Commentary – Page 4 – Dishers.com

June 21, 2014July 4, 2014

New wheels for mamma.

So we’ve been looking for a good used car for Molly for a while, and yes we’re still looking but this popped up yesterday. Claudine had driven one when were looking for cars for me an liked it. So we ran to go see it and bought it.

It’s a one owner, 2005 Ford Freestyle, with 71k miles. Very well taken care of by the original owner and we have every receipt for everything. Deals like these don’t come along often but they are out there if you look for them.

Keeping with the Dave Ramsey, no Debt, pay cash for everything strategy, we used our ‘Car Fund’ and bought this. Again, a fully loaded vehicle, the only option it’s missing is a DVD player and with iPhones and iPads that’s not a necessity. In fact nobody really wants to look at a DVD player from 2005 anyway.

So this replaces the 2003 Pontiac Minivan that we bought in 2010. We actually bought two GM cars that day. My first and my last. We still have it, it runs and the AC works. As soon as we find something for Molly we’ll sell it and likely recoup some of our cash. It will make a great mini-van, people hauler for someone.

So we’re looking forward to getting a number of good years out of this. Claudine is so happy to not be driving a minivan, specifically that minivan. I think she’d be happy in a Honda or Toyota or something not GM.

So we have this Ford, which is actually Volvo drivetrain as I understand it. It runs great, drives great and so far we’re really happy.

April 7, 2014

DeadCat Quad Gimbal Video

So in preparation for FPV, I started building a ‘Dead-Cat’ style quad.

So out of the box, I’ve hot this HK frame, and crappy arms which I replaced with DJI arms. It flies well with Stock DJI (red) 2212 920KV motors with stock DJI 30A opto ESC’s and 10 Inch props.

But when I weight it down with the Gimbal it’s a tad overloaded.

DeadCat Quad Flights.

For the most part I’m happy with the video quality, there’s still some Jell-O in the footage though. It’s pretty clear in it’s current state I can’t add the weight of FPV gear. So if this becomes an FPV rig, the Gimbal in it’s current form, has to go.

Perhaps a move to 4S batteries is required. I’ll have to do some more research. It’s not a steady as J’s Team BlackSheep Discovery Pro, which is heavier. But is also using 900kv motors and 10” props which I’ve also only flown with 3S batteries.

I still enjoy and prefer the PixHawk Flight controller to the DJI Naza V2 that’s on the TBS. Even with it’s pre-arm button ridiculousness.

March 26, 2014March 30, 2014

Saving a Lotus T580+P (Part 2)

In Part 1 I talked about what a big turd this thing is but I failed to mention that anyone selling it as a legit copter should be prosecuted for fraud. Including one ebay seller who’s in Hawaii, you know who you are.

Turns out the frame is OK, maybe the motors are OK, and the props, well the props are pretty cheap. But we’re giving it a go at making this as legit as I can.

In Part 1, I cleared out the suboptimal flight controller and ESC’s that come with it. Cheap, cheap crap. And installed the 4:1 ESC. At the time I didn’t have a spare flight controller laying around and was trying to decide what to put on it.

I had ordered a Naze flight controller. Actually a full Naze32 as well as an afro acro Naze32. (Which I think is a play on Naza, cause the guy that makes them absolutely loathes DJI, but I’m very curious as to where the afro part comes in).

But I digress.

Basically the difference between the two:

Acro, is just that. Simple flight stabilization, gyro and accelerometer, but no barometer or magnetometer.

The full Naze has all four components and can handle GPS as well, but no GPS is provided, you have to add your own. The additional components get you some compass smarts, as well as altitude hold. Which I have yet to experience with a naze32. Which reminds me, I need to pop the top and cover the barometer with some closed cell foam.

In fact you get to solder your own headers on too. It’s very DIY, but it’s a slick board. The same flight controller that powers my Armattan 355. I ordered them directly from Japan, and delivery was actually pretty good, about a week, maybe 10 days. There is at least one US Supplier but he was out of stock when I ordered.

The documentation sucks, but there’s some good info on the web, specifically a youtube video going through the options. It’s a port of the multiWii software I think. Called Baseflight and you configure it using Baseflight plugin in Google Chrome which works quite well. Given it’s performance, this is the best bang for the buck out there that I’ve found and I’m cheap so you can take that to the bank.

So after receiving them in the mail even though one was slated to go on a quad build for Matthew that mamma poo-poo’d on, I thought I’d borrow it and install it on the Lotus. I figure if this things gonna fly, the naze will do well by it. As good or better than a $200 PixHawk though admittedly without any of the autonomous features. So here we go.

I soldered the headers, and mounted it on top of the ESC.

Oh, I’m putting the full naze32 on here. I want altitude hold on this.

3M Dual Lock is your best friend for stuff like this. The one with the big hooks. Great adhesive, sticks to just about anything, and holds really well. It’s removable and you can easily pop stuff off or reposition it.

I have no vibration damping in this other than the dual lock that holds the ESC, and the dual lock holding the Naze to the ESC, or rather the board that the naze is mounted too to the ESC.

I’m also using a $15 Lemon/Spektrum Compatible receiver. Again because I’m cheap and a real Spectrum AR8000 clocks in at about $129.00 But I do realize you get what you pay for. Instructions are nil, but the board is well marked. I originally mounted one to my Armattan, but had an ESC/Motor issue and removed that to make sure it wasn’t this el’Cheapo Rxr. And it wasn’t so it’s on this now.

After binding my transmitter and setting up the Flight Controller.

It’s alive. ESC got sync’d, and it should be ready to fly. Of course it was 1am when finished so no test flights yet.

Once convinced all motors were good to go, I balanced the props. I don’t seem to have any of the motor stall/sync issues with this 4:1 ESC, unlike the POS factory one. At least none on the bench so far.

It fits nicely, though it is big. And the leads from the motors fight right into the lugs so that was easy which reminds me I need to make sure all of those are tight before flight.

Here she is in all her beauty:

Props freshly balance and it should fly nice. I expect this to be nice and docile. With the big 14” props.

Here’s a shot with the 355cm Armattan under it for a reference.

Yeah, it’s kind of big.

That dome cover on the top is a pain. A pain to screw on and a bigger pain to line up the screws. It’s probably not going to last long. I certainly hope I get more than a few flights out of this. I have exactly 0 spare props so it’s likely out once it hits the turf for the first time. Though a motor mount will probably break first and since they seem like really weak points I’m not going to source props for now.

If it flies as well as I think it probably will with new brains and components, I will probably venture into GPS enabling a Naze and see how that goes. If that works, it will get a PixHawk, but that’s looking forward two whole cycles and if you’re not familiar with this hobby. Well, that’s highly unlikely. If it crashes and burns, we’ll chalk all of this up to a learning experience and re-use the Flight Controller/Receiver/ESC’s maybe even the motors on something else. Maybe a Tarot frame from RCManChild. Or finally something for Matthew. Though he’s not getting anything with 14” props. I’m not completely crazy. Smile

Video will be posted if it works out.

Total build time in this is about 4 hours give or take, including dicking around with the flight controller, ESC and Receiver.

Happy multi-rotoring.

March 14, 2014March 16, 2014

Saving a Lotus T580+P (Part 1)

A little background first.

Multi-Rotors are cool, after playing with the blade 350QX and my DJI based Hex I thought I wanted a larger, more stable camera platform. I thought I wanted a Carbon Fiber frame.

Clearly I didn’t do enough research when this thing was acquired. If you search the interwebs you’ll find some pretty glowing reviews of this flying turd. If you search harder you’ll find some more honest reviews.

It’s a turd.

I kind of, sort of knew this going in, but I also figured worst case scenario, I’d just gut it and use the frame. After all the price was right, it was cheap.

Well turns out, that’s what I’m going to do. Actually that’s what I have to do because out of the box, this thing didn’t even make it off the bench before showing it’s true colors.

This is a larger Quad that swings 14” props, via some Large 400KV motors.

So it comes pre-assembled, all folded up in the box.

All you really need do is slap a 4 channel or better receiver on it, a battery and go. So that’s what I did, only if you dig around the net, you’ll find out these things have a ‘flip of death’ problem. This thing is not going to survive a hard crash, it’s just not that stout.

Simply during testing on the bench w/o props, I could get a motor to lose sync with the ESC. A proprietary 4 in 1 ESC. So there’s really no point in even trying to get it off the ground.

Under the lid is a really, really poorly put together 4:1 ESC, and flight controller.

A flight controller and ESC you have absolutely no control over. As in none it is not user tunable. For a copter that was originally supposed to be in the $500+ range but can be had for $300 this is still a POS. (There are I think, 3 versions of this each claims to fix the ESC flip of death issue, but obviously that’s not the case). There are better frames and components to be had, which probably explains why they don’t really make these or even have them on their website anymore. They can be found on eBay and some sites, but save yourself the trouble and bypass this.

So what are we going to do?

We have a decent frame, not great but decent. It’s billed as foldable, but you still need tools, to remove the landing gear in order to fold it.

It has motors, that seem decent, although it’s possible that it’s not the ESC and could be a motor that’s bad and if so, I doubt I can get a replacement and I’d have to replace all 4 so that they match. The motor mounts are weak, and will likely pop in even a modest crash. If it really needs a motor, this things will get cut into CF pieces to be used elsewhere and then at that point, even a the low cost of entry it will still be a loss. One of those life lessons.

So we’re going to try and make this air worthy.

We’ll replace the ESC, in fact I’m going to use this one:

The build has started:

I’m on the fence as to what flight controller to use. I really like the Afro Acro Naze32 that’s mounted on my Armattan CNC 355 Quad.

But for something this size for use with a camera or photography (read a docile flying machine, non acrobatic). I’m pretty sure I want GPS assist for loiter mode and other features. So I’m considering a FULL Naze32, or maybe even another APM or Pixhawk setup.

The later is kind of pricey, about $400 all said and done just in flight controller, GPS, and telemetry radios. But if the experiment fails, well I can fork lift that to something else. I should be able to do the same with the Naze for about 1/2 of that perhaps less.

Maybe I’ll just toss a $25 afro acro naze, on it, fly it a bit and if it survives that then I’ll upgrade it. I really don’t expect that it will take much of a crash to completely destroy this frame.

So currently the build is stalled waiting for a flight controller to free up. A Naze is on order for now, but we’ll see. I’ll post an update when this project progresses.

Happy multi-rotoring and remember; “Friends don’t let Friends buy LotusRC products”.

March 10, 2014March 11, 2014

The Dead Cat Quad

Yesterday was a good multi-rotor day. I spent the day with my buddy building quads and putting together my ”Dead Cat” or Alien Quad, while he assembled his High Dollar Team BlackSheep Quad.

Basically the same basic layout, a Quadcopter, where the front arms are spread more than the rear, to allow for better camera clearance from the props (as in getting them out of the picture).

The ultimate goal will be to make these FPV or First Person View fliers.

Two completely different approaches. He, plopping down major cash for a TBS kit, with TBS motors and ESC’s. The TBS board, with integrated gimbal is amazingly well done. The onboard core will be outstanding when finished. He set it up yesterday migrating a Naza flight controller he already had.

I on the other hand was going the cheaper route. A simple frame. I was still waiting for some parts, so I robbed/borrowed ESC’s and motors from a failed DJI F550 hex build that he had on hand. I did however use my shiny new PixHawk flight controller, 3DR Ublox GPS and 3DR telemetry radios. Basically the same gear I have on my Hex, with the exception of the newer PixHawk over APM 2.6 I’ll have some pretty significant comments about the PixHawk towards the end.

This is a super cheap frame ($25.00 on amazon, complete with knock off arms), I’ll replace those with legit arms after the first crash, and when I really go FPV, I’ll probably upgrade to the TBS plates minus the gimbal.

It turned out pretty nice and flies pretty well, still needs to be tuned but it’s too windy today.

I tossed some DJI Landing gear on it so that I could mount the battery underneath. Without the camera gear up front, putting the batter in the back where it’s supposed to go simply wrecked the center of gravity. In FPV mode that won’t be the case.

PixHawk Critiques and Observations

I so want to like APM, and I so want to support 3DR but they are making it harder every day.

APM, on my APM 2.6 Flight controller works pretty well. I know it’s basically out of resources so they are moving to PixHawk. I know BeagleBone will be 100x better and that’s coming. I know they are trying to make this ‘consumer friendly’.

It’s not plug and play, at least with 3.1.2 copter code, there are too many hoops to jump through, to many places you have to rub your head and your belly in opposite directions at the same time. Maybe these are mission planner issues, but they don’t exist with my APM and they do with PixHawk. Connecting, downloading, fetching parameters and logs. It works, oh about half the time. Try to do something more than once and you’ll probably have to reboot the PixHawk. I know it’s “Open Source”, but some of this is pretty stinking buggy. No other way to say it.

The PixHawk is noisy, too noisy and by that I mean too many sounds, and beeps. My ESC’s hate life until you push and hold the button. Maybe this is their way to make ‘drones’ more conspicuous. It’s just an annoyance. We should be able to turn the sounds down or off. We should also be able to make my ESC’s happy, pre button push.

Speaking of the button. The button is dumb. I have to pre-arm the PixHawk with a button push and hold before I can arm it? What the hell? A lawyer probably made them add this.

Ok fine, put the button in/on the PixHawk, allow the remote button if and only if you need a remote button. I don’t, so it’s one more thing to mount, one more set of wires to route and tend too. But let me, as a non-novice, disable this silly preflight, preflight check.

I don’t hate the case, others do, in fact someone’s already making square non-sexy case for it. I actually like it.

I do like the LED’s, tons of them. The status LED is really nice. But if I can see that, I can push it, that remote button should have a multi-color LED like the top. So when you remote mount it you get the light where you can see it.

OK, I think my batteries should be charged…

Update: 03/11/2014

OK, so on assembly day, it got dark, all we could do was hover it, and it was clear there that the battery w/o camera in the battery slot was bad. It was woefully out of balance.

So I put landing gear on it to put the battery underneath. It flew, in fact in Stability mode it flew just fine. It loitered OK too, and looking the logs, vibrations on the PixHawk were all OK too (under +/- 3). The darn thing would NOT auto-tune. I chalked it up to being windy Sunday, too windy.

Today was a different story. Nice and calm. It still would NOT complete an Auto-tune. It would ‘finish’ but if I tried to switch back and forth between the pre and auto-tuned values, it would drop like a rock, get hung up in it’s own prop wash and crash. Luckily after 3 attempts the only thing I broke was a single landing leg. After looking at logs, I just couldn’t decide if this frame sucked that bad, or if PixHawk was just crap. It’s less than ideal for a product that was supposed to ship in Sept/Oct of 2013. It’s now March and it’s still less than polished. So on a whim, I decided I had spare arms, let’s replace this HJ DJI knock off arms with legit DJI arms. So that’s what I did.

WOW, that’s all I can say is WOW, with stock pids, it’s amazing. Now I’ll try an auto-tune.

So yeah, when you read in the internets that the HK knock off arms are bad. Believe that player. While they don’t look or feel horrible, they just are.