Multirotor, multicopter and quadcopter discussion - The Drone thread

The horizon would stop being completely level as I rotated the craft. So, straight ahead it was level, yaw the Phantom 90 degrees and the horizon was about 5 degrees from the horizontal.

With regards to the BNUC-s, I'd be interested to know how long it took him to write his ops manual. It's the bit I'm having the most trouble with.
 
I'll keep a eye out for that problem..

If you look up a guy called Leo Gwizdala from Bournemouth on Facebook I'm sure he would give you some pointers especially as you have the same kit. I have a feeling he took 6 months on his.
 
Just ordered upgrade for Phantom...

DJI F550 Kit
DJI Naza M V2 inc GPS
DJI iOSD Mini
Walkera Devo 10 RX
3 * Zippy 5000mAH 3S
Aeroxcraft landing gear
XT60 connectors
Thread lock
Heatshrink
iOSD Cable for Fatshark


Will add to what I already have

Goodluckbuy gimbal
Gopro Black
Fatshark predators / FPV cam / 250mW TX
Walkera Devo10 TX (is 100mW enabled so should be good for long range)


Fingers crossed this is all that's needed for a F550 starter kit....will sell off bare Phantom v1 cheap
 
Well the Mrs got me an X4 for my birthday, it's so tiny compared to all the beasts above but I love it. Totally rubbish at flying it to start with and still struggle flying towards me.

It's certainly not flimsy which is good because a gust of wind took it full power into my fence and it just bounced off. There's a good spares kit on Amazon which I might go for and includes a battery, 2 motors, leds and even a shell
 
Flukester said:
Just ordered upgrade for Phantom...

DJI F550 Kit
DJI Naza M V2 inc GPS
DJI iOSD Mini
Walkera Devo 10 RX
3 * Zippy 5000mAH 3S
Aeroxcraft landing gear
XT60 connectors
Thread lock
Heatshrink
iOSD Cable for Fatshark


Will add to what I already have

Goodluckbuy gimbal
Gopro Black
Fatshark predators / FPV cam / 250mW TX
Walkera Devo10 TX (is 100mW enabled so should be good for long range)


Fingers crossed this is all that's needed for a F550 starter kit....will sell off bare Phantom v1 cheap
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Looks good Flukester.
I would consider ditching the Walkera for a FrSky Taranis. Once you've flown with telemetry there's no going back. Something to think about for the future.
 
Thanks Rilot... I skimped abit on radio gear. Was looking at Futaba t8j.... Future upgrade maybe :-)

Edit: can you trust voltage readout on iosd ?
 
Well F550 has basic build, tested with a old Phantom lipo known to be junk and flew for 30secs tops. Waiting on batterys, gimbal and iOSD for FPV gear.

I must admit when facing so many parts to assemble I tend to rush as I just want it done, so lots of tidying up to do once all systems are known to work.

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Uhtred said:
Well the Mrs got me an X4 for my birthday, it's so tiny compared to all the beasts above but I love it. Totally rubbish at flying it to start with and still struggle flying towards me.

It's certainly not flimsy which is good because a gust of wind took it full power into my fence and it just bounced off. There's a good spares kit on Amazon which I might go for and includes a battery, 2 motors, leds and even a shell
Click to expand...

I've got one of the Q4's, talk about compact!!
Easy to fly in stability mode havent dare'd take it out of that mode yet!
Decent flying time as well.
Well worth getting one for flying round offices ;)
 
Flukester said:
Hiya

He said the actual course was quite easy. Just fly around a bit and demonstrate failsafe RTH. The actual flying test was all in GPS mode. I think much of the exam a lot of stuff he swotted up on wasn't used like navigation etc.

The hardest part he said was the flight manual that he spent months getting together. I don't know how much work that was... I guess it varys depending on how good you are with things like that. They do provide a template flight manual on request. (which he only found out after making his own)

Every flight he makes though all has to be logged, and at all times has to show in his actions that they are safe, hence the cones / signs and call to local ATC.

The S800 though was amazing, I hate to think how much it cost, even the gimbal was double the cost of my entire Phantom setup. Almost felt my Phantom had no place there... but like he said with a gimbal the Phantom is easier to deploy fast.. the S800 took ages to setup.
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Thanks. And yeah, I'm ok with things like the Operation Manual so not too worried on that side. We have got clients waiting for substantial work though so I'll have to nail through it.

We're looking at the S1000 at some point and that's only about £4,500 all-in for the gimbal and flight controller so you may be surprised.

Rilot said:
I'm afraid not. I'll health has put it all on hold for the moment.
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Sorry to hear that! I'll let you know how I get on if that's the one you'll go on to take.
 
Just maidened the F550. Was getting 4 mins flight time. Looked at naza settings and they very very conservative with voltage limits. Quick tweak later 13mins flight time from single 5000mAH 3S. (even with this charger still only put back 4700mAH)

FPV all working and iOSD works fantastic!!!

Thing is a bit jittery, maybe gains too high ?



edit: gains sorted and all stable now. Just tried two 5000mAH 3S in parallel and got 21mins flight time before 2nd warning, all stock with 10" DJI props. No gimbal or gopro attached, but still not bad.
 
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Russinating said:
Thanks. And yeah, I'm ok with things like the Operation Manual so not too worried on that side. We have got clients waiting for substantial work though so I'll have to nail through it.

We're looking at the S1000 at some point and that's only about £4,500 all-in for the gimbal and flight controller so you may be surprised.
Click to expand...

S1000 is a beast, I like the fact DJI have finally made a UAV that can lose a motor / prop and continue flying to safely land.
 
I see that a certain high-street electronics and tat shop has started selling Phantoms. This is extremely worrying as I'm sure they will be eager to demonstrate them in the carpark outside of the shop.
I can see the headlines now "Shop manager demonstrates DRONE and crashes in to family car: We were terrified says mum of 3 Angela, speaking from her £400,000 home".
 
All the bits for my FPV setup have now arrived, rigged up the camera, vTx and my screen to test it out last night

Seemed to be working fine until a puff of smoke came from the vTx, thought I had cooked it within 5 minutes. Turned out that running the camera off the 12v out from the vTx(Boscam) often results in it popping something on the board

Powered the camera direct and all seems to be good thankfully

Now just have to find a home for all the extra kit on the quad
 
Just got back from first day of the BNUC-S. It's quite a snooze fest! Mainly just because they just go through the manuals via a presentation which I've already read and everything is either common sense or not difficult. I think anyway!

Only worry is there was an ex CPL and a guy with a current PPL and they were both making notes :confused:. Also two re-sitters.

Fun bit was the map reading because it just made me want to be a real pilot :p. Anyway, half day tomorrow and then the test so finger's crossed.
 
FunkyCowie said:
It took me a long time to get used to and it comes with practise and crashes.

I trained myself by flying in a square, forwards a bit then rotate 90 degrees, then keep doing that. this way you only need to focus on 2 operations. Then try the same starting at 90 left/right sp you go left a bit then rotate 90, then left a bit then rotate 90. After mastering that you can start mixing a bit to get the curve in your flight.
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Still trying! :)

Having a lot of fun with this, very impressed how it flies, started getting the hang of a right to left transition turning the quad with yaw, but still struggle flying the thing when it faces me and the controls are inverted :)

Burned a motor out last week, replacement ordered and a quick solder and it was flying again. Got 5x extended batteries too. Also made the mistake today in the garden to leave it on and go see what the wife was showing me on the laptop. Knocked the throttle by mistake and before I knew it it was heading up as high as the house! managed to bring it back safely with a bit of panic lol.

Was wondering what you guys recommend as a good starter kit. Love the look of the DJI Naza F450 but wondering if its too ambitious as a first step into the hobby?

Need more research and actually learn to fly first. How much do you guys think the skills from flying the X4 toy :) actually translate onto a more serious kit?
 
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