Multirotor, multicopter and quadcopter discussion - The Drone thread

That's great, I know how to do mine now thanks.

@Skeeter, I think it's a good price, I wouldn't give up mine now except to upgrade. That itch is getting worse the more I fly, I think I'm going to want head tracking soon so I can look around better when flying fast.
 
Still having enough fun to tide me over with LOS flight at the moment so still not bought any FPV set. Interesting hearing peoples findings of FPV vs LOS though :)
I find flying with self level on now really weird, although I've not really tuned it much yet so it's a little jerky. I've got the main pids nailed a bit better now and it's flipping really quick and smoothly now, got the control input a lot better so I'm also losing a lot less altitude and powering out of the loops which looks so much better!

To the guys FPV'ing on 5.8GHz. How much signal drop if any have you noticed if flying behind tree branches and such? Seen suggestions that 5.8GHz just can't deal with that at all but if that is the case I'm puzzled by the volume of fpv vids I've seen doing close level flying - surely they can't all be using much lower frequencies?
 
With my 200mw Boscam vTX and CP antennas, I can fly several football pitches away and behind quite a bit of tree cover before losing too much video. The most interference I get is noise from the ESCs/carbon frame!
 
I get some depending if I'm stood close to trees or not, my radio gear isn't in the best locations though I don't think. The vtx is mounted virtually on top of an ESC and has a very long lead from the camera.
 
Sounds like the signal issues from trees are made to sound a little worse than reality. Glad it's that way around! Would have completely lost interest if I couldn't fly behind a couple of trees :p

Had 2 flights this evening, one went really nice - some nice flips, really getting the hang of rolls and forward/back flips whilst flying around (rather than being stationary) and getting more confident at flying through gaps in between trees on the green near my house. However flight two I decided I had to try the next step, a diagonal flip.... Well the video will demonstrate how that went :/

Quad now looks like this:
http://i.imgur.com/Y9mkIGP.jpg
I lost track of the angle it was at and didn't hit the self level quick enough. Oh well, serves me right for trying it in less than perfect light with no lights on it.
Looks worse than it is! Got a handful of spare props now. Motors all spin up fine although they're not sounding new any more! One of the T pieces has split where the bolt holding the arm is at the bottom (rear right) but other than that it was just a case of bending it back into shape.
Despite all the damage (and the broken T) it still feels more sturdy than the previous Hobbyking frame did. :)
 
Just had some great service from Hobbyking UK, they sent a Tunigy lipo with two duff cells... quick ticket later and a replacement on way without any need to send old one back.

Top service!!, and great prices on Lipos, just £15 for a 5000mah 3 cell
 
Where/how do you guys store your LiPos? The GF has tidied up and I've just twigged that my 3 (all be it discharged) LiPos are sat in my office in a box full of flamable stuff.

There seems to be some rather over sensationalist stuff out on the net, practically tell you to only store LiPos in a bomb shelter and only charge from behind a blast screen 50m away from any buildings, with the fire brigade on standby :p, but I'm pretty sure I should be taking more care than just 'shoving them in a box'.
 
I use a firebag for charging and then stored in a ammo tin when not in use (ammo tin with the rubber gasket removed)

Ordered Predator V2 kit today can't wait to try it out but not looking forward to trying to squeeze it all on the frame.
 
Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I do have a fire proof bag that they are in, although I should check that they are still in it after being tidied up.

Where do you keep the ammo tin?
 
I must admit never taken precautions with lipos... they are all in plastic tool box in hallway at home. They shouldn't self combust though providing I haven't crashed them and nothing shorts them out.

Never leave stuff charging while not there though, and puffed up lipos get scrapped
 
Mine are in fire proof bags, one per bag, in a biscuit tin on a tiled floor in the utility room. I only ever charge mine while supervising. Had a lipo fire in the field a little while ago (my own fault), would not want that in the house!
 
I'm assuming its a bad idea to store LiPos fully charged, so I should get into the habit of discharging any I don't use before storing them?
 
Skeeter said:
I'm assuming its a bad idea to store LiPos fully charged, so I should get into the habit of discharging any I don't use before storing them?
Click to expand...

I usually use storage mode after I use a lipo and then fully balance charge it when needed. If I have charged one up to use but don't get round to using it I will then discharge it for storage. Most I ever keep one fully charged it about 24 hours.
 
I've been pretty casual with mine. Currently the battery lives on the kitchen worktop and I'll only leave the battery on charge if I'm in the house just in case. Although I don't sit and watch it for an hour!

Once I've got a few more it's likely I'll take a bit more precaution and keep them in something suitable.
 
managed to rebuild my multirotor last night. flying well very stable but one problem as it wont rotate left goes up instead:rolleyes: think its my cheap 4ch contoller as calibration and reciever test shows everything working correctly.

IMG_20140820_173515.jpg
 
Ash2097 said:
I usually use storage mode after I use a lipo and then fully balance charge it when needed. If I have charged one up to use but don't get round to using it I will then discharge it for storage. Most I ever keep one fully charged it about 24 hours.
Click to expand...

I only ever discharge mine if I know I won't be using them within a week or so. Probably does damage them a bit but I see lipos as a consumable item. Getting more than a year out of a sub £10 item is quite good going (most of my batteries are £5-7)
 
My HobbyKing China order has arrived... :)

...at the Post Office :(

Got stung for tax. Still cheaper than buying in the UK though and I planned to have to pay it.
 
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