did 'YOU' fly today??

[badger1]

yep, I've been flying:

[ched]

Hopefully it wasn't too high to recover?

[badger1]

Hopefully it wasn't too high to recover?

fortunately there was a pokey stick for such eventualities  :)

[Bad Raven]

OK, so what is the yellow wedge shape underneath it with what looks to be a round hole and outer slots?  Top is the battery, but under?

Main flying buddy and I have recently done some tree pruning.  Our patch has a mature tree aligned with each end of the runway, Oak one end, Conifer the other.  There used to be a third Oak which died, and the farmer has now removed the dead trunk and is slowly burning out the roots to plough depth. That was our third pylon!

Both the Conifer and Oak have now had the scraggle removed to better allow tighter low turns to trunk. The Oak is now more easily fully circulated under its canopy, while still a challenge.  There is one bigger ultra low branch we'd like out on the Conifer to allow unfettered 360 but that is a chainsaw job and we don't have one without hiring.

[Bad Raven]

Our B.Hol permissisons only allow "quiet electric", so today was a chance to get out the Dreamflight Libelle (with 3D printed flip up arm over CG on top of wing and EMax quad motor ) also Radian and Cularis, as well as a few runs with the Babyhawk II HD.
Not much thermal activity, quite erratic, but one spell of 20 minutes was all no motor and at one point I was holding in down to avoid blowing straight through our height limit.  One tight little thermal was able to be held by full left rudder, and I have big throws set, it was well banked over at 45 degrees and still fast spiralling up, till the thermal drifted too near our boundary.

Only 4 present and one only did one flight and left, so once agan a near private field.

[badger1]

OK, so what is the yellow wedge shape underneath it with what looks to be a round hole and outer slots?  Top is the battery, but under?

that's my GPS mast - 3D "printed" in wood:



pretty sure I've put the picture on here before, but I can't find where.

[ched]

that's my GPS mast - 3D "printed" in wood:



pretty sure I've put the picture on here before, but I can't find where.

Doesn't that weigh a ton?
Might be worth securing battery cables to frame with a cable tie.

[Bad Raven]

Couple of coats of mahogony stain and two more of varnish, proper job..........

[badger1]

Doesn't that weigh a ton?

it's only 1/16" / 1.5mm ply, so surprisingly little - 20g maybe?  a lot less than a GoPro anyway.   

Might be worth securing battery cables to frame with a cable tie.

it's an old picture - they were secured before I flew it.

[Bad Raven]

Note to self, limited range results from both aerial plugss being pulled out of their sockets.

 

[Gav]

haven't posted here for donkeys.
Dusted off the Xugong v2 to cycle the lipo. Not flown it for far too long.
Not sure of the battery health to be honest.  Might get 5 mins flight but should be good for 15 when it was new. We shall see.
Just a garden hover about. I love flying in the evenings when it's calm like this.

http://youtu.be/vevbRN-SzNU

[ched]

haven't posted here for donkeys.
Dusted off the Xugong v2 to cycle the lipo. Not flown it for far too long.
Not sure of the battery health to be honest.  Might get 5 mins flight but should be good for 15 when it was new. We shall see.
Just a garden hover about. I love flying in the evenings when it's calm like this.

http://youtu.be/vevbRN-SzNU

Nice.
That's a big beasty to be flying is such confined spaces. Looks great fun with a small quad.

[Gav]

Nice.
That's a big beasty to be flying is such confined spaces. Looks great fun with a small quad.

Rc helicopter flying gave me the confidence to fly in confined spaces I reckon and lots of sim practice.  I've made and owned small quads and yes great fun, but thinned out to just this Gopro camera ship. Out of date now obviously but does the job. Must go for an fpv flight soon.
Cheers

[Bad Raven]

Hey Gav, if there is one quad that would rekindle the FPV flying fun especially at that location its the Emax Tinyhawk Freestyle II.

Quiet, quick or slow, able to stand a little breeze, tough, decent flight times on GNB 650MaAh two times 1S for 2S, and then use just the one cell for really tight work.

Mobula6 would also allow indoor and extreme close proximity (as ducted) but less capable in a breeze and a bit less capable of aero (also the ducts).

Just IMO and bitter experience avoid BetaFPV.     Look around and the sources of most manufacturers are mostly zero stock sold out, except BetaFPV items.  Seems others have the same opinion?

[Bad Raven]

Did I say it was warmer this morning @ 06.00 than yesterday (2.4 yesterday, 8.6 this morning)?

Well, that didn't translate into a warmer day, it was bloody freezing up at the field.  Not at all comfortable, back to fingerless gloves, hat over ears, etc, etc.

The repaired 3" ELRS (bent posts) flew perfectly well. The 5" ELRS flew perfectly well until I knocked the disarm with it still 5 metres plus up..........   

It fell awkwardly on the short grass and clean broke an arm. That's the first frame break I have had since starting quads.  It's a really old EMax 250 that is actually 280 and was bought on "Make it Build It" throw out for £10 (remember them?), and has been flown a lot in various guises, so it owes me nothing at all.

Never mind, thinks I, I'll transfer all the bits over to a lighter 4" frame, as the 2205 motors are good, but not up to modern 5" power where 2207 is regarded as a minimum!

SO I get home, look around, and all the 4" frames are for 20x20 or at best 26.5x26.5, and the FC and PDB are 30.5x30.5. So that's a no then.......maybe............ 

The iFlight Chimera 4" frame looks to have 20 and 26.5 holes square in frame, but looks like possibly 30.5 holes diagonally, not that the blurb says so. or is it 16x16 plus 20x20 with 26.5 diagonally, who knows.  (Yes, it is.....found a better description......... damn!)

So far I have old school Blue/Yellow Araldited the arm back together and heat cooked it to gain cure strength, might work.........

[Bad Raven]

SO, here we go, first flights with the GEPRC Mk5 6S.

Except just for the first flight LOS, I flew it on a 4S 1550.  Which didn't seem to hold it back, and after five minutes cruising around and the occasional flip, it came off at 3.8x per cell.

Then my spotter arrived, so onto FPV and I ran it through the three 6S 1350's I had bought.

I don't know who "Test Pilot 001" is (on QC label), but he made sure it had a super smooth precise tune, I'm very very impressed, after three flights, getting more lairy from flight to flight, I never for one moment thought "that can be made better" and I have no current intention to alter the tune AT ALL.

Reversals, as in half roll, half loop, those that quad only people seem to be calling a split "S" (Wrong!!) are really very nice indeed, its not over snappy but very precise and a deliberate drop into a lot of power to level out with (or without!) air mode on had NO propwash or other ills evident.

Flight time?  Five and a half minutes of power loops and reversals.  But a ballistic full power punch out did ring the min voltage bell very briefly at about half that, with quick recovery to continue.

Oh, and my first experience of the full air unit and bigger DJI camera?? No appreciable difference noted!

Summary:- nicely put together, really good tune, actually quite quiet (always a good sign!)

The 4S Evoque "seems" quicker, but the Mk5 appears to be better in most other respects.

[Bad Raven]

More back to back flying of the Evoque versus the Mk5 today.

I definitely prefer the Mk5. Its feel is really good and precise, for example rolls are much easier to stop exactly parallel to ground for the same rotation speed.

The old EMax Hawk5 still stands up very well though, and being 100g lighter than either makes it still really relevent. 

Some data which might be of interest:- 

The Evoque and Mk5 sans batteries are within 3g of each other.

The 1800mAh 4S GNB (Evoque) and 1350mAh 6S (Mk5) are 1g apart, the 6S heavier, just 

Flown as closely as possible the same, the 6S Mk5 (for the same battery weight) gives a minute extra flight time.



AND...... odd moment of the day. Spotter is getting his quad ready some distance from me and says "whats beeping?"

He had nothing switched on yet, neither did I. There is a very quiet beeping, double beep, pause, double beep.

We hunt around trying to find where it gets louder, in the end we trace it to the area of the paling fence protecting the pilots stand.

I use my shoe to sift the longer grass the mower misses there, and up into view pops a ViFly Beacon.

Its wrapped in blenderm, its got a replaced battery on it.............

It's one of MY Beacons! 

Its near the end of its battery life, which with the larger 150mAh cell would likely have been over 48 hours or so.

BUT, I do not go that side of the pilots box, neither do I land or take off within four metres of it.     WTF!   

Brought it home, charged it, and it seems to work.  Its from the Hawk 5, was d/s taped and cable tied to frame. 

Do not understand how I missed its absence, and the quad hasn't, as said, been near the point found. The state of the Blenderm suggests its been out in the weather.   

[badger1]

so Mr "I'm never going 6S", I'm glad your experience of 6S is going well. 

I imagine a beeper can fly a fair distance if you're doing flippy/rolly-type stuff - you should have a stern word with whoever attached it though.   

[Bad Raven]

        

        


Fun aside, having "d/s taped and cable tied to frame" I don't think there was anything else I could have done.  Neither the tape nor the ties were £ shop stuff.

Also, it would have triggered loudly on the no movement sensing after 30 seconds. That would not have been missed, its LOUD.

I have tested it, it works, so it should have then.

Going way back I lost a velcro'd and double strapped 1500mAh 4S battery that we feel came off a quad in flight, moving fast, the spotter only saw the quad and followed it to ground, but the quad flew on quite a long way really (a delay due the capacitors holding it up presumably) before it was evident to him it wasn't under control though by then I had no video, and as it was moving to behind the Oak at the time, where vision could sometimes falter, neither of us were clear exactly where it decamped. The field had not long been mowed and bales removed for hay so there wasn't a lot of long grass to hide in.  Never found it. 

It was though an ACEHE and they had green shrink wrap.    

In any event, I am not buying any more ViFly "Beacons" as they do not recharge from the flight battery or energise from the flight battery, they rely solely on the correct button pressing and you hearing the quiet control beep sequence. Then the fairly short duration movement timer delay starts. So other noise (engines in pits, talking, full size aviation, etc) masks it. And spotter only has to call a delay (or not be ready) and they trip, and that means manual off and on again. 

Holding a live quad to the ear to hear it is not recommended.......     

The ViFly "Finder" I now buy arms on quad battery being connected, so no false "not moving" alarms, you only have to disarm it (if you are not the thief!!)

SO, a recommendation, DO buy a battery alarm, but the "Finder", not the "Beacon", unless you cannot pick up a supply from the flight controller buzzer pads.

[badger1]

I like the URUAV UR6 which has mounting holes for a 30.5mm stack:



I made use of it a couple of weeks ago when I knew the quad was close but couldn't find it for the life of me.  the odd things was, I would walk towards the beeping & then suddenly it would change to being behind me ...

it took me a while to looks up & see the quad in the tree above my head. 

[Bad Raven]

I had one self powered buzzer board that was a full 30.5 x 30.5 It had a very low height though.

I bought the Beacons to attach to Sport Hawk and Hawk 5 both true X's and very tight for height, so no way to stack anything else.  In fact the Sport Hawk has its one tied to one arm.

[Bad Raven]

Started out today as quite low breeze at 10.00, but by 11.30 it was showing 17-25mph.

And that show up an advantage of quite heavy quads, as they don't get affected by gusts hardly at all.

AND, he's one for you to ponder. The RATE profiles of these two quads are very different in number terms, viz:-

QUAD ONE

rateprofile 0
 
# rateprofile 0
set rates_type = ACTUAL
set roll_rc_rate = 19
set pitch_rc_rate = 19
set yaw_rc_rate = 19
set roll_expo = 60
set pitch_expo = 60
set yaw_expo = 60
set roll_srate = 90
set pitch_srate = 90
set yaw_srate = 90
set tpa_rate = 60
set tpa_breakpoint = 1280
 
 
QUAD TWO
 
rateprofile 0
 
# rateprofile 0
set rateprofile_name = -
set thr_mid = 50
set thr_expo = 0
set rates_type = BETAFLIGHT
set roll_rc_rate = 115
set pitch_rc_rate = 115
set yaw_rc_rate = 100
set roll_expo = 0
set pitch_expo = 0
set yaw_expo = 0
set roll_srate = 70
set pitch_srate = 70
set yaw_srate = 70
set tpa_rate = 65
set tpa_breakpoint = 1350
set tpa_mode = D
set throttle_limit_type = OFF
set throttle_limit_percent = 100
set roll_rate_limit = 1998
set pitch_rate_limit = 1998
set yaw_rate_limit = 1998


SO, for roll rate as one example, thats 19 for one and 115 for the other, one hell of a difference, and yet they fly extremely similarly.  Might swap them over to see if that creates different feel!

[ched]

What versions of BF as there where some major changes in some versions?

[badger1]

QUAD ONE
 
set rates_type = ACTUAL

QUAD TWO
 
set rates_type = BETAFLIGHT

maybe this?

[Bad Raven]

I'm beginning to despair with the Devs for Betaflight, as they seem to delight in over complicating the input processes. 

They are very clever people, and we'd be lost without them, but they desperately need a proof reader/assessor/interpreter to make adjustment parameters more easily interpreted.

SO, for ACTUAL and for BETAFLIGHT, neither number is displayed as the "actual" order of magnitude, in one, the number 90 is actually 900 (degrees/sec), and in the other 115 steps alternately and is actually 1.15.

I mean, REALLY?

   

I used to have a framed statement over my desk, which said:-

I know you think you understand what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realise that what I said was not what I meant...........   

Seems to increasingly apply to Betaflight, its grown "like Topsy" and turned into a demonstration of poor logistics

Could it made any more awkward to interpret? (Don't answer that)

[Bad Raven]

Now today was always going to be interesting, with forecast 20-45 mph.

Arriving at the field it was subjectively "quite high", 15-25, even early.

The old Diatone ET 160 (3") that I slapped an ELRS micro rx on was the first potential sacrifice.

Now this dates back a long time, it was built by me with the then new Abuse32 Cleanflight F1 FC, though now it carries a Matek F4.  Still on the original PDB, ESCs (notional 2-4S DYS BLHeli) and motors DYS 1306 3100kV (supposed to be 3S max) with square tip Dalprop 3045 though.

I normally run this on 1300mAh 3S, but in an attempt to try anything once and to help it have enough heft to deal with the nasty gusts, I fitted a 1800mAh 4S (OK, so I could not be bothered to walk the 30 feet back to the car and fit the right battery!)

And it flew. REALLY well.  After about five minutes I brought it down by choice and the motors and ESCs barely had the chill off them..........  RESULT

Now you might rightly think that a 1800mAh 4S on 1306's would be a sluggish imprecie dog.  Well, NO.  As my spotter arrived I fitted another battery and went FPV, and he was quite appreciative as to its grunt and speed. And most of the time it was running pretty fast at only half stick, even with that extra battery weight. And it totally ignored all gusts.


So, with that having worked, I alternated between 1350mAh 6S aand 1800mAh 4S on the 1950kV motored supposedly 6S GEPRC Mk5. And it was possible to feel which battery was in use, but only just.

I did a few power pumps on both pack types and he indicated that the difference was imperceptible.

Duration? About 6 mins to 6 mins 30secs.  On either.

[Bad Raven]

Today was the first real flight for the 4" that is really a shrunken 5" in terms of equipment fitted.

Was going to try a smaller 1100mAh 4S till I realised that I didn't have the converters from XT30 to XT60 with me...........     (I did have wife's car as mine in for first MOT, so was limiting what I took). 6 x 1800mAh 4S later..........

It flew really well, but the rates were not quite high enough, so have just tweaked them up. Suppose thats logical, same motors, probably same pitch props even though cut down from 5 to 4", shorter arms giving less moment distance to c/line for the thrust to act over?


A member arrived with news that he'd had a fly away of a large electric plane from a legal public park site a few miles away on Monday. On questioning him, he didn't have fail safe set, didn't have the registration code on it, didn't report it, though he did have an EMail address label.  While with us he received a mail to say it had ended up on school grounds.

While with us he was seen playing with another large live and unrestrained electric model, kneeling with crutch inches from the 14" prop while fiddling with Tx settings, also carrying said live model (under his arm with live prop close to his bare arm and wrist, no throttle cut), Tx danglng in other hand, sticks towards his legs.

Then he announces that he's going to bring up two autonomous models to "do some filming of him flying"  - i.e. autonomous flying banned by club rule.

When I mention this, and indicate ONE flyaway, especially into airport zone to E or SE would see us banned, he happily admitted his Mavic has already flown away once.......

      Is it ME??

[badger1]

    Is it ME??

I think every club has one (or some).

one of our members popped an ESC on a flight last year & the model flew on & landed in a council-owned depot where it caught fire.  the post-mortem revealed he was running a too-large prop for the powertrain which had caused the ESC to catch fire.

he was back a few weeks ago with the same model, with new fuselage & electrics & proceeded to burn out the motor on the first flight because - surprise surprise - he was running a too-large prop.    at least this time he was able to retain control & land in our field,  & nothing actually caught fire.

[Bad Raven]

The maiden raw full flight video of the Roma 4".

Uses all parts bar camera transferred from ancient EMax 250 frame home built a long time back and along the way upgraded from F1, 3B-R overpowed current sucking motors. Only charged camera this time as old Eachine 1000TVL CCD (remember them?!) would not fit without cutting case.

RacerStar 2205 2400kV
HAKRC 35A ESCs
Matek F411-STD
EMax PDB
Eachine VTX
Foxeer 1.8mm Camera
Happymodel ELRS twin antenna Rx from a Namimno Flash 2.4GHz module in Horus X12S (with NO crossfire inverter mod!)

Using an old time expired 1800mAh 4S GNB



Ran six packs through it.  No issues.

Have increased the rates by 150 degrees/sec overnight, and we roll again today.

[Bad Raven]

Have increased the rates by 150 degrees/sec overnight, and we roll again today.

ARRRR, that be better!!!  Rates much more to my liking.

Odd though, as my first flight today was with DJI HD, and then when flying buddy flew his, he commented on how bad video was, with throttle sensitive black banding.

So, I switched to the Roma (and you saw above how reasonable that video was yesterday) and it was also bad, same thing, black banding getting worse with throttle.

SO, not our equipment then. Nobody else there. Nobody visible, nothing we could point to at all.

Buddy continued to have video issues with all his three quads, I switched back to DJI and experienced no issues at all.

ONLY thing out of the usual (and not causing any worse video at the time) was the quite usual roar of a Merlin engine, but not one of the common Spitfires doing its two seat duty, but a Mustang, which overflew quite closely in circuit.

So, why the video interference?  NO idea!