/rcg/ - drone & remote control general

[Anonymous No.1429680]

In /rcg/ we discuss anything & everything remote controlled - multirotors, fixed wing, cars, rovers, helis, boats, submarines, battlebots, lawnmowers, etc.

>How do I get started with racing drones?

https://oscarliang.com/mini-quad-racing-guide/

https://www.fpvknowitall.com/ultimate-fpv-shopping-list/

>What about planes?

https://www.flitetest.com/

>What about aerial photography, is DIY viable?

DJI is (unfortunately?) the only sensible option.

>I want a dirt cheap drone to fly around my yard/garden

Syma X5C

>I want a dirt cheap drone to fly inside my house

Eachine E010/Hubsan X4

>What are some good YouTube channels for learning/fun?

Joshua Bardwell (miniquads) - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX3eufnI7A2I7IkKHZn8KSQ
Painless360 (miniquads & bigger) - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp1vASX-fg959vRc1xowqpw
Flite Test (everything that flies) - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9zTuyWffK9ckEz1216noAw
Peter Sripol (silly/fun builds) - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7yF9tV4xWEMZkel7q8La_w
7demo7 (everything RC, including cars) - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTa02ZJeR5PwNZK5Ls3EQGQ
ArxangelRC (long range) - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG_c0DGOOGHrEu3TO1Hl3AA

[Anonymous No.1429942]

Reposting to see if I can get an answer this time... Im working on a Guillows kit 402 p51 mustang, 32" wingspan I believe, and I want to run it off nitro. I've done some more research and I believe I'll be going with the O.S. 15LA, but I want some more insight from experienced builders. About a .15 size is probably the biggest I can fit, but if there are other recommendations maybe something .2X sized could work?

Also, the frame is spec'ed for a .049 Cox, so would pushing a .15 (3X the displacement) be too harsh on the frame?

Last question, this involves more theory, the P51 used a duct to cool its radiator and compress the heated air into thrust, I would like to incorporate a system like this that uses the exhaust to heat air that enters the bottom duct, Ill probably make a duct similar to the real P51 for this, along with a small trap door in the back. Would I run into any issues doing this? Most rc planes direct the exhaust away from the fuselage as quickly as they can, would this cause unwanted temp issues?
Thanks for the help!

PS could also use some cool livery ideas

[Anonymous No.1429953]

Hi,
Been flying the X4 H107L for a few weeks now and i think i am getting the hang of it and now looking to either upgrade it to a new frame with new motors or buying a new drone all together.
What do you guys recommend?

[Anonymous No.1429986]

>>1429680
Got a quad I started 3+ years ago finally flying. FC is an RMRC CC3D, and ESC is an RMRC 4in1 12A, one of the first 4in1 ESCs as far as I can tell. The CC3D is running LibrePilot, the ESC has BLHeli and is using the OneShot 125 protocol. The CC3D is powered by the 5V BEC of the ESC. Software configuration of this quad is probably a mess, but, it flies.

Anyway, my main question is, can this old setup alert me when my battery voltage is low; thru a buzzer or flashing LEDs would be fine, just *something*. On my first flight, I over-discharged my only 2S battery to like 2.8V per cell, and one of my 3S to like 3.1V, and I would like to normally stop flying at 3.3V. Also, do you think the 2S battery is OK? I was just flying around my living room mostly hovering. It's back at storage charge now and appears fine.

[Anonymous No.1430076]

First time flying iNav today & it went without a hitch :)

>>1429942
From what I've seen so far, these threads are overwhelmingly weighted toward electric rather than gas/glow/nitro, but if you check back later maybe somebody will have been able to help. The last thread took 38 days to reach the end of the board.

>>1429953
Not much point trying to upgrade it, keep it as is & invest your money into a completely new quad.

>>1429986
My first build was a CC3D running OpenPilot :3 Some versions of the CC3D can do voltage sensing, but the ones I had didn't have the necessary port.

http://opwiki.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user_manual/revo/voltage_current.html

If yours can't do that, the simplest solution is just to connect one of those little voltage beeper things to the balance connector of the battery.

2.8V isn't disastrous for lithium ion chemistry, especially if you weren't pulling huge amps from it with really aggressive flying. If it charged up to storage voltage with no drama it's probably fine. The internal resistance of the cells might have increased, but who really cares. Just be sensible next time you charge & fly it (don't charge it unattended, don't fly it half a mile away over dry grassland).

[Anonymous No.1430082]

>>1430076
>http://opwiki.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user_manual/revo/voltage_current.html

>If yours can't do that, the simplest solution is just to connect one of those little voltage beeper things to the balance connector of the battery.

Thanks!

[Anonymous No.1430155]

>>1429953
I think you should try to have your next quad be a brushless setup. As far as I know, it is not practical to try and convert a brushed quad to brushless.

[Anonymous No.1430172]

How much lighter is balsa wood compared to Popsicle sticks?

I made ribs out of Popsicle sticks but I don't know if its worth using balsa wood

[Anonymous No.1430175]

>>1429680
I suggest we add Rag the Nuts Off to the list of YouTube channels in the sticky. Matt is a character and he has a decent iNav setup guide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdpTR_ivBcA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DCCjPbHl_I

[Anonymous No.1430206]

Maybe a silly question, but when an ESC says it is compatible with, say, 3s-5s, does that really mean it shouldn't be run on 2s? If the answer is it will work, what about running one on 2s that is rated at 4s-6s?

[Anonymous No.1430211]

>>1430175
Cool, remind me in about a month, looks like a nice chap.

>>1430206
My presumption is that it does mean you shouldn't/can't run it on lower voltages, due to how they power their microcontrollers.

[Anonymous No.1430218]

>>1430172
>How much lighter is balsa wood compared to Popsicle sticks?

Depends heavily on the particular samples, but balsa is generally no more than a third the density of birch (the usual popsicle stick wood). In extreme examples, balsa can apparently be less than 8% the density of birch.

But, of course, birch is quite a bit stronger than balsa, so...tradeoffs.

[Anonymous No.1430301]

>>1430076
really wanting to start my fpv system up all i have right now is an Alias. Just do it right ha ha

[Anonymous No.1430362]

>>1429942
I'd suggest looking thru a dedicated RC board. RCgroups has many threads about Guillows conversions, like this one with links to your P-51 kit
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?827861-Guillow-s-Conversions-The-list-of-conversion-threads

Guillows kits are meant for rubberband power, and from what I've read, can only handle a very lightweight electric system.
Your ducted thrust idea will add a lot of weight, and I suspect you'll never notice whatever thrust it might make as most RC planes already have way more power-to-weight than the real thing.

[Anonymous No.1430452]

>>1430301
>all i have right now is an Alias

Wat?

[Anonymous No.1430593]

>>1430452
It's a LaTrax (Traxxis sister company) Alias, it's a slick toy quad that has acro mode.
For about 100 US dolhairs it's a decent intro to LOS flying.

I have one and have put a set of motors in. Sadly the one downside is it has brush motors vs brushless. But it is a fun LOS quad

[Anonymous No.1430729]

Anyone know of a replacement AIO upgrade camera for the lizard95 that doesnt require a string of rewiring and reconnecting?

Was looking at the TX05 but I cant find any printed parts to adapt it to the current frame, the way some other dude has it looks like it will break most of the frame on a half decent crash.

[Anonymous No.1430774]

is the mpu-6050 gyro really that bad? what situations could I get away with it being okay?

[Anonymous No.1430775]

>>1430172
Balsa is quite a bit lighter (almost like foam) but if it's only the ribs it shouldn't make much of a difference.
If pic related is what you're doing that looks like a very poor wing structure.
t. has made balsa planes before.

[Anonymous No.1430852]

I flew today around some trees.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUzWfyT3iC0

[Anonymous No.1430972]

>>1430852
that's a sweet little spot. props for avoiding a hit. Is this a good package for getting into FPV? Or should I just buy new goggles/camera/etc

[Anonymous No.1431037]

>>1430774
The 6500 is the one you really want to avoid, it can be legitimately unflyable without softmounting due to how sensitive it is. AFAIK the 6050 is fine but uses I2C which makes it slower, so you're not going to get 8KHz.

[Anonymous No.1431151]

>>1430972

I think the X7 is a perfect starter radio that will work with sims to teach you flight.

I really like the ISDT charger. I have their entire charging setup

I heard good things about the Aomways also.

[Anonymous No.1431249]

>>1431151
what are these sims you speak of?

[Anonymous No.1431260]

>>1431249

Simulators are very important for a new pilot.

The best Simulators are Liftoff and Velocidrone. Also you can put a mod on GTA5 to fly and its pretty fun but.

But if you want to learn to fly I suggest liftoff because you can put in some Freestyle Rates for a known pilot and practice.

Sims are good for building muscle memory for flight. It gets you a lot of flight time without worrying about crashing.

I like going in the sim sometimes and throwing the quad around in the air with my eyes closed and then opening my eyes and recovering the quad before it crashes.

All you need is a USB cable plugged into that radio and you can get Liftoff on steam for $20. Its well worth it.

[Anonymous No.1431280]

>>1430972
I'd say that's a pretty good package for the right price. Looks like he has quite q fee batteries for the whoop so it will keep you busy.

[Anonymous No.1431293]

>>1431260
Sims are indispensable for learning how to fly in rate mode (aka acro mode) which is the mode you'll use when flying FPV. It took me about 20 minutes in LiftOff of repeatedly just taking off, immediately having no control/no idea how to make it fly properly, then crashing within seconds, before I started to understand how rate mode worked. If I had done that in real life with a real quad, it probably would've taken months of me breaking things & having to buy/repair it.

[Anonymous No.1431297]

>>1431260
>>1431293
Neat. I am a Linux user, and was concerned I wouldn't have an option, but it looks like Liftoff is indeed compatible with Linux. It says "single screen recommended". I have multiple monitors, but typically run games on a single monitor, think I will be OK?

Looks like Velocidrone is Linux compatible as well. This pleases me.

[Anonymous No.1431442]

>>1431297

You should be able to get it working pretty easy.

Once you setup Liftoff you can put in some Yaw, Pitch and Roll rates for freestyle like Mr. Steele uses and when you fly you will train your fingers.

Its all about timing to do flips and rolls. So its about muscle memory and holding the stick for the same amount of time and doing the move the same over and over.

If you get good in the sim you will surprise yourself how good you can fly in real life too.

[Anonymous No.1431584]

>>1431442
>Once you setup Liftoff you can put in some Yaw, Pitch and Roll rates for freestyle like Mr. Steele uses

Or just start with the defaults then change them from there depending whether you want it faster or slower, rather than thinking that using the same rates as some 'big name' douchebag will make you fly the same as him.

[Anonymous No.1431705]

>>1431584

His rates are the most Logical to me. When I first got the Simulator the first thing I did was test out a bunch of different rates that pilots use.

I started to experiment with rates and see what I liked for days and I settled on really liking the way Mr. Steele has his rates setup because it works the best for me.

Its all about getting the right rate curve.

I like a curve without a bunch of Expo.

For Example Stinger Swarm and Steele have the same rates nearly exactly except Swarm has ALOT of expo when he flys.

I tried that once and I found it made me overcorrect badly.

I fly best if I have fast rolls and flips at full stick deflection and with only a tiny bit off expo to make the center stick less touchy.

This is how Steele flys.

Its not that you should just copy his rates but that the type of rate curve he uses is very good for freestyle.

[Anonymous No.1431711]

The default rates are for racing not for freestyle.

Nobody who is a freestyle pilot flys with the default rates because you need faster roll rates to do tricks.

Sure you can get used to any rate setup if you practice enough but if you have low rates and you try to freestyle you will limit the kind of flying you can do.

[Anonymous No.1431754]

>>1431705
>His rates are the most Logical to me.
>the type of rate curve he uses is very good for freestyle.

Rates are entirely preference. Whilst it's true you won't be doing any snap rolls at 300 deg/s & you're not going to be able to fly smoothly with no expo, arguing that one curve is 'better' than another curve with the same max deg/s is just pointless. It's all about what you personally like & what feels good/natural to you.

[Anonymous No.1431778]

>>1431754

To explain all this in detail to you I would have to bring up Rate Curve charts and show you comparisons between different types of curves and show you how each one reacts in flight.

I am not going to do all that, its on you.

[Anonymous No.1431799]

>>1431778
I am familiar with how different rate curves feel/fly, I tried all sorts before settling on something I liked. Beyond 'you want at least some expo' there really isn't anything else you can say that isn't utterly disputable due to preference.

[Anonymous No.1431809]

>>1431799
>>1431778
>>1431754
>>1431711
>>1431705
>>1431442
What if someone wanted ZERO expo? Just a perfectly linear "curve". Any suggestions on a rate range that might be OK? Having never made it this far in my quad-copter hobby, I am guessing 540 degrees per second might be OK? Would this make it too sensitive during normal flight? Is using zero expo just a bad idea?

[Anonymous No.1431814]

>>1431809
I've flown with zero expo on fairly 'slow' rates (<600deg/s) & it just makes it impossible to perform any small movement/correction smoothly at all. The gimbals don't have enough resolution & your fingers/thumbs don't have that sort of fine control.

By all means give it a go though, just for the sake of your own curiosity.

[Anonymous No.1431818]

>>1431814

I would agree with this.

Freestyle rates can be very fast like 1100deg/s is what Steele uses. Its all about muscle memory at full stick deflection to do flips or rolls ect and you can also use fractions of deflection for slower movements.

If you have an environment to fly with a more juicy style like Johnny FPV then you may want slightly slower rates with more Expo.

That is where your personal preference comes into play. Its dependent upon your environment and how you want to fly.

[Anonymous No.1431825]

I built two identical quads with lumenier motors from GetFPV.

Those lumenier motors were terrible and they failed one after another. I sent 3 motors back to the company and they replaced them but it didnt help because more of the motors just kept failing on me.

In the Middle of flight they would slip a magnet and start grinding and an arm would dip.

I showed them DVR and they claimed that they had problems before but now their magnets dont slip.

I gave up on the lumenier motors and I replaced them with Tmotor F40's

The Tmotors have a lot more power. They are still pretty efficient motors. Only slightly worse than the lumenier motors but if you get on the throttle to much you can drain the battery really fast.

The Tmotors are really notchy motors and they have a different feel in the air from other I flew from racerstar.

[Anonymous No.1431872]

>>1429680
Not sure if this is the right board for this.
I'm getting good attitude estimation using an MPU9250 accelerometer/gyroscope/magnetometer unit (yaw within 4 degrees, roll and pitch within 2 degrees).
I want to use the accelerometers to aid GPS positioning. I'm correcting for gravity and the accelerometers are well calibrated. But the results I'm getting are not good at all. Is it possible to do inertial navigation (as in estimating distance travelled) with cheap IMUs? Or am I wasting my time?

[Anonymous No.1431926]

>>1431872
What are you using to combine the IMU & GPS data, ROS? I tried that myself & honestly it was a huge waste of time, maybe odometry from wheel enoders would've been the solution.

[Anonymous No.1431947]

>>1431926
I haven't tried to combine them yet. I want to write my own Kalman filter in Python. For starters I'm trying to get the change in velocity and distance by integrating acceleration values.
My backup plan is to measure engine revs (it's for a boat so no odometers) and combine that with yaw angle to get an estimate.

[Anonymous No.1431955]

>>1431926
what happened specifically with the ROS? Was it giving worse positioning than the GPS alone?

[Anonymous No.1432145]

>>1431872
What you are doing is called dead reckoning, as in "I reckon we's moved a meter north since the last GPS update"
Step one: Get the best IMU's you can
Step two: Make sure they're mounted properly, both the breakout board to your project, and the chips to the breakout board. They could be at an angle
Step three: Calibrate the fucker, manually, write your own algorithms.
Step four: Fix your algorithms
Step five: Get a GPS module with a 10-16hz refresh rate and smooth the difference, fuck, it'll give way better results than this shit anyway
(Looking at your pic you already have two of the things, come on...)
Dead reckoning isn't going to magically make your boat navigate with any more precision than the GPS gives it, and is mostly only useful for keeping your heading. This isn't going to make it navigate a pond or your local swimming pool. And if this is for the ocean, a la seacharger, then you don't really need this, just compass corrected by accel/gyro, and ya good
>>1431947
>I haven't tried to combine them yet
>the results I'm getting are not good at all
HERE'S A SURPRISE: UNLESS YOU COMBINE EVERYTHING YOU AIN'T GON GET SHIT
>I want to write my own Kalman filter in Python
Protip from someone writing an autopilot: That $3 Arduino is far more useful than your $30 raspberry pi.
Get as much done as you possibly can on the Arduino, the only connection between it and your pi should be "Here's our current location, where do you want us to go?" over serial.
By the time you've passed all your sensor data from the arduino to the pi, shit will be so far out of sync it'll be useless. Combine live on the Arduino, and get your estimates from there.
> it's for a boat so no odometers
WATER SPEED MEASUREMENT HOMIE
Heck, even an airspeed meter will probably work underwater.
Engine revs will be so unrelated to your real speed it'll be comical.

[Anonymous No.1432148]

>>1431955
It definitely wasn't noticeably better.

>>1431947
>I want to write my own Kalman filter in Python.

If you're going to do this, I'd strongly recommend looking into something like ROS. To stand any chance whatsoever of making it work, you're going to need a decently sophisticated model, such as that which ROS provides.

[Anonymous No.1432162]

Guys I'm in a bit of a pickle here. How do I connect the battery to the ESC? They are supposed to be compatible.

[Anonymous No.1432164]

>>1432162
See those other two red cables coming out of the battery? Use those to power anything.
The little plug yours has with three cables is just for balance charging.

If the two cables on the other end of the battery don't have a plug, just solder to the ESC.
If they do, buy a matching plug for the ESC.
You could solder to the ESC, but that makes charging and disconnecting a bitch.

[Anonymous No.1432166]

>>1432164
Thanks anon. Gonna solder that bitch, I have a pretty long charging cable so that won't be a problem.

[Anonymous No.1432182]

Got a rough cutout of the flyig wing I'm making. Gonna have to do a lot of sanding to give it a better shape.

[Anonymous No.1432186]

>>1432166
Just make sure you also plug the balance cable into your charger or expect hell
(A switch on one of the main leads would probably also help with charging.)

[Anonymous No.1432206]

>>1432148
Thanks Anon, it looks like ROS Robot Localization package is just what I need.
http://docs.ros.org/melodic/api/robot_localization/html/index.html#

[Anonymous No.1432215]

>>1432145
>And if this is for the ocean, a la seacharger, then you don't really need this, just compass corrected by accel/gyro, and ya good
You're right, my system would already work in the ocean. The Pi gets GPS position, calculates the heading to a waypoint, gets tilt-compensated heading from a compass via an Arduino, compares the 'heading to waypoint' to the compass heading and sends a command to a servo controlling the rudder if its off course.
The goal, however, is to have it navigate lakes, canals etc with buildings, bridges and hills. These GPS modules are subject to multipath effects (pic related) and I want a system that can eliminate or mitigate the problem. I wouldn't want to run aground.
Step five: Get a GPS module with a 10-16hz refresh rate and smooth the difference, fuck, it'll give way better results than this shit anyway
Hopefully, I'll get funding for rtk GPS but that won't solves multipath effects.

[Anonymous No.1432219]

>>1432145
>By the time you've passed all your sensor data from the arduino to the pi, shit will be so far out of sync it'll be useless. Combine live on the Arduino, and get your estimates from there.
Yes! Python on a Pi seems to take ages to read serial data and write it to files. It might be better to add an SD card to an Arduino to save data right? The main reason I wanted the Pi to control everything is that you can't have multiple loops running simultaneously on Arduino. I figured that if I have one Arduino module read IMU data, calculate attitude, then read GPS, then do something else, by the time it gets back to the top of the loop to read IMU data again too much time would have elapsed.

[Anonymous No.1432222]

>>1432215
If you're hoping an accelerometer will be accurate enough to dead-reckon its way around a lake, and return to the same point at port that it left, then you gun need to learn yourself some CALIBRATE, and make sure all of your sensors are running as fast as possible. Get accel, get gyro, get magneto, calculate, repeat. Any time wasted on arduino-to-py conversations will end up stacking and compounding.
The reality is we don't have any particularly decent local positioning system technology, but throwing an 8266 on and measuring wifi signal strength might actually help in a case like this.
Hell, you've got a pi, use OpenCV to track waypoints.
Maybe even dedicate an Arduino just to your sensors and dead reckoning, so all it does is take in sensor reads without pause.

[Anonymous No.1432232]

>>1432206
Yup, that's exactly what I was using but on an automotive application. The official IRC channel was a good source of help.

[Anonymous No.1432233]

>>1432222
I measured accelerometer bias by pointing each axis up, down and flat. I get biases around 20mG and simply substract them. Accelerometer spread is too large by less than 1%, I'm ignoring that. Gyro biases are small and I substract them. I'd have to put it on a turntable to find out more about gyro output (I have access to one actually). I'm correcting magnetometer biases, but not spread, which has v small errors. As for soft iron effects, I know you can do the 'transform ellipse to sphere' thing but rotating a boat in 3D could be difficult so I wrote a 2D soft iron calibration in python using cubic spline interpolation which uses the already tilt-compensated yaw output from the IMU (I know that's not ideal).
I was thinking of a radio-localisation system using emitters placed around the lake. Wifi range might be too short though. Of course, in the centre of the lake, you wouldn't get multipath effects, but placing hundreds of wifi emitters along the banks might not be very practical.

[Anonymous No.1432235]

>>1432233
edit, accel. and gyro. biases and standard deviation also change slightly over time, I think it's related to the boards heating up and temperature affecting the MEMS. My IMU doesn't have a thermometer on it, I could buy an MPU9250 with thermometer and pressure sensor, measure outputs across a range of pressures and temperatures and implement corrections for different conditions. That would take ages to do though.

[Anonymous No.1432236]

>>1432233
>I was thinking of a radio-localisation system using emitters placed around the lake
If you can do this in advance this is absolutely preferable to dead reckoning, just means your autonomy is limited.
As for wifi, that's only useful for existing canals/rivers with surrounding houses, or the edges of lakes for docking. Still, it's what's used in all current phones for IPS, so it's still useful.

You're only on like three layers of calibration, you are like a little baby. You need to go far deeper.

[Anonymous No.1432239]

>>1432235
>That would take ages to do though.
You're talking about decimeter precision via dead reckoning with a fucking $10 IMU breakout board. Yes it's gonna take a while for fuck sake, there's a reason no-one else does this unless every other option is exhausted.

[Anonymous No.1432251]

>>1432239
I don't intend to navigate the entire lake by dead reckoning! It's only as a way to detect multipath effects. It only needs to be accurate for a few tens of seconds. As in, the filter/algorithm estimates current position using last GPS position+dead reckoning, compares it to current GPS position. If there is a big difference --> it's a multipath!, kalman gain minimises the influence of current GPS position in estimating current position and so on in a loop.

[Anonymous No.1432253]

>>1432236
>You're only on like three layers of calibration, you are like a little baby. You need to go far deeper.

are you serious? What calibration procedures don't I know about?

[Anonymous No.1432256]

>>1431814
Not the other anon, but I'm getting my rates figured out for racing, I've found about 400 deg/sec with slight expo to be my sweet spot for racing.
Although, at the moment I'm only flying sims because I am really new to anything RC. Depending on the track in liftoff (alt changes are killing me) I can finish a lap or 2 but it's all practice. Sometimes I fly smoothly other times it's like I cant get my quad to bank or turn like I think it should. Is that my lack of experience?

I keep hearing about setting 'dead zones' what does that mean, Google and forums aren't really turning up anything for me. I am using a taranis QX7 if that makes a difference

[Anonymous No.1432267]

>>1432256
A bunch of the guys I know who race use rates down in the 300-400 range for racing & say they much prefer it to running their higher freestyle rates while racing.

>I keep hearing about setting 'dead zones' what does that mean

In betaflight deadzone is the area on the throttle stick above which the quad will refuse to arm, while deadband is the area in the middle of the other stick axes where it ignores changes. The idea with both is to ignore/filter out the small amount of jitter that most radios exhibit (eg at centre stick your roll will actually jitter between something like 1498 & 1501).

It doesn't affect anything unless you're at mid stick/bottom throttle, but iirc there is another similar setting which is the minimum change between commands before betaflight actually acts upon it or something.

[Anonymous No.1432291]

>>1432251
>I don't intend to navigate the entire lake by dead reckoning!
Then you're going to be very disappointed when you try to re-dock.
>It's only as a way to detect multipath effects.
Fuck it, forget the IMU's, you can write a multipath detector easy as piss:

int multipathDetector(){
if(true)
return 1;
}

BECAUSE YOU'RE ALWAYS GOING TO GET FUCKING MULTIPATH ERRORS
Go out into a field with no buildings or trees or anything metal for a thousand miles, and put your GPS receiver perfectly still, logging to an SD card.
Leave it for a few minutes, or, if you really want, days. Watch just how much it drifts around.
Unless you're launching from a trig station, trying to correct GPS is useless because GPS is never an accurate starting point to begin with.

What you describe in the rest of your post is equally as useless.
You're either dead reckoning to decide if you want to trust GPS, or dead reckoning because you've decided you don't.
Rather than blindly accepting a coordinate from the GPS you'd be much better to sort through the satellites yourself and establish trust networks and locate off that.
>>1432253
>Lol dude just spin the thing around, that'll give you a lock!
>by pointing each axis up, down and flat.
You're trusting that each axis is aligned like you assume, they may not be. They may not all report in the same scale.
>less than 1%, I'm ignoring that.
That's still an unacceptable error.
>I'd have to put it on a turntable to find out more about gyro output
Answered your own question for this one

Put the thing in a gimbal and independently assess each axis for all types of errors and physical offset, once you've done this recombine them into the gyro+accel+magneto, then combine those into your delta.

[Anonymous No.1432374]

>>1432291
Ah yes, if the manufacturer hasn't mounted the accelerometers and gyros at right angles to each other that would be a problem. desu I was hoping not to have to deal with that.


>Put the thing in a gimbal and independently assess each axis for all types of errors and physical offset, once you've done this recombine them into the gyro+accel+magneto, then combine those into your delta.

You mean get a plastic gymbal, rotate the IMU slowly in all directions, identify the point at which one accelerometer is pointed perfectly downwards (this will be the maximum value). At that point the other two accelerometers should be 0 but won't be if they aren't at 90 degrees. Do this for all three accelerometers and use the non-zero values to calculate by how much and in what direction they are off from the ideal direction. This is something like a 6 point tumble test?
Do you know any good software that will do all these calculations for you?

RTK GPS is accurate with a few centimeters. I don't see why you couldn't use dead reckoning in a Kalman filter to deal with multipath effects. If the GPS bearing changed rapidly while the rudder angle and compass bearing stayed the same, you could simply increase the GPS error you're feeding into the Kalman filter. Then, when GPS bearing agreed with rudder angle and compass bearing again, you would reduce the GPS error and the Kalman filter would take GPS into account again.

[Anonymous No.1432377]

>>1429680
I am thinking of making a gyrocopter drone, but that is as far as I have gotten

[Anonymous No.1432399]

Tfw DAL released a 7" triblade so now there's actually a choice of two different modern triblades for 7"~

>>1432377
Don't think, do. It's a super fun & fulfilling hobby.

[Anonymous No.1432455]

>>1432267
So if I have shaky hands I can filter that out so only deliberate changes in the sticks are acted on by the FC?!
Awesome thanks, much research to be done now

[Anonymous No.1432462]

hi /rcg/. I am not asking for anyone to go out of their way searching, but maybe some of you know already; I am shopping for ESCs, and have kind of strict requirements. No store online seems to have very good search filters for this. Heres what I need:

4in1
Current Sensor
5V BEC
BLHeliS (don't want 32-bit)
Battery Voltage output (kinda optional since I assume I could just run wires from the battery to the voltage sensor input on the FC)
2s - 4s

I want options for both 30.5x30.5 and 20x20. I have found very few that match this criteria, so far only 1 for each size. If no one knows specific models offhand, does anyone know of an online store with search filters that allow me to specify all of the above?

[Anonymous No.1432554]

>>1432267
i think you might have deadzone vs deadband confused with each other. i could be wrong

[Anonymous No.1432556]

>>1432554
>>1432455
I'm the new guy, what's the difference between dead band and dead zone

[Anonymous No.1432621]

>>1432556
I think what the other guy told you might just be backwards. I think dead-zone is ignoring the very center of the stick during flight. I could be wrong but this is the convention where control sticks are concerned outside of quad-copters and I doubt it would be different

Though this hobby does do really dumb things like refer to "voltage regulators" as "battery elimination circuits"

[Anonymous No.1432666]

Got everything I need for my quadcopter except a XT60 male connector (woops) to solder to the rotors and connect the battery. Not sure yet if I can get my RPi3B to serve as a crude flight controller solution, or if I can or should power it with the same 3s battery pack wired to a voltage stepper, or if I can steer/view with an android device app.

[Anonymous No.1432767]

Which components on a quadcopter are the most likely to fail, or have the shortest lifespan? I am guessing ESCs? Which generally have a longer lifespan, ESCs or motors?

[Anonymous No.1432798]

>>1432621
I think you're right, deadzone is centre stick & deadband is bottom throttle. I think 'RC Smoothing' is the name in the most recent betaflight for filtering small jitter from inputs when you're *not* at centre stick, but again I could be wrong.

>>1432666
>Not sure yet if I can get my RPi3B to serve as a crude flight controller solution

No, flight control has real time requirements, so they run on microcontrollers not computers.

>>1432767
ESCs & brushless motors don't spontaneously fail. If you're talking about what parts wear out over time as opposed to what is most likely to break in a crash, then really the only thing that actually degrades over time is batteries.

[Anonymous No.1432951]

>>1432798

>ESCs & brushless motors don't spontaneously fail.

Don't ESCs run very hot? Which PCBs run the hottest?

[Anonymous No.1432976]

>>1432951
>Don't ESCs run very hot?

Not usually, no.

>Which PCBs run the hottest?

VTX by far, but generally once they're moving & have airflow they're fine.

[Anonymous No.1433010]

I just met a Vietnam helicopter pilot at the park. I pulled up and started to put my gear on the trunk of my car and he saw it and came to talk to me before I flew.

He said he never saw anybody fly a drone before but he was interested in them.

I showed him my flights and he was totally amazed. He was asking me all kinds of questions and I gave him the whole rundown on all my quad stuff.

He was surprised it was going about 70 MPH and he was saying I was a good pilot.

He showed me a huge scar on his arm he said he got when their Heli crashed in nam.

[Anonymous No.1433173]

>>1432976
The OSD chip can also get pretty hot

[Anonymous No.1433240]

I am having trouble finding the answer to the following question:
What is the legal max power output for a VTX in the USA?

[Anonymous No.1433248]

>>1433240
I fly at 800mw all the time and I bought a 1200mw that I have not used yet.

I think legally you need a ham license but not many people bother.

[Anonymous No.1433327]

Flying around a college baseball field:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqJcnTC9svQ

[Anonymous No.1433431]

>>1433327

nice quality video. I guess you were practicing reversals and flips, or maybe that is what is fun for you. As for videos that I like to watch, if you had followed something, like if you had dropped down into the playfield, and ran around the entire field fairly close to the fence, or if you had ran along the sidewalk. Maybe I prefer continuity.

Overall it's a good video though, I'm just critiquing it. Pic related is not mine, just one I found in this general. I don't remember if it demonstrates what I like, but it was cool enough to save.

Post more when you make them.

[Anonymous No.1433432]

>>1433327

here's another one I found here that I like.

[Anonymous No.1433455]

>>1433173
Oldschool minim OSD did, but modern ones like those built into betaflight FCs don't at all.

>>1433431
>>1433432
I like the filenames you save my videos with :3

[Anonymous No.1433471]

>>1433431

This was my first time at the spot and I was kind of feeling out the environment.

A bunch of baseball players were watching me from the big diamond when I got there.

After I took that video I went to fly on the football field and when I was flying through the goal posts and around the center of the field some guys that were there in sweats lined up on the field and charged at my quad when I was flying low circling center field.

They got really close to the quad before I saw them and zipped away at full speed. When I turned around they were running back to the endzone lol.

[Anonymous No.1433488]

Can anyone recommend an FPV camera with a built in VTX? Weight is of high concern, I only have about 20g to spare, think this is possible? I could just use smaller batteries if this isn't feasible

[Anonymous No.1433490]

>>1433488
Also, I want to have an OSD that displays current use and battery voltage. If my FC has video in and out, and current and voltage input, and I have a current and voltage sensor, should this be everything I need, or do I need to look for some specific features of the VTX?

[Anonymous No.1433492]

Here is the DVR from me getting chased off the football field.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n44yf1WykI

[Anonymous No.1433600]

>>1433492
So they were trying to practice and you were screaming around 50ft away? This is why drones get a bad rep.

[Anonymous No.1433602]

>>1433600

I was there for a half an hour flying around the empty baseball diamond and the parking lot before I flew on the Football field.

I was watching and I saw all the guys there sitting on the sidelines in their sweats. They were not doing anything.

I went onto the football field because it was empty.

As I was flying they lined up at the endzone and charged at my quad.

I flew away from them when I saw them charging my quad.

After they charged my quad they all left the area and walked away. They were not doing anything on the field at the time.

The only reason for them to charge center field was to mess with me.

When I started flying I though dogs would chase after my quad but I have had multiple occasions now where its been people chasing after the quad.

[Anonymous No.1433607]

For example:

One time I went to the park to fly and I saw some kids playing soccer at the field.

So I started to fly in the empty baseball diamond. This was at another park I fly at with baseball and soccer fields. This park is really large.

When I was flying I saw the kids stop playing soccer and run at my quad.

They jumped the baseball fence and ran out to the center of the baseball field after the quad.

So trying to respect people and not fly over kids as soon as I saw them running and hopping the fence i went away from them.

They chased the quad most of the way across the baseball field.

I then went really fast far away into another area of the park and I watched as the kids got tired and gave up trying to chase me.

[Anonymous No.1433618]

>>1433602
>>1433607

I never go around posting "reddit spacing!" but these posts just look weird.

And you're in a bit of denial if you thing zooming around the football field was cool because the players were not playing at the time. Some people love to regulate fun, and you're giving them an excuse, even though you were being careful.

[Anonymous No.1433622]

>>1429942 here, I need some help picking out a battery that will run my servos and a small EDF.
Im using a Turnigy 1220 Brushless motor at 10300 in a 30mm EDF housing, driven by one of theses small ESCs that matched the specs.
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/blheli-s-7a.html?___store=en_us
I believe these match perfectly, but is there anything I forgot to factor in?
So I only need a 1s, 3.7v battery to run this and my servos, but I don't know how much current small servos generally draw. Would I be better off buying a dedicated power pack for this or would an 18650 better suit this project?

[Anonymous No.1433634]

>>1433618

I plan on going back to get some good gopro footage.

I will try not to fly at places when I see people for sure. But I think those guys were just messing with me.

[Anonymous No.1433640]

>>1433634
>I plan on going back to get some good gopro footage.

Cool. You're good at acrobatics and stunts, but that doesn't work so great in a FPV video, in my opinion. They are fun to watch from a stationary viewpoint. But if you're going to do more FPV at the football field when nobody is there, I'd love to see you do a fast lap on the track trying to stay low in one lane, and then maybe looping through the goal posts, or whatever.

Anyway, have fun and be safe.

[Anonymous No.1433768]

>>1433640

another nice one

[Anonymous No.1433770]

moar coolness

[Anonymous No.1433974]

I’m trying to run a high voltage servo for a project. Originally, it was designed for a servo rated for 8.4 volts, so the reg puts out 9 volts. However, I had trouble sourcing the original servo, and the new one I have is only rated for 7.4. Will 9 volts fry the 7.4 volt one, or is 7.4 more of a suggestion?

[Anonymous No.1434059]

>>1433768
>>1433770
A bunch of us were supposed to be going back to picrelated this weekend, but the heatwave we've had for weeks has just broken with thunderstorms all weekend :(

[Anonymous No.1434064]

>>1431872
Look at the docs from uBlox, i think some of the models had support for dead reckoning. Basically all that you needed to do is connect gyro/acc to i2c and activate option in firmware. I have no idea how well this worked.

[Anonymous No.1434078]

>>1433492
You're a cunt. Don't fly near people like that. In sure your quad was annoying as fuck.

[Anonymous No.1434128]

>>1434078
You can see how far away I was by looking at the yardage on the field.

I was 50 yards away from them before they ran at my quad. That is like 150 feet. I was not near them at all till they ran at me.

[Anonymous No.1434131]

Welp. Flight didn't go well. Absolutely no wind. Maybe a 4.7x9sf on a 1200kv motor isn't a good enough combo. Thing only weighs 1.1kg though.

[Anonymous No.1434150]

>>1434128
To be honest you really shouldnt be flying anywhere near other people, I would have left the second those guys showed up. Yes you werent hurting anything, and yes its not like they asked you to leave. But the fact of teh matter is these drones are loud, distracting, and can be dangerous. From the looks of the video you are in the parking lot behind hat field, so they had no idea who to talk to about the drone, hell Im willing to bet they were sitting there talking about what to do for the first 2 minutes of that video.

Id say youre doing a good job avoiding people by flying in empty sports fields and shit, but like I said, pack of and move to a different spot at least when people show up.

[Anonymous No.1434154]

>>1434150

After the flight they kinda just walked off the field in a group. They walked near the close side of the field by me and they saw me packing up.

They just walked over to their cars and left.

If they were really bothered about it they could have approached me.

But yea I like to avoid people when I can so when I see somebody taking an interest in me I think I will vacate the airspace.

I did see them all get up from the sidelines and line up at the endzone, I was watching to see what they were gonna do while I was flying.

[Anonymous No.1434176]

Hey guys, my quad's right rear motor is running significantly hotter than the other three. After a flight, they were all around 90F. The right rear was over 120F. I've seen it as high as 140F a couple of times.

Is the motor bad?
Or, could the be frame slightly bent somehow? (maybe making the right ear work harder since it's off balance?)
Should I just not worry about it...?

[Anonymous No.1434180]

>>1434176

Could be a magnet is just rubbing in the motor causing a bit of friction and heat. If its still flying and not twitching out on you it should be ok.

[Anonymous No.1434186]

>>1434180
Yeah, it feels stable.

As long as it's not at risk of exploding, I'll keep going with it.

Thanks

[Anonymous No.1434192]

>>1434186
Its normal wear with brushless motors anyways, a replacement would be what, $20 max?

I believe 180 is a low end failure point for alot of brushless motors, however, so you should be good.

[Anonymous No.1434195]

>>1434192
Actually, this is the quad I have: https://hobbymatehobby.com/product/micro-fpv-rc-quadcopter-q100combo/

So it's only like $14 for 8 motors.

It's just a pain to take it apart and solder a new one on...

[Anonymous No.1434198]

>>1434176
How are you measuring motor temperature?

[Anonymous No.1434205]

>>1434195

https://hobbymatehobby.com/product/brushed-coreless-motors-8520-accmo8520/

These motors were linked off of the page you linked. I'm not an rcg guy, but I can use these motors. However, two are CW and two are CCW. Can I make them all go CW by swapping the leads on the two CCW motors?

[Anonymous No.1434213]

>>1434198
I have an infrared thermometer gun.

[Anonymous No.1434225]

>>1434195
>>1434198
Oh, pfft.

Bro brushed motors like this are going to burn out all the time depending on how much you fly, I would pick up a couple packs of 8 if you can afford it. Ive read anywhere from 50-75 flights is around the average but how rough you fly and crashes can play a part in that.

Hell, do yourself a favor if you want to stick with indoor stuff like this and pick up an actual whoop or an inductrix, something where swapping the motors is simply unplugging one and plugging a new one back in. Id wager they probably fly better than the one you have, prop guards make them more durable as well.

[Anonymous No.1434227]

>>1434225
Nice irony

[Anonymous No.1434229]

>>1434227
Pretty much, but flying quads isnt really a cheap hobby. Spend your money on shit when you arent very good at flying and youll just be either fixing it every week or upgrading later.

[Anonymous No.1434238]

>>1434225
I fly mine outside just fine. It's not very fast, but it gets around just fine. The camera is shit, but I can still see.

I was just worried about the one motor, but I'll order some more in case I need them.

Thanks.

[Anonymous No.1434327]

>>1434238
You must live in a more temperate area than me, my brushed whoops cant handle any wind.

Grab some spare batteries while youre at it, besides consumables like props thatll be the next thing to go out since its a bit harder to take care of 1s batteries.

[Anonymous No.1434416]

>>1434327
Don't worry, I already got some batteries. Already ruined some too... They puffed up.

[Anonymous No.1434528]

So, with quadcopters, you can easily buy a bare frame, and build from there. Does anything like this exist with fixed wing or single rotor RC craft? How about surface craft?

[Anonymous No.1434569]

I have built my first drone and it flies. Not very stable but atleast it floats.
1104 7500kv motors
2S 1Ah Battery
Omnibus Flight tower

I am only testing it indoors for now as everything is a nofly zone in peninsula. The issue is that as I push the throttle up slightly, instead of moving straight up, it moves towards up+(some direction). I have calibrated accelerometer on a flat surface so that shouldn't be an issue.
Is it normal for a fast micro drone?

[Anonymous No.1434608]

>>1434569
Does it drift in acro mode?

[Anonymous No.1434686]

>>1434528
>Does anything like this exist with fixed wing or single rotor RC craft?

Yes. All sorts of places (banggood, hobbyking, flite test, etc.) sell foam planes to which you just have to attach a motor, ESC, some servos & a receiver.

[Anonymous No.1434768]

>>1434686
I explicitly do not want foam. I guess I should have specified carbon fiber

[Anonymous No.1434774]

>>1434768

Wings and fixed plane craft are modeled out of foam, wood and glue.

They dont have fixed wing carbon fiber craft. They would be way too difficult to fly.

Wings are already a pain in the ass to try to launch because you need a second person to help you throw and catch them.

Fixed wing craft made of carbon fiber would need a perfectly flat takeoff and landing runway.

So no, they dont have anything like that. Unless you want to get into super expensive jets maybe. But like I said you have to fly them at an airport.

[Anonymous No.1434779]

>>1434774
I just want something modular and I don't want foam. I want to buy my own wing. I want to buy my own tail boom. I want to buy my own stabilizers. I want to buy my own fuselage.

[Anonymous No.1434797]

>>1434779
You'll need a balsa kit, or to find schematics for one online and cut the parts out of carbon fiber yourself

[Anonymous No.1434806]

>>1434768
Moulded carbon fibre sheet (which I assume is what you're imagining) just isn't a sensible material for a RC plane. Foam/ply is lighter, more crash resistant & a helluva lot cheaper.

>I want to buy my own wing. I want to buy my own tail boom. I want to buy my own stabilizers.

That's not really how planes work - these components are all designed together, not as separate pieces for individual choice. You wouldn't take the tail boom from a Cessna Caravan & attach it to the fuselage of a Quest Kodiak, the result would be a completely aerodynamic failure.

[Anonymous No.1434819]

>>1429680
Hoping someone can answer a quick question for me. Just got into the hobby and have been flying my tiny whoop around my apartment non-stop for the past couple days or so...google isn't being helpful

One of my 1s batteries is charging to 5.0v. I'm assuming it's dead? I've been pretty careful watching my OSD making sure i'm not draining them past 3.4volts.Is this battery dead? It isn't puffed.

Anyone know of a good place to get batteries for these things...kinda addicted. And or a good charger that will grow with me up to bigger quads and some airplanes

Thanks

[Anonymous No.1434841]

>>1434806
im talking like carbon rod tailbooms. i understand you can mismatch wings and bodies for poor aerodynamics. however, you can also match them well for good aerodynamics, which is exactly what i want. I want something I can re-wing easily for different uses

>>1434797
thats a really cool idea. but honestly i dont mind just using wood. something like a wood fuselage with carbon rod tailboom and carbon rod spars for the wings would be great. But the wings themselves I dont really want to design, id rather buy pre-made generic wings. again, wood is fine. actually foam is ok in some limited uses, i just dont want something that is *mostly* foam

i guess i just want a minimalist or skeleton type aeroplane, and i dont mind sacrificing a little aerodynamics for it. i also explicitly dont want anything stylized as if it is piloted by a tiny human figurine

but also, what about single rotor? why cant I just buy a bare frame there?

[Anonymous No.1434857]

>>1434819

If its over volt charging its probably a charger issue just reading that battery wrong.

[Anonymous No.1434874]

>>1434857
sounds like he is getting a 5V reading from OSD. At any rate, I agree, verify with an actual voltmeter.

>>1434819
if it's actually charging to 5V, you should stop using it, as it is highly likely to turn into a spectacular fire

[Anonymous No.1434969]

>>1434874
>>1434857
It's actually charging to 5v, Just check with a fluke. I'll throw it away.

Thanks guys

[Anonymous No.1435099]

>>1434608
I don't know what that means.
I have a controller with two joysticks and 4 buttons.
I have configured one button for arming the motors. I don't know what to do with the other switches so I haven't configured them.

Should I configure one for acro mode.

[Anonymous No.1435132]

>>1435099
You should set up a 2 position switch, or 2 seperate switches if thats the way youd prefer it, to stable/angle mode and acro/air mode.

Stable or angle mode self stabilizes the quad using the onboard gyro, usually used for indoor flying or beginners. Acro mode has no stabilization or any other flight assistance, if you pitch the quad forward you have pitch it backwards an equal amount to counter the movement. Id advise not using acro until youve gotten the hang of stable mode, general ability to steer and control your altitude.

[Anonymous No.1435346]

>>1435132
>Acro mode has no stabilization or any other flight assistance
it technically does. a quadcopter is essentially impossible to fly without a computer stabilizing it.

>>1435099
another name for acro mode is rate mode. if you ever hear someone talking about flying your quadcopter in manual mode, this is what they mean, even though it isnt truly manual

angle mode - joystick position determines the angle of the quadcopter; return to center position and the quadcopter returns to level

rate/acro mode - joystock position determines roll/pitch rate; return to center position and the quadcopter will stop rolling/pitching, and will remain at whatever angle it happens to be at

[Anonymous No.1435440]

>>1435099
>>1435132
>>1435346
If you have a transmitter you can hook to your computer, do yourself the favor and learn acro/rate. It will be hard it has a steep learning curve but it's more intuitive once you get a feel for it. Just my opinion, but someone else told me the same thing and they were correct.

Also, if you have a tinywhoop/baby hawk or something similar, I would learn to fly those in acro as well, since they are inexpensive to repair and more durable.

If you're learning LOS or FPV, start with hovering. Tip for FPV: lower camera angle makes it easier to see how your hovering. If you're moving the sticks larger than your thumbnail and your flipping around in the air, start over qnd smaller movements. If that's not helping you may have too aggressive rates and expo. After you hover then start moving the quad around slowly (tiny movements on the sticks) and practice stopping and coming back.

[Anonymous No.1435468]

>>1434774
I have several fixed wing CF planes, competition gliders, true and motored, scale and aerobats, glow and petrol. They fly, take off and land on a grass runway just fine.
Maybe if you had any experience you wouldn't say such stupid bullshit.

[Anonymous No.1435482]

>>1435468
Could you post any pics? Im interested in functional/bare-bones aesthetics if you have any.

[Anonymous No.1435492]

>>1435468

Grass "runway" or some kind of specialized fabric runway surface is needed.

You cant just take it to a park like you can with a quad you have to go to special fields.

[Anonymous No.1435586]

>>1435440
I got the hang of stability mode, moved to horizon since the allowed pitch angle is greater than stable, and then moved to acro.

I can safely say acro is far FAR easier with FPV, got flying it down and figured out power loops and general diving practices in my first couple acro flights. That being said I think Ill keep my whoops in stability, I usually fly them around my house and I severely doubt Ill ever be a good enough pilot to rip around the narrow areas of my house in acro.

[Anonymous No.1435633]

>>1435586
It's just practice, it's easier to learn acro first, well for me anyways. I had trouble with the self leveling and was finding myself fighting the autolevel.

I learned acro LOS, then started FPV.
If your not freestyling I reccomend setting low rates like mine are (depending on the quad) about .65 r,p,y and .25 rc and 0 expo. That keeps me in the neighborhood of about 400 degrees a second. Smaller quads I like to turn a little quicker 5 inch I like slower

[Anonymous No.1435642]

>>1435492
Our RC club has a grass runway airstrip, we have all kinds of planes, CF, balsa, gliders, motored, from foamies up to 5m wingspan gassers and everything inbetween.
I myself own several 1.4-1.5m wingspan glow and electric aircraft, scale/sport and aerobatic, several 3m gliders balsa built and CF competition, Stork 4 F3J, Stork 5 F5J, Vladimir Supra F5J
My small planes take off and land on the grass just fine, we regularly mow the airstrip, using wheels 6 cm diameter and up works just fine.
Can't show photo because away at work the whole week and all of them are packed tightly in the workshop roof jig.
I am not a hard core modeler but we have a few of them with various 5m gassers and scales, all works fine on grass.
And one more thing, CF built aircraft are tougher and lighter than balsa built planes, you can do much more intensive maneuvers. for example my 3m balsa built Bird of Time can only go up on the winch with a bungee cord and lightly hook off at the top while my Stork goes full force at the top almost halting the winch motor then snaps off the hook to climb another 100m whistling like a banshee, the wing flexing full force. I've seen a CF wing fail under the snap off (factory fault, at the maiden) where the force of the flex tore the wing apart into toenail size pieces and broke the fuse into 3 parts right there in the air. A proper built CF wing shrugs that energy off at converts it into altitude and speed.

So yeah, being a summer child claiming to know all about CF planes doesn't work when an actual experienced modeler is present on the board.

I did find one pic of my 1.5m glow Ryan, soon to be converted into electric. It takes off and lands on proper mowed grass runway. Wheel pants taken off for the grass runway.

[Anonymous No.1435664]

>>1435492
>take it to a park
Anything above 1m wingspan will need proper airspace, parks are for throwaway toys.
You either get serious in the hobby or you just play with toys. Also flying your race quad at the park is a violation of law and unethical, flying a meat grinder at 100km/h around common people is dangerous. This behaviour is why we have overly restrictive rules for drone and RC flying.

[Anonymous No.1435671]

>>1435642
Do you enjoy being in an airclub?

I have literally no one to fly with and the closest thing to me is a private airclub about 40 miles away. Cant say Im not turned off about it from the get go because of the rules they require, paid membership, registered with the AMA, have to "check out" a certain frequency to be used with your transmitter. But I guess my main concern is I can see why a bunch of older dudes flying planes wouldnt want quads around there. Quads seem to be much more maneuverable, faster, sturdier, and generally more powerful than most model planes and gliders. Does your club allow drones?

[Anonymous No.1435681]

>>1435586
whats difference between stability and horizon modes?

[Anonymous No.1435698]

>>1435681
Stability wont let you pitch the quad past a certain angle, horizon mode still auto stabilizes the quad when you let go of the pitch stick but if you push the stick all the way to the left it will roll left, versus stable mode it will just fly left at full speed.

[Anonymous No.1436051]

>>1435664
>Also flying your race quad at the park is a violation of law and unethical, flying a meat grinder at 100km/h around common people is dangerous.

Who said anything about flying around people? I regularly fly race quads at parks with my friends, but we do so when they are otherwise empty.

>>1435671
>I can see why a bunch of older dudes flying planes wouldnt want quads around there

My local flying club is unfortunately exactly like this & from what I've heard (at least here in the UK) it's quite common for traditional 'model flying' clubs that have been around for decades to be at best stony & at worse openly hostile toward 'drones'. Have you checked Facebook for local FPV groups instead?

[Anonymous No.1436129]

>>1436051

They are jealous we can fly our quads anywhere we want.

They make up a bunch of lies like its Illegal or Immoral.

[Anonymous No.1436170]

>>1436129
I haven't even tried at the flightclub near me, I can just guess why they wouldn't want a quad around. Mainly being half these old fucks are flying gas replica planes that cost a few thousand dollars, usually self built, and they sit there and fly them around in circles because that's either all they can do or that's the rule. I'm sure they're worried something as fast and maneuverable as a quad will get in their way or make them worry about collisions since they can't see them as well as the large planes. On top of that, I collide with one of those balsa planes 20 feet in the air and it'll get annihilated, whereas my quad will probably just need new props.

[Anonymous No.1436212]

>>1436170

They hate it when miniquads show up. Because we wanna chase them and they are worried they are gonna get hit and they dont want more people flying on their field because of the radio frequencies.

Really its boring to go to a wing field because its just open space and nothing to interest a miniquad pilot. Just a bunch of guys doing circles in the air.

[Anonymous No.1436230]

Taking your Dog to the park is dangerous and nobody should do it.

Dogs Bite people, they shit everywhere which ruins the grass and they bark at people and are very threatening at times.

Yet dogs are allowed at parks.

You need to change your mentality if you think its bad for a miniquad to fly at a park. Its not any different then somebody coming with a dog.

[Anonymous No.1436248]

>>1435671
I can't really imagine any better way of flying my models, including my race quads.
You have to understand most older members here (central europe) were mostly influenced by german and austrian modelers back in the day, mostly flying F3A acro. They see my race quads as the new F3A scene which also needs high degrees of dexterity and quick reflexes along with good flying skill.
We all fly our own planes and if there are clashing classes, like big gassers and beginner foamies we take turns with the classes. No arguments, lots of fun, constant critique of ones flying skill, including how much they improved to themselves. It is a lot more fun than flying myself. If there is no one else out at the field I almost feel bored.
You might want to look up a few modelers fellas in your area including gassers, glider and foamie pilots. I am sure you can fit in with your quad unless you are a literal spaghetti. If they are alright they can also get you out of your spaghetti in no time, that is how I got hooked here.

[Anonymous No.1436251]

>>1435671
>>1436248
those rules, paid membership (area, airspace and field maintenance, maybe club place rental costs hard money), AMA membership (any national rc modelers association membership) is mandatory, checking out frequency is a remnant of the old analogue days, some old modelers still use the old frequencies which needs "manual binding" not to switch on to someones used freq ruining his flying, his day and upcoming months. Not an issue with 2.4GHz but you might want to do the same with 5.8GHz FPV channels when someone else is flying FPV around you.
These are necessary things to fully enjoy the hobby and it also teaches you to be disciplined in your flying. Most of the RC models are not small "toy" drones, they can carve up and kill a person. The RC flying hobby is a serious thing.

[Anonymous No.1436562]

I got a beat up drone for pennies. Basically traded for an unused cheapo chink 210 frame kit and an older F3 FC.
The usable parts are the FC, Naza-M Lite with the LED/power module and GPS puck, some chink OSD and the ESCs (afro). Motors are busted, frame is trash, broken and bent plastic crap.
The GPS puck is mildly cracked but the internals look okay.
My question is, do I have to build those big obnoxious 10'' drones or can I get away with something smaller, preferably something that can take one of my numerous 2200mAh 3s batteries and a quanum 3D gimbal with a gopro? Maybe something around 6''-7''? How stable can it be with an old Naza and ancient simonK escs?

[Anonymous No.1437694]

>>1436562
Kinda depends on how old it is really.

Older FCs arent capable of the same flight modes, and ease of use as current ones. Also depending on how old it is it may be better to replace the ESCs with the motors. If everything you get ends up actually working you could put it all into an F330 frame or something similar. Cant say the ability will be amazing though, FC probably runs an old version of Betaflight or something like that and the PIDs wont be set to the current build.

[Anonymous No.1437802]

>>1437694
The Naza is capable of manual, attitude hold (smooth autolevel with altitude hold) and gps hold. It is great for what I want as a camera drone.
What I need to know is what size to aim for with the stuff I already have and if the simonk escs are capable enough for that size. I know it works well at 10’’ but I want a smaller frame for my smaller batteries and because smaller frames have better power to weight ratio than larger frames.
The capabilities of the FC are not important because I know the Naza can do its job of flying like a dumb balloon, which is what I want from this project.

[Anonymous No.1437828]

>>1437694
>>1437802
The F330 seems a good start, I might have to modify it for a wider front arm spacing a'la TBS Discovery to be able to mount the gimbal in a dangling position being able to look down 90°.

[Anonymous No.1437838]

>>1436562
>>1437828
Something like a F330 with 8" props is probably the smallest you should realistically expect to do what you want with a GoPro gimbal. Sure, people have mounted gimbals to 5" quads, but only as a gimmick.

[Anonymous No.1437884]

>>1437838
The problem with increasing prop size is the increase of air resistance by the square, hence why the smaller frames having better power to weight ratio. A 5'' quad having 6-10 to 1 or better ratio, while above 10'' if you reach the bottom of 4 to 1 ratio you are basically boss. The increased battery size also acts as dead weight you have to carry.
8'' might do it but I would like to keep it as low as possible. Anyone knows Dalprop having a 7'' version of the 3 blade Cyclones? ...and to answer my own question, yes they do. No 8'', so I'll try to aim for a 7'' build.
I might have to get a few 4s 2200, maybe 4s 1800 and a 2s 500 for the gimbal. All this is hard guestiomation and I don't even know yet which motor to use. Maybe a 2206 or 2207? 1800 or 2000KV? Where can I find a calculator or spreadsheet for such info?
Hmm, this project is already starting to become an interesting challenge.

[Anonymous No.1437909]

>>1437884
Whilst thrust to weight might be a prime design consideration were you building a racing/freestyle quad, efficiency should be more your concern for a GoPro gimbal carrying build.

I actually have a 7" freestyle quad with 2408/1900kv motors & have just received a few packs of the Cyclone 7056, but have not yet had a chance to fly them (mainly been using the HQ 7x3.5x3 until now). There's no way in hell I would use a setup like this to carry a GoPro gimbal for the sort of flying described in >>1437802

If you want to play around with numbers, try eCalc (picrelated).

[Anonymous No.1438145]

Retarded question from someone reluctant to buy a drone please no bully :

Can you disable gyros on quadcopters? I don't just mean the accelerometers for just regular acro mode. I really do mean the gyros, too.

>but that will make it harder to fly

I know, that's the point. I am a fan of helicopters and I would like something hand/eye coordination intensive to do in my spare time. I'm afraid quads will be too simple to fly and I just wont enjoy them.

I love all of u thanks in advance :^)

[Anonymous No.1438156]

>>1438145
At the very beginning we had 4 motors strapped to a wooden cross frame, escs directly driven by the receiver, mixing programmed in the tx. It flew very short before it became so instable it was impossible to hold.
We kept it as a challenge to see how long one can keep it in the air. The record was 5 seconds and around 15m distance flown. It was back in 2009 or 2010.
Gyros disabled act the same, without the gyros the fc can’t sense the instability and can’t correct anything. You NEED gyros AT LEAST to keep it in the air long enough to even start flying in a controlled manner.

[Anonymous No.1438158]

>>1438145
>>1438156
And don’t worry, controlled flying will be a great challenge even in autolevel when beginning. It is nothing like a computer game.

[Anonymous No.1438198]

New lakeside site

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqEXu0lBiFk

[Anonymous No.1438213]

>>1438156
I think its entirely possible that I have no idea what I'm talking about here, but how is a quad copter without gyros less stable than a regular helicopter? I know little about quadcopters beyond what I can understand from casual observation.

>>1438158
I understand there's more to it than a video game, I'm looking something for a similar level of difficulty as a real helicopter or harder if possible.

thank u frens have a gr8 day :^)

[Anonymous No.1438266]

>>1438213
>but how is a quad copter without gyros less stable than a regular helicopter?
for one thing, there are variations in motors, props, escs, etc.

if one prop is developing slightly more lift than the rest, how do you correct this? trim? that won't theoretically work for more than the one specific rpm you happen to be at

a quad in rate mode is harder than a conventional helicopter. if you ever do want to fly a quad without a gyro, just be sure to learn rate mode first. but i think you will find the gyro is literally required

[Anonymous No.1438272]

>>1438266

>if one prop is developing slightly more lift than the rest, how do you correct this? trim? that won't theoretically work for more than the one specific rpm you happen to be at

I think I understand what you mean but aim to try it for myself, if possible. Do betaflight and the other software controllers actually allow you to disable the gyros? My understanding is no, and that I would have to """modify""" the quad to achieve my desired result.

>a quad in rate mode is harder than a conventional helicopter

doubt.jpg

How accurate are the simulators? I've used those and disagree based on that. I realize this is probably not good info to go on, hence here I am asking.

god bless u all my dudes :^)

[Anonymous No.1438276]

>>1438272
I'm pretty sure Betaflight will allow you to turn off the gyro, but it will also show you exactly why it won't work with the model preview. If I shut it off on one of my quads the flight controller almost instantly loses track of its own orientation. If the quad were in the air I guarantee it wouldn't be for more than a few seconds.

As for your concerns with the similarity between a quad and a heli I've read before that those helicopters actually use an extremely similar method to a quads acro mode. So depending on how fast you're used to flying a heli it may actually be harder like the other anon said.

And with the simulators it just depends. It's widely accepted that they are a good place to start, and a fairly accurate representation. That being said it's not like they can simulate gravity, wind, prop influence, all that. The quads feel like they fall with a sort if low gravity float, and they definitely don't maneuver anywhere near as quick unless you take the time to customize the rates to match youtbactual quad. Personally I didn't use one for long, for me acro is many times easier in FPV. Only took me a couple flights from never used acro to doing tricks and shit.

[Anonymous No.1438353]

Hi everyone! I'm looking to build the cheapest, smallest diy drone possible and would be using preferably my laptop or something that I already have/can get for stupid cheap from junkstore to control it, can anyone suggest me a build/link me to parts and maybe some plans? I have a degree in software engineering so I have that front covered but the electrical engineering and physics behind prop choice eludes me.

Thanks for all the help!

[Anonymous No.1438365]

>>1438145
either buy an rc heli if you really like helis or buy a quad and see if it's as easy to fly as you think in rate mode. Fly that for a while before you think you can fly with no gyros.

>>1438272
>How accurate are the simulators? I've used those and disagree based on that.
So you haven't actually flown, but you don't believe the simulators are accurate?

>>1438353
read the sticky.
>cheapest, smallest diy drone possible
brushed micro, you'll still need a transmitter, but you can get a FlySky for dirt.

>>1438198
looks like a nice flying site anon.

[Anonymous No.1438367]

>>1438365
The sticky doesn't seem to have anything regarding the cheapest diy build possible, maybe I'm just too tired to read it properly

[Anonymous No.1438377]

>>1438353
Being able to control it from your laptop etc. will actually make it a lot more expensive. You can buy a 'toy' quad with brushed motors & a little radio for literally $15, but if you want something that you can actually interface/control from your own code on a laptop/tablet/whatever you're going to need to increase your budget a lot.

I know you said DIY, but the DJI/Ryze Tello sounds like it might be exactly what you want. It's tiny, $99 & has an actual API for controlling it. You're not going to build anything comparable for the same price.

There is also the SkyRocket/SkyViper which despite looking like a toy is actually an Arducopter quad, but I don't think that has any sort of telemetry connection so you'd need to add something like a SiK radio to it, which would kinda be dumb when the Tello already does it out the box.

[Anonymous No.1438401]

>>1438365
>either buy an rc heli

I probably would if they were popular with fpv, but they don't seem to be. Am I wrong and just a retard?

>Fly that for a while before you think you can fly with no gyros.

Of course, I'm not insane. Not trying to come off as overly confident and more so wondering if its possible. The explanation >>1438266 here of moving through throttle ranges vs static rpm and collective control makes sense to me if I'm reading into it correctly.

>So you haven't actually flown, but you don't believe the simulators are accurate?

Not what I'm saying. I am speculating they aren't, but admit I do not know. I have RC experience from when I was a tiny human but not since ~1996-2001ish timeframe, so no quadrotors. I have pilots licenses as well, my expectations are not inline with that of a videogame experience.

[Anonymous No.1438417]

>>1438401
You're right that RC helis are not popular with FPV, but it would be very easy to add a camera and VTX.

[Anonymous No.1438452]

>>1438145

I think what you are looking for is a collective pitch helicopter.

They have a high skill level if you think you are capable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5FqYiZb

[Anonymous No.1438466]

>>1430852
Man, that looks fun as fuck.

Complete noob here. How much did the drone + vr setup cost? And what's the battery life like? What's the maximum operating range?

[Anonymous No.1438468]

>>1438417
While that is true, the immense vibration makes it impossible to see anything. RC helis are notorious for massive vibrations, it is mandatory to check all screws after flight, they get loose even with threadlocker applied. FPV is simply a no-go.

[Anonymous No.1438469]

>>1438466

My setup is about $1000 all in but I bought high quality gear.

My drones each cost about $280 to build myself, the radio is about $200, the fatshark goggles with the diversity were about $600 new.

I also have 8 battery that are 4s 1500 mah graphene. I get about 5 mins per flight maybe 4 with a gopro or less if I fly really aggressive.

So when I go out with my charged batteries I get about 40 mins of flight time before I have to head home. Takes like 2 hours to recharge them at home. I can do 4 at a time on my ISDT Q6 charger.

I have a Frysky radio and I fly with a VTX putting out 800 mw

In a large area I can fly out about 1,000 feet but trees will block your signal and reduce range.

If you spend more money for a better long range system you can go up to a mile away, but I dont have good environment for long range so right now I just stick with the 2.4ghz link that the radio uses.

[Anonymous No.1438510]

>>1438469
>ISDT Q6
I was eyeing that but I don't like daisy chain charging batteries on a single lead so I got the older Turnigy TQ-4. Parallel charging 4 batteries up to 6s from 4 separate ports. It is bulky, but the car doesn't care. Per battery balancing makes the batteries last longer, I have 3 seasons old packs that are still good to go (for fixed wing).

I kinda envy you all with the FrSky radios, when I got my Aurora 9 it was still in the making. Needing something pro quality for competition flying I got the Hitec and now I am stuck using bulky Delta-8 on CPPM mode for my quads. They are still huge after removing cover and pins. Thinking of getting an X-Lite sometimes later if I can find a good spot around my new place for flying.

>>1438466
About costs, this hobby is a money sink, but highly addictive and fun. Some pieces are mandatory like the Tx and goggles, mine is an Attitude V3 and True-D, got it around €180 used and $80 for the receiver. It is the same as the Spektrum Focal. Stay away from the Fatshark diversity receivers, they are not true diversity receivers, even the simple Nexwave Rx are better. Get a Laforge, True-D or Rapidfire instead. The latter two have Attitude versions.
When I got over $4000 in overall costs I stopped counting, mostly to ease friction with the folks. There is a minimal cost in this hobby but the upper limit is in the stars.

[Anonymous No.1438511]

>>1438468
why would a conventional heli design have more vibration than a quad?

[Anonymous No.1438517]

If you want to save money on goggles, you can just use your phone. Amazon sells little video receivers you can plug into your phone's USB port. Your phone will recognize it as a webcam.

There are $1 apps that will display the video in each eye. Then, just make headgear out of cardboard to hold your phone in front of your face or buy one of those cheap ass plastic ones for your phone (also on Amazon).

The quality isn't great, but it's a cheap alternative if you're not sure you want to commit.

The USB video receivers can also plug into your PC or laptop if you want to try flying off a screen like that.

[Anonymous No.1438518]

>>1438510
>I was eyeing that but I don't like daisy chain charging batteries on a single lead

Yea you have to make sure they all are about the same voltage when you do this.

The way I fly I always land just after 1200 mah is used out of a 1500 pack. So that by the time I land each cell is at about 3.7 volts.

Then it works and you have no problem putting those packs on the same board.

But if I have to land early because of any mechanical problem I will have to charge that battery separate from the others or try and drain it to about the same level in another flight.

[Anonymous No.1438522]

>>1438511
Because single propeller and CCPM control (not the same as CPPM signal from a receiver!). Look up how it works and you will see how much pitch difference there is in a single revolution of the blades, plus the large blades rotate significantly slower than the props on a quad.

[Anonymous No.1438535]

Tfw got a proper session this weekend & the new 7" Cyclones feel good~

>>1438517
>If you want to save money on goggles, you can just use your phone.

No, no you can't, because those little USB adapters have far too much latency. They're fine for spectators, but useless for actual piloting.

[Anonymous No.1438539]

>>1438535
What battery and how much flight time do you get with the Gopro?

[Anonymous No.1438542]

>>1438522
well, i do know how it works. i have in the past manufactured military and civilian helicopter blades and hubs for a living, even participting in engineering. I just didnt think it would cause vibration.

You are basically saying cyclic inherently causes vibration. ok

[Anonymous No.1438544]

>>1438539
2200mAh 4S gets me around 8 minutes for the type of flying I do with it.

[Anonymous No.1438545]

>>1438542
I think the point they're trying to make is that when you have four small (eg 5") propellers spinning at 30-40k rpm, you can make a lot more individual adjustments per second than you can with one large (eg 5') propeller spinning at a few thousand rpm.

[Anonymous No.1438546]

>>1438542
All helos have vibrations, the new gen Eurocopters are marketed with reduced vibrations meaning passengers don't bite their tongues off during maneuvering. They use shorter higher rpm rotors and 5 blades to spread the pitch differences more evenly.
If you want FPV just build a simple 5'' quad, a cheap ZMR or Martian frame will do nicely, Multistar Elite motors from Hobbyking are cheap as well and have good performance.

[Anonymous No.1438548]

>>1438544
Many thanks.

Also
>rubber cups Attitude
Is that a V2 or a V3/4? how do you cope with the fogging? I tried punching holes in the lower lip of the eyecups, it helped somewhat but not much. Got a dominator style faceplate with the fan, it clicked in right away without modding and it is like day and night compared to the rubber cups.

[Anonymous No.1438549]

Ive gotten about 10 mins of flight time on my 5 inch freestyle quad with no gopro on it.

But that is when I had some low thrust and very efficient motors on the quad and I was flying it very easy just sipping on power.

[Anonymous No.1438555]

>>1438548
Oldschool v2. I only get fogging in winter & even then only usually at the beginning of a session when they're cold. Sticking them on my forehead whilst I'm still setting up helps to warm them up & reduce the issue.

>>1438549
I've done 10 minutes with a GoPro on a heavy 6" just to see if I could & I can easily break 10 minutes on this 7" with GoPro, but honestly 5-6 minutes for miniquad stuff is where I start to lose interest/concentration & want a breather anyway.

[Anonymous No.1438556]

Dont ever buy these motors:

Lumenier motor 2206 2350kv

Steele used them at one time but they slip magnets and will fail one after another.

They are an efficient motor but you are better off with cheaper Chinese crap

[Anonymous No.1438558]

>>1438555

Yea long range flight really needs a special kind of environment.

Like mountainous terrains, or maybe wide open beaches. Otherwise its just more fun to fly around obstacles.

[Anonymous No.1438560]

>>1438535
>far too much latency
I find that, yes, they have latency plugged into a PC. But, plugged into my phone, there is no latency at all. I don't know how... maybe the phone has a lighter weight USB driver, but it works pretty well.

[Anonymous No.1438563]

>>1438466

Buy your radio first then get a simulator like liftoff.

After a couple months you will be flying like this:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0uocW9oWIY

[Anonymous No.1438588]

>>1438563
Holy shit this thing is fast.

[Anonymous No.1438603]

>>1438555
>V2
I almost fell into an ebay scam where the dude was selling a V2 but saying it was a V3. Is it possible to replace the rx or is it hard soldered?

[Anonymous No.1438604]

>>1438588
That is normal. If you want to see fast, look up UAVfutures videos on Youtube, some of those racer quads are so fast YT compression craps itself.

[Anonymous No.1438609]

>>1438588

The one shown has a top speed of about 70 mph but I am flying it much slower in the vid.

Some of the racers can do 100 MPH ++

Mine is more of a freestyle build.

[Anonymous No.1438646]

Quads will go from 0 to max speed with the flick of your fingers. Unlike cars which are very heavy and have many gears.

So a racing quad will accelerate much faster than a car, giving it really quick feel to pilot.

[Anonymous No.1438649]

>tfw drive 15 minutes to the park and then hit the pavement in 5 min

Time to warm up the soldering iron again...

[Anonymous No.1438681]

>>1438646
>So a racing quad will accelerate much faster than a car, giving it really quick feel to pilot.

I wish Elon would make these so I can fly to work fast and have fun zooming around trees on the way.

[Anonymous No.1438683]

What would be the most likely cause of a quad yawing when going from low throttle to high?

[Anonymous No.1438695]

Turns out taping a scrap of lighting gel ND to your GoPro actually works okay (& means the GoPro still fits in your regular TPU mounts).

>>1438560
>But, plugged into my phone, there is no latency at all.

This is bullshit.

>maybe the phone has a lighter weight USB driver

Afaik the latency is primarily from the ADC process within the unit itself, which is the same regardless of whether it's connected to your PC or your phone.

>>1438604
YouTube compression is balls even for 'slow' FPV flying. This is why you always upscale your 1080 recordings to 1440 so that YouTube at least encodes using VP9 instead of AVC so it doesn't look *quite* so bad.

>>1438603
The v2 has an internal soldered rx, the v3 has an actual module bay. If somebody is trying to sell a v2 that they've hacked into having a module bay it's gonna be pretty obvious from even a grainy picture what it is.

[Anonymous No.1438709]

>>1438681
Stupid funnycar faggots. Stop raping the fucking nos button and hammer down.

No driving dangerous ass cocksuckers here.

[Anonymous No.1438710]

>>1438681
Oh for fucks sake.


Nvm. That shit was on purpose. Retards laying rubber for a shitty street drag so everyone can pay 20 bucks admission, watch 5 races in 8 hours. See a fatality or 2, and leave....

[Anonymous No.1438711]

>>1438646
Electric drag car

Google dot com

[Anonymous No.1438714]

>>1429680
Considering spamming float trips with swag and trolling people on the lake.

Anyone ever had a splash drone?

[Anonymous No.1438980]

>>1438714
>Considering spamming float trips with swag and trolling people on the lake.

People like you are why our hobby gets a bad rep.

[Anonymous No.1438984]

>>1438145
Do you even know how a quad flies?

[Anonymous No.1438994]

Kinda new to DIY rc building want to make a plane already build a mid range race quad goes good flys fast but now i want to make a little plane to fly around got

2 engines
2 servos
1 3-1 esc speed controller and gtro
1 transmitter receaver

all this was scavanged from a duel rotor heli is it possable to make into a little plane

[Anonymous No.1438998]

>>1438994

I miss punctuation.

[Anonymous No.1439000]

>>1438994
The most basic plane requires only 1 motor, 1 ESC, 2 servos & a receiver with at least 3 servo outputs. So yes, you should be able to turn those parts into a little plane.

[Anonymous No.1439003]

>>1431260
>>1431151
i got vlicidrone trail how to i put the drone to easy mode where it auto levels thats how i fly my irl drone its really hard when it dosent

[Anonymous No.1439006]

>>1433010
did you give him a go

[Anonymous No.1439015]

>>1434059
>>1434059
>>1433770
>>1433768
watching these makes me want to fly my drine again had a really crash when the batt came out doing high g menovers got the parts just gotta dig up my alen key and fix ie good vids man

[Anonymous No.1439020]

>>1432951
Only if they're underrated for the motor they're using

[Anonymous No.1439024]

>>1438649
Try living in SoCal where it's a 1.5+ hour drive to cash land. Makes me wanna kms.

[Anonymous No.1439028]

>>1438555
>>1438544
i get about 10 mins aswell its bat to fly to the point where your not as fast right one of my batts is dead how do i bring it back also my mate has the same batt aswell and one of his died really need to bring it back or is it not possable

[Anonymous No.1439030]

>>1439000
cool thanks also will the gyro in the speed controller fuck up the plane since it was from a heli

[Anonymous No.1439038]

>>1439030
also would a single morot be powerfull enough it was from about 40cm twin rotor heli

[Anonymous No.1439040]

>>1439030
I've never heard of an ESC with a gyro built in, sounds like you're actually talking about a rudimentary flight controller/stabilizer?

>>1439038
Well that depends entirely upon the size/weight of the plane.

>>1439028
Punctuation, please?

[Anonymous No.1439044]

>>1439040
it says mixer speed control
its an eflight eflh1023

[Anonymous No.1439045]

>>1439044
>>1439040
also all the stuff came from this

[Anonymous No.1439052]

>>1439044
That looks like it's essentially a basic flight controller with built in ESCs, which you won't be able to use as a standalone ESC for a plane.

[Anonymous No.1439055]

>>1439052
alright so ill need to get a diffrent one why cant i use it thou would it not fly right

[Anonymous No.1439059]

>>1439055
Because the output of the ESCs built into that unit almost certainly cannot be decoupled from the unit's gyro/logic, which would be completely wrong for a plane.

[Anonymous No.1439060]

>>1439059
alright thanks ill try and find a cheap plane esc also do you recon that 1 of the heli motors will be enough for a smalish plane

[Anonymous No.1439102]

>>1439003

Dont fly in Auto level "easy" mode.

You need to fly in Acro mode because its the most fun. Practice in the simulator in Acro aka: Rate mode so that you get really good in RL.

[Anonymous No.1439116]

>>1439003

If you press 1 on the keyboard you can change from Rate mode to Angle mode.

But I really suggest that you should learn how to fly in Rate mode.

[Anonymous No.1439151]

>>1438984
Variable rpm ranges as opposed to collective pitch I assume is what you're getting at, so maybe? It is also to my understanding that many quads use gyros with the assistance of accelerometers to make flying easier, and turning off the accelerometers is what is considered acro mode or rate mode. So again, maybe.

Not entirely sure what you're getting at my dude.

[Anonymous No.1439154]

>>1439151
>many quads use gyros... to make flying easier
You mean to make flying possible. See above for reasons.
You trying to look smartass but it is evident from the beginning that you know literally nothing about flying. Go out to the local flying club, ask for a buddy box training to see what it is really like, even a fixed wing trainer with all the assistance will make you sweat and shaky I can guarantee.
Many beginners and total newbs have asked for help and every single one was able to listen. You asking for help and totally shutting off and run down helpful anons shows how arrogant and stupid you are. Until you actually flown your own quad you can shut your stupid mouth.

[Anonymous No.1439164]

>>1439154
>You mean to make flying possible.

I've admitted all along I don't know what the case may be, but from reading people saying things like "you NEED accelerometers" and that acro mode is hard I was leaning towards people exaggerating how difficult it would be without gyros as well. I've dug up a few videos of people trying to fly them from like 2010 without gyros, wooden homebuild sorts of things, and I haven't yet seen anything that would indicate it is truly impossible and not just very difficult.

>even a fixed wing trainer with all the assistance will make you sweat and shaky I can guarantee

I have RC experience from when I was a kid, some planes, mostly a motorglider, but some planes and an RC heli or two as well that my fathers friends owned and let me fly on occasion. (collective pitch heli, not some weird pseudo helicopter with no cyclic/collective control that you see in the little indoor ones)

>You asking for help and totally shutting off and run down helpful anons shows how arrogant and stupid you are

Not really sure how you come to that conclusion. In every post I made in this thread I asked questions and admitted I'm speaking from a position of ignorance. I don't think I've shut off or run down anyone trying to be helpful. Sorry you disagree.

[Anonymous No.1439167]

>>1438711
Unless they do 120 kph at 1.2s which any budget freestyle build can, I am not interested.

[Anonymous No.1439171]

>>1439164
>I have RC experience
I somehow doubt that considering all the stupid shit you are saying. You either lying your ass off or you were an ignorant kid or still are (an ignorant kid).
Like I said above, build your own quad, fly it, then you can come back to talk about it. You already expended your help credits. Our help and advice is better spent on more worthy beginners, those who actually listen and able to think on their own, this is /diy/ for fucks sake!
Also read the pseudo sticky.

[Anonymous No.1439175]

>>1439171
>I somehow doubt that considering all the stupid shit you are saying

Like what? I get the impression you are attributing posts to me that aren't mine.

[Anonymous No.1439180]

Fixed my audio sync issue with the DVR flight over the football field:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFkqqIZY5k8

[Anonymous No.1439186]

>>1439180

Nice video, the audio is great compared to silent webms that most people post. And those players lol must have been shitting their pants while your drone was doing stungs over the field.

[Anonymous No.1439188]

>>1439175
>Like what? I get the impression you are attributing posts to me that aren't mine.

that guy is imagining things, and I'd try to avoid him. too bad this board doesn't have thread specific user IDs.

[Anonymous No.1439190]

>>1439180

Nice video. I'm glad you fixed the audio, I like it a lot better than the silent webms that get posted. And those players must have been shitting their pants while your drone was doing those great stunts over the field.

[Anonymous No.1439202]

>>1439164
>I've dug up a few videos of people trying to fly them from like 2010 without gyros, wooden homebuild sorts of things, and I haven't yet seen anything that would indicate it is truly impossible and not just very difficult.
please post your sources. quadcopters, by design, absoltely require a gyro.

further, flying a quad (with the required gyro) is more difficult than flying a conventional helicopter.

[Anonymous No.1439204]

>>1439188
Lots of boards desperately need that feature, mostly the creative boards.

[Anonymous No.1439210]

>tfw drive 15 min to the park
>set up the quad and goggles
>do a quick test flight in horizon mode
>drone flies for 5 seconds...then falls to the ground

Fucking fuck I am such a dipshit solderer.. the battery cable came off somehow. It was working fine in my apartment before I left...

[Anonymous No.1439214]

>>1439190
>I like it a lot better than the silent webms that get posted
That's because 4chan doesn't allow webms with sound on this board.

[Anonymous No.1439216]

>>1439202
Cant find the exact ones I've watched in my history but if you search youtube for "quadcopter without gyro" some stuff comes up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZtTrw3f3Is

Stuff like this reminds me of people learning helis and not knowing where to put the cyclic to avoid dynamic rollover, which makes me think its a similarly difficult thing to learn, and a similar situation. I've seen a lot of people say that quadrotor, by design, requires gyro - but I've been unable to find anyone elaborate on exactly why this is true... the exception being the anon in this thread saying ;

>if one prop is developing slightly more lift than the rest, how do you correct this? trim? that won't theoretically work for more than the one specific rpm you happen to be at

From that I am inferring that, IF quadrotors were collective pitch controlled at a static rpm only then would it be (sort of) analogous to a helicopter and in that case the gyro truly wouldn't be needed.

[Anonymous No.1439225]

>>1439216
>IF quadrotors were collective pitch controlled at a static rpm only then would it be (sort of) analogous to a helicopter
Let me help you with that one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnGhEInTXYc

[Anonymous No.1439228]

>>1439210

Happened to me also.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEQ3vsqhwf8


I had to do some re-wiring of my camera and VTX because I had noise on my quad.

When I swapped the wires I guess I did it with a cold joint because it lost connection during a fast roll.

I lost my video and just crashed. The majority of my crashes have been some kind of hardware issue.

But once you work out the bugs and gremlins its great.

[Anonymous No.1439237]

>>1438469
Thanks for taking the time to reply dude. (Samefag from earlier)

[Anonymous No.1439241]

>>1439225
That's actually very cool. Despite reminding me of rotoway tailboom times 4. lel. The transmitter is cool too, I wish there were transmitters with much larger gimbal sticks so you could do much "finer" inputs for lack of a better way to say what I mean.

[Anonymous No.1439247]

>>1439241
You can replace the gimbal stick ends to any custom made ones, there are wide ends for "thumbers" but be advised, it is much more precise to "pinch" the sticks.
I use my thumbs when funflying but when I fly my competition gliders I always force myself to pinch. I might have to further force mysel to pinch with my quad as well.

[Anonymous No.1439261]

>>1439247

I agree that pinching is better for flying freestyle quads.

You get more fine control with the support of your index finger.

When I first started to learn I tried both thumbing and pinching. But I also listened to what Mr. Steele said about the 'hybrid pinch'.

When I fly I use my thumbs a lot, but when I need to fly with more control I use my index finger for the fine motor movements.

New pilots should get on the simulator in Rate mode while pinching and using some rates that feel good to you.

A rate curve and its amount of expo and rotation speed is something you need to learn. I think Snake did a good video explaining that recently.

[Anonymous No.1439264]

>>1439228
Well, I fixed the solder. It should be on better this time... I'll try again tomorrow after work.

I went out yesterday afternoon and it did a lot better. Was flying for about 5 to 10 minutes till I hit the pavement...

30 yards of grass in every direction, and I manage to hit the 15 foot wide paved access road...

[Anonymous No.1439273]

>>1439264
Best thing for you is more stick time in the simulator so you get the feel.

Also match up your rates with the Quad and the Simulator so they feel the same.

[Anonymous No.1439276]

>>1439273
I have the rates matched up, but I can't get an accurate sim version of my quad. It's pretty tiny.

[Anonymous No.1439279]

>>1439276

Ohh yea I see how that can be an issue.

I fly a 5 inch alien frame racer and when I fly liftoff I can choose similar props, motors and overall weight.

The way the sim feels is really similar to my quad irl.

If you have good environments to fly you maybe want to upgrade. Depends on where you fly that.

[Anonymous No.1439324]

>>1439216
>From that I am inferring that, IF quadrotors were collective pitch controlled at a static rpm only then would it be (sort of) analogous to a helicopter and in that case the gyro truly wouldn't be needed.
You are completely wrong. It being collective pitch does not negate the fact that you will not get 2 rotors developing the same exact amount of thrust, let alone 4. No manufacturing tolerances in the world will ever make this happen. The props will never perfectly match each other, and the motors will never match each other. You will *always* have one prop/motor developing more or less thrust than the rest, and the quad will constantly be trying to roll over, pitch, and yaw. You can not trim this out, because you would have to trim every single throttle/pitch position individually, which is simply impractical.

You *need* a gyro to detect anomalous motion and correct for it. The video YOU posted exemplifies this.

Also, you are refusing to accept the fact that quads are more difficult to fly than conventional helis. Go fly both, and then decide for yourself. Just make sure the quad is in rate(acro) mode.

[Anonymous No.1439343]

>>1439324
>It being collective pitch does not negate the fact that you will not get 2 rotors developing the same exact amount of thrust, let alone 4. No manufacturing tolerances in the world will ever make this happen. No manufacturing tolerances in the world will ever make this happen. The props will never perfectly match each other, and the motors will never match each other. You will *always* have one prop/motor developing more or less thrust than the rest, and the quad will constantly be trying to roll over, pitch, and yaw.

I think what I'm not understanding is how this translates to it being completely unflyable, rather than just requiring constant inputs to adjust for changing conditions. The only comparison I can draw is how if a gust of wind hits a helicopter and you wish to remain stable, there is an increase in translational lift and this requires a lowering of collective, followed by a raising of collective after the gust has passed, in addition to the required pedal inputs to counter collective changes, and the pedal inputs needed to deal with the gust itself, and also cyclic inputs into wind. I think what I'm not understanding how this isn't a similar scenario. I totally understand that it's going to be more challenging, you may even hit the end of an inputs range of motion just to remain stable. But how is it necessarily impossible rather than just very difficult?

>Also, you are refusing to accept the fact that quads are more difficult to fly than conventional helis.

I'm not refusing to accept anything. I've stated I'm coming from a position of relative ignorance and beyond velocidrone I have no experience flying quads.

[Anonymous No.1439348]

>>1439343
>I think what I'm not understanding is how this translates to it being completely unflyable, rather than just requiring constant inputs to adjust for changing conditions.

>But how is it necessarily impossible rather than just very difficult?

Multirotors need to perform hundreds of adjustments per second just to stay airborne, let alone to fly smoothly. A run-of-the-mill racing drone today will poll it's gyro & run its PID loop at 8KHz, with some people opting to run 32KHz. A manual human operator would probably struggle to do 10Hz.

[Anonymous No.1439350]

>>1439343
>I totally understand that it's going to be more challenging,

what you need to think about is that a helicopter pilot is controlling ONE thing. that one thing is very difficult to control, or it used to be in older helicopters, and might still be.

but a quad pilot has to control FOUR things. you cannot do that with one joystick or one whatever. You have to IN REAL TIME control four things. If you can't grasp this simple fact, just build one and try it, and post the videos where you crash and crash and crash some more, and admit that you were wrong.

[Anonymous No.1439386]

>>1439343
Just like how you are not considering that collective changes require torque changes. Which on modern helicopters are done either mechanically or electronically

[Anonymous No.1439391]

>>1439386
Increasing pitch also increases yaw torque that is countered by a gyro, even on small 450 size helis.
The precession is countered by either a flybar (sloppy and slow) or by a flybarless system which is essentially a flight controller with a 3D gyro.

[Anonymous No.1439392]

>>1439391
I was talking about a real helicopter

[Anonymous No.1439403]

>>1439386
>Just like how you are not considering that collective changes require torque changes

to quote my post that you are referring to >>1439343

>in addition to the required pedal inputs to counter collective changes

Different way of saying the same thing my dude

[Anonymous No.1439706]

>>1439392
Eurocopters have gyro assist for the tail rotor. What is well established in the hobby is an actual new innovation in big helos. Other helos need constant yaw adjustments for change in pitch, but you would know this if you ever worked around helis which you claimed have done.

[Anonymous No.1439796]

>>1439706
Not the person you were originally debating.
I was stating that collective changes to the MR require torque changes from the engine.
Yaw sas still requires pedal inputs with collective changes of the MR SEMAs have very little authority.
Yup don't do this for a living or anything.

[Anonymous No.1439800]

>>1439403
Collective changes require pedal input and torque changes from the engine. When I was stating torque I was referring to engine trq

[Anonymous No.1439925]

Just got a 3800mAh LiPo 2S receiver pack. Should I charge this at 1C, or lower? I can't find this info specified for this pack.

[Anonymous No.1439937]

>>1439925
1C is fine. Just double check that it is LiPo/LiIon & not LiFePo4 (some transmitter packs are) because the LiFe charges to a lower voltage.

[Anonymous No.1439941]

>>1439937
Yeah it's LiPo. I am a huge fan of LiFe batteries, but, for this specific application I thought LiPo would be better, and the Capacity is nearly double that of LiFe and NiMH options.

Its a 3800mAh pack for the Q X7

https://alofthobbies.com/3800-mah-lipo-transmitter-pack-for-the-qx7.html

[Anonymous No.1440383]

Will drone delivery ever be usefull ? How much can a normal drone lift ?

[Anonymous No.1440436]

>>1440383

Not very much because the battery are pretty heavy and if you put on stronger motors you need power to drive it also.

So we are really held back by battery technology.

If we come up with a new type of battery that has more punch than lipo the delivery drone becomes much more possible.

But you also have the problems of radio link to overcome. They would need to have some kind of satellite system.

We could all have flying quadcopters vehicles if we had the right energy source.

[Anonymous No.1440439]

>>1440436
It might be possible to use a fossil fuel based engine (ICE, diesel, or turbine) as the primary power source. Using a configuration of electronic differentials in series and parallel to control power transmission to the four propellers, the engine could run at its constant most efficient rate.

[Anonymous No.1440444]

>>1440439
>>1440436
we need something with wings for better energy efficiency. like a vtol glider

[Anonymous No.1440449]

>>1440444
If you can somehow power it using seeds, insects, and worms, then you've just invented a bird.

[Anonymous No.1440494]

>>1440439
Or just rule out 4 props.

The military's drones use a single prop gas engine for locomotion and a battery/alternator package charged off the gas motor like a car for everything else. Shouldnt be too hard to make a small plane engine that can run off vegetable oil or E85.

[Anonymous No.1440516]

>>1440436
You can boost thrust "for free" by bending the incoming air around a curved surface. That's what I'm working on.
>>1440494
>>1440439
Too complicated.

[Anonymous No.1440517]

>>1440494
>Shouldnt be too hard to make a small plane engine that can run off vegetable oil or E85.

They make those. I presume >>1440383 was more talking about multirotor stuff, able to land in your yard to deliver a package etc.

[Anonymous No.1440567]

>>1440517
As long as battery technology is the way it is drone package delivery would either require recharge stations every 10 miles, some sort of hybrid multirotor where a gas engine was used for forward momentum and a battery was used to take off and land vertically. Or a multirotor design similar to the Osprey that can take off and land vertically then reposition the motors for fast and efficient flight.

[Anonymous No.1440571]

>>1440567
>As long as battery technology is the way it is drone package delivery would either require recharge stations every 10 miles

Which is part of the reason why companies that are legitimately working in this area (eg Amazon) are mainly focusing on using them for last mile delivery in sparsely populated areas, where it's quicker/cheaper to fly packages for a few miles in straight lines across open farmland than to send a truck winding down poor roads. Also helps with the whole regulatory side of things if they're only flying in areas where there are no buildings above 2 stories & the population density of cattle is 100 times that of humans.

[Anonymous No.1440673]

Would you rather have 2 identical builds or 2 mostly identical builds?

Asking because I have 3 racers on the same frame, only difference between 2 and the other 1 are the motors. Thinking of selling 1 but havent really decided if I should get rid of the duplicate or odd one out.

[Anonymous No.1440710]

>>1440673
I would rather not have extremely similar builds. like, why would you have 2 identical builds at all?

[Anonymous No.1440748]

>>1440710
Backup with identical flight characteristics, easier to test small variations in parts like props and motors.

[Anonymous No.1440756]

>>1440710
Serious racers build identical quads, so that when they break one they can get back into the race next round with another quad that flies exactly the same.

[Anonymous No.1441538]

>>1440436
>>1440439
>>1440494
>>1440567
You can use the Coanda effect to boost lift, that's what I'm working on. ICE/hybrid quads are too complicated.

[Anonymous No.1441632]

>>1440673

I have two identical builds so that if I have problems with one of them I can just put it on the repair bench and fly the other.

[Anonymous No.1441646]

So far I have flown with 3 different types of motors on the same quad builds with the same parts.

Each of these sets of motors flew their own way. They all had their own quirks and power curves.

They all gave out different amounts of power and flew for varying amounts of time.

I had some motors that were very efficient and had long flight times but not much thrust and other motors that were a bit less efficient but gave a bunch more thrust.

The faster motors made for a faster quad that could get more altitude quicker.

Depending on your flight environment that might made the choice for you. If you want to fly over really tall trees you go for the faster motors but if you just fly over alot of short tree and dont need the thrust then just go for the ones with the longer flight time.

[Anonymous No.1441736]

>>1441646
What do you find most efficient, larger motors or smaller motors?

I am assuming you found lower kv motors to be more efficient than higher kv motors

[Anonymous No.1441790]

Anyone used T-motor F40 II or III series motors? Do they come in CW-CCW pairs or all four has the same direction threads?
I'd hate to use locknuts, they always induce horrible vibrations, I like the CW-CCW torque lock design better.

[Anonymous No.1441791]

>>1441790
Also what are some good high efficiency motors for freestyle? I'm looking for flight time, not cornering speed.

[Anonymous No.1441796]

>>1441790
Nylocs only induce vibrations if they are the cheapest crap you could possibly find. Even the ones that come with <$10 Racerstar motors are absolutely fine, let alone the higher quality ones that come with $30+ T-Motor motors. I run three sets of T-Motor motors with nylocs & they're all fine.

The self-tightening CW/CCW design was bad enough 2-3 years ago when clipping a branch or gate stood a good chance of you losing one (then tearing your hair out trying to find reverse threaded replacements) but today they're even worse because everybody flies with active braking & many people are using turtle mode.

[Anonymous No.1441802]

>>1441796
I don't care about braking or turtle, I fly simple cruising with some acro and I am able to use my own hands to flip the damn quad.

[Anonymous No.1441803]

>>1441790

I use t-motor F40 II's and they dont come in CW-CCW pairs because instead of doing that they have notches on the top of the motor that bites into the prop hub as you screw it down.

They dont slip at all so there is no need for making different threaded shafts.

[Anonymous No.1441806]

>>1441736

2205's can be really efficient with a lower KV

When you get into 2306 size motors and higher KV you get more speed and thrust at the cost of flight time.

[Anonymous No.1441807]

>>1441802
If you're using any even semi-recent ESC (blheli_s or newer) then you're flying with active braking, because it's now always enabled in the firmware.

There is literally no reason not to use nylocs & several reasons to use them, which is why many motor manufacturers are not bothering to produce CW/CCW versions anymore.

[Anonymous No.1441809]

>>1441807
I was under the impression most people usually used all CW motors solely because home depot doesn't sell CCW lock nuts...

[Anonymous No.1441813]

>>1441809
Yes, that is one of the main reasons to just use 4 standard threaded nylocs on 4 standard threaded motors.

[Anonymous No.1441818]

>>1441803
What battery do you use and how much flight time do you get? Also what props?

[Anonymous No.1441832]

>>1441818

I really like Graphene Lipo battery because they dont have the power sag like normal Lipo.

I use the Infinity 1500 mah battery you can get from banggood. I have 8 of them and I have a parallel charge board that does 4 at a time and the ISDT charge system.

I use the Dalprop 5x4x3 prop because its efficient and cheap. There are other props that have a steeper pitch but that just gives you more thrust at the cost of efficiency.

Like for example if you really want to chuck the quad over something you would use a steeper pitched prop to get more thrust. Or maybe if your goal was to go really fast you would use a steep pitched prop.

For freestyle its nice to have longer flight times and unless you have really tall trees you dont need to have speed and thrust.

[Anonymous No.1441871]

>>1441832
If you're still using the old DAL 5040 triblade you should give the newer DAL 5040 Cyclone or 5046 Cyclone triblades a go. If you like the old one, you'll like the newer ones even more - they fly smoother, more efficiently, etc.

[Anonymous No.1441890]

>>1441871

I have some to try but I go through so few props that I have not gotten to test them out yet.

A set of props lasts me months and months of daily flying because I dont like to crash.

I bought a few sets at $1.50 for four and they last me a long time.

[Anonymous No.1441900]

>>1441890
>I go through so few props that I have not gotten to test them out yet.

This is part of the reason I have so many unused props still new in their packaging. I'll be interested in a new prop, so I'll buy two sets (just in case something goes wrong & I immediately break one of the four, I need a second set to have a spare so I actually get to fly them, right?), then I fly them for one pack & decide I don't like them... then just toss the brand new set & the barely used set in the box.

That said, the 5046 Cyclone triblade has been my 5" of choice for at least a year now, probably longer. It's pretty much the only prop that I actually go through.

At the end of the day though, props are cheap & what's available today is a substantial step up to what was available ~18 months ago. Don't feel that you have to use up all of your obsolete $1.50 props before you splash out & treat yourself to a new set for $3.

[Anonymous No.1442040]

Is there any specific reason my Runcan Swift 2's go out of focus every time I hit the ground even remotely hard? First few times was fairly whatever but at this point Ive had to file down the focusing nut on 2 of my cameras because the lens couldnt screw in to the camera far enough to focus, and removing the nut was too far.

[Anonymous No.1442080]

Maybe not the best thread to ask, but can I cheaply convert, for example, 24V DC 5A to 12V DC 10A? Basically, I want to power a thrust stand with my bench power supply, which can do 36V 5A, and I think I want more than 5A, but I don't need more than 16V

[Anonymous No.1442233]

>>1441818
If you want to maximize your flight time you have to use a certain number of batteries no matter the type.

[Anonymous No.1442438]

>>1442040
Either the lens is coming loose or the sensor board. I assume you use the big cased one, take the back off and put double sided foam tape in for padding, it should keep it on tight.

[Anonymous No.1442479]

>>1442438
Im honestly thoroughly shocked that THE name in FPV cameras actually left a hole in the design that would allow the sensor to move entirely like that...

Its like they thought people werent going to hitting the ground at 80MPH.

[Anonymous No.1442521]

If you had a RC vehicle (doesnt matter what) and you actually coded the emitter/receiver controller, assuming you had data streams no bigger than 4 bytes, given that the last 6 bits from the last byte are always zero (dont ask), to ensure good readings on an asynchronous system would you either add a prefix that is unequivocally distinct from all possible partial package combinations or a checksum?

[Anonymous No.1442522]

>>1442521
*Prefix is 4 bytes all at 255

[Anonymous No.1442624]

Is the Syma X5C still regarded as one of the better quadcopters for beginners? I wanna get into the hobby.

[Anonymous No.1442627]

>>1442624
Depends on if you want something to casually fly around and take pictures with, or something faster to race and do tricks.

The Syma is honestly a piece of shit, but thats what makes it good for beginners. Break one and a new one is half the cost of just the frame for a good racer.

If you want to get into FPV freestyle and racing, and youre on a budget, the best first step is either a Taranis and a simulator. Or get one of the RTF whoops like the Inductrix FPV+ that come with something like the Taranis.

[Anonymous No.1442645]

>>1442624

If your goal is to fly photography drones then sure.

But if your more into the freestyle or racing drones then no. Instead get the Simulator and a Radio first.

[Anonymous No.1442771]

>>1442479
It’s the remnant of an old design. The new ones fixed this issue, especially the micro ones.

[Anonymous No.1442782]

>>1442627
>The Syma is honestly a piece of shit,

Except it's not. It flies extremely well, it's nearly indestructible & it comes with a surprisingly good radio compared to the tiny ones that most toy quads come with.

[Anonymous No.1442960]

>>1442782
Nearly indestructible my ass, those things break if you even think about hitting a branch.

[Anonymous No.1443025]

>>1429680
What do I need to make a long range fpv plane? I'm not interested in these quads at all.

[Anonymous No.1443027]

>>1443025

First thing is you need the correct environment.

Like for example you need wide open spaces of the deserts of western america.

[Anonymous No.1443032]

>>1443027
please leave faa kike

[Anonymous No.1443070]

>>1443032

Sorry you dont like the answer but if you want to fly long range you cant do that if you live in the city or a forest.

I know facts hurt but take your bullshit back to /pol/

[Anonymous No.1443087]

>>1443070
>forest
guise the tree will block the radio signals. what will we do. this is impossible to fix.

[Anonymous No.1443094]

>>1443087
If you're going to disobey the laws and general safety suggestions get the fuck out. We would rather not have some retard making the hobby look bad for the rest of us.

[Anonymous No.1443266]

can anyone recommend a powered glider under 25og flying weight? I guess about a 1m wingspan or less usually will be less than 250g

[Anonymous No.1443290]

>>1443266
to answer my own question, here are the only 2 I found so far:

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/hking-ezio-ep-glider-800-pnp.html
it seems fine except for the lack of yaw control. I guess that could be added

http://www.arthobby.com/index.php?page=item&category=30&sub_category=39&item=457
No real complaints here other than they list the flying weight as 325g. Maybe it could be modded to be under 250g

any other ideas?

[Anonymous No.1443966]

>>1443025
Any plane plus a long range control link (FrSky R9, Crossfire, DragonLink, etc.) & either a powerful 5.8GHz VTX (eg 800mW or higher) or maybe a 2.4GHz VTX.

[Anonymous No.1444021]

Well got a heck of a deal on CL, picked up 2 immersion RC drones, goggles and some other quad related stuff.

Finally able to fly FPV, I was flying my alias, I had some fun times with it but it was LOS.

So I'm reconfiguring it to my tastes in flying. I keep reading that the LEDs are configurable but I cant seem to find how to configure them.

Also, if you have cats, how do you keep them from chewing your props?

[Anonymous No.1444069]

>>1444021
By replacing your cat with a dog

[Anonymous No.1444131]

>>1444021
By not being a pussy

[Anonymous No.1444193]

My cat watches me fly my quad around the backyard.

She does not chew on the props because I usually keep it out of reach and she is probably terrified of it.

I have seen her take interest in it and I show it to her but she has not messed with it yet even tho I sometimes leave it places where she could.

Give your kitty some more toys to play with. Peacock feathers are a good cat toy.

[Anonymous No.1444195]

I hang my backup quad in a cabinet on the side of it with this hanger.

[Anonymous No.1444221]

>>1444021
Fly it close enough to the cat that it can reach it with a good jump, long as he aims right you won't have a cat after that.

Then buy a dog because they're blatantly superior.

[Anonymous No.1444338]

>>1443094
Do you drink Monster by any chance?

[Anonymous No.1444500]

>>1444338
Do you drink cum?

[Anonymous No.1444592]

Does anyone here have a vortex 150? I crashed hard and popped the lower mounts off my camera yesterday. The screws are missing as well, I have a feeling they were loose.
I'm looking for a flat bottom tap in the 1mm range if any of you guys know where to get one, I would appreciate it.

Also when you take your props off how do you hold the motors? The motors slip around in my fingers. Something I've never knew about is how hard the nuts on the props can be when I'm taking them off.

[Anonymous No.1444603]

what RF do you guys use to interface with arduino or arduino like? I'm having issues with random signal drops... trying to find something better. I've got about 150 meters with https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XAGRLRG/
which work better than the more expensive crap I bought originally..

[Anonymous No.1444670]

>>1444603
Back in the early days I had a datalink thing called Mavlink for my APM 2.5.
I think it has FrSky telemetry passthrough option now but I stopped using APM and went for F3 and F4 Betaflight controllers.
If it uses the telemetry passthrough it can have almost as far reception as your transmitter. Use a patch antenna for greater range but be careful where you are pointing it.

[Anonymous No.1444797]

>>1444603
You should be able to interface 433/915MHz SiK style radio with Arduino style projects, which will give you ranges measured in kilometres depending upon power/antennas/line of sight/etc.

Another option might be LoRa? I don't have personal experience with that though.

[Anonymous No.1444804]

>>1444797
Yea looking at LoRa few days I think that might be the best bet.

Never heard of SiK but looks pretty similar for price/weight and LoRa would be far easier to interface since many have tutorials on it

[Anonymous No.1444897]

Took my quad to a park today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjpG9TIQP-I