Hello from Western Massachusetts

[Motopreserve]

The duct tape makes sense. The weak wrap that comes on the battery, and my insane paranoia about these batteries had me worried about putting anything directly on the "case." But with some tape to secure it - that's the way to go. Don't want to be worrying about these things coming loose while in the air.

I like the the added protection of the pipe insulation, but I'd prefer to get good enough at landing to NOT need it

 

[jbrumberg]

"..... but I'd prefer to get good enough at landing to NOT need it". I've watched and I am sure that you've watched some pretty good quad piloting videos- they all land a little roughly. These quads are not exactly the gentlest of landers just by their physics.

Scott- Your concerns about LiPo batteries is "admirable". Bad things can happen to batteries and to people. I do not know much about batteries, but I have read a lot, but I was trained as a psychologist and I have/had seen a lot, read a lot too at one point, but I'm retired now. I am in no situation to "throw stones" either. I was probably in the "field" a tad too long:monkey:

 

[Motopreserve]

I think the battery paranoia came from seeing video of the explosions. That was enough for me! Hence the charging bunker and not wanting to rock the boat, so to speak. I like thinking of them as riding on a bed of rose pedals, perfectly balanced like they were in a gimbal...

...in reality, if they don't fall off the quad, I'll be happy.

 

[jbrumberg]

"... Hence the charging bunker" For all we know there probably are some individuals flying from armored personnel carriers worrying about that LiPo "ready-to-blow", and I am not joking about our military- if they fly lipo's like that there's a reason. They are my heroes. I will be the first to acknowledge their sacrifices and our first responders too. I am talking about the real fruitcakes out there. I've met a few in my time. It's managed risk. It's how one sees it. There are plenty of opinions on the proper care and feeding of those Li+ "exotic" batteries. You take care of them and they will generally remember who feeds and shelters them.

 

[jbrumberg]

Just some fun with one of my "toy" quads and an #808

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKG1jC3bM_0

 

[Motopreserve]

Just some fun with one of my "toy" quads and an #808

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKG1jC3bM_0

Great video Jay. The credits were the best part! Hell of a crew involved with that one

Seeing those trees, it's no wonder that you have lost some craft back there. Beautiful country though...

 

[jbrumberg]

Thanks Scott. It was fun just making that video the other day. I am really new to movie making as well- just more stuff for me to learn. I flew all the quads that day outside. It was 5 degrees F when I started. Living in the middle of the woods in the middle of nowhere has both its risks and benefits. I will be really, really careful with this build job. Trees can be a problem. The trees are a little more respectful nowadays though. I have been known to use my 12G shotgun (Browning BPS) and deer slugs to retrieve a tree tangled quad. I shot the top off of the offending tree, retrieved the quad which was undamaged by the tree, and unharmed by the retrieval technique, and kept on flying. It's nice that I still shoot accurately, and that I have no neighbors either:highly_amused: There are some open, non-restrictive public domain areas nearby that I will definitely try out. A change of scenery (sans shotgun ) is good for the soul

 

[COMike93yj]

Nice Vid Jay!

Were you using a Key Cam for he vid ( I might have missed that ).....

I love where you live...nice property! Growing up in NE I miss the autumns there but traded them for the Rocky Mts.....at least we have Aspens....but would love to have some Maples mixed in!

Mike

 

[jbrumberg]

Thanks Mike. Yes I was using an #808 version 16 with the B lens keychain videocamera for that video. My X1's with their winter coat, 600mAh battery, and the "808" are pretty overweight.:chuncky:

 

[COMike93yj]

Thanks Mike. Yes I was using an #808 version 16 with the B lens keychain videocamera for that video. My X1's with their winter coat, 600mAh battery, and the "808" are pretty overweight.:chuncky:

Jay,

I use a Mobius Actioncam that shoots 1080p and it only weighs 39G (IRRC).....I use it in my track car when I race at High Plains Raceway.....great little cam. That is the one that I'm going to use on the quad soon. You might want to check it out!

Mike

 

[jbrumberg]

It's on my list. How do I get this by wifey? :black_eyed: It has great reviews. It outperforms the keychains in comparison videos. It really in many ways is a mini GoPro. They are waaay too heavy for my X1's though. A couple of my friends at RCG have them.

 

[COMike93yj]

It's on my list. How do I get this by wifey? :black_eyed: It has great reviews. It outperforms the keychains in comparison videos. It really in many ways is a mini GoPro. They are waaay too heavy for my X1's though. A couple of my friends at RCG have them.

Jay I had to sell this to my wife as well WAY back.........it is certainly fun! It is a mini-GoPro but at a fraction of the cost. RCgroups has a great discussion on them.....and it pure and simply WORKS! Until I get into the higher end stuff for aerial vid and FPV this is going to be my baby for a bit.

 

[jbrumberg]

Mike- I forgot to ask- "track car"? I am curious.

 

[jbrumberg]

Today hopefully will be the day!!!! I might have a window of opportunity today weather permitting with light wind/calm wind/no wind for my hover testing and fine tuning. There is nothing I can do about the ground surface. It's frozen grass with a lot of big doggy plops. I have a #135 female St Bernard :dog: who really does not like to stray far from the house when she is "depositing" :sneakiness: These "deposits" can create distractions while flying. It is not good a good flying practice to have distractions under foot. Many of my most spectacular less than successful quad-ground interactions have occurred while I was busy dodging dog deposits while flying :distracted:

I am charging my 3S Tx LiFe battery now- it was running low, Tx alarm low. I will be topping off the 3S battery of the quad just for precautionary measures. It's at 11.5V. Not the best treatment of a 3S battery, but not the worst either. I will run through all the preliminary procedures change the factory preset default settings to the recommended PI Gains for Roll/Pitch and Yaw. I have an "idea" based on others' previous experiences where I should end up with my final tuning numbers, but my experiences may be different for a lot of reasons. Readers will know because I will post my experiences if/when they occur. Jay

 

[Motopreserve]

Good luck jay. Pick a spot and don't stray, maybe that will help with deposit-dodging! . Maybe the frozen ground will help keep the shoes clean!

looking forward to your results with the KK2 board. I'm headed out in a bit myself to get some more flight time in. Gotta take advantage of the break in this northeast weather!!!!

 

[mbowser]

Good luck, I was hoping to get out yesterday myself, but it was too windy to risk it. Unfortunately I won't make it home until after dark tonight. I'll have to continue with the somewhat scary bedroom testing until I get a calm dry day when both my son and I can be home.

-matt

 

[Motopreserve]

Bummer. But best to play it safe for these early stages.

I went "scouting" yesterday for some spots to safely fly - and the best one was a school near here. But during the week there will be people around (at the school - not really the field where I want to fly), but I'd rather be fully off on my own at this point. So I have found another park that should be good - since no sports will be taking place. 7 acres of open ground - should be good enough for some testing. I'll have the GoPro strapped to the thing - so hopefully I get some decent footage. Still haven't machined a mount for the camera yet - so we will see how it turns out. Either way, I'm hoping for some "alone time" for my tests

 

[jbrumberg]

It was worth it- my first maiden crash. Thank goodness that I had ordered a beefier set of landing struts a couple of weeks ago I got a little too smart this morning before I fine tuned everything. Awesome hit and cartwheel . I knew I should have gone with better fine tune pre-fine tune settings prior to initial fire up, but I was a wise arse . I was flying it around and not in complete control, especially yaw settings, which really was not good judgement on my part. I can cobble together a landing skid set up with some stuff laying around here. Hopefully a little heavier duty. This is definitely not a oversized SYMA X! My wife cannot understand the smile on my face

I agree Scott about flying in relative isolation. I am fortunate that I live in total isolation. It's a safety thing for others (and not just because of RC stuff). I do not care about embarrassment; I am too old now and do not care anymore. Although I could see problems for myself if I ended up self-eviscerating with my quad-build and there was nobody around.... Dog food..:dog:


PS: The quad itself is OK. Tough frame; weak landing struts- 4mm CF rods and some plastic connectors. There have been complaints about this landing skid set up. Honestly it stood up pretty well considering how well I hit terra firma.

 

[COMike93yj]

JAY!!!!!

Awesome job getting into the air! I was on a "pause" for the weekend (had to watch the PATS and their potential competition) so I was on QUAD HOLD!

Proud of you getting the bird up in the air and crashes will happen as we all know (and I will soon to find out)

I am going to be attempting to balance my props today....got 8 of the HQprops (10x5) and also have 8 of the HQprops (8x4.5) coming from HQprops as a New Years Gift and just had to pay shipping

I am envious of you guys getting your birds into the air. Still awaiting ESCs (they were on Back Order and still are) so I think I have to just bite the bullet and grab some readily available ones. I also didn't order the USBasp programmer thingy when I got my KK2.1 and had to source something from Ebay. Will see how that turns out O)

 

[Motopreserve]

Well, I just did the same thing. 4 minutes into the flight I crashed on the ice covered field. I had changed my flight mode settings after my maiden voyages over the holidays - and that may have been a factor. But I'm more afraid that I may have damaged a motor or 4 in my final night-time crash a few weeks back. Not sure how to tell. They all seemed to fire up together - and nothing sounded odd to my untrained ear.

The landing gear on this quad is no good. It connects to the frame with 4 clips - but they pop loose on impact, and I'm afraid even rough upright landing may be considered impact. I'm really thinking more and more about building my own H-Quad frame based on the QAV500 or TBS Discovery type frames. Low COG and more room for cameras, modules etc.

The he weirdest part was that just before the crash, I wasn't able to pull it back to me (it was still nose out). Worked for a couple minutes, and then just wanted to go forward....

back to to the drawing board.