Papa's Quad Build(s).

Viddy 2, comment later...

Finally some videos. Looks to be hovering okay. Saw you try a turn and crash, nothing to be ashamed about, I would have done the same, even after flying a year now. LOS in acromode is very difficult, maybe try with accelerometer on for a while. You can tune the autolevel less tight bit by bit, until your flying almost acro mode, then switch to full acro.

Those propguards seem to do the job pretty well, maybe should get some for myself.

Pretty good for first time flying m8y,shame there was no dogs to practise chasing and
no big whopping punchouts ya chicken .

What does the taranis feel like use,has that new plastic notchyness gone yet ?

CANNER wrote:

Finally some videos. Looks to be hovering okay. Saw you try a turn and crash, nothing to be ashamed about, I would have done the same, even after flying a year now. LOS in acromode is very difficult, maybe try with accelerometer on for a while. You can tune the autolevel less tight bit by bit, until your flying almost acro mode, then switch to full acro.

Those propguards seem to do the job pretty well, maybe should get some for myself.

Finally a flight and yes finally some videos hehe...

Aye it's hovering really well indeed, very agile little fella, behind me were some trees, this being my first flight and hiding in the shade I wanted to take it very easy lol.
And yes indeed, first attempt at turn, head fuck, orientation gone momentarily and it hits the deck hehehe, as I predicted it would, this will come with practice I'm sure.
I realise this would be easier in FPV, but I'm gonna continue to practise like this for a while in Horizon and Angle mode, but gonna dive into Acro as soon as possible so I don't pick up an bad baked in habbits.

Did you notice in the 2nd video I landed perfectly on the landing pad hehe, chuffed with that lol?

BTW, those prop-guards are essential, those few light crashed I had would most certainly have broke or caused stress damage on the props, life savers, cheap too....

muckyman wrote:

Pretty good for first time flying m8y,shame there was no dogs to practise chasing and
no big whopping punchouts ya chicken .

What does the taranis feel like use,has that new plastic notchyness gone yet ?

Ta dude, the dogs would most likely be chasing me at this stage, it took all my concentration to keep it airborne haha...

I know, I wanted to do some puch-outs, did some little ones, but not ready yet hehe, it's so freakin quick!!!

Taranis is now spot on, smooth clutch plate with added thin smear of grease, it feels perfect. I can achieve super fine movement with it now... I tightened the clutch all the way down too, with the grease it's just got a heavy enough feel to it without being too loose. Love it...

Also, in the first video after it ditched quite heavily and after I picked it up, at about 3:30, the props suddenly span up, I've had this once before too, this is rather odd behaviour and will keep an eye on  it. Not a single bit of damage though in the crash, not a single stress mark at all on props, guards are great.

There's a known issue that no one can quite solve properly on these little Eachine's called the Flip Of Death, FOD, when it suddenly powers the right hand motors, usually in the air though and flips downwards until it hits the deck. There are many theories about brown outs, ESC de-sync etc etc, not no actually solution yet. I'm on page 50odd of a 70od page thread on the A100, so far most promising seems to be removing vibration from motors with motor dampening.
Mine happened in my hand, as I'm new to this I put this down to not dis-arming and the PID loop/FC getting confused as I can't quite remember if I was disarmed at this point. Air mode could possibly have been on, I have it active in Acro and Horizon mode only. I was flying mostly in angle/safe self levelling mode, but I could have been in Horizon, not sure.

Also noticed that at about 75% throttle the motors vibrate a lot this has been noticed by others on RCForums too. They are only cheap and this doesn't seem to affect the flight too much, but perhaps anti-vibration pads will help avoid FOD (which hasn't happened to me in the air yet), and perhaps I'll have em apart, check em, oil them with a tiny drop of oil and take it from there. New motors in future possibly, but if it doesn't affect flight too much then feck it.

Mods, wanna remove that clover leaf and protector, it sticks out too much and the clover protection just adds more weight. Will also get a tough bottom plate ordered as they are now in stock, I have the firer110 frame too, so possible tinkering to be done.

Great fun, terrifying too in a weird way, but love it.

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Also, in the first video after it ditched quite heavily and after I picked it up, at about 3:30, the props suddenly span up, I've had this once before too, this is rather odd behaviour and will keep an eye on  it. Not a single bit of damage though in the crash, not a single stress mark at all on props, guards are great.

Think you forgot to disarm with airmode enabled, so then when you move the quad it tries to correct and the motors spin up.

Looks like I must get those propguards, ruined lot of props with simple crashes.

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There's a known issue that no one can quite solve properly on these little Eachine's called the Flip Of Death, FOD, when it suddenly powers the right hand motors, usually in the air though and flips downwards until it hits the deck.

I've had this a couple of times. Had the idea it might happen because the props are quite weak. As if at some point the vibration gets exaggerated by the props that start to wobble, and then the flip happens.

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shame there was no dogs to practise chasing

Had a nasty dog encounter again today. Really sucks when your sitting behind goggles and get jumped by some fucking dogs barking like crazy. Was well pissed and angry at the owner, fucking dumb bitch. She had big 4 dogs, all of them walking off leash, and she could hardly control them, plus it is not even allowed to walk dogs in that park without a leash.

CANNER wrote:

Think you forgot to disarm with airmode enabled, so then when you move the quad it tries to correct and the motors spin up.

Yeh that's entirely possible mate, air mode is no good on bench or in hand.

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Looks like I must get those propguards, ruined lot of props with simple crashes.

Indeed, get some, minimal weight addition, worth every penny.

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I've had this a couple of times. Had the idea it might happen because the props are quite weak. As if at some point the vibration gets exaggerated by the props that start to wobble, and then the flip happens.

I've read all 75ish pages of the Aurora thread on RCGroups now, and this does seem to be the possible issue, vibration. I can see this happening knowing how weak those props are, I've also got some 2035 5 bladers from the Eachine lizard, going on a recommendation from a YouTuber too. The originals can't be beaten easily for performance though so I'll tackle the vibration initially with two pieces of electrical tape or small silicone washers, then get some anti-vibro pads when BangGood finally send the last of my now 3 week old order!

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Had a nasty dog encounter again today. Really sucks when your sitting behind goggles and get jumped by some fucking dogs barking like crazy. Was well pissed and angry at the owner, fucking dumb bitch. She had big 4 dogs, all of them walking off leash, and she could hardly control them, plus it is not even allowed to walk dogs in that park without a leash.

Beaaatch!

Aurora Update #1

Added a whip antenna, don't like that clover at all, maybe better reception but I'll stick with this whip for now, see how it goes.
Desperate need of some helping hands thingies, rubber band around pliers will do for now...



Strung up the RC signal antenna with cable tie and shrink wrap, that'll do nicely...



That damn camera mounted with sticky tape is useless too, it pulls to one side because the foam tape doesn't hold it on that side. Rubber band jobbie for this too when I find some small black ones spare.

I left the antenna protectors on too, not too much extra weight, plus I rather like em and it protects the whip from bending near the base. Also the battery on bottom is just fine for this little sexy thing, it's got a big arse, but I'd rather that at £5 took the bashes than the quad itself for now.

Does that long antenna not affect the pids, or stability in general?

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That damn camera mounted with sticky tape is useless too, it pulls to one side because the foam tape doesn't hold it on that side.

Mine came loose also, fixed it with a small piece of tiewrap. Will post a piccie tomorrow how.

Just a thought,you could turn down the power for flying indoors,i`m going to
do this to mine even for outdoors so I have like a nooby beginners mode for me
and anyone else to get used to flying the quad.

Indeed, I was going to play around with that as I've read about it, but simply forgot all about it.

I've read and hopefully took in soo much stuff though, that there's loads I've simply not touched on yet, so thanks for the reminder mate.

I will have a play with that, setting duel rates is a fine idea too, even if you don't use it much, it's very good to know and have a play around with what the Taranis can do...

I do wanna set a throttle curve too, even it's I have full power, mine is a linear line at the moment, I left everything stock, so I could appreciate the changes when I made em.

Will play around with that today I think, as I was going to do some more practising, but it's a touch windy at the mo, arse! My first flight was windy too, you can hear it on the mic and was battling to much trying to counteract I did get much chance at actually learning to fly... It's like trying to fly a feather, well almost certainly when learning to fly Once competent I can tell this will be fine in the wind though.

Awesome, thanks for that, reduced power, change throttle curve - play time.

Finally my RunCam3 waterproof cover came today, for when I use it for other stuff, heat issue must be allowed for of course as it's designed to be used for quads, not running for too long etc. I order this extact same time as RunCam3, using that fast postage, the Runcam came in one week, this took 2.5weeks, go figure!

Still waiting for 2 parcels, order on 20th June, hrmph, including a tripod that I could wrap around my arm when filming, damn Seychelles post.

Cheers mate.

CANNER wrote:

Does that long antenna not affect the pids, or stability in general?

Possibly...
I've not actually changed the RC antenna, it was just wrapped through frame and pulled underneath. It shouldn't affect stability I reckon, quad will compensate. It's a Zip-tie, and feels fairly solid, if there is some wobble I'll reduce it down a little.

A small note on changing size of antenna, as I've only just learnt this and in case anyone elese is unsure:
The active transmitting or receiving part of an antenna is the very top bit, around 31mm of silver looking wire on the RC comms one. The length of this is tuned to the frequency, it's 31mm for 2.4Ghz. The rest of the wire below this is coax shielded and this part can be shortened to whatever is desired. This applies to any type of antenna, also explains why extensions don't affect performance, as long as active part at the end is not shortened.
Will keep my eye on this, thanks man, might actually reduce it by a little just in case to reduce any possible oscillations.
N1

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Mine came loose also, fixed it with a small piece of tiewrap. Will post a piccie tomorrow how.

Cheers, is tiewrap the same as what I call Zip-ties? We may have already done the same thing....

As you can see I used a small piece of tiewrap which is stuck like a spring between the lens and mount.
It does come loose in hard crashes but normally works fine. And yes tiewrap is the same as a ziptie

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A small note on changing size of antenna, as I've only just learnt this and in case anyone elese is unsure:
The active transmitting or receiving part of an antenna is the very top bit, around 31mm of silver looking wire on the RC comms one. The length of this is tuned to the frequency, it's 31mm for 2.4Ghz.

Ah lol I did not know this, I assumed the whole cable would function as antenna. Chopped a small piece off one of the antenna wires in a crash once, then simply cut the other side to size with some pliers, about 2cm left now each side.

Going to order new ones for replacement asap. Not noticed much difference though, but maybe that's because I only fly short distances.

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is tiewrap the same as what I call Zip-ties?

Yeah it is,i`ve always called `em tiewraps when working in garages,
workshops etc.Mrs mucky calls them cable ties and I`ve started doing that now lol!...spending to much time with her.

Bloody rain!!!

I have a plan whilst it's shitty weather, it's been raining for days and I wanna get out and fly. Gonna start scouting around at some point for locations too at some point, need to learn to fly first, fecking rain...

In the mean time, I bought some diamond files, sandpaper, wide masking tape, razor blades, superglue and red paint....
...For my bigger 250 quad, I'm gonna bevel the edges of most pieces of it, mainly the arms, so it not only looks better but doesn't cause any issues with battery straps being ripped or wires sliced when something pings out etc...Also gonna stiffen up the ends of the arms with Super Glue around the tips to give it strength, I've seen this done a few times, it's great for stopping de-lamination when the arms (mostly) get bashed. I've got 3 spare arms to test this on first, but it should be easy enough.

Those are the practical things I'm gonna do first...

Then I'm gonna paint all the edges red, might use my pen painter on this one, future one I'm gonna spray it and do a proper job, this is more for looks but I do like that edge painted look, a bit pointless, but I like it, and my pride and joy will look awesome when it goes crashing into a wall at some point, hehehe.

PapaLazarou wrote:

Bloody rain!!!

I have a plan whilst it's shitty weather, it's been raining for days and I wanna get out and fly. Gonna start scouting around at some point for locations too at some point, need to learn to fly first, fecking rain...

The shitty weather can be very frustrating. Sometimes it is rain, other times the wind, or when the air is so humid the grass stays wet all day. It can be too cold also, when your fingers get numb and stiff it is hard to control the sticks.

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In the mean time, I bought some diamond files, sandpaper, wide masking tape, razor blades, superglue and red paint....
...For my bigger 250 quad, I'm gonna bevel the edges of most pieces of it, mainly the arms, so it not only looks better but doesn't cause any issues with battery straps being ripped or wires sliced when something pings out etc...Also gonna stiffen up the ends of the arms with Super Glue around the tips to give it strength, I've seen this done a few times, it's great for stopping de-lamination when the arms (mostly) get bashed. I've got 3 spare arms to test this on first, but it should be easy enough.

Those are the practical things I'm gonna do first...

Then I'm gonna paint all the edges red, might use my pen painter on this one, future one I'm gonna spray it and do a proper job, this is more for looks but I do like that edge painted look, a bit pointless, but I like it, and my pride and joy will look awesome when it goes crashing into a wall at some point, hehehe.

Custom paintjob is a nice idea.

When your flying over grass you don't need to glue the arms ends, the soft grass prevents damage to the carbonfiber in a crash.

Actually it is a good tip to find a grass field to learn to fly. Many times after a crash I was happy to only have to remove the grass from my quad.

I wil initially be flying over soft grass, hopefully not always, the risks will come I'm sure. I aim to fly much better, or at least hope I can, and do some tricksy flying around stuff. It will get bashed about eventually and probably break many bits, but while it's like this weather wise, time to fiddle...

The Super Glue idea adds no weight nothing but strength, no harm in being cautious, especially since I'm so raw at it yet, so no biggy...

Going to also probably experiment with silicone conformal coat too, thin brush on electronics, as I want to land on wet grass n stuff and not bother about it too much. That's a UK company too, only £7 a bottle + postage....

This is my first 250, and it's my test bed for future things, I've pimped it up a little before I've even flown it, but no harm done. I'll learn my lessons soon I'm sure and perhaps I'll think why did I bother, but some things are practical, mostly all of it is downtime practise really...

I really enjoy the building and tinkering side of things.

And I will most certainly be initially flying on grass, definitely until I get my head around Acro, which I intend to throw myself into tomorrow as the weathers picking up a little over next few days.

All good fun...

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Going to also probably experiment with silicone conformal coat too, thin brush on electronics, as I want to land on wet grass n stuff and not bother about it too much. That's a UK company too, only £7 a bottle + postage....

This is a very good idea, should try this also. Have had some troubles with wet grass causing minor shorts, no real damage fortunately.

Till now I have not bothered yet, cause a bit scared to buy the wrong stuff and destroy the electrics. Only thing that seems a bit tricky is waterproofing the motors.

Yeh man, tis good stuff, and this is the stuff...

Actually, they're from Canada, are you over in Canada Canner, I always thought you were, the name n all....
If so, then you should be able to get it as cheap as possible...

I've seen this very bottle used on various vids, seems like the stuff to use....
It seems to me to be a no brainer, it's THE stuff to use alrighty...

Re:Motors, yeh, not sure mate, it could proably be possible, but using the spray version, worth testing on some old motors first, or check if someone's done it yet.

From here in the UK...
https://www.techsil.co.uk/mg-chemicals-422b-conformal-coating

and the link to MG Chemicals site in Canada...
http://www.mgchemicals.com/products/conformal-coatings/silicone-conformal-coating-422b

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From here in the UK...
https://www.techsil.co.uk/mg-chemicals-422b-conformal-coating

Thanks, since it is so cheap I might as well buy it in the UK, can't even find a shop here in the Netherlands that sells it.

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Re:Motors, yeh, not sure mate, it could proably be possible, but using the spray version, worth testing on some old motors first, or check if someone's done it yet.

On youtube I've seen people submerge there motors in a bowl of coating, just not sure how and if this will affect performance.

I've also heard of Corosion-X, I'm sure there are other similar products too, thing with this stuff thought is it leaves a bit of a mess, plus I don't know if it's as permanent as Conformal Coating, especially if care is taken to apply it...

This is an interesting video about it, this chap does his boats too and he's not keen on Conformal, but I reckon if you cover it properly and completely, a silicone coating would be better, in my humble and untested opinion.

Having said that it's interesting stuff, and easy to apply, needs to be looked into, maybe try both...

I went out again today, second attempt to break the sound barrier.  

Bit more confident than last time, still very scary, and as yet can't get my head around turning in Line Of Sight properly, but great fun...

Tested Acro mode and did some better punch-outs for you Mucky, hehe..
I can only handle Horizon and Angle for now in LOS, it's a tricky little fella.


Now some flips, kinda got this quite easily fortunately, playing and writing games helps a lot, my throttle is ok too, stopping it hitting the deck ok. Apart from when I loose orientation thing, again , I need FPV I think....
I also flipped it in Acro mode, pretty chuffed with that, although it did hit the deck....


Stand by for limping on 3 arms mode, yes I broke it... eventually...

So, last couple of short ones, testing acro mode again, a little too abitous, flipped it, it dived hard~ish into ground, although I thought no harm would be done as it wasn't that hard a dive, it broke an arm...



It's still alive though, flies, ok, it's limping a bit, but it flies!!!
I love these things.


They didn't have any spare 2.5mm frames when I bought the Aurora, so I bought a spare Firer110 instead, time to do some transplanting. In the mean time I've just ordered a couple of Aurora 100 frames, they should be here for Christmas.

I'll hold off the videos for a while now, I don't want to post every single one I fly, I'll update when I get a bit better, watch out Canner, here I come...
Although maybe not yet, FPV first...

Leads me onto a question Canner, did you fly much LOS or go pretty much straight to FPV?