Multirotor, multicopter and quadcopter discussion - The Drone thread

How do you guys secure your props to motors on the Tri's?
I'm fresh out of prop savers and HK have none of the right size in their UK warehouse :(
Due to the prop's having a hole that is about 2mm bigger than the motor shaft (4mm) I've used to of those prop reducer rings (1 each side) and then an M4 nut to secure the prop..
 
What's the battery life like on the DJI Phantom? Can you extend flight time significantly with higher capacity battery/ies ? I've been toying with getting into this for a while now but am ready to take the plunge. From what I can see, I can:

1) Get a futaba controller to replace the standard one and get better range?
2) Buy a Fatshark Predator setup for FPV side of things?
3) Get a gimbal to smooth things out? I want to record nice smooth 1080p.

Can you mount a drift HD to the Phantom for recording/FPV or is it pretty much a GoPro friendly setup and grief to fit anything else? I'm a bit confused about whether you have one camera for FPV and use another for recording, or whether you take a feed out of one camera for TX while it's recording?

Also, does the casing of the phantom come off? I'd think about respraying it black.
 
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Just placed an order for my first Hubsan X4... improved version no less! :p Went for the crash pack and prop guard too.
 
Narj said:
What's the battery life like on the DJI Phantom? Can you extend flight time significantly with higher capacity battery/ies ? I've been toying with getting into this for a while now but am ready to take the plunge. From what I can see, I can:

1) Get a futaba controller to replace the standard one and get better range?
2) Buy a Fatshark Predator setup for FPV side of things?
3) Get a gimbal to smooth things out? I want to record nice smooth 1080p.

Can you mount a drift HD to the Phantom for recording/FPV or is it pretty much a GoPro friendly setup and grief to fit anything else? I'm a bit confused about whether you have one camera for FPV and use another for recording, or whether you take a feed out of one camera for TX while it's recording?

Also, does the casing of the phantom come off? I'd think about respraying it black.
Click to expand...

The Phantoms are pretty limited with what batteries you can use. Factor on 11 minutes without camera and about 7 minutes with. There are slightly higher capacity batteries but they only give a marginal increase in flight time. Some people use dual battery setups with the batteries mounted outside of the shell. This works well but does reduce the agility of the craft a fair bit.
The most significant increase in flight times I got was by changing the propellers to the ones from the Phantom Vision. This gave me about 15% increase in flight time across the board.

The things you list are all possible and common. The Drift however will be an issue. If you want to hard mount it to the Phantom then sure, pretty easy. Unfortunately, there aren't any gimbals for the Drift or anything else other than the GoPro for small quadcopters like the Phantom.
On the Phantom I use the same camera for FPV as I do for video but when it's on a gimbal it can be a little confusing as you can't tell the attitude of the craft through the goggles. But of course, you can see what you are filming so that side of things becomes much easier.

As for the shell, yes, it all comes apart and people do spray them up with some interesting designs.
 
Rilot said:
The most significant increase in flight times I got was by changing the propellers to the ones from the Phantom Vision. This gave me about 15% increase in flight time across the board.
Click to expand...

Why was that? What is it about those props that give more airtime?
 
rhysduck said:
How do you guys secure your props to motors on the Tri's?
I'm fresh out of prop savers and HK have none of the right size in their UK warehouse :(
Due to the prop's having a hole that is about 2mm bigger than the motor shaft (4mm) I've used to of those prop reducer rings (1 each side) and then an M4 nut to secure the prop..
Click to expand...

Reducer rings and nuts the best way to go about it really. On my setup the shafts are 4mm the same as the props, so I just chuck them on with the fairing shaped nut holding it down in place of a normal nut.


Been reading up on the Predators but I'm seeing a few things making me think I should look elsewhere. Various comments of the range not being great and the stock camera being pretty rubbish. Need to do a load more reading to see what I'm going to do.
 
PinkFloyd said:
Reducer rings and nuts the best way to go about it really. On my setup the shafts are 4mm the same as the props, so I just chuck them on with the fairing shaped nut holding it down in place of a normal nut.
Click to expand...
Do you have a close up picture please PF? Not sure what you mean exactly, esp the "fairing shaped nut" bit. :D
 
Rilot said:
The Phantoms are pretty limited with what batteries you can use. Factor on 11 minutes without camera and about 7 minutes with. There are slightly higher capacity batteries but they only give a marginal increase in flight time. Some people use dual battery setups with the batteries mounted outside of the shell. This works well but does reduce the agility of the craft a fair bit.
The most significant increase in flight times I got was by changing the propellers to the ones from the Phantom Vision. This gave me about 15% increase in flight time across the board.

The things you list are all possible and common. The Drift however will be an issue. If you want to hard mount it to the Phantom then sure, pretty easy. Unfortunately, there aren't any gimbals for the Drift or anything else other than the GoPro for small quadcopters like the Phantom.
On the Phantom I use the same camera for FPV as I do for video but when it's on a gimbal it can be a little confusing as you can't tell the attitude of the craft through the goggles. But of course, you can see what you are filming so that side of things becomes much easier.

As for the shell, yes, it all comes apart and people do spray them up with some interesting designs.
Click to expand...

I think we need to consider mounting a second battery on the outer shell. Do you have a link to a video/guide of anyone that's done this?
 
Russinating said:
I think we need to consider mounting a second battery on the outer shell. Do you have a link to a video/guide of anyone that's done this?
Click to expand...

No link, but I've done it. If you search an auction site for "Phantom dual" you'll find the mounting plates I used.
Essentially, you end up with both batteries outside of the shell, one each side of the body. You then need a parallel Y cable to connect the two batteries. I would recommend changing to the Vision props if you do this though as the 8" stock props can barely lift it. Also, don't expect double the flight time. I got maybe a 50% increase so I went from 7 mins to around 11 minutes with gamera and gimbal.

Mat said:
Why was that? What is it about those props that give more airtime?
Click to expand...

Not sure to be honest. The props are 1" longer than the stock props, a lower profile and a different blade shape.
 
rhysduck said:
Do you have a close up picture please PF? Not sure what you mean exactly, esp the "fairing shaped nut" bit. :D
Click to expand...

No close up to hand, I can take one later if need be but if you just google "NTM 1200kv prop mount" you'll see pictures of what I meant, probably explained it really badly :D

Pic of mine from earlier in the thread (after a crash) - you can see the motor mounts if you squint!
http://i.imgur.com/OHOH7o8.jpg
 
Ah great thanks.. that method wont work as the prop mounts wont fit my motors.. no bother shall use the original method I thought of and stick a few m4 nuts on there!
 
Rilot said:
The Phantoms are pretty limited with what batteries you can use. Factor on 11 minutes without camera and about 7 minutes with. There are slightly higher capacity batteries but they only give a marginal increase in flight time. Some people use dual battery setups with the batteries mounted outside of the shell. This works well but does reduce the agility of the craft a fair bit.
The most significant increase in flight times I got was by changing the propellers to the ones from the Phantom Vision. This gave me about 15% increase in flight time across the board.

The things you list are all possible and common. The Drift however will be an issue. If you want to hard mount it to the Phantom then sure, pretty easy. Unfortunately, there aren't any gimbals for the Drift or anything else other than the GoPro for small quadcopters like the Phantom.
On the Phantom I use the same camera for FPV as I do for video but when it's on a gimbal it can be a little confusing as you can't tell the attitude of the craft through the goggles. But of course, you can see what you are filming so that side of things becomes much easier.

As for the shell, yes, it all comes apart and people do spray them up with some interesting designs.
Click to expand...

Cheers matey, I'm looking at an original Phantom as the Phantom II is a bit too pricey for me to consider for a bit of fun and filming. Any alternatives I should consider?

As much fun as building stuff can be, I'm short on spare time and want something that'll just work out of the box rather than involve a lot of swearing and frustration. :)

So for starters, a Phantom 1, Phantom 2 blades, and FatShark Predator v2 setup will be fine to get started on the FPV aspect? I can investigate gimbals and camera setups later on...
 
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rhysduck said:
Ah great thanks.. that method wont work as the prop mounts wont fit my motors.. no bother shall use the original method I thought of and stick a few m4 nuts on there!
Click to expand...

Yeah that's absolutely fine. Think many people go about it that way even on the motors I have.
 
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