Multirotor, multicopter and quadcopter discussion - The Drone thread

TheOtherOption · 1 Jun 2015 at 21:48

Was out with work today near Cheltenham at a meeting of colleagues interested in the use of UAVs in vegetation mapping and the like - very interesting day although the windy & wet weather put paid to the demonstration flights they had planned!

Was pleased to see the qualified pilot they had come in to show us the tech was using an F550 (spoke with him about it at length) and he also had an S800 - first time I've seen one of those up close.

Be interesting to see where this technology gets taken in future in our line of work - likely tendering to CAA listed companies rather than running anything in house but I'll certainly stay in touch with people in case some opportunities were to come my way!

gandhi · 1 Jun 2015 at 22:23

Genoma said:
I've got power loss issues, convinced it's the crappy orange Rx that I had to trim the antenna after it broke.

If it's anything like the frSky ones, it's a carefully tuned dipole that is exactly the correct length in it's original form.

Don't ask me how I know this or what happens when you ignore the "RSSI Critical" warning from your tx

Bigpops · 2 Jun 2015 at 01:22

Genoma said:
....convinced it's the crappy orange Rx that I had to trim the antenna after it broke.

You can't trim antennas. They're a specific length. 1/4 the length of the wavelength, which at 2.4GHz is about 31mm

Django x2 · 2 Jun 2015 at 10:10

Spectrum analyzers, wind / rain meters, operations manuals.....

BNUC Meh!

Genoma · 2 Jun 2015 at 10:24

Bigpops said:
You can't trim antennas. They're a specific length. 1/4 the length of the wavelength, which at 2.4GHz is about 31mm

Yes I trimmed it to the suggested quarter length, used a micrometer to make sure but I just need to replace it full stop.

Need to find the best location to place it too, it broke last time as I hang it from the bottom of the frame which obviously is getting bashed when landing. Just sounded like an obvious place as I wated it as much as possible in LOS with the Tx antenna; given that it's a CF frame I didn't want it blocking the signal inside or on top of the frame.

Starting to wonder whether the weight advantages of CF are actually worth it. From a durability POV I managed to break a CF arm anyway (it was a bad crash into a metal goal post to be fair) but combined with the risk of electrical shorts it feels a bit like a non conductive frame is a actually a better idea.

On a positive though, managed to test out the 600mw ImmersionRC Tx. Superb, didn't notice any interference / snow at any point in the flight.

petridish · 3 Jun 2015 at 15:57

Quick question for you all, any recommended places for buying various parts? Looking at putting together a tri and have no prior knowledge of anything RC

Rilot · 3 Jun 2015 at 16:53

Makeitbuildit or RadioC. Both are good and carry decent parts. Phil at makeitbuild it is especially good.

petridish · 3 Jun 2015 at 17:18

Cheers Rilot, now to spend the evening planning

kkelly · 3 Jun 2015 at 18:28

Hi, it's there anything like the parrot drones (idoit proof), simple to use with fpv without the cost?

Basically I want to try a toy before spending more?.

DJMK4 · 3 Jun 2015 at 18:44

Couldn't comment on the likes unfortunately

Not sure about fpv but think people start off with hubsan x4s?

My 250 is pretty much all good to go again. Just waiting on pigtail for vtx to come from China although for now iv strapped the antenna to the frame.

Genoma · 3 Jun 2015 at 21:30

kkelly said:
Hi, it's there anything like the parrot drones (idoit proof), simple to use with fpv without the cost?

Basically I want to try a toy before spending more?.

Have a look at the NanoQX FPV, it's supposed to be very good and lots of fun and is borderline out of the toy category, lots of fun indoors too but you will need goggles.

Otherwise as others said have a look at the Hubsan(s).

Django x2 · 3 Jun 2015 at 21:39

phantomflyer · 4 Jun 2015 at 07:30

Passed the EuroUSC ground school! Now on to the ops manual, anyone else going through this stage??

Rilot · 4 Jun 2015 at 10:33

Some edited footage from Wales. Shot with the Inspire.

Django x2 · 4 Jun 2015 at 10:53

phantomflyer said:
Passed the EuroUSC ground school! Now on to the ops manual, anyone else going through this stage??

Congrats. Ops manual is a pain.

Lowe · 4 Jun 2015 at 11:11

Rilot said:
Some edited footage from Wales. Shot with the Inspire.

Lovely stuff. Especially the 'fly towards the house, argh there's a chimney, climb, CLIMB!' moment.

DJMK4 · 4 Jun 2015 at 18:17

Going out for an fpv flight with the 250,first time in a while since the replacement frame

If I do get any video it wont be amazing, norm location and not pushing it. May post a min or two depending

Hopefully I don't get any vibration like I did from my old frame

da_ging · 4 Jun 2015 at 19:14

quick heads up while cpc have free delivery on everything as they have some clear heatshrink which is really well priced, and for those not aware clear shrink is great as it remains flexible after shrinking

http://cpc.farnell.com/webapp/wcs/s...ze=25&showResults=true&pf=110149491,110379870

DJMK4 · 4 Jun 2015 at 19:17

Hmm flying ok but not sure what's going on with the vtx pr display
set off all on focus

Start flying gets blurry and some video breakup.

Land. Reset focus. Set off ok then end up getting the same. What's going on. When I hold the model in hand all ok

Almost like the focus is going out when I take off. When I have to bring it in to land its the same

100% this is the focus adjuster in flight throwing it out of focus

DJMK4 · 4 Jun 2015 at 19:56

Managed to get it to stay in focus in the end

No idea why it was doing that.

The eachine vtx on this is not bad. Bit of interference but I'm not using aftermarket antennas yet. My fatshark would be a little better.

But my fatshark vtx is only being used in my 450 now. This should be good enough for the 250. Especially with better antennas