be x, y or z, so I start changing the settings relating to x and find I've created a new issue somewhere else. I then tackle that and change further settings and then brake something that was working, and then I change the settings for that and I'm back at square 1 again, only all my batteries are now flat and I have got bored. I've never had it setup in a way I was happy with, but I've also never flown a well tuned quad to have something to compare it with, and don't have enough experience or knowledge or (and this is the main one) patience to tune it properly. The last time I flew my quad I went through 3 batteries in my garden just trying different settings, and after an hour had made zero progress so it was packed away and forgotten about.

The self build process taught me loads and I really enjoyed learning about it, but I just don't have it in me to then take on the constant tweaking a self build needs. I'm tempted to go for something pre built, but I can't really justify £250 on one.

I am tempted to build a cheap foam plane though, as they seem much simpler and cheaper and its something I've never done so I'd enjoy the learning and building if nothing else.
 
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I've got an X4 - great fun, but pretty useless for decent video. I'm thinking of getting a Phantom 3 Advanced while the price is good.
 
DJMK4 said:
Sounds interesting I will give this a go :) is it stable? I'm assuming someone's taken cleanflight and tried to polish it up to make the tuning process easier?
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Is it stable? About as stable as it can be I think. Nothing is really massively broken but there may be bugs, same as any FC firmware really.

Nothing has really changed in the tuning process, but the default PID's are better and the actual PID calcs have some fancy filtering now, so it's a better flight experience.
 
Skeeter said:
I have a QAV250 clone with some SimonK ESCs and the DYS gold motors. I've tried a number of Stevie's firmwares as well as those RC911 ones. I am not after acro or extreme speed, I just want predictable, stable and smooth flight. I find I prefer having auto level on for line of sight and then switch it off for FPV.

The problem I have is no matter what firmware I run, I don't understand enough about what the settings do in relation to how the craft handles. So I end up just chasing my tail fiddling with settings not really knowing what I'm doing. There also seems to be multiple possible reasons why it may handle a certain way. It could be x, y or z, so I start changing the settings relating to x and find I've created a new issue somewhere else. I then tackle that and change further settings and then brake something that was working, and then I change the settings for that and I'm back at square 1 again, only all my batteries are now flat and I have got bored. I've never had it setup in a way I was happy with, but I've also never flown a well tuned quad to have something to compare it with, and don't have enough experience or knowledge or (and this is the main one) patience to tune it properly. The last time I flew my quad I went through 3 batteries in my garden just trying different settings, and after an hour had made zero progress so it was packed away and forgotten about.

The self build process taught me loads and I really enjoyed learning about it, but I just don't have it in me to then take on the constant tweaking a self build needs. I'm tempted to go for something pre built, but I can't really justify £250 on one.

I am tempted to build a cheap foam plane though, as they seem much simpler and cheaper and its something I've never done so I'd enjoy the learning and building if nothing else.
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I understand your pain, I never really got my KK2 tuned to a point I was happy with it either. If you get something pre-built, there's no guarantee it will be tuned to your liking either.

You could swap the KK2 our for a Naze32 or one of it's clones. I'd probably just get a standard Naze32 acro rev6. It should only be about £20. You will either need to solder the pins on or pay a bit extra for one with soldered pins. Flash it with either cleanflight or betaflight and it should be good to go. The stock PID's in betaflight work extremely well and the GUI is pretty straight forward to use.
 
Yeah I did some poking around and it looks like, at the moment, the best out of the box "just works" setup is a Naze32 and betaflights default PIDs.

Is there any reason to get a full Naze over an Acro? They aren't much more expensive. I'm happy to drop ~£25 to give it another go, much better than just leaving it abandoned.
 
No reason to get the full Naze. The barometer and compass it comes with are only useful when it comes to GPS, but the Cleanflight doesn't do GPS very well, yet.

Betaflight stock settings are very good on most 250 size quads in my experience. We've tried them on quite few different frame/motor/esc/prop combos at my club and they do well with 5" and 6" props on 3S and 4S batteries.
They aren't so good on my 180 in a 12-15mph wind.

The choose the Luxfloat PID controller and up the rates a little. The default rates (particularly on YAW) are very slow. Even if you don't tweak the others, up the YAW rates to about 0.20 and away you go.
 
Thanks guys. I will grab a pre-souldered Acro Naze and bosh betaflight on it and let you know how I get on.

Wheres the best place to buy a souldered Acro Naze? If I could get it delivered by the weekend that would be ideal.
 
I have been having exactly the same problem with my kk2.0 and my APM mini had a broken compass. I just put a naze32 on my hex and it s the best out of the box fc I've tried with clean flight on it....

Although I had to put custom mixes on it as the naze32 spins the motors opposite to the kk2.0 layouts and due to my build I couldn't swap over any of the motor wires to reverse the motors.
 
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