What did the postman bring today?

[ched]

A little 2S 1200kv Diatone Tina Whoop and a Happymodel ELRS EP1 RX 

Have the ELRS ES24TX Slim Pro TX Module for X-lite S, ELRS EP2 2.4GHz Receiver for Mob6, and batteries for Mob6, Emax freestyle, and Tina Whoop, and some spare props all arriving Friday.

Unfortunately not 'allowed' to play till Christmas but should keep my busy for a few hrs 

Looking forward to Christmas now 

[badger1]

nice   

I'll be interested to see how you get on with ELRS.

I think I'll stick some xfire nano rx's on my xmas list - thanks for the idea   

[ched]

I'll be interested to see how you get on with ELRS.

Will do, but it won't be till Christmas I'm afraid.
From what I understand things have moved on since some of the early elrs vids. I will probably only testing at quite a short range for a while but the Frsky D8 spi receiver on the mob6 used to regularly drop around a certain tree in the garden only about 30ft away!!!!

I will try and do a sort of write up on setting it up.

[badger1]

rather surprisingly, given it being a Sunday, a shiny new Mobula6 arrived in the post today. 

I eventually found an FrSky one at Flying Tech - I had wavered about getting an ELRS one as places had stock of these, but I decided that since I already have Xfire I didn't really want to be plugging & unplugging modules.

[Bad Raven]

Great, really hope you enjoy it.

As already said, I have had no issues with my two (one 19000kv the other 25000). Both bog standard.

They have both been excellent on video and radio reception through three brick walls while in my front room and flying all way down my 85 foot rear garden and behind a thick laurel bush and other greenery. I even used to dive through some aluminium staging (ex-greenhouse) at the far end as well.

Best bang for buck of any RTF model I have ever owned.   

[badger1]

still trying to bind the bloody thing 

[Bad Raven]

What have you tried so far?

Going further away? 

[Bad Raven]

Worldwide or LBT firmware?  Mine are worldwide.

[badger1]

hmm, annoyingly it says LBT on the box - I assumed these were all FCC.

even so, I can't get it to bind from my TX16S on EU.   

[badger1]

ok, figured it out, kind of.  I was able to change the Rx type from FRSKY_X_LBT to FRSKY_X in BF:



& I was able to bind it right away from my TX16S in FCC mode.  still not sure why I couldn't bind before making the change using LBT on the TX16S though

the quad is on BF 4.2, interestingly.  I got the fix from here:

https://www.currykitten.co.uk/using-spi-receivers-with-an-lbt-eu-radio/

which would suggest that LBT wouldn't have been available on SPI Rx's prior to BF 4.x.

[badger1]

I'm having fun with the Mob6 - I could do with a bigger flat though.  I can fly around in it no problem, it would just be nice if there was a bit more of it.   

I just joined a new club for 2022 & they do indoor stuff over the winter so I will have to take it for an outing at a bigger venue soon.

[Bad Raven]

Postman (and my "favourite" sour faced grumpy My Hermes guy) have not been bringing me much, since virtually all the orders I had in Banggood Processing have rolled through to refund cut off dates due no stock in.

Tried to buy a GNB 1000mAh 4S to test on the Babyhawk, no stock in UK, bought a 1100mAh instead. Both would push it over 250g but that does not matter due where I fly and registered anyway.  The sub 250g max of 850mAh 4S was fine, but was trying to get longer duration.

This has worked, and the extra weight has not affected the punch available.

[Bad Raven]

I try to buy from HobbyRC as far as possible, but also have through scattered availability bought from Drone Authority, Droneislife, and UnmannedTechShop.

The main issue now for me is the "only part of what I want is available from any one place" issue, and that makes ordering expensive if adding several postages. BUT, if you wait for more complete stocking, the first available goes OOS before the second or third come in.   

[Bad Raven]

No posts here since JANUARY!! That maybe shows how difficult its become to get anything.

I finally made the decision to try a 6S quad, and when the GEPRC Mk5 5" was being reviewed so highly (and I really like my Mk4 6") I found that there was a combination TECHNICALLY available with the combination I desired, DJI HD (Air Unit for a change from the Vista), 6S and ELRS already fitted.

Only Banggood had stock as far as I could see, and that was dropping like a stone, so I ordered.

Then came the struggle to find the right capacity 6S in stock, and I was lucky enough to find some 1350mAh in HobbyRC, though maybe 1500mAh might not have been too heavy IF they'd have had stock.

The batteries arrived in 24 Hrs as usual, and then the usual tracking fun from Banggood, receiving an "exception" delay notice where the first and most likely reason they give for it was that it was rejected by addressee.............  I wish!!

Anyway, a few hours later it had apparantly left Hong Kong, routing via United Arab Emirates, Germany, and from there through UK so fast the next thing I had was UPS's delivery note for today.

Ordered 31/3, delivered 3/5.

It arrived at 13:15, and was working by 14:30. The bulk of that was waiting for the LUA to run on the Transmitter to achieve bind, no issues, has worked first time on the three models so far set up, but it is slow.

Flown in garden, as can't get to field today. Seems OK in that limited space.

[badger1]

I haven't really bought anything this year - I have enough stuff waiting to be built already tbh.  I think I can probably last the 2022 flying season without needing anything new - except maybe batteries - barring any major crashes (touch wood).

the current lockdown in Shanghai (I think) seems to be causing (another) logjam to shipping to & from China without even needing a large boat stuck in a canal this time. 

[Bad Raven]

Yet another courier rings my doorbell 15 mins ago, operating from a private car.  They seem to change by the hour. 

A exceedingly well packaged/protected box containing a DIATONE Roma F4 4" Freestyle Frame. They could have dropped that from an overflying 747 and it would have survived!  Bought directly from their own website, so nicely done, DIATONE.

External to the box added were an extra battery strap (two included) and a Keyring.  (The GPRC Mk5 came with a keyring, too, is this a postage/tax dodge, like European suppliers including a packet of sweets?? 

MY GOODNESS they have improved their game since the "ET" and silver "Hurricane" frames I bought years ago!  The quality of the carbon is STUNNING, all matt finished, screw holes recessed, part milled for lightness, edges perfecly smooth chamfered, and not a making or layup mark anywhere.

Seems almost a shame I'm putting redundant 250 components onto it!    

[Bad Raven]

Technically this should I suppose be in the "did you fly today?", but hey..........

I transferred over all the 250's electronics into the Roma F4 4" frame (stretch X) not even being forced to alter the wiring, apart from the camera which did not have the same plug. (BTW, They do a L4 frame for long range cruising, which is very differently shaped)

The old camera was a 1000 TVL Eachine CCD, and while it always gave a very good image, it didn't fit the frame arrangement (or would have needed a lot of effort more like!  ), so I swapped in a decent Foxeer 19mm that had come off a quad converted to a Vista. The camera mounting is made up from resiliant inserts push fitting into the metal cage front end. And as an example of their quality of care, they had provided seperately for 19mm and 20mm fitting.

Then to props - I'd drawn a blank on 4" props in colours I wanted (mainly to avoid bright props in view) that also avoided postage pain. So, for now I have I made a cutting jig and looking through my oversized collection of 5", decided the EMax Avan Flow had tips that were doing not a lot, and had very high pitch at the root, and as this poor little 4" frame was getting race 2205 motors, it would NEED pitch since it wasn't getting diameter.  Trimmed a pair of red for the rear, smoke grey for the front, and checked balance was good.

And it all works, flew the garden in the very blustery 15-25mph.

Nice clean video, no jello in bright sun, good transfer into shade, smooth flying.  Weighs 313g plus a 1500mAh 4S at 177g

Good set of parts, excellent fit, all screws labelled, some really nice finishes, like the black allan screws with 45 degree polished bevels, clip on side shields for the FC, etc.  Its one of the few 4" that will take 30.5 x 30.5 which is what was in the 250.

Full test flight next week now.

[ched]

Sounds great, any picys?

[Bad Raven]

No Pics, might if it flies OK! 

The frame as sold BNF has:-

MAMBA TOKA 2203.5 2200 KV for 6S

MAMBA  TOKA 2203.5  3300 KV for 4S


I have RacerStar 2205 2450kV on it........     

 

[Bad Raven]

On Friday I did a HobbyRC order, for delivery Monday, DPD.

On the last TWO times I have done this they delivered or tried to deliver on Saturday (usually extra cost) and without warning.

This time I deliberately went to their website and altered the delivery to collect from local Sainsburys, covering both Saturday and if I was out on Monday.

This morning the DPD app showed it as delivery to Sainsburys, and on the mobile app, delivery was shown as Monday, but the website was showing TUESDAY!!

At 17:10 today Monday a DPD man delivered it to HOME.

The label to revise the delivery to Sainsbury's was not stuck fully over the home delivery one, leaving the original address visible, though the original barcode was covered.

It was the original address which was acted on by the Depot and driver.

He took the normal doorstep picture, etc. and I expected the usual "delivered" mail minutes after.

At 17:25 I received the taxt, but asking me to go collect from Sainsburys!

They are fun sometimes, aren't they!

[ched]

Couriers are a law to themselves.
I had a pump fail on Friday evening that was required to work the following week! Couldn't find one over the weekend as it's quite specialist - 150psi at 10 litres a min.
I placed an order with a company last Monday at 11am after I called to check stock, they said they should be able to dispatch that day, so should have arrived Tuesday. They failed to dispatch, the courier collected on Tuesday on over night, then they put it on 'the wrong van'. So finally it arrived on Thursday!!
Fortunately I had a backup system so could work last week but it's not nice when things just don't happen when they should and no one bats an eyelid or apologises for mistakes.

[Bad Raven]

DPD have been about the best, but at times thats not saying much.

Since COVID, round here is awash with courier vans, and even the Royal Snail has had to reach the last century with things like delivery notification and taking doorstep pictures. Every day sees the walking Postman, and at least two mail vans and a ParcelFarce. Then add the food vans..........

Not at all unusual to have three DIFFERING DPD vans in the road during one day. REALLY don't understand how THAT works. Also, because in my road most residents are now so lazy they cannot even be bothered to put their cars on their own deserted driveways, and most own more cars per household than there are drivers (WTF!), the kerbsides are full. We do use ours, so any van or lorry in the road uses our bit of "parking" and blocks both our drop kerbs.

Anyway, to point, what came was three 1350mAh 3S. I have had a clear out of old packs to salt water baths as pretty much all that size dated from 2016/2017 and were getting warm during even 1S charge, though oddly still delivered power OK for a decent time without overheating.

What also came was an iFlight Alpha 75 HD, a DJI fitted quad I have wanted for some time but has been back order everywhere in UK.  Don't know what to expect here, a 75 is very small for the weight of the Vista unit, especially as this one is not stripped of heatsinks/casing.

The firmware is still 06, so I breath a sigh of relief its not 15, and don't update it!

I wanted to able to use DJI round my garden circuit, and that meant small and ducted. The unknown is how noisy it'll be carrying more weight than a 75 normally would. The motors are not that "coggy" so there's a chance it'll be decently quiet. 

This one is sans Rx other than DJI (the only buy option available to me) so I have to add one, which means stripping it down, so I have to find a time slot to do that. 

iFlight do go that extra mile, all the canopy and board fixings are Allan headed, not cross, and even the motor spares come with breakable thread lock already added, but NOT on the ones for the plastic canopy. SOMEBODY thinks! 

They have though not yet got a diagram of the FC board on their website. The 85 has, but I believe that has a different FC. I only hope the tiny AIO has readable screen print if I have to go there!! 

The possibly easiest path is to take the SBus wiring off the Vista and use that, which would mean I would not have to take the stack apart, only the canopy/camera off. Might have to go FrSky for now if I cannot sort ELRS into SBus, but range is no issue.

Yet again there's not a breath of wind here, but its likely to be raging by the time our field planning permission allows, as it did yesterday. Wife was volunteering at a NTrust site 15 miles away yesterday, not a breath of wind all day.  Our site?  18-30mph! 

[ched]

It will be interesting to see how you get on with the 75. I have an old Mobula 7 and I hate it, no idea what it is about it, it just won't play nicely. Tried all sorts of BF versions, PIDs, different rx but just can't get it to behave. It's not really anything specific just not nice. Mobula 6 is great, I love flying that and have other small ish (2.5" and 3") quads that are all fine but Mobula7 just 

Good luck getting the rx in there. As for range as it's going to be proper rx without spi I can't see you having any issues even with FrSky. Only range issues I have is Mob6 round the garden and when close to the road (trees/hedge in way) on occasions I get rx loss but I think that could be cars and bluetooth. I must get round to adding the elrs rx to the mob6. Been way too busy with work though.

[Bad Raven]

I had a Mobula 7 for nearly a week, it went back and I was refunded.

Had about an hour on the Alpha 75 so far. DJI video part is sorted inc Betaflight OSD into it, but the R-XSR I have fitted refuses to respond though bound to Tx OK.

Flying today. Buddies 3" again gave issues, he solved the Video loss, now its intermittantly dropping the Rx connection. Couple of weeks back it was that in reverse.

I had the GEPRC Mk5 ELRS stop arming on a third flight, back here in lower light found it had dropped the Rx bind. Seems to work again now.  Might have been me as I switched the Tx off and left the quad on (distacted by low flying aircraft).

[Bad Raven]

Bought four more JJRC H36 for the school.

UK Ebay, stated as from UK Stock, stated more than 10 in stock, stated London location.

They now state there is "no shipping available"..........

To my SE London location!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!             

Been a quiet week, only had four deliveries, three from EBay...............

They want to refund......................  The wording is typically Chinglish.

They don't know me, do they........... no prisoners...............   

They are "universalegoods", suggest you avoid..............   

[Bad Raven]

Banggood

In April I bought two E010 quads, £13.19 each, including three batteries each.

Yesterday, with purchase being delayed by them being out of stock at the moment (again), the price was £40.27 each with only one battery.

More than THREE times more................

And the four on EBAY unable to be sent to me supposedly "London stock to London address" because the package would be "oversize"? I have stated they should honour their sales contract and that they send to me seperately IF they insist that the package would be too large (which it is not!!).

SO, they then ask for more shipping money!

[ched]

Shocking!

[Bad Raven]

MORE Batteries.................   

Back in the dark and thankfully now distant days of Perkins EnErG LiPo's, there was often a marked difference in external size between batches of supposedly the same battery. In recent years though, sizes have got very similar and uniform.

Also they now normally have predictable size differences across a capacity range.

Not quite the same thing, but my normal purchase of GEONENG (GNB) 1800mAh 4S were OOS, so I bought 1700 mAh 4S instead.




Now THAT is quite different sizing for only 100mAh capacity difference, smaller in every dimension, and no less than 66g lighter!! (211/145)

The 1700's are even significantly smaller than their 1550mAh 4S, and 26g lighter.  (171/145) 

The only explainable (maybe?) difference is that the 1800 and 1550 are higher "C"  rated.

( but the sizing of their 2200mAh 3S packs varies little between the various "C" rated offerings)

[Bad Raven]

EBay battery order for school club E010's arrived last night 21.00. Only half quantity ordered arrived, two packs, not four.

Nothing from seller.  Have had this before, as they package in two packs per cardboard outer box, and sometimes the boxes get separated by courier

As Christmas delays loom, contacted seller, who then says they only had left what they sent. 

Did I want refund?  Errrr........... DID I WANT REFUND?

NO, I'm quite happy to pay double for something..........         

They did refund rapidly though...............and refunded 55%.........  SIGH.....................

Now had to order elsewhere, and so the game resets.

[ched]

That's naughty. They knew full well they only had dispatched half your order but didn't refund automatically!!

Put them on the Christmas Naughty List!