Aye thanks Canner, well hear it is, in all it's half pipe goodness...
Considered 10mm half clamps, decided that just tiny cable ties would be perfect and lighter, so had to then drill 16 more holes to hold em, oh joy...
Looks pretty neat though, but most of all, about 0.5 - 1.0g each and it should protect wires perfectly, and easy to get orf too. Now all I gots to do is stick the props on, get flying my Aurora for some practise, and get flying this little beauty, then smashing it into a wall...
Weather here, at the mo, pishing it down, proper Northern rainy day, 12 degrees too!!!
And I finally got my money back for my cancelled order, then re-ordered the RCam3 as a single item, and the waterproof case as a single item. Order picked already, and at fecking last, on their way!!!
I prefer the RC3 really to the split, as I like the form factor, being able to hold it etc... (I may have said this before, couldn't be arsed checking lol)
Thanks chaps, aye it does look rather spiffing, cheers....
...The cut on the first pipe, even though I took into account the thickness of the blade, made the first half pipe around 4mm instead of 5mm, so it's a tight squeeze for two of the wire covers. The second was perfect though 5mm, this is just getting used to cutting with the blade, in future I know how much to allow for now.... Overall thought a wet tile cutter with a diamond blade is perfect for carbon, super smooth cuts, perfect straight line, if you set up the guide correctly...
I got my first air the other day on my mini Aurora... ...on my desk, during setting up and binding and updating Taranis to 2.2 etc... My thinking was, nah, fuck taking off the props, 2 screws in each, can't be arsed, it'll be safe to just test motors by throttling up a little, see if they spin. So I bound it, setup up switches for Arm, Mode, etc, and forgot to remap the channels. Throttle wasn't throttle of course, it was roll, this stick on the right is of course in the centre, and mapped to throttle, DOH, it was at half throttle!!! When I armed it, it promptly removed itself from my desk made a bee line for the wall, and tried to bury itself down through my floor to the kitchen downstairs!!!! This happened extremely quickly, it was on a mission, two fecked up props is all the damage, all is good, no other damage, phew....
I did successfully hover it later on my floor with the little space I have indoors, and it's spot on as far as I can tell. Still need to change the preset Air-mode on all the time in Acro though, I prefer it on separate switch, sorting later...
I'm sticking with the Betaflight version that's already on the board, it's several versions old, but I want to get a feel for it before I update it. This helps me to see & feel the changes, then I'll play with rates and throttle curves etc....
And just reliased I need some sort of mount for my phone to my radio, preferably with a sun shield, back to BangGood it is...
I wanted to go out today, unfortunately it's been raining and other commitments, so tomorrow is the day. I'm only going to practise hovering, throttle control, moving left right in out etc, maybe loops of 8, till I get my head tuned into flying properly. I will probably be temped to flip it at least once, it's light it aint gonna do much damage when it hits the deck, as long as I remember to throttle down and disarm.
I also got my first of at least 7 parcels from BangGood, mostly bit's n pieces, most importantly my RaunCam3 is coming, that got cancelled of course and re-ordered, so should be next week I imagine, but I did select the faster option during delivery, we'll see...
New shiny things... 1st of several batched parcels.
ISDT SCLinker Cable - for updating my firmware on my charger. LiPo Battery indicator - cheap, maybe give it a go on my Nighthawk, clearer to see when flying. Mini Crowbar - predicted removing props might be a problem, this seems it may do the job, again very cheap. Aurora Antenna protectors - might use, or might go with whips, depends on performance of whips. 3 x Micro Antenna 5.8Ghz - give em a go instead of of mini fragile clover leaf. Naze32 protector - again cheap, maybe use it. 5x Micro Antenna 5.8Ghz - trying different ones, see which is best, again super cheap. 2x Aurora Prop guards - obvious, plus when it launches from my desk again it'll be less damaged.. 3D printed Gimbal stick guards - V useful indeed. 3D printed RunCam3 mount - this looks ace too, got some nice flex in it also. RunCam3 AV control cable - Video out for FPV possibly + control on screen maybe not sure...
I got my first air the other day on my mini Aurora... ...on my desk, during setting up and binding and updating Taranis to 2.2 etc... My thinking was, nah, fuck taking off the props, 2 screws in each, can't be arsed, it'll be safe to just test motors by throttling up a little, see if they spin. So I bound it, setup up switches for Arm, Mode, etc, and forgot to remap the channels. Throttle wasn't throttle of course, it was roll, this stick on the right is of course in the centre, and mapped to throttle, DOH, it was at half throttle!!! When I armed it, it promptly removed itself from my desk made a bee line for the wall, and tried to bury itself down through my floor to the kitchen downstairs!!!! This happened extremely quickly, it was on a mission, two fecked up props is all the damage, all is good, no other damage, phew....
sheiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii i i i i i t
That must have been a scary moment. Hopefully lesson learned. Glad this happened with the smaller quad, and that it survived. Next time don't underestimate the danger of not taking off your props when testing
Quote :
New shiny things... 1st of several batched parcels.
Nice bit of gear. Those micro 5.8g antennas supposed to be pretty good for the short range. Maybe I'll get a few of those too.
That must have been a scary moment. Hopefully lesson learned. Glad this happened with the smaller quad, and that it survived. Next time don't underestimate the danger of not taking off your props when testing
Indeed lol, lesson learnt, and always make sure you change your channel maps too, why I skipped this bit I don't know, actually I do, to eager to test it.
Quote :
New shiny things... Nice bit of gear. Those micro 5.8g antennas supposed to be pretty good for the short range. Maybe I'll get a few of those too.
Aye, indeed ,they should be perfectly suitable for this tiny setup too, won't be going to far out with it. And that flimsy clover is pretty much useless I imagine, as first time it's hits deck upside down it'll perish, will leave on to test limits first, report back difference.
Won't be out today, been fecking raing again, grass will be wet, although it has cleared up now.
However, new parcel time again, RunCam3 came, yippee, box in perfect condition too. Ordered a week later than other bits that still haven't arrived. Ordered it on the 27th, so it took about 8 days in total, awesome, that express postage thing when it's on offer is well worth it.
Charged just now, off out in 2 seconds to buy a micro SD class 10 64Gb etc...
Awesome....
muckyman Admin
Posts : 6470 Join date : 2009-11-14 Age : 59 Location : Hull UK
Yup, tried it out yesterday actually, pretty impressive, not massively so, but excellent quality for the price. Basically well worth the dollars, but not right up there in GoPro Black territory, but with WDR on, it's produced some great footage. Quality little bit of kit though, much smaller than I imagined, works perfectly with Android App, no complaints so far.
Need a better card though as I used a slower one from my phone, just ordered one now, just in case, as it may be dropping the odd frame if it aint fast enough.
So yeh, flew the Aurora on stock settings pretty much, BetaFlight 3.1, only changed Airmode settings on switches, I prefer for now to have it only on for Acro at the moment.
Added my prop guards and cloverleaf guard (glad I did) and didn't break anything, not a single prop, and these original props though very good, are very flimsy, they easily get stress points near the centre when they hit anything.
Practised in my back garden, not much room, but enough. Getting used to hovering, moving around a bit, and throttle control. I've heard of this dreaded FOD, flip of death, and once after I'd disarmed & throttled to zero it powered up the right hand motors aggressively for just a second then stopped. Very odd, will keep an eye on that, luckily I had a fair hold of it at the time.
Need to get to a field soon, I've charged my batteries overnight and wanted to go out today, but I've had a busy day, and it's looking like rain again, arse....
The throttle control can be best described as "super fine", a slight touch sends it upwards, it wants to go places, and quickly.... Also, I guess because it's new and has a linera throttle curve. The stick feels slightly notchy, as in new plastic against new plastic type thing, not perfectly smooth. At some point I want the new Hall Effect Gimbals for mine to, but for now, I'll loosen the clutch plate metal thing I that pushes against the throttle runner, the thing that tensions and tightens the control, also add some lube to it, I'll so that first acutally. It should be perfectly smooth travel, but it just isn't at the mo.
Also I realise fine controlled flying with this tiny thing will need finer control than a larger heavier craft like my 250.
I will play with expo too on throttle, but first get the hardware correct, and probably add a little expo as well TBH.
Also I bought some Gaoneng batteries, rated same 450mah 80c, but on first feel of both batteries I reckon the stock ones have a more realistic C rating, as they felt like they had more punch, the throttle had to be higher for the Gaoneng ones to hover. I'm tempted to get a slightly higher rated 500mah battery, but not sure which to get now as the stock ones seem quite good, early days yet though. So I'll just get 4 of the originals for now, see how that goes..
Canner, which tiny batteries do you use, I may have asked this before, apo...
All in all though, great, addictive, over far far too quickly, and now I also relise after things ended so quickly, why you need lots of batteries...
muckyman Admin
Posts : 6470 Join date : 2009-11-14 Age : 59 Location : Hull UK
Canner, which tiny batteries do you use, I may have asked this before, apo...
At the time I bought my microquad, there weren't many batteries for them yet, since I had one of the first brushless microquads. Soon more and powerful batteries came available, but it took a few weeks. These were the smallest cheapest 3s they had, I replaced the XT60's with XT30's. You'll notice it is rated only 45c, but because it is 3s it still is superfast, also I think stronger 3s might be too much.
Cheers, yeh I think 3s would be too much for these motors, I may try 3s on them later in it's life but not yet, or maybe when I get those more capable 3s motors.
Ah yes, the good old Zops, will look out for them too, cheers. I reckon I'm gonna get 4 more originals first, on Monday, perhaps, 2 originals, and two Zops if they do 450-500 80c ish 2s ones...
A small note on the notchy-ness of the Taranis, I imagine this applies to any others that have the standard Gimbals in their Transmitters.
I added a small amount of CarLube LM2 lithium grease via a cotton bud to the plastic clutch track that thouches the metal screw down clutch... It's now perfect, not a single tiny jump can be felt, perfectly smooth transistion not matter how small the movement. I only applied a tiny swipe across the top of the plastic after lossening off the metal clutch... Ace-ness... No need to do it on the Pitch and Roll stick as it's sprung this helps a lot, would do no harm though and I'll test that later actually to be sure.
Also As I'm just about to go out in the next hour or so for my first field flight (Had no chance yesterday) I adjusted some BetaFlight settings for my Aurora... ...including the darn Voltage Scale which I missed last time, most useful adjustment, now it reads correctly. I adjusted it for future reference to 113, so it now reads the same voltage as my checker, this adjustment takes into account on-board bits n pieces that sap a tiny amount of voltage while it's connected with no motors spinning to BF. Now it can correctly report and use that voltage value.
Will try to film, maybe tricky as I might just have to sit the RC3 on the ground while I fly, I need some kind of head mounted thing to show LOS flying.
Laters, hopefully it'll come back in one piece, but most likely with a few broken props and hopefully no broken arms, I have the Firer frame for now just in case, must also get some 2.5mm bottom plates...
Thanks Canner, I'm aware of the notched clutch but that's not the one I am using, that one is backed off all the way.
I should have made that clear, but yeh I use the smooth clutch, the "notchy-ness" is far finer than the actual notchy one at least it was when it was dry.... It's just dry plastic against dry metal, when I had it as tight as I felt was correct, which wasn't too tight, it jumped when making fine movements. Anyway, it's spot on now thanks man...
Also, first flight went well~ish, it was surprisingly terrifying lol. Even though any potential damage would be minimal, I think my concentration levels were soooo high trying to keep orientation in my head whilst turning + throttle etc... that it just felt like hard work lol. Good fun though I must say, and I guess fairly successful. Only hovered about, throttle control, left right up down, little turning..
I have taken some video with the Runcam3 too, so I'll work out getting max settings uploading to YouTube be that 2k or 4k so 1080p shows in best possible, I'll figure it out later. I'll re-watch the Bard guide on that too.
All in all, an ok first flight, I expected more, I wanna do stunts, but it's hard work learning to fly, harder than I thought too, but at least nothing catastrophic happened. Those 3 packs I have are no where near enough, although I did get 5mins + out of each as I wasn't doing anything too stressful...