Multirotor, multicopter and quadcopter discussion - The Drone thread

Cool thanks sounds like IOC is defenatly good to set-up just incase and fix my X,Y,Z values

I will probably end up using epoxy, although I may see if there is something a bit lower I can use as that stuff is secure locking.

Cheers for the additional info, will get voice activation on switch set-up.

RE: the 3 way switch, I was just following a youtube video, what mode do most people fly in then? GPS atti? IE when you throttle up/down you get to a specific GPS position and just locks at that altitude until you move again?


Just about to order some props, was either going to go for

http://www.quadcopters.co.uk/dji-e300-9443-self-tightening-propeller-pair-grey-1487-p.asp

which are the same as the ones I got, but only a pack of two, or apparently they use the same props as phantom? (DJI E300 9443) - I can get a pack of 4 for £6-8

Same as this?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UK-2-Pair...79089c&pid=100204&rk=3&rkt=30&sd=291269014415



Going to see if I can get a quick delivery of the white /red tipped E300 phantom props, I can get a pack of 4 then
 
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Had my AeroXcraft F550 landing gear and extended arms arrive earlier - very light package but it's all there - high quality bits of kit alright!

Just need to decide on which motors and props to get now ...
 
If anyone wants a bumper for a Hubsan X4 drop me a trust and I'll send it out this afternoon.

It only fits on the non-camera models unfortunately.
 
A possibly test flight looks on for this weekend, only a small hover, I should have 2 x props arriving tomorrow which will replace my one broken one, and 4 props arriving next wed.
 
Flight testing mine at the weekend as well, very similar to yours but I've gone for non DJI products, I'll let you know how I get on.
 
Investigating some issues this evening, I thought it was the battery but I gave the battery a charge.

Power on model, Naza LED flashing orange, then turn on my TX, the RX is showing green which means binded. Try to spin up motors props off and I get nothing, the Naza LED blinking fast 3 or 4 times red, then goes off then blinks 3 or 4 times red again then off

Checking what it means
 
Check in naza assistant if everything is working... Good place to start. Also do a IMU calibration... That's just a guess though but it does stop arming if not right

Got a feeling blinking Reds is just saying no sats, worth checking though
 
Flukester said:
Check in naza assistant if everything is working... Good place to start. Also do a IMU calibration... That's just a guess though but it does stop arming if not right

Got a feeling blinking Reds is just saying no sats, worth checking though
Click to expand...



Turned out it was something to do with motors or something or stick positions, had to re-calobrate in Naza


I did an IMU calibration yesterday but will do it again

Do you need to balance these models at all?
 
Cool. Yes you want it balanced roughly.... But as it stands with battery in centre it will be good enough. Gets more essential if you have a large overhanging undercarriage with cameras etc
 
Flukester said:
Cool. Yes you want it balanced roughly.... But as it stands with battery in centre it will be good enough. Gets more essential if you have a large overhanging undercarriage with cameras etc
Click to expand...


No worries, I just noticed when I took off slightly yesterday it didnt seem to slightly vear but not sure if that was manual mode or something


Channel set-up and functions set at the moment

1-4 A, E, T, R


Channel 5 - Unused (I was going to set this as my modes but the offset wouldnt do anything in Naza?)

Channel 6 - IOC - SA Switch up (Off), SA Switch Middle (Home Lock), SA Switch down (Unset) --- Although having problems with this, IOC in Naza when I tick it, and try to set the offsets, nothing happens, if I leave the IOC page and go back, the tick is unticked, however when I go to the naza basic page and flick the switch assigned to X2 I see movements


Channel 7 - SE Switch up (Atti), SE Switch Middle (GPS Atti), SE Switch down (Failsafe)
 
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You wouldn't be in manual mode (self leveling off) unless you had set it. The Naza will compensate for any slight mis balance of model... you want it as balanced as you can though. The veer to one side is probably just on take off before self leveling catches up with things as you take off

If you lift 450 by sides of bottom plate on two fingers at mid point it should almost balance front to back ... if not adjust battery position. Once you have a good balance mark where you put battery. Balancing it left to right I would forget about as there is nothing easy you can do to fix it and Naza will compensate for the odd bit of equipment that is 'to one side' of COG

Not sure on your IOC switch problem and why it's 'unchecking' itself... like you say in the basic page your switch is working. I setup mine using that link I pasted a couple of pages back on Naza Taranis setup. I would set it up like they did, so IOC OFF / Course Lock / Home lock. The fact you are disabling course lock probably is screwing something up there.
 
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Nah I havnt set manual mode (yet), Yep I found out this morning, Atti mode is quite good :) and GPS atti also, very easy to fly in them modes.


I need to secure the battery on a bit better I think.

I will keep looking at IOC see if I can get it sorted


I had a maiden flight this morning. Was a tad windy but not too windy, I managed to get a small video clip whilst it was hovering. Didnt want to go overboard with the camera though, and I wouldnt have done it if it wasnt in a decent position.

Only thing is I am not too sure how to gauge full battery etc, the indicator on the TX is the battery of the TX I believe, although I had about 3-4 mins of flight really (after 30 minutes of charging at 3.3-4A and the charger reading out 15.59v on the battery. But after coming to that last landing, I couldnt lift off, there seemed not to be enough juice in the tank, although I need to get warnings set-up, I didnt come to the landing because of loss of power, I just wanted to bring it down.


I got a page to read on lipo charging later.


Sorry about the quality of the video, it was on a blackberry



Just took it out for another session, I swear I was flying for about 10-12 minutes and there was still juice in there but brought it down after a slight incident, bit better.

Getting more confident with controls now! in both GPS Atti and Atti, after testing at lower altiudes I took it up a little higher, no idea how high I was but it was high enough for me at this point (at a guess I would say possibly 40-50 meters, could be way off) but brought it down.

Testing some quicker menovours aswel, including at a safe altitude, and at lower altitude, I was pretty good at both but managed to panic on the last low run and cut the power, hit and flipped but only broke one prop.

All in all happy and good flight, although I need to study failsafe a bit more, I tested it, it started climbing, (i heard thats normal) but wasnt too sure so switched it back in to Atti.
 
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Great news you are up in the air. If you have run your lipo till it couldn't lift you have gone way to far... though I suspect the Naza limits were stopping you (depending on how they are set)

When charging on your IMAX B6, charge at 5 amps in balance mode... once it's done it will beep at you. You can monitor on the display how many mah it has put back in the battery. This will help you judge flight times.... If you have to put all 5000mah back in you have gone to long flying time. 4000mah would be sweet spot.

A fully charged lipo has a off load voltage of 4.2V per cell, so your fully charged 4S batt should read 16.8V. Charging 5A it will take one hour to charge, though possibly a extra 30mins to balance if the cells need it

Are you planning on going FPV on it ?, if so you will be able to read your voltage on FPV, if not... best bet would be a FrSky telemetry module to show mAH used.

10-12 mins sounds fine...

From top of head failsafe flys up to around 20m, before returning home and landing.... it's worth testing.

Just forgot to say you can set a timer on the Taranis, I have set a toggle switch and it will count the minutes out loud for you :). You can also do this automatically I believe on throttle up, not sure of the settings though
 
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Lost my 2nd Hubsan x4 H107 a few days ago. Don't suppose anyone has one lying around they need rid of lol? Don't fancy buying a whole new kit. I already have 2 controllers.
 
Flukester said:
Great news you are up in the air. If you have run your lipo till it couldn't lift you have gone way to far... though I suspect the Naza limits were stopping you (depending on how they are set)

When charging on your IMAX B6, charge at 5 amps in balance mode... once it's done it will beep at you. You can monitor on the display how many mah it has put back in the battery. This will help you judge flight times.... If you have to put all 5000mah back in you have gone to long flying time. 4000mah would be sweet spot.

A fully charged lipo has a off load voltage of 4.2V per cell, so your fully charged 4S batt should read 16.8V. Charging 5A it will take one hour to charge, though possibly a extra 30mins to balance if the cells need it

Are you planning on going FPV on it ?, if so you will be able to read your voltage on FPV, if not... best bet would be a FrSky telemetry module to show mAH used.

10-12 mins sounds fine...

From top of head failsafe flys up to around 20m, before returning home and landing.... it's worth testing.

Just forgot to say you can set a timer on the Taranis, I have set a toggle switch and it will count the minutes out loud for you :). You can also do this automatically I believe on throttle up, not sure of the settings though
Click to expand...

Yep im glad I am up too :) now I am confident it can fly, I am confident I can fly it, I am going to do some little tweaks here and there with battery, RX masts, just make sure everything is still ok.


Well under the Naza software I think there is 2 levels of warning, by default my first level battery warning I think was set to 14.8v, and second level I think was 14v. When I went out the first time I think my battery was at 15.8 when I first started. Do you think these Naza 1st and 2nd level are too high? second flight I dropped the Naza 1st and 2nd level protection to 14.0v and 13.8v. How far can you generally fly safe without it going too far?

2nd time I went out my battery was at 16.3v I think. With the lower 1st/2nd level I had a bit more flying time, so like you say I think it was Naza limits cutting me off after landing.

When I set the Imax I set Lipo, 5A and 4S, but when it charges it reports 3.8A or there abouts (will have to look at this).

I will eventually get the landing skids with gimball first and most likely test with gopro, then maybe down the line go FPV, but not just yet. Want to get used to flying from the ground first instead of going FPV view.

I will be doing a few more tweaks on the radio (as said get IOC set-up) get things like audio alerts for switches, the counter you mentioned and what ever else I can find.


:cool:
 
As you have no voltage reading during flight it's important to find the right values for limits.

You don't really want to go below 3.4V per cell (13.6V) as after this you tip over a kind of voltage 'knee' where you rapidly lose power and voltage.

The net is full of different ideas about lipos and how far to push them... I don't play it that safe and would set below, maybe someone else here has better figures. End of day lipos these days are cheap so you may as well extract good flight times from them :)

As you are flying close range at the moment and can monitor the Naza LED maybe set like this...

Set loss values for both to 0V
Set 1st level to 14.13V (3.53V per cell) ..excuse the weird number I got them from working out what I use on 3S
Set 2nd level to 13.6V (3.4V per cell)

This should mean as soon as you see the flashing low voltage naza light you can bring it in to land... gives a little lea way before 2nd level kicks in and starts trying to autoland you. You will soon get used to at what sort of flight time alarms go off, and be close to home ready to land anyway, or already landed.

The loss setting of 0V is because it's a pointless setting that just confuses things... so setting to 0V disables it in the calculation.


Experiment with different values and see how many mAH you put back into the battery.

edit: deffo read about, it's all about balancing flight times vs how hard you want to push your batt.... a small change can makes several mins difference of flight time.
 
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