FPV drone stuff

muckyman wrote:

Fucking dog owners should keep the things on leads.

The one from yesterday was an exceptional douchebag. He let the dog loose after he had seen my flying there. I ran for my quad and started telling the owner off. He said the dog was harmless and only 4 months old, saying I should show some consideration. So I got more angry saying "that's exactly it, instead it is you who should show consideration towards me". Dogs are nice animals, but not when a strangers dog goes all berzerk on me or my stuff.

Went out flying with my dad today, we had great fun. Not being alone I could try out the FPV goggles for the first time. It was a very awesome.
It's really like flying yourself. Was funny to see myself from the outside, like a outerbody experience. Most strange was flying around myself. Hearing the sound coming from behind was really confusing while visually being onboard the quad. Need to get onboard sound to fix that. Flying FPV does make the steering a whole lot easier. Was surprised I could still stand normally with the goggles on, without falling or having to sit due to desorientation. No video yet though, still have to make a good cameraholder for the quad. Did find all the parts now and figured out how to make it, only have to mount it onto the quad in such a way it doesn't come off after a crash.

Great idea using that (I guess) roller coaster as a race track.

That's not a rollercoaster, though it does look like it. It is a racetrack specially build for the World Drone Prix.
The track is about 7kilometers long and takes about 5 minutes to complete. There's even a pitstop to switch batteries.

Im not so much into this topic but i found this, hope noone already posted it:



and furthermore an article on a german IT website which doesnt provide a translation so google yourself if you need:
http://www.golem.de/news/arrow-drone-die-renndrohne-im-millenium-falcon-look-1603-119687.html

http://www.arrowdrone.com/

The drone mentioned there is available in two variations,
one is 80 km/h fast, the other up to 150 km/h,
as far was i can see, both are FPV capable or already included

http://www.arrowdrone.com/preorder/
(shipping starts in April 2016)

It seems, its a german company. they started a kickstarter in january but stopped it because there seem to be an investor which directly got them everything to produce and start into business.

Looks interesting imho.

Cheers.
Alex

I had posted another race from the droneprix earlier, but nice to see more people showing interest.

That drone from the kickstarterproject does look cool, nice design. Only that printed plastic frame doesn't look very strong and there don't seem to be spareparts available yet. For the price of a complete set you can get better and maybe even cheaper gear. http://www.banggood.com/Wholesale-Multi-Rotor-Parts-c-2520.html

I still haven't flown my Eachine250 in acro-mode, but feel almost ready to try and start learning it.

That overlay on the monitor looks cool.

muckyman wrote:

That overlay on the monitor looks cool.

It does help to see the stick movement in combination with the flight.

Weird video That drone is fantastic ofcourse, but that video..


I bought a lost model alarm for safer crashing, already lost my quad in the high grass a few times, that's no fun. 
You can stand right on top of the quad and still not see it. This module also has low voltage alarm, which is nice to have.


http://www.banggood.com/Eachine-Lost-Alarm-Buzzer-Module-Supports-PWM-PPM-SBUS-For-RC-Multirotors-p-1039416.html

Received the first of a list of spareparts for my Eachine. Now have a new fpvcamera, and 2 spare ESC's. The cam will be replaced right away, with the old becoming spare.
Also ordered 2 spare arms, some extra DAL5040 props, 4 KingKong motors, and a lipocharger that supports charging lipo's parallel, but that's all still on the way.

Now thinking about maybe not using those motors for spare, but to save them for a miniquad selfbuild.

I found this 4xESC module. Considering to buy it for my miniquad, but not sure. Because it's in a small box, if 1 esc overheats/sparks, the others could get damaged also. And since the esc's have special pins I have to buy spares in case they go off the market. Then again it saves a lot of work, it's very compact, and the esc's are protected. The 25Amp is twice as much then the motors need, so they probably won't get very hot at all.

http://www.mcmracing.com/nl/home/72074-emax-emaescmt25ax4-multirotor-brushless-controller-4in1---4x-25amp-simonk

I would guess they have been well tested for overheating so I wouldn`t worry to much about that and that small compact unit seems perfect for mini-quad building.

Found this sweet little frame, maybe i'll try it, it looks strong. Wouldn't need the powerboard if i use the 4xesc module, but think I'll take the little bit added weight for granted. The 2300kv KingKong motors can carry the 400 gram Eachine with ease. Think with smaller props lift is a bit less, but probably good enough.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__90918__KINGKONG_188_FPV_Racer_Frame_Kit_Black_.html



Also this flightcontroller looks very interesting:

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__89563__OpenPilot_CC3D_Revolution_Revo_32bit_F4_Based_Flight_Controller_w_Integrated_433Mhz_OPLink.html

Quote :

The Open Pilot CC3D Revolution (Revo) is the result of 1000's of hours of R&D work by the open source community, for the benefit of everyone and provides a robust base for commercial, research and hobby projects alike.

The Revo flight controller features state of the art hardware and software, backed by the Open Pilot GCS FC System and boasts position hold and 3D waypoint navigation among its many features. It is a full 10DOF with gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer and barometric pressure sensors.

Features:
• Open source development
• Flexi-IO Port for input/output
• MainPort (Telemetry) serial USART w/adjustable baud rate.
• FlexiPort for telemetry funtions
• 433MHz RF output
• Power Sensor/Sonar Port
• STM32F4 32 bit  CPU
• ARM32 powered digital packet processor
• USB2.0, I2C, SPI, USART, CAN and SIDO communication modules
• 14 Multi-channel timers
• 3-Axis gyro
• 3-Axis accelerometer
• 3-Axis Magnetometer
• Barometric pressure sensor
• PWM/PPM for configuration with Futaba, FrSky, Spektrum (inc satellite) receivers and many others.

That flight controller looks pretty good and just the right size for my 250 frame as the damn APM I bought is gonna be to big I think

It also looks like it will use the ublox gps unit I got with the APM aswell which is cool.

muckyman wrote:

That flight controller looks pretty good and just the right size for my 250 frame as the damn APM I bought is gonna be to big I think

It also looks like it will use the ublox gps unit I got with the APM aswell which is cool.

Can't you send the APM back for refund, or is that too late?


I'm going to use these props on my miniquad, those tri-blades are awesome:

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=99515

What is the antenna for by the way ?

muckyman wrote:

What is the antenna for by the way ?

Good question! Originally I asumed it was for GPS or something like that. But since you asked I looked it up.
That antenna is for the 433Mhz OPLink modem, to send/receive data to a 'Ground Control System'.
Think it is for stuff like doing preplanned flights and it also may provide extended range.

http://opwiki.readthedocs.org/en/latest/user_manual/oplink/overview.html


Useless feature for me, going to do a bit more searching before buying.

Maybe this one : http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__84790__Illuminati_32_Flight_Controller_with_OSD_Cleanflight_Supported_.html

Quote :

Features:
• Combined 32 bit Flight Controller with KV OSD on the one small package
• 32 bit ARM microprocessor for fast speed and fast response
• Flight controller Cleanflight supported
• KV OSD giving real-time and accurate flight data superposed on screen
• Gyro, accelerometer and pressure sensor. Acrobatic, auto-level, heading hold, head-free, altitude hold flight mode
• Up to 8 ch RC input - supports standard receivers (PWM), PPM Sum receiver (FrSky, etc), or Spektrum satellite receivers
• Extra sensor like GPS and compass can be added
• Packaged in a hard case
• Upgrade via USB

Oooh fucking lol. So I finally came to the decision to get a bit more loan and buy the Taranis and some stuff to build a 180 miniquad.
Hobbyking being one of the few stores that had the Taranis in stock and are cheapest at the same time. Earlier today I checked and they still had the Taranis available in stock. Was busy on the website searching and buying parts and finally adding the Taranis to the cart, so I could see how much the total damage would be. Is the damned thing out of stock and on backorder all of a sudden.

Spent half the day yesterday at Hobbyking looking for parts for my miniquad selfbuild. Had it all complete except for the esc's, was planning on buying those at another store. Before finalising the order, at the very last moment I got the idea to have a look at the prebuilds. To my surprise I found an ARF(almost ready to fly) that was exactly what I was planning to build, I only need to add a fpvcamera and receiver. It is even cheaper then when I would have bought loose parts, with better motors then the lowbudget ones I had for my selfbuild. On one side I feel a bit lame for not building the whole quad myself, while I finally had figured out how to build one. But I found this little prebuild quad so nice, I could not resist:

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__95556__Quanum_Outlaw_180_Racing_Drone_ARF_.html


And yes I also bought a Taranis transmitter. Well not yet though.. When I wanted to pay for my order I found I could only pay with creditcard or Paypal. I don't have a cc or Paypal account, so I had to make one first, but it takes a while to get the account activated.