/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>1274647
if only there was a way to power that thing for more than 2 minutes it would be such a good transport vehicle

Dropping in from /g/'s CSG 11/11 sales thread, just got me thinking.
Looking at FPV transmitters and receivers, do they just transmit and receive at the same frequencies as old analog TV's? Because I always wanted to broadcast to local TV's, but hooking up the output of a VCR to some other shit was a pain.

Instead of a FPV receiver, could I just tune an old analog TV to pickup signals from a quad?

>>1274811
nah they operate below 300Mhz. FPV is 5.8Ghz

Hoping to finish a frame transplant before an indoor race day on Saturday, the wires were *just* too short to do a straight transplant so now I have to desolder literally everything :(

>>1274647
>Looking for some good cheap fpv goggles with diversity and built in dvr to buy on 11/11

In case you didn't already know, don't buy the EV100.

>>1274813
Ah, thanks anon.
I keep seeing 600mW and 600TVL and something in my head made me think it could be the range my local TV's used to run at, 600Mhz

>>1274647
I scooped up the aomway commanders for 320. Cheapest way to get those features. Goggles have been amazing so far.

>>1274933
>320
ouch.
frankly those kinds of prices feel like a gouge to me

I mean, if you think about the real costs, diversity costs 2 antennas and a microchip, so $10 tops
and recording the screen costs one microsd card (sold separately?) and a microchip, so figure $10 for that too
plus the costs for the actual goggles. I paid $40 for my box goggles so we know it costs them less than that for all the materials

I expect the cost of these things to be way, way lower

>>1274943
>plus the costs for the actual goggles. I paid $40 for my box goggles so we know it costs them less than that for all the materials

The microdisplays used in FatShark style goggles cost vastly more than the smartphone/tablet screens used in box style goggles. We're literally talking $100 per screen (& you need two of them).

>>1274749

>>1274947
are they that much better than box goggles?

>>1275113
In terms of image quality? No. But in terms of portability? Hell yes. I couldn't even fit a set of box goggles in the backpack I use when I go flying.

You could also argue that you look a little less threatening & a little more approachable with FatSharks on, which can be beneficial when you meet people when flying.

Anyone have thoughts on the Eachine Goggles Two?
I don't want to jump right in the deep end and buy fat sharks, but I don't want to start with something garbage and potentially spoil a new experience.
These goggles seem to have the features I need at around the limit I want to spend.

>>1275211
Or should I just go real cheap and get either EV800s, Quanum V2s or similar?

>>1275216
I have the ev800 and for the ~$44 I spent I think they're pretty nice
I'm looking for an upgrade because I want a dvr and diversity, but the 800s will still be useful because the screen detaches from the goggles

>>1275255
How do you feel about the box type goggles?
I heard that sometimes they make you dizzy, but that could just depend on the person.
I have good eyesight, so don't know if that makes a difference

>>1275259
I only have box goggles
I haven't had any dizziness, but you do have to do a lot of eye movement to look at the rssi, battery, etc on the different corners of the display
Could improve that probably with a customizable osd

>>1274749

It's called a helicopter

>>1275388
nah, i mean power something like whats in OP, not a completely different contraption. the contraption you are talking about cost 100 mil

>>1274988
wouldnt be surprised if it lasted 2 mins between needing recharges

That feel when waiting for the last part from China to build your quad and it has already been 1.5 months

>>1274943
Dont forget a lipo $15 and 2 antennas $20-80

>>1275749
Lipo is included in the price of the goggles

>>1275211
Bought those as a starter set. Mostly to use ezwifi as a secondary camera/control system, that hdmi in is sweet. Havent hooked it straight to video card for sims yet to. Something more fancy goggles dont do as well. But im a noob what do I know.

Hopefully a full day of flying with friends tomorrow~

Is there a formula or rule-of-thumb for figuring run time on li-po's?
>Just got a used losi ten scte
>Came with a 2s 7600 25c
>Losi stock 550 size motor
>I think it's 3300kv
>I dont race, but I bash with care.
I haven't been into this shit since the early ninety's when my team associated ten T with hand wrapped battery packs ruled.

>>1275847
I hope you're expecting a full day of drone joisting, because that's what it's going to be

>>1275908
figure out the maximum draw of your quad or vehicle
for me it's 8amps per motor, so 8*4 + 2A for everything else = 34A
figure I fly at half current draw for most of the flight, so cut that in half = 17A
I use a 1300mah battery so that means I can fly for about 1.3/17 hours
or about 4.5 minutes

Any open source ESC plans/designs?

>>1276125
this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9IHEqlGG1s

>>1275847
>>1275957
It was good, broke less stuff than I expected too!

>>1275908
ecalc.ch/xcoptercalc.php

how bad would these be?
$40 diversity fpv goggles w/ dvr
https://www.gearbest.com/fpv-goggles-monitors/pp_712168.html

I figured out the pulsing on my aliexpress $5 ESC, 1400-2000us signaling width every 20000us, using an arduino board to control it, thought PWM-controlled meant I could just connect it to a PWM header on the arduino and send it a 0-255 value and call it a day.

>>1274647
Why would you put all the blades at spine level? That just a bad idea.

>>1275847
/drool

>>1276349
You get to fly in and empty warehouse?

Sumbitch.

>>1277574
It's an airsoft site, if you have anything similar near you it's well worth approaching them - they'll often have an odd afternoon when they have staff on site doing maintenance/prep but not running games & will likely be more than happy to let you fly around then if you offer to each chip in £10.

>>1277600
I'm too jewish to pay money to fly somewhere
Too jewish to pay money to shoot my own guns at a range, too

Best deal on good 4s LiPos right now?

>>1277637
Depends where you live. US? Europe? Australia?

>>1277640
US east coast

>>1277654
chinahobbyline.us are supposed to be good for US. Can't vouch myself as a UK resident though.

>>1277637
HobbyKing's batteries are usually solid, the graphene line gets good reviews. ReadyMade RC ships fast and cheap from Ohio.

>>1277672
never heard of that site. I'm also on the US East Coast.

>>1277762
I have a CNHL battery. It seemed pretty good but unfortunately it fell 300 meters out of the sky before I really got to test it thoroughly

>>1274819
A lot of purely analog FPV systems do run a 600mhz, although most people are moving over to 5.8ghz.

after doing a whole bunch of research this seems to be the best deal on good 4s lipos that I can find
you can find the same ones a bit cheaper on ebay, but they're almost certainly fakes

Any ideas why my quad would have progressivly worse video from plug in, then after about 30 secounds of flight just fall out of the sky? It not a new build and this started after a crash.

>>1278212
Sounds like something's overheating.

Why are props molded as single blades when they can be be cast with a hoop on the outside. Is there some kind of action (aerodynamically) on the tip of the blade? Or is it just designed obsolescence. Just seems like you could get a lot more mileage from a prop that is not built to snag and break. A simple ring around the edge of a prop mold would act as a bumper. Am I missing something here?

>>1278514
Generally I'd bet that anything strong enough to actually protect the prop would negatively effect efficiency too much to be worth it, either aerodynamically or just the added weight. Props are spinning fast enough that if they hit pretty much anything at speed they're going to break, there's no real gentle nudging at 10k rpm
There are ducted quads though, where they put the prop in a tube. Supposedly it helps with force in some way, but it does a lot better job at protecting the blades than something attached to them would.

>>1278532
there's no way that the efficiency gained from those ducts make up for the large amount of additional weight

>>1275431

It gets 30 minutes flight time, with like $300,000 worth of battery

>>1278514
There's lots of consideration of vortex action at the tips, which is why so many modern 5" props (DAL Cyclone, Gemfan Flash, etc.) have little protrusions on the tips to control the vortices better (apparently).

Hobbyking KK2 still good? I found it in my old toolbox. Hoping I could do a tricopter with it.

>>1279318
I mean, it'll work, but it's considered laughably obsolete -
things have been moving *very* fast in this scene over the past 2-3 years. You could buy a modern flight controller for $20 which will fly a helluva lot better & be substantially less hassle to set up. In particular, tricopters should really be running the Triflight firmware, which you can't run on a KK2.

Got some diversity goggles but the antennae it came with are supposedly garbage
which two should I get instead?

>>1279653
Depends what you have on your quad(s) - linear or circular polarised?

>>1279875
Currently I'm working on a build with a ts5828
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/ts5828/32378907248.html
which uses a linear polarized antenna for long distance

but its capable of going way further than I can actually fly (miles), so I'm thinking of switching it to a circular polarized antenna so I get super clear transmissions even through a couple of objects
so I guess I also need a suggestion as to what antenna I should get for the transmitter

I can not find any manual for the omnibus f4 v2 flight controller
I have a quad with an f3 and the manual is very good (http://seriouslypro.com/files/SPRacingF3-Manual-latest.pdf))
it has every pin, uart, what they do, etc

Any books on how to program and make RC shit?

Hope everybody is getting out & flying this weekend~ Still working on tuning my 6" here.

>>1280062
Just stick a decent CPL omni on the quad (TBS Triumph, Lumenier Axii, Menace pagoda), then on your goggles have another decent CPL omni plus a CPL patch (eg. Menace Invader). Linear can get you better range, but it sounds like you're talking about an acro/freestyle/race quad rather than an AP rig & the range benefits of linear are moot once you're flipping at 90 degrees & losing all polarization.

>>1280519
For old stuff (eg 'model' planes) maybe, but for the modern multirotor sort of scene it's heavily Internet based - things just move too quickly for books to be viable.

>>1280712
>heavily Internet based
Where should i start.

>>1280719
there's no programming involved unless you want to assist in the development of one of the opensource projects like cleanflight

otherwise just look up some youtube videos on rc quads/planes/cars and decide what you want to get in to, then lookup some of the hardware you want to get

if you want to just jump right in, buy a cheap starter quad that comes with a controller
this ones $12.99 from china and really good (get Mode 2)
https://www.banggood.com/Eachine-H8-Mini-Headless-Mode-2_4G-4CH-6-Axis-RC-Quadcopter-RTF-p-975808.html

>>1280519
>>1280712
Do you mean that you actually want to build things more from scratch than usual, or are you just asking for tutorials on how to assemble a quad from readily available parts?

I just got a 3d printer, how useful actually is this for drones? Most frames I see are made of carbon fibre which is probably the best material. Are smaller 200-250mm drones the best in comparison to larger ones?

>>1280736
Build things

>>1280740
here's your checklist for building an FPV quad
1x frame
4x motor
4x esc
4x propeller
1x flight controller
1x power distribution board (optional)
1x receiver (to receive the signal from your radio controller)
1x camera
1x video transmitter (sends video signal from camera to your goggles/viewing device)
various heat shrink tubing
some 22awg wire, red and black at least
solder
soldering iron
you may need some little screws, velcro, zip ties, etc. frames and motors come with some so you may not need to buy these

in addition you will need the following
1x radio transmitter (get the Taranis Q X7)
1x fpv goggles
1x lipo battery (more than 1 is recommended)
1x lipo balance charger

I may have forgotten some things.

>>1280737
I'm going to have at least 7 3D printed parts on the quad I'm building
so, fairly useful

>Are smaller 200-250mm drones the best in comparison to larger ones?
depends what you're doing with it
250mm seems to be the standard go-to size for racer quads with 5" props
I have a 180mm with 4" props that is pretty sweet
and while quads this size should have carbon frames, if you want to make a little micro quad you could certainly print a frame for that
they're fun because you can fly them around the house and crash them and nothing ever breaks

>>1280740
Do you know how to develop for STM32?

>>1280737
They're useful for making things like camera mounts & other add-ons, but it's not really viable to print an entire frame. I printed picrelated to mount a Yi 4k to a gimbal that only worked with a GoPro.

>>1280758
Ah, I see. You must get some nice footage with that gimbal. I think I recognize you from previous posts you've made actually. Anyway I'm more interested in FPV and long flight times.

>>1280775
I barely use that thing desu, building as big & cumbersome as a 650 to carry a GoPro size camera was kinda dumb.

For FPV stuff a 3D printer is great for printing TPU parts, things like camera mounts, antenna mounts, little colour-coded covers to go on your XT60 connectors so you know which ones have been discharged, etc. Picrelated GoPro Session mount was printed by a friend on a super cheap Anet A8 & it works great.

>>1280753
I meant build things in general from electrical/programming ways.

>>1280758
>Do you know how to develop for STM32?
No.

>>1274647
>/drone/
>not /uav/

>>1280823
>I meant build things in general from electrical/programming ways.
it would take you years to build a quad "from scratch" in that fashion
and that's assuming you already have the electrical engineering and software development background

Hey all,

I'm completely new to RC and /diy/, and have been thinking of buying a model plane for a few months now, drew some plans etc and now wondering if I should buy the parts and try to build it.

Pic related is a poor CAD drawing without measurements. It's a biplane with about 120cm wingspan and a 10c10cm fuselage, but I may scale it down a bit (it otherwise may become too heavy).
I was thinking of building it from 5mm foamboard, and adding a really cheap chinese motor/ESC/receiver, plus an arduino/IMU to add my own PID stabiliser.
What I'm mostly wondering if wether the ailerons have enough size, and if the tail is not too short for horizontal stability.
Also, I didn't add a horizontal control plane because I flew someone else's biplane once and was told the wing struts add enough horizontal stability and roll-induced-yaw.

Would you think this basic design would fly?

>>1281969
If I'm reading your design right, you have a flat airfoil? Pretty sure that's not how they work.

>>1281974
I can gain lift from angle of attack right?
I've seen many model planes with flat wings iirc

I could probably stack two boards of foam and carve a 'real' airfoil shape out of it

>>1281975
I don't know much about planes, I still haven't finished building my first one which I bought like a year ago, but I thought the fundamental way that they worked was by having an actual airfoil (eg one side longer than the other)?

>>1281978
Theory of flight provides a bit of debate about what actually generates the lift iirc, but using a flat plane as an airfoil works afaik if (and only if) the plane is inclined with respect to the direction of flight: like sailing but horizontal

>>1281986
the thing about rc planes is that you can glide
the motors/props are special on planes in that when you turn the throttle all the way down, the blades fold up to provide optimum aerodynamics during the glide
if you have no airfoil your ability to glide will be pretty bad

>>1282001
I thought the whole point of those folding props was so they didn't break so easily on landing? When you drop the throttle a regular prop will just freewheel.

>>1282001
Thanks, I see, doesn't look that great now, so I'll try and cut an airfoil then.
Updated dimensions btw, it's now 80cm wingspan

Other question:

Since my biplane has 'vertical stabilizers' between the wings (the four upright surfaces), do I really need a rear horizontal stabilizer? I'm trying to make this thing as minimal as possible

Attempting to solder to the three power pads on the f4 omnibus fc is the most frustrating hobby related experience of my life
just getting solder onto them is hard enough
attempting to then get a wire on to the pad is impossible

>>1282873
You either have shitty solder or a shitty soldering iron.

>>1282958
the iron is the cheapest iron+hot air station I could get from china
the solder is also the cheapest solder I could get from china

>>1282873
Sounds like your iron isn't powerful enough - the power planes on the board will be quite substantial to handle the current, so it's just sucking all the heat out of your iron which then isn't powerful enough to maintain its temperature.

>>1282046
you don't truly need an airfoil, but it really helps both with lift and strengthening the wing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRVJTHLlUB4

If you're using 5mm foamboard, then you can either bend a conventional airfoil or a KFM step.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=karr67ZYho4

> 'vertical stabilizers' between the wings (the four upright surfaces), do I really need a rear horizontal stabilizer?
Assuming you meant rear vertical stab since you have a horizontal on your drawing, yes. You don't need a rudder, you can just do aileron and elevator control, but you will need a stabilizer. However, most trainer aircraft have rudder/elevator controls because it's one less servo and has the effect of turning the plane instead of just rolling it. If you really want to do simple, go with a single high wing, preferably with some dihedral (it's really not hard) to help self-level the plane and use rudder/elevator.

>I thought the whole point of those folding props was so they didn't break so easily on landing? When you drop the throttle a regular prop will just freewheel.
Yes and no. They're mostly for gliders, but some people use them on flying wings and other belly landing planes to prevent breaking props. They are difficult to balance. I have one coming for my flying wing, but it's not necessary, I've had a fixed prop on and it hasn't broken yet. You'll want an ESC that can brake (it's common on plane ESC's), this will stop the prop spinning and reduce the risk of damage. If you're really concerned about it, get a prop-saver, it's a mount with an o-ring that allows the prop to bend out of the way. You'll need to accept the fact that you will break props.

I'd recommend something like the FT Tiny Trainer or EA Photon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL0F209186D3388842&v=ZfqGrzCKauw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjGE9oyF1qo

>>1281974
Flat airfoils do work, but they're very prone to separation when the aspect ratio isn't extremely low

>>1282046
Not trying to be a meanie but if you at least bothered to educate yourself on the very basics of aircraft you wouldn't ask this question
And to answer your question; yes you do. Now go find out yourself if the force exerted by the horizontal tail surface should be positive or negative

>>1283120
I just got a word wrong, I meant vertical stabilizer on both occasions, but already found it's possible but quite tricky to get it right without a rear vertical stabilizer.

>>1283115
>bend a conventional airfoil or a KFM step.
Got it. Still looking for what would be best in my case but it'll be quite definitely one of those

>dihedral
Might add that too, still not sure of it. I'd love the idea of self-balancing (it only further reduces the control science stuff I'll have to do).
Also the idea of only tail and rudder sounds good, but doesn't that make it impossible to recover after the roll angle reaches some critical point?

Thanks a lot for the advice :)

>>1282958
>>1283087
What soldering iron do you guys recommend I get for this purpose?
Perhaps some reasonably affordable hakko?

>>1275847
Do you have a Peon230?

>>1276349
>>>1275847
>>>1275957
>It was good, broke less stuff than I expected too!
>>>1275908
>ecalc.ch/xcoptercalc.php
Your rates are shamefully low

>>1283568
Huh? My rates are 800deg/s on all axes, which is actually a lot higher than many people's race rates these days (many people are running as low as 300deg/s for racing, even when they run 1000deg/s+ for freestyle).

>>1283440
No, replicating a CF frame with a 3D printer is dumb. If you want to 3D print a frame, do something like the ragg-e.

Got my load of beginner drone shit from china today
Main shit
>Taranis Q X7
>Eachine EV800
Other shit
>Eachine H8 mini
>USB programming board to flash acro onto it
>multiprotocol module to control it with the taranis
Everything looks good except the poor little 14$ quad got mangled by either the chinese or canadian(probably still chinese since it came through vancouver) monkeys doing shipping.
A bit disappointing, since that was the thing that was actually going to fly, but nothing I spent real money on was damaged at all so could have been worse, and I was expecting to break it pretty fast anyway.
Still going to try to get Banggood to replace it, since they did a retarded job packing it.

Now to try and figure out how to get a simulator working.

>>1284772
>and I was expecting to break it pretty fast anyway
unlikely
the thing is basically unbreakable unless you fly it into a pool of water and then leave it in there for a while
did you get like a tx04 or something too to glue on top? otherwise you wont get much use out of your goggles

>>1284789
tx02. I learned afterwards it's more power than you want on a tiny thing like this, but it should work at least somewhat and if I can avoid wrecking it it'll go on whatever my first real quad is.
I did manage to get Freerider working after a bit of fiddling with the transmitter, so I have something to do in the meantime.
The goggles even have an av in, so if I can get my hands on an adapter I'll have the full experience.

>>1283418
Just buy a cheap Weller from Amazon.

So I had my quad sitting around for a while with the lipo plugged in, somewhere between 6 and 10 minutes
everything was working fine for at least the first 4 minutes
then when I swapped the battery I realized the flight controller now has no lights on and is completely dead
also doesn't power up when I plug it in with the usb

it's an f4 omnibus v2
power does go through the board and out the vcc pins to power my camera and transmitter, and also gives 5v to my receiver via the built in 5v BEC
how do I go about diagnosing what the problem is?

>>1285216
did a bunch of probing
there's 3 "LG33" chips on the board which seem to be voltage regulators
the 2 on the top are outputting 3.6v and 3.7v
the one on the bottom is outputting ~1.08v
also, if I test any of the VBAT/VDD pins on the F4 chip and ground, I get the same 1.08V

according to the "general operating conditions" in the manual:
http://www.mouser.com/ds/2/389/stm32f405rg-956214.pdf
its operating voltage is 1.8V-3.6V
so, that is probably the problem right?

according to some googling the LG33 is really this:
MIC5219-3.3YM5 -> https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/microchip-technology/MIC5219-3.3YM5-TR/576-1281-1-ND/771902
>Fixed 1 Output 3.3V 500mA
so yeah, 3.6V - 3.7V is ok and 1.08V is broken
I'll try replacing it

>>1285302
now the two on top are giving 0.66V and the one on the back is doing nothing
I don't even know anymore

Because why not, right?

(Yes, it flew. No, I didn't crash.)

I has a bad crash because the nut on one motor loosened just enough for the prop to spin freely and it did the flips of death
There has to be a better design than this to lock these things down

>>1285600
Are you using nyloc nuts with serrated flanges?

>>1285610
better yet, is he using a torque wrench?

Does anyone have experience making a monowheel?

I can't decide if I should use a beveled wheel and shift the center of mass, or if I should split the wheel into two halves and use tank control.

Here's an example of each:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIADzTanDo8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ0QEYVCTC0

So this footage >>1285487
is super fun to fuck around with.

>>1285610
yes, and they came with the motors
the motor nuts on my other quad are not serrated and had no locking mechanism so I used loctite
but it's still not secure either way
it's just a matter of pressure keeping the prop spinning with the motor which seems like a terribly bad solution
like, the worst possible solution

>>1285640
If you use decent serrated flange nylocs & tighten them appropriately, you will literally never have a prop slip unless you smack a tree or something. And even then you're more likely to bend/break the prop before the nut loosens.

Oh & loctite on propsnuts is a bad idea, as it can weaken the plastics used in props.

>>1285663
>If you use decent serrated flange nylocs & tighten them appropriately
how tight should it be? it was my second flight with my new quad
the first flight I went slow and careful with a 3S to check for problems
this flight I plugged in a 4S, took off a little fast because it was more power then I expected, made one slow turn, then started flipping uncontrollably
entire flight was about 10 seconds
so the 40% throttle punch on take off loosened the nut

>>1285663
>Oh & loctite on propsnuts is a bad idea, as it can weaken the plastics used in props.
that may be true but at least it works
it's extremely hard to loosen them now without using a lot of leverage whereas previously any acceleration/deceleration would cause them to go flying away

>>1285672
>how tight should it be?

If you hold the motor bell in one hand & the prop inn your other hand, you shouldn't be able to move the prop independent of the bell without exerting a lot of force.

>>1285678
so just eyeball it then
this time I cranked it as tight as I could without deforming the motor
so we'll see what happens when I get my new flight controller

>>1285341
I set my bench power supply to 3.3V and applied it to the pads on the regulator that I think is bad and the lights came on
so yeah, I'm optimistic that it will work when I get the replacements in the mail

>>1285705
created a 3.3v regulator using an lm317 I found laying around plus a couple resistors
still didn't connect to the computer though so I also replaced the 5v regulator
and now the lights come on, the ESCs boot up, and it can connect to cleanflight with a lipo plugged in


but when I look in the goggles I get a black screen with no video and no OSD
so something is still fucked
although I think it will fly now so I could just forget about the OSD and hook the camera right up to the vtx and transmit the straight video signal

>>1276658
samsung 18650's mmmmmmmm baby

>>1285637
Gotta say: looks amazing my dude!

>>1286088
don't talk like that you moron

Gimme this https://youtu.be/DeFFrHQxQVc

>>1285627
>no replies
C'mon, at least call me a faggot or something.

>>1286283
maybe in 50-100 years when we have tiny fusion reactors

>>1286308
You're a faggot

>>1286449

Always considered getting into the drone game... but I have so many other random hobbies that I can barely afford them all as it is. :P

I really like the idea of eventually having my own semi-autonomous air-born video camera so that I can snoop around my property without moving around myself. :D

>>1285637
where is the camera located? wtf

>>1286584
See >>1285487

>>1286552
Just get CCTV cameras

Thread seems to be mostly custom stuff but I'm hoping someone might help me out.
My dad is interested in getting a drone which he'll probably use to look around our hunting camp and shit, and I don't even know where to start.
Where we're at doesn't have a whole lot of changes in elevation, but how much will trees affect the range?
Should I look at plane-like drones vs. copter-like ones?

>>1286688
Long range wings aren't exactly a beginner friendly concept, if your dad doesn't have previous flying experience.

>>1286688
how big is the area you want to look around?
my little 180mm (diagonal distance between the motors) quad can fly a few kilometers
if there's a lot of trees you should fly high and look down, which will be better anyway since you don't want to alert the animals

>>1286713
I assume you're talking about plane-like drones? Also, the more automated the thing is the better since my dad (and myself) are inexperienced

>>1286838
Would definitely be flying high and looking down, and most places to look should have clearings less than 2km away

>>1286914
>Also, the more automated the thing is the better since my dad (and myself) are inexperienced
in that case you probably want to look into one of those camera drones like the dji mavic
they'll give you stable video and long flight times and it can be fully automated
downside is they are very expensive compared to a build-your-own

>>1286914
>>1286915
Yup, you want either a Mavic or a Phantom.

insane prices on the good tattu lipos right now if anyone's interested
1300mah 4s 75c for $19.99
https://www.genstattu.com/tattu-r-line-1300mah-95c-4s1p-lipo-battery-pack.html
1300mah 4s 95c for $25.59
https://www.genstattu.com/tattu-r-line-1300mah-95c-4s1p-lipo-battery-pack.html

and then you get additional discounts for orders over a certain amount

>>1287505
whoops, this ones the 75c
https://www.genstattu.com/tattu-1300mah-75c-4s1p-lipo-battery-pack-with-xt60-plug.html

>>1286935
hell the Spark should work just fine if he isn't wanting it for video quality

if I build a standard 220m drone with banggood parts what flight time can I expect? I want a good flight time with my first quad

>>1287542
depends on the motors and how fast you like to fly
I get over 10 mins flight time on my 180 with a 1300mah lipo if I fly fairly slow the whole time with no huge punchouts
if I fly fast I get more like 3 minutes

>>1287542
Average flight times for a generic 5" quad are 2-6 minutes, depending on whether you're thrashing it or just cruising around. Slap a larger battery on (like an 1800mAh) & you can get 8+ but will sacrifice a bit of agility.

>>1287547
>I get over 10 mins flight time on my 180 with a 1300mah lipo

That seems like a bit of an exaggeration, I doubt you could really even just hover for 10 minutes on a 1300mAh.

>>1287551
it's not an exaggeration
quad weighs 370g total including the battery (no action cam)
cells are at around 3.5V each by the time I land, so not overly discharged either
and I cruise around my neighborhood at a calm relaxing pace
can probably get to 12+ minutes if you focus on reducing weight

>>1287555
I guess that's just about plausible without an action cam, I tend to assume that. And landing at 3.5V per cell is lower than most people fly, if you mean 3.5V rest voltage.

>>1287566
>And landing at 3.5V per cell is lower than most people fly, if you mean 3.5V rest voltage.
Yeah but it's safe because the flight is so steady, it's easy to watch the voltage slowly drop in the OSD and time the landing without over discharging

On a scale from 1-10 how niche is this drone/quad hobby?
Where 1 is video games and 10 is collecting prohibition era lanyards

>>1288203
Maybe 3 or 4? Where 5 is something like playing the violin.

>>1288203
>>1288282
Oh, that's the opposite way round to your scale. So, like 6 or 7.

>>1285637
holy shit dude that is awesome af

>>1288203
I mean, the hobby includes a lot of other hobbies as well, which you can develop as you go along. Basic electronics knowledge is a must, soldering definitely, radio frequency (technically you are required by FCC to have a HAM technician's license to even operate a VTX over like 25 mW) there's also the software side of things which requires you to be rather tech savvy if you want to do more than just fly a DJI mavic around, and you can get as deep as you want into the physics side of things...
Ultimately it takes a LOT of practice to get good at flying (like the skill curve is quite high) paired with the cost, I'd rate the drone hobby at like a 7 in terms of complexity/depth/investment of time/$$$
But with that in mind, if you are already pursuing /DIY/ type hobbies that fit into these categories, it might be less investment than you think.

>>1288203
brushed motor walmart quads are solidly at 2

DJI products are around 4-5

RTF quads from amazon are somewhere near 6

building your own is 9+

How's the furibee x215 kit from gearbest? Apparently it's good, but could I get a better quad for the cost of it (£130) if I bought some parts apparently

Has anyone here ever built a multicopter with rth features and GPS stabilisation etc? I'm looking at pixhawk and naza quads at the moment they look very cool.

>>1288659
Yup. What do you want to know?

>>1288655
>could I get a better quad for the cost of it (£130) if I bought some parts apparently

Not really, no. Labour is so cheap in China the build costs are minimal.

>>1288655
Get it, I'd you don't got time to build one yourself. Its not the best ARF but its good. Add some shielding to the vtx they cheaped out cause if not you end up with bands on the video out. The flight controller is actually good its a branded kakute f4.

>>1288670
nothing I just thought they are pretty kewl

>>1288670
I just think they are pretty kewl, what frame is that?

>>1288670
not him but I have several questions

1) what do you use such a huge ass quad for
2) at that size why not go for 6 rotors
3) how heavy is it
4) what's the flight time

>>1288717
>what frame is that?

Tarot 650 Sport, I don't recommend it.

>>1288719
>what do you use such a huge ass quad for

I hardly use it desu.

>at that size why not go for 6 rotors

Quads are more efficient, motors/ESCs aren't cheap, etc.

>how heavy is it

Can't remember off the top of my head. I think it's in the region of 1.7kg with a 4000mAh 6S.

>what's the flight time

12 minutes of fairly hard flight with a 4000mAh 6S, not flown it with a 8000mAh 6S since I changed the motors but probably 20 minute of the same flying.

I want to do a brushless upgrade on my old brushed drone. How do I know what motors will fit my frame? The old motors have two screw holes, located 8mm from the centre of the shaft, threaded for M3 screws. When I look on sites that sell these motors, they never include any specifications for mounting them, just that the shaft is sometimes reversible and that the motor comes with an aluminium mounting cross. The old motors themselves have a diameter of 4cm, so that's the rough size I've been looking at.

https://www.amazon.com/Hobbypower-1000kv-Brushless-Multicopter-Quadcopter/dp/B00E7LG85O/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1512233941&sr=8-5&keywords=brushless+motor for instance is roughly the right size and power, but I can't see anything about how far apart the screw holes are.

>>1289446
Don't buy obsolete shit from randoms on Amazon, try an actual hobby store.

>>1289477
The closest one that might have anything reasonable for brushless is eight hours drive away, it's unfortunately not an option.

>>1289485
I mean a hobby store online.

>>1285627
Shift the centre of mass, it'll be more interesting. Maybe you could get something like a motorcycle wheel with spokes, remove the spokes, add a large ball bearing to the interior of the wheel, and mount the electronics inside the bearing, with a centre of mass as close to the ground as possible. Then have a linear actuator shift a weight around to keep it balanced and steering. You could mount a motor with a small wheel attached directly to the shaft where the small wheels drives against the large wheel. This would force the weight of the robot components inside the bearing to shift upward and forward/backward, which should make the wheel roll. With reasonably quick and far travel in the actuator and some gyros to keep it balanced like a segway, I don't see why it wouldn't work. It probably wouldn't have a lot of acceleration, unless you mount the heaviest batteries you can find into the bottom of the bearing, and the entire thing will be unsprung, but still.

After like a week Banggood agreed to replace the H8 mini that was damaged in shipping, so now that they aren't going to ask for another set of pictures I figure I'll see if I can repair it and not have to wait 3 weeks for the replacement to arrive.
The casing is twisted and broken in one place, but that should be a relatively easy fix with just some careful force and a little glue, but the bigger problem is that one of the motors isn't spinning. The one with the black sharpie scribble.
I've got basically no idea what I'm doing when it comes to electronics, but I can't see anything obviously wrong, so I'm not that hopeful, but maybe it's worth asking if anyone else can spot the problem or has some ideas to try.
Apologies in advance for the picture quality, I'll stick them on imgur instead of polluting the thread too much.
https://imgur.com/a/6k9Lp

>>1289589
First try connecting the leads from the motor directly to the battery
If it spins up the motor is fine, then you have to check the parts of the circuit leading to the motor with a multimeter
If it doesnt, the motor is fucked

>>1289589
sup HTC one owner?

>>1289619
Are these just plain dc motors I thought they were all induction motors on choppers for precision speed control? Try swapping two motors to test motor vs controller broken

>>1289693
you can connect any brushed motor directly to battery with no issue

>>1289693
They might have a rotary encoder slapped onto the back to measure rotation speed for the precision control, but you can just ignore that. Brushed motors run just fine off of DC. A brushed motor intrinsically has no speed control, if it has power passing through it it will spin, and the speed of the spin is limited only by how much power is supplied. More power means the motor can overcome more friction/load. Speed control works by just altering how much power is passed through, which lowers the amount of torque the motor produces and thus its speed.

>>1289619
Okay, so the motor works. Gave myself a heart attack when after 2 minutes of thinking I was making a connection and not getting anything I wiggled a wire and it suddenly jumped
I'm pretty sure I have a multimeter around here somewhere. Am I just checking the spots the motor attaches for continuity?

>>1289781
No, you wanna check each pin on each little part right before where the motor connects
Compare the results to the same pins on the same part on a different arm
You may want to check for continuity, voltage drop or resistance depending on what it is

>>1289733
>They might have a rotary encoder slapped onto the back to measure rotation speed for the precision control,

Lolno. We're only just beginning to see motor speed telemetry with the latest brushless ESCs, you think a $10 toy quad is going to have it via rotary encoders? Motor speed telemetry isn't even needed for 'precision control', that's what a PID loop running 1KHz+ is for.

>>1289859
I had a 10£ toy rc car with a rotary encoder once. It was used for a little speedometer on the controller. On a Chinese quad, who knows what kind of shitty solutions they'll come up with.

>>1290050
You're not quite getting the point. Having rotary encoders on the motors for rpm telemetry wouldn't be 'shitty', it would be 'astonishingly high end'. Multirotors don't need to know motor rpm to work, it's a premium/enthusiast feature that we are only just now seeing enter the market on a few niche/expensive products.

>>1290050
Why would a quad NEED to know how fast the motors are spinning? It has gyroscopes & accelerometers that tell it about its roll/pitch/yaw, which is what it's trying to control.

>>1290050
I don't believe it. The speedo was probably just wired directly to the accelerator on the controller.

Decided to impulse order parts for a 7" build, seemed the next logical step after 6"...

>>1290247
>>1290058
How fucking retarded are the posters on this board. The brushless motors used in this shit are more like steppers than traditional dc motors. The encoder knows its RPM because THE DRIVER SETS THE RPM.

I built a 90-class quad today.
My first build!

Lantian 90 frame (I ordered a two frames and this one seemed better than the other. Thick carbon laminate, nicely machined, thoughtfully layed out.)

Piko BLX flight controller, Sunrise Cicada 10A 4-in-1 ESCs, generic 1104 -4000kv motors.

Had to re-do a few things up to and including diagnosing a bum serial line joint, but the FC is happy, the ECs are freshly flashed, and the motors spin up.

Took a lot longer than I would have liked. I've never had to solder copper wire ends to aluminum wire ends before. Bit obnoxious.

Been practicing in sim, so hopefully I won't break too many props.

>>1291571
>The brushless motors used in this shit...
But we were talking about brushed motors?

>>1291571
Firstly, the context here (>>1289589) is mainly concerning brushed motors.

Secondly, even though the microcontroller on the ESC of a brushless motor knows what the rpm is, this information isn't needed by the flight controller for stable/reliable flight. As I said, we are only now (literally within the last few months) starting to begin seeing ESCs with telemetry connections back to the FC to report rpm.

>>1291622
good call on 90mm as your first build, that thing will be indestructible (aside from the props as you mentioned)

>>1276349
thats an airsoft site isnt it??
i think i played there once upon a time when i went to the states, also its on youtube.


can someone tell me what goggles i can get that give me teh best resolution? i fly using quanums and the screens only 480p and i cant see shit, no definition. 720p like minimum

>>1291986
Fatshark hd3 or skyzone 2 or aomway

>>1291986
If you want the best resolution, then you're going to have to pony up for the Fatshark HDs.

>>1291986
>thats an airsoft site isnt it??
>i think i played there once upon a time when i went to the states

It is an airsoft site, but it's in Scotland not the States.

>720p like minimum

Remember that most people fly with a 600 TVL camera, so anything above 800x600 (for 4:3) is kinda pointless.

>>1288712
They apparently stopped shipping them with the Kakute F4.

>>1289797
>>1289619
Finally had some time to fuck around with stuff.
Pulled it all apart, poked at it randomly with a multimeter, couldn't find anything that looked wrong, bought a soldering iron and clumsily put it all back together and now it works.
Good job me.
Frame is still pretty bent and I think one of the props is rubbing on something a little, but it was a valuable learning experience.

In other news, my phone's camera is still shit.

Not sure if this is the right general, but what would be the best way to make. Some lightweight pin joints for robotics projects, tried with ball bearings but they are way too bulky.

>>1294400
If you bought a new camera you'd need to start putting "purple video guy" in the name field.

Gonna try to learn how to fly LoS rate/acro. I expect it to end badly, but it's all cheap/spare parts.

Asked a question about this in an earlier thread, narrowed down to 2 choices. Getting a drone for my dad as a Christmas present, he'll probably mostly use it at our hunting camp to survey and whatever else he comes up with. Looking at 2 options, can't decide which would be more fitting

Option 1: https://www.amazon.com/Altair-Beginner-Quadcopter-Altitude-Indoors/dp/B075RFWDN7?SubscriptionId=AKIAINRYHGI6LFEYQVSQ&tag=dronesupremac-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B075RFWDN7
Pros:
>Cheapish ($150)
>Looks relatively fool-proof
>FPV
Cons:
>No GPS, so no GPS flight or return home when lost/battery low
>Pretty much 100% positive it's going to need rescue operations mounted after dad ignores warning/isn't careful and gets the thing out of range

Option 2: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1354288-REG/dji_spark_quadcopter_with_waterproof.html
Pros:
>Looks even more foolproof
>GPS, return home, etc
>FPV
Cons:
>Price ($350)
>Props aren't as protected, worries me at first glance

>>1294674

>LoS acro

why not fly fixed wing while blindfolded while you're at it. you'll have about the same amount of success, with more bragging rights.

>>1294753

Spring for the Spark or you'll be sorry

>>1294926
I'm talking about just being able to fly circles/figure-8s.

>>1294753
Neither of those options is particularly suitable for the scenario you describe.

Option 1 looks to have brushed motors, which don't belong in anything above a $50 toy drone, and the lack of GPS means your dad will lose the thing the first time he takes it up and immediately loses track of orientation.

Option 2 is more suitable, but without the optional controller (which probably makes the price $500+) the range with your smartphone is maybe 200m at best.

>Props aren't as protected, worries me at first glance

You should never be flying a drone like those near enough to anything for prop guards to be of any use. The only place where prop guards are genuinely useful is for tiny indoor quads that you want to able to bounce off walls without crashing.

>>1294927
>>1295118
Thanks for the input, Spark it is

I'm thinking about making an fpv quad. What frame/prop/motor specs would you choose if you wanted a quad that performed reasonably well with a gimbled action cam and fpv equipment as a payload? 5" props?

>>1295338
Gimbal on a 5" quad is a gimmick, people have done it before but only for shits and giggles. Smallest you realistically want for a gimbal quad is 8".

anybody else here flying upside down?

>>1295365
Oh fuck I didn't think I'd have to go that big. Do I actually need a gimble if my goal is a decent quality feed from the fpv?

>>1295518

What exactly do you want to do?

Most people who want to shoot HD video either use a gopro style camera in addition to the FPV rig or buy a commercial solution.

>>1295495

I was thinking about it.

Just seems like a recipe for prop-strikes and endos.

Unclear on what the benefits would be. Maybe a slightly lower center of mass, but that isn't particularly useful.

I would be more interested in a push/pull setup, with the front rotors up top.

>>1295550
the benefit is higher efficiency due to the frame not being in the prop wash. I have no idea how much, but it flies fine.

>>1295640
>higher efficiency due to the frame not being in the prop wash

But you still lose efficiency by the arms obstructing the air feeding the props from above. And if you go in for the disc loading theory, having more of the frame between the props by having the props higher up on the frame will make it even worse.

>>1295518
What sort of FPV are you talking about? Gimbals have no place in freestyle/racing, remember you can't even flip/roll a gimbal through 360 which rules out all acro.

Can I program in ailerons to drop a little bit on a switch to act as flaps on a plane that doesn't have any, or is that a recipe for disaster?

>>1295667
>remember you can't even flip/roll a gimbal through 360
I must have missed this day at gimbal school. Oh no wait it's bollocks

how to lose 200€ to airmode.
Motherfucker is gone for ever.....

>>1295728
Please show me a GoPro gimbal (what >>1295546
is talking about) with unlimited rotation in both pitch and roll axis.

>>1295729
How exactly is airmode to blame for you getting stuck in a tree?

>>1295729
fly a smaller one up through the trees to dislodge that one

>>1295730
Nobody said go pro
Nobody said no self build
Also greater than 360 is not unlimited

>>1295745
Hit one small branch, did not did not disable airmode fast enough--> gets itself propper stuck.
But yes, it was mostly my stupidity .

>>1295749
That will not work at all.

>>1295757
>Nobody said go pro

Except they did...

>>1295338
>with a gimbled action cam

>>1295757
>Nobody said no self build

Except they did...

>>1295338
>I'm thinking about making an fpv quad

Plus this is /diy/

>>1295757
>Also greater than 360 is not unlimited

So a quad with a gimbal that can only perform a limited number of rotations in one direction before the gimbal hits its end stop is in any way viable?

Just stop posting.

>>1295760
Fine, fly a bigger one up there and dislodge the tree

>>1295771
can I borrow yours anon?

>>1295761
Your second response I don't understand.
Clock spring instead of slip ring you can go multi turn but not infinite.
I never said it was a good idea I just said multi turn isn't impossible ffs.

>>1295781
Sure, just fill up the tank when you're done

>>1295729
Better get climbing my dude

>>1295791
Danke!

>>1295795
2 far up, shits too thin, even for an 50kg dude....but I don´t weigh that.

>>1295920
I've had shit stuck in trees before. Never a quad somehow though.
Generally my favorite method was throwing a rope over the branch and shaking it loose. If you're having trouble getting a rope in the right place, tying some fishing line to an arrow or fishing weight and firing it with a bow or slingshot and using that to pull a rope over works.
And if it doesn't shake loose you can always just break the branch off by swinging on it for a bit.

>>1295920
Shoot it with a pellet gun. You'll likely break some parts but something is bound to be salvageable.

>>1295952
>he hits the lipo and the whole tree goes up in flames

>>1295934
I might try a slingshot, thanks for the idea.

>>1295952
I fucked myself over in a city park. So no.
Also not in Burgerland.

>>1295978
yes.

What should I use my 2.4ghz on, control or fpv?

>>1296212
The normal setup these days is 2.4GHz for control/telemetry, 5.8GHz for video.

If you're going for really long range, you might opt for 433/868/915MHz control with 1.3/2.4GHz video.

>>1295995
airsoft might work.

>>1296274
I'd use a vortex gun to push it out of the tree with a stream of BBs.

>>1295729
>tie a rope to a rock
>throw rock over branch
>shake branch
ez

>>1294674
I'm doing the same, just build my first drone from used parts (well I have a phantom 2, but that doesn't count)

What are you running for rates? I'm trying .70 RC and .84 super
It's starting to feel manageable, works out to a 875 deg/s max. Doing some out and back and strafing so far. Mostly keeping the rear facing me for now but I feel like I'm making really quick progress already

how much power do you guys use for FPV? and has anyone else had problems with carbon fiber conductivity?

I have a 600mw transmitter and had a problem with it arcing onto the carbon fiber frame

>>1296593
I run 0.8 / 0.8 on everything for FPV, so that's what I'm going to try for LoS. Just waiting for suitable weather...

>>1296606
Carbon fiber is conductive, ergo you don't let anything live touch it. Makes no difference what power level your VTX is, you shouldn't be making contact between any live components & the frame.

>>1296652
how do you install one of these without it touching the frame?

>>1296686
That grounds the frame, there's nothing wrong with that. If you're getting 'arcing' it's because you have something with voltage going through it in contact with the frame. You don't have bare components strapped straight to your frame, do you?

>>1296690
there's probably a short in one of the ESCs or motors. thanks, I thought it was the VTX. time to get this sorted out.

>>1296686
Self amalgamating tape.

>>1296593
>It's starting to feel manageable, works out to a 875 deg/s max

Why exactly do you want to be able to spin like a top if you are just learning to fly that shit in a perfectly straight line?

There is no practical, real-world reason to have rates that high. I haven't crunched the numbers or anything, but if you watch people pilot really fast quads, you'll notice that their actual adjustments are very sedate. You should already be starting to yaw for the next gate while you are hitting the closest one, then you roll to correct your vector as gently as you can get away with.

>>1297016
I want to be able to get used to having a expo rate. The center of my stick is pretty forgiving, and the area around that starts to get into the expo curve

Pretty much just trying to practice with rates that are similar in shape to what I'll eventually run

>>1297058

What are you eventually doing that you expect to be literally rotating entirely more than twice per second on any axis? That gives you a few hundreds of a second to stabilize onto the vector you want, which is edging across the line of what human reaction times can reliably achieve. This means that you are going to be constantly running into the classic over-correction feedback loop which leads directly to loss of control and crash.

If you racing, the most extreme maneuver you will ever have to perform is probably in the ballpark of an inverted 180 degree hairpin performed within the span of half a second to a full second. Anything past 360 degree/sec rates is overkill for any realistic quadcopter related activity. It's different for fixed wing because you aren't changing your thrust vector when you roll a fixed wing aircraft.

>>1297061
Low rates are good for racing (I know people that fly ~300°/s at races) but freestyle requires much higher rates (800-1200°/s is normal). The expo curve means you can make small, smooth movements using the majority of the stick travel, then just the ends of the stick travel gives you the full rotation speed for doing flips/rolls.

I fly 800°/s on all three axes. If you look at the stick overlay on picrelated webm, you'll see that to do the first half of that roll quickly, then complete it slower, I use the full 800°/s for a moment.

I made orders on the same day with Airbot & T-Motor, the Airbot stuff arrived on Monday (had to wait until today to collect it from the PO) while the T-Motor stuff still hasn't even shipped :/

>5th time I've rebuilt this quad trying to get anything to work
>brand new F4 FC refuses to work with IBUS
>it works in SBUS mode but not IBUS
>accelerometer drift is brutal, and I've never even experienced drift before this FC
>RSSI is impossible because of bullshit
>receiver that I chose specifically because other buyers said it has a failsafe has no failsafe
>action cam will randomly stop recording after 1 minute
fuck it I'm throwing it all out

>>1297899
If you don't have the patience to work through issues like this, just buy a RTF.

>>1297899
well I figured out the reason IBUS didn't work, I had to connect it to the DSM pin instead of the SBUS pin. both go to the same UART, maybe something to do with a hardware inverter. that also fixed the failsafe problem, I was using the receiver with PPM and it had no failsafe, but with IBUS it works. I also updated the firmware on the FC and I haven't done extensive testing but I didn't notice drift anymore. those were the main issues so I guess I'll keep this shit for now.

>>1297925
at this point I've spent so much money and time I would rather just get out of the hobby.

Rip kopis 1. Stuck at the top of the cedar in front of me. Can't climb it cause I'm fat. Guess I'm now motivated to lose weight to learn how to climb up this tree.

>>1298069
Get another drone and fly into it to knock it loose

>>1298069
what the fuck why do you guys keep flying your drones into trees

>>1277624
stop being such a fucking jew and live a little. go shoot a 50 and imagine all the money you are pissing down the drain with each shot.

>>1298157
>bullets that cost multiple dollars per round
Yeah, think I'd rather empty 50 magazines of 22lr for the price of a single .50 bmg

>>1298069
Depending on the value of the quad, check with local tree surgeons etc. to see how much they would charge to come climb the tree & retrieve it for you. Especially if you had a GoPro on it, paying a $100 call out wouldn't be too bad.

>>1298069
Well at least this tree is not so bad to climb on.

As for me, my shit is still stuck in that fucker of a tree.

Tfw everything is grey.

>>1291622
Did you have a guide/parts list to follow? I'm interested in building my first quad and 90mm seems like a fun/good idea.

Is it an unspoken rule that self built fpv quads aren't allowed to have gps? I see gps return-to-home features all the time on consumer quads, but everyone seems viciously against it with diy quads. I really like the idea of my quad autonomously turning around and heading back into range when it loses signal, especially as a toggleable option. That way it could be disabled if you're in a wooded area where the quad can't safely ascend to it's autopilot altitude.

>>1299060
Personally I'd ignore it. It's too tempting to fuck with. I've wanted to put an AVR autopilot in one of those foam throwing planes from wal-mart for a few years and it sounds like those dudes would blow a fucking gasket if I said that.

>>1299060
GPS is considered a very low priority by most FPV pilots, as it doesn't affect/improve the fundamental performance of what most FPV quads are used for - racing & freestyle. In fact the added weight, additional wires, etc. would be considered a negative thing to a lot of pilots.

Because of this, the developers that work on the flight controller firmwares that are used by most FPV pilots (eg Cleanflight/Betaflight/Raceflight/KISS) don't have any sort of GPS autopilot functionality, as working on that would take developer hours away from features/improvements that a substantially larger proportion of the users would benefit from (things like dynamic filters, UART control of VTX, etc.).

If you want GPS autopilot in a FPV quad, you'll probably want to take a look at the iNav project - which essentially tries to add GPS autopilot functionality to Betaflight.

>>1299060
>>1299065
>>1299132

All three of you need to check out ArduPilot.

It's an open-source autopilot platform for hobby UAVs with pretty active development.

It's definitely something that is on my bucket list to experiment with.

>>1298950
>Did you have a guide/parts list to follow? I'm interested in building my first quad and 90mm seems like a fun/good idea.

No.
I winged it.

There are a lot of guides around.

Truthfully, you can save a lot of time and money buying a BNF in the 90 class. They're about $100. Building one costs more.

Is there a book or any websites anyone could recommend me to learn the basics of component selection for circuits? What I mean exactly is not the designing of a circuit layout itself, but the material selection for a circuit board, what materials to use for certain electrical components depending on the environment (extreme heat or cold conditions, wet, etc), design for vibration dampening of the circuit board and just other things like that.

I'm an MechEng graduate, so any books or sites that are more technical is fine with me.

>>1299831
>material selection for a circuit board
for a normal pcb you use fibreglass-epoxy board (FR4) with a copper coating. the thickness of the copper depends on the current, 99.99% of the time it is the second thinnest available because cost. second because i don't know.

for extreme temperature you do exactly the same.

for vibration you do exactly the same then once all components are in you spunk a load of silastic/silicone on top to glue everything in place. you could use rubber bungs in the screw mount standoffs if you like i suppose.

you don't generally get electronics wet, they don't like it. a nice IP rated enclosure is the ticket.

>>1299831
Eevblog on YouTube and whateve his website/books are

I am in no position to judge but he seems legit and drops nuggets like this all the time. And mr Carlsons lab

Like eevblog just did a video on how to design layout for surface mount caps because you could easily break them if you place them badly.

>>1289589

The H8 you have there is worth getting up and running. great to fling around, completely indestructible under it's own speed.

>>1299804

I (>>1299132) have an Arducopter setup (>>1288670), but Arducopter is rubbish for rate mode FPV flying, which is what I assumed >>1299060 was talking about.

replaced the huge XT60/16AWG connector on battery/quad with JST RCY/24AWG

saved about 8g

I could use just the JST XH balance connector but I don't like how the pins tend to pull out of the male plug. still thinking about it since the wire gauge is the same and that's one less thing hanging off the quad

>>1300244

You are likely to have problems with a 24 ga main bus. If you are flying 2s or 3s they could be quite severe problems

More motors arrived today, 7" is gonna be fun :)

>>1300244
There are so many places you should've thought about saving weight before compromising your power connection...

>>1299804
iNav is gonna run on much cheaper hardware

>>1300577
It's also very nascent compared to Ardupilot.

>>1274647
Want a descent and hopefully affordable heavy lift drone to deliver beers to people at the lake.

Any sort of quick realease or dump system that will work?

>>1300260
>>1300277
the plan was to shorten the wires since they were hard to manage on my small quad, and replace the XT60s with XT30s, but I would have to order the XT30s and I already had some JST RCY on hand so I decided to put them on just for shits. I thought for sure it would weld the contacts together or melt the shitty insulation on the wires, but nope. it's running perfectly fine, and I've flown 4 battery packs so far.

2S batteries, all up weight is 185g. I wouldn't even think of using JST on 3S.

>>1300807
Anybody asking that sort of question shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the equipment to make it happen. And unless your definition of 'affordable' is absolute minimum $1000...

>>1300828

>2s
>185g

does it actually fly?

>>1301075
yes and it flies fine, ~4 minutes with a 1000mah 2S

most quads this size are using 3-4S batteries these days, but I'm not into acro, I just like flying

Noob here, working on first quad. Motors spin up in cleanflight control panel, also shows it receiving signals from the controller, but when I disconnect it from computer, motors don't move at all when using controller. plz help

>>1301109

It's a 3" right? I can't see a 2" flying on 2s at 185 grams.

You should be getting waaaaaaaay longer flight times on something that size. You would probably double your flight time if you moved up to 3s 1000mah

For perspective, I'm getting 10 minutes of 85% throttle on a 100 gram 90mm build, 3s 450mah, 2035 5-blade props. Which is also very overweight and inefficient.

>>1301132

You need to configure an Arming switch in the modes tab. You can also go ahead and configure the same switch to enable Air Mode when when it arms.

>>1301138
yes, 3040 props on 1306 motors

are you the guy that murders batteries down to 3.3v? I could double my flight time by just doing that

I'm attributing the semi-low flight time to old motors which I'm sure are not as efficient as they should be, and a 600mw FPV TX

>>1301148

What KV are your motors?

>are you the guy that murders batteries down to 3.3v?

As I've been explaining, I don't have to murder batteries down to 3.3v. I get great flight times with low-ish KV motors, high-ish voltage batteries, and 5-blade props. If I could cut 20 grams off my build, I could drop to 4 or 3 blade and get even more efficient.

Like you, I just want to fly and am not focused on raw power or speed.

>>1301151
3100kv

I have no idea how you get such long flight times, I also have a 90mm quad: 80g AUW, 2S 450mah, 1935 3-blade props, but it only gets 2-3 minutes flight time

>>1301162

You're consistently running too much weight by voltage/mah/kv/prop size

450mah is a really heavy battery for 2s on 1935 3-blade props. I really recommend that you move up to 4-blade and see how that works. If you are getting slightly longer flight times with 4-blade, move back to 3-blade and bump up to 3s at equal or slightly lower mah.

>>1274811
You can do pure analogue UHF systems, but they're bigger and heavier.

>>1301199
my 90mm is a Kingkong 90GT, the battery is the manufacturer recommended size and everything else is stock, what gives?

also I don't have a 3s battery so I stacked 3 1S batteries and made an adapter for them. however I wasn't able to test the flight time because after 30 seconds I stopped to check for heat and the motors were burning up. I do have some 3030 4-blade props, and I tested them with a 2S battery but they got dead-on the same flight time as the 3040 3-blade props

I did find that with slow flying my flight time is 4.8 minutes

What are some good plane-type drones/kits for aerial photography? The longer it can stay up the better, so I was thinking of some sort of glider. Should I just DIY a foam one and outfit it with some kit? I think the cargo wouldn't be anymore than a DLSR+Wide prime lens, so like 3-5lbs at most including cargo framing.

>>1301373
Planes aren't really much use for any sort of aerial photography beyond large scale surveying where you just have a fixed downward-facing camera. A gimbal'd dSLR on a foam plane isn't even remotely realistic.

>>1301373
How about a kite? Big balloon?

>>1301764

Everything in your post is exactly wrong.

There's a reason that defense-industry UAVs are fixed wing, not multicopters. There's a LOT of reasons, actually.

Pretty sure that there are more commercially available fixed wing gimbal UAVs than there are multicopters.

>>1301872
Fixed wing gives you greater range/speed/flight time, sure. But for aerial photography (which is what anon was talking about) they are substantially less popular than multicopters for the very simple reason that they don't hover. Permanent forward flight is a massive hindrance for a vast number of aerial photography scenarios.

>There's a reason that defense-industry UAVs are fixed wing, not multicopters. There's a LOT of reasons, actually.

Yes, and none of them really apply to aerial photography.

>Pretty sure that there are more commercially available fixed wing gimbal UAVs than there are multicopters.

This is a joke, right?

>>1301930

No, it's not a joke.
Do some research.
The vast majority of business & commercial applications use fixed-wing.

DJI-style multis are rich-kid toys, and youtube channel tools. Which is fine. They're pretty good at those things.

>>1301930
>Yes, and none of them really apply to aerial photography.

ALL of them apply to aerial photography. That's what the fucking things are FOR. Surveillance and intelligence gathering.

Loiter time (what you probably think of as "flight time") and payload are generally - but not always - the most important traits of an aircraft being used for aerial photography. Fixed wing is far better at both.

>>1301946
>>1301949
Again, the inability to hover makes fixed wing useless for so many aerial photography scenarios. I actually work as a commercially licensed aerial photographer & the overwhelming number of jobs that I've done could literally not have been done with fixed wing.

>>1301930
>>1301872
GASSER TRAD HELI IS BEST PLATFORM
>b-but it's hard
lmao

>>1301966

You shoot weddings or something?

>>1301983

Strictly speaking lighter-than-air is best platform.

>You will never race your FPV hot-air-balloon around the world in 80 days

>>1302092
Holy shit that sounds incredibly cool
>hot air balloon with bigass propane tanks and a small generator to power the electronics
>little fpv sixaxis arm mounted in the middle to pull levers and look around, and wave at people
>response time is almost meaningless so you can have a super hd camera streaming your video feed
>just casually drifting through the atmosphere peering around, trying to judge wind directions, confusing pilots, all from the comfort of your home

I really want to make my own quad. Anyone know a good and cheap (ideally under $300) diy kit?
I've been looking online and there seem to be a lot of guides but they just go look for x part rather than say buy this specific thing. I'm really new to diying and I'd really like a kit or a guide something that essentially holds your hand and walks you through everything.

>>1302091
I shoot all sorts & literally the only job I've done where a fixed wing would even have been viable was an agricultural survey.

>>1298929
is this recorded with an extra HD cam or is it the actual LIVE FPV view?

>>1294400
awesome quality

>>1302168
That's from a separate HD cam. Even Connex isn't that good when it comes to live FPV.

have you ever flown somewhere you shouldn't?

>>1301794
Things with strings don't do so well in such locations.

>>1301764
But, you can buy them easily. I just want some feedback on kits vs store bought brands. I also don't see why it wouldn't be realistic since it all boils down to cargo weight.

>>1301930
>>1301966
I can't think of a reason to need a multicopter for this. It'd fall out of the sky hours before the other one would if it is a warm day with good thermals.

I think you are simply lying and don't know what you are talking about. People have been doing non-stationary aerial photography for at least 120 years and photography from plans for over 100 years.

The only reason quadcopters are so popular is because of their easy of use and small landing footprint. They are automated for a great deal of their flight time. You basically tell it to move from point A to point B and the onboard computer makes sure that happens.

>I actually work as a commercially licensed aerial photographer

No, you don't. You are lying. You are a hobbyist. An ignorant hobbyist.

>>1302423
Most people do because most people don't know the local laws and no-fly zones and don't have a UAV that accesses the online database to shutdown when entering one.

>>1302434
Maybe you should explain better what sort of aerial photography you want to do, because I think that is where our disagreement stems from.

Of course people have been doing aerial photography for ages using non-stationary aerial platforms & of course such platforms have their advantages over multicopters. But that doesn't change the fact that there are many styles of shooting that you simply cannot do with a non-stationary platform & the fact you don't seem to comprehend this is genuinely perplexing.

Of course you wouldn't want to use a multicopter if you wanted to shoot kilometres of cruising footage across the countryside at 400ft. But likewise you physically couldn't shoot a crane-style reveal shot of a building using a fixed wing, or shoot following a subject at walking pace, or shoot ascending/descending shots without lateral movement.

>No, you don't.

Yes, I do. This year I made about half of my income from commercial AP jobs with my RPCS qualification working under a PfCO.

>>1302905
>Maybe you should explain better what sort of aerial photography you want to do,

Obviously, the kind using a fixed wing, kid.

>>1302115
You could find a build on rotorbuilds you like and recreate it

>Build a quad
>It flies great
>Immediately start thinking about how it could be even better
>Start shopping around for components


and this is how people end up with enormous pegboards covered in multirotors. Fuck.

>>1303540
I wish
>build quad
>it's ass
>total it on 1st/2nd flight
>repeat 3x
4th time's the charm though, I'm finally happy with it
I should have just bought a prebuilt

>>1303557
>I should have just bought a prebuilt

It's very important for any pilot to be the master of his aircraft. A newb can buy a pre-built and it will work alright, but they won't have much of an understanding of why or how it works, and that will limit their abilities in the long run.

Anyway building and tuning are at least as much fun as flying.

Need some help, just bought someone's used quad problem is this thing goes full throttle the second I arm it. I reset the esc and configuration tab to default and I still get the same issue. Anyone have any idea how to fix this?

>>1303564

Check the configuration tab where it offers options like "D-shot", "Multishot" etc

If it's a brushless quad try setting it to different things.

If it's brushed, obv set it to Brushed.

>>1303564
could also be caused by fucked PIDs (super-overcompensating)
and check the minimum speed on the motors tab

>>1301368
here again

moved to a new frame: 200mm, 5030 2-blade props

I tested it before I put in the FPV system, 168g AUW, same battery as before 2S 1,000mah. I had to stop the test at 10 minutes because I wasn't sure if the beeper was working at that point... battery tested at 7.56v

this thing is incredibly efficient (compared to the old build at least) and I can't wait to see what flight times it gets with FPV

>>1304078

Nice!

Anyone know if it is possible to mount a xt60 on HGLRC XJB?

>>1304312
the XJB-145 comes with an XT30 connector, and the battery terminals look easy to access without removing anything if you want to replace it. what are you asking?

>>1302092
Thats a pretty good idea. Anyone made an fpv blimp?

>>1300844
I could probably swing $1,000 or better. It will double for advertisment assistance and be a tax writeoff anyway. Just havent looked into it much past the cheap fpv setups.

I figure rather than fuck something up i would just buy a descent heavy lifter to drag banners around my display booth where allowed and on the weekends i can troll the shit out of buddies at the local lake.

Was thinking somethibg like this phantom but bigger. Thin sheet aluminum and electroluminescent paint. I got a buddy who can make a killer sign.

If i can push a button, have it lift off 15 feet, then hit 50 checkpoints just cruising in a circle several times and land on a charging pad or hot swap packs then that would be ideal.

>>1304491
Shit.

>>1304489

I think it is usually just called a "weather balloon"

Not sure about real-time video links.There are substantial legal, technical, and financial barriers involved in putting a heavy duty transmitters on remotely controlled things that fly.

I've been giving thought to using some sort of disposable balloon as a launch platform for an FPV sailplane.

/mu/ here. I want to use a brushless indoor micro drone to create a distorted psychedelic video to be projected as a light show behind a rock band.

How much would a project like this cost, assuming free software, and excluding the projector setup?

>>1306387
is this going to be a live video feed or are you just making a video to be projected later? if you are just recording, do you need HD video?

a brushless quad is going to be around $100, if you need HD video then around $150 for one that can carry an action cam, then another $50 for the transmitter, another $50 for goggles, and if you aren't using HD video then another $20 for a video recorder (assuming you don't have one)

or you could just buy a brushed quad with wifi FPV for like $30