Another UK-er (run for cover!)




Flydigital

Flydigital

Member
Hi Gringers. I think I'm at a similar stage to you in the build (though with no previous Rx experience|)
Put the 550 over new year and slowly adding all the extras - GS, FPV etc. I've realised it's getting quite laden with expensive stuff and need some basic flight school training.
I ordered a mini quad for training ages ago but still waiting for it to arrive. I have GS up and running but not yet tested it. GoPro also mounted but unflown. Hope to try it out this weekend all being well.
Not close to you unfortunately. Good luck with it all!
 

G

gringers

Preoccupied
Thanks Guys :)

It's been horrible weather here today and I know I should be more patient, but having installed the new landing gear and GoPro, I wanted to see how the copter flew, how the gimbal performed and have a test flight with the Taranis! So as soon as the sky cleared for a few minutes, I bolted to my little test field and had a fly!

It was waaaay too windy in all honesty but I did manage to find 10minutes without rain. Eveything seemed to work OK although I didn't have the balls to test my failsafe today! Just had a little fly round my immediate vicinity to play with the gains a little and see how the GoPro handled the very dull conditions.

I'll post an exceptionally uninspiring video once I upload to youtube....just to prove I did it (yes, I'm very proud again haha). You'll see from the video how inappropriate the landing gear and/or position of the camera is for anyone wanting to shoot serious video but as I mentioned in an earlier post, I was actually kinda keen to keep the props and/or gear in view at first just to see how the stabilization worked (against a moving point of reference).

All in all, despite the poor quality of the flying (I'll blame the weather!) and the poor framing of the video (I'll blame anything else I can..!) I'm actually seriously impressed by the performance. Yes, I'll have to play around a little more and introduce some additional dampening but hey, for a first flight, on a first build, in strong wind, by a n00b, I don't think you can expect a great deal!! :highly_amused:

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Flydigital

Flydigital

Member
Just had a little fly round my immediate vicinity to play with the gains a little...
Click to expand...
Glad you got it all home in one piece. Looks very similar to what I have right down to do the bouncy landing gear!

could you explain what 'gains' are. My guess is it's to do with how fast a stick reacts but not seen an idiots guide anywhere. And how exactly do you play with the gains. Is it Tx specific or is it done via PC or bluetooth app?
 

G

gringers

Preoccupied
Flydigital said:
Glad you got it all home in one piece. Looks very similar to what I have right down to do the bouncy landing gear!

could you explain what 'gains' are. My guess is it's to do with how fast a stick reacts but not seen an idiots guide anywhere. And how exactly do you play with the gains. Is it Tx specific or is it done via PC or bluetooth app?
Click to expand...

Again, I'm no expert so don't take my word as gospel but.....

Basically, gain = gyro sensitivity
Too little gain and the copter will be 'sluggish', too much and it will be 'twitchy'
I believe the attitude gains, relate directly to stick inputs on the tx - a higher gain gets a quicker reaction to the input from the copter.

You can alter the gains through the Naza Assistant software but you can also map channel X1 or X2 to a variable switch on your radio transmitter to adjust easily in the field (or to just see the effect of increasing/lowering). Again, you specify in the Assistant software whether you want to enable remote adjustment of gains and whether to use channel X1 or X2. If you do want that capability through your Tx, then you have to lose either gimbal control or IOC (because gimbal control uses X1 when enabled and IOC uses X2).

The way I see it, is that once you dial in your gains on a particular copter, you shouldn't really need to change them much unless you change the makeup of the rig. So, you might want to set remote adjustment through the Tx for the first few flights until you're happy with how she flies and responds and then not bother with remote tuning through the tx and use X1/X2 for IOC and gimbal instead.

DJI's wiki seems pretty good on the subject of gains:
http://wiki.dji.com/en/index.php/Naza-M_Autopilot_Setting

Hope that helps!


 

G

gringers

Preoccupied
gringers said:
I'll post an exceptionally uninspiring video once I upload to youtube....just to prove I did it (yes, I'm very proud again haha).
Click to expand...

WARNING : This is by far the worst and most boring video I've ever seen posted! If you do choose to watch it, remember it's 5 minutes and 41 seconds of your life that you'll never get back.....!
(I'm really quite embarrassed to put it up but I did say I would....perhaps it will be of marginal interest to other first time builders but I hope the pros forgive me!)

 
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G

gringers

Preoccupied
Warning : This is the second most boring video ever posted! Again, standard disclaimer about no refunds on life-time used if you choose to watch it!

However, I'm properly stoked! This was flight number 2 since adding the landing gear and gimbal. A little less windy than yesterday (thank god). You can see this vid almost doesn't show any of the landing gear or props in shot. I didn't remount the gimbal (yet), just placed the landing skids as far back as possible and changed the FOV on the gopro to medium. A quick and dirty, but nevertheless, satisfying change :)

The main thing I'm stoked about though, is the fact that I grew a pair and tested my forced failsafe - it worked perfectly! Hurrah! I know it's not a logical reaction given that, at the end of the day, it's just 'another' command you're sending, but it still made me kinda (extremely) nervous!

[FONT=&amp]If you're bored enough to actually be watching, the failsafe is activated at 3.55![/FONT]

 
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Droider

Droider

Drone Enthusiast
It get easier from here in. In no time at all it will be second nature to just go out and fly, the more you fly the more relxed and at one you become with your machine.... THEN you want a bigger one!

Good stuff matey

Safe flying

Dave
 



G

gringers

Preoccupied
Haha, if you appreciate those videos you must have too much time on your hands!!

Next step is to finally get the mini iosd, datalink and AVL58 installed and set up - probably the bit I've been looking forward to most! Can't wait to play with the groundstation features but realistically, I doubt I'll have a chance this weekend. You never know though - perhaps if I tell the wife I've got to work, I can actually run to the workshop instead :devious: :D
 

G

gringers

Preoccupied
Blimey, 3 weeks already since my grand plans to 'finish' this build....

Well today I managed to at least get the FPV element set up. Sounds simple but involved essentially rebuilding the entire thing again!

As part of the process, I ended up moving the GoPro to sit forward (instead of central under the frame) to get rid of the arms and landing gear in shot. It worked really well thankfully because it was a PITA! Brought some balance into it by hanging a second battery off the back (3S 850mah) to provide power to the AVL58 tx, also at the back is the AVL58 tx itself and the zenmuse cu has been resited too along with a rejigging of the landing gear. Remaining 'balance' comes from just seating the main flight battery back a touch.

I ended up getting an 8" Vonista monitor for the ground end which seems pretty good on the strength of my first flight earlier. Nice and bright and definitely reasonable quality.

Ultimately though...WOW! What a difference it makes from a AP (and piloting) point of view to be able to see what you're actually shooting instead of guessing where the camera is pointed (and at what angle). Really chuffed :) Will try and get some photos up of the rig and first fpv flight over the weekend (although they're nothing special I'm afraid).

I'm just stoked that every time I add a new function/feature, it surpasses all expectations I had of it before I began. Really impressive kit and for me so far, gremlin free :)
 

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