Align Multicopter Align M480L has arrived ....

[gDallasK]

... and I am deeply impressed by the quality of the components and the detailed instruction manual. You can immediately see that you are dealing with an organisation that has been designing, manufacturing and selling complex R/C products for a good many years.

If I can get the day job done I should have some time to start assembling it this evening.

 

[GotHeliRC]

That's the same impression when I built our 480L test unit. You will see it also fly great out of the box.

FYI... stock gain fly good with no payload, once you add payload, reduce the copter gain a bit and it will help with gimbal tuning. Enjoy.

 

[skypyro]

If you have a later model hopefully you wont have the same cable and connector quality that early adopters had, particularly connection from PCU to APS-M which a lot have had problems seating properly. Other quality issues early on were the soldering of the wires in GPS puck, and the esc connectors not being hot glued in place, but hopefully some of these issues will not affect later buyers. The quality of the aircraft is great as stated, real easy to assemble and without a gimbal whooahh can that thing shift.

 

[Shelipso]

I had to resolder all the gps wires but the ESCs and pcu wire were fine. It flies really great (m690) but vibrations at gimbal (G3 GH) are s lot making the videos from my G3 almost unusable. If I get that right, I will be happy with the purchase! Fingers crossed.

 

[ShackFlyer]

Hopefully the new 16v voltage booster for the gimbal will help.
The FW & software update for the gimbal pulled the rug out from my tuning it, as I was getting somewhere, then ended up fitting it to my S900 for a flight test as my z15 didn't arrive.
Surprisingly on a 12v UBEC supply on the s900 it's giving reasonble results, as it's on 2 sets of dampers on the s900 frame & the gimbal frames own. So I think if we ever get the softer dampers in the UK, & the extra voltage works, it might be 'usable' with a bit more tuning.

 

[Shelipso]

Thx ShackFlyer. My dealer has promised the voltage booster for a next week delivery. Will see. I have just replaced all the props with T Motor 15x5 self tightening to test how the vibrations would change. Will fly tomorrow. I don't have a lot of experience with folding blades but guess they contribute to the vibrations. When I tested the motors without the props, there was almost no vibration and I don't have a setup to try and balance the folding blades.

 

[ShackFlyer]

Which dealer are you using just out of interest?

 

[Shelipso]

Rcvault in Australia. Marcel there has been really helpful so far.

 

[Denny Rowland]

I added a M480 to the fleet this year and was very impressed by the quality throughout. I have just upgraded to the 2.0 and 2.1 firmware for the flight controller and gimbal and can make the following comments. The stability of the model in high wind is probably the best I have ever flown. The Gimbal needed some coaxing but it works great in the end. It you are using a second Tx for the gimbal I found it required that you disable the individual gimbal output channels in the APS-M software from the main controller Tx. Failure to do this resulted in a build up of errors that eventually sent the gimbal out of control. FWIW. The props. are balanced (through selection) so keep the pairs together as they seem to vary by up to 5 grams each. My model is using a Dragonlink LRS system and the APS-M does not talk to the DL Rx.ppm out. However you can make this work, as with any Rx by using a Futaba S bus adapter module.
I am using the GH-4 with the black rubbers and a 20mm lens. If you see any vibration or jellow you have bad prop balance. Align are definitely the new kids on the block who can challenge DJI at the top. They have always had the ability to make great components but some said they were lagging on the electronics front, well not any more IMHO. When most upgrades from you know who, address bugs from the past, this upgrade simply introduces functional features such as the ability to auto shoot autonomously panoramas by selecting anything up to 24 shots around a 360 deg, horizontal plain and then shoot more predefined ones at various downward angles. The proof of the pudding is in the munching so here's my first test footage in wind conditions that the Phantoms could not even get airborne in.

 

[Denny Rowland]

Guys I did the comparison between the carbon one piece supreme and found no difference at all, the folding ones work fine. You can balance the standard props with a slightly modified rotor blade balancer adapter.
BTW Kite surfers in Cyprus don't fly below 20 M/sec.
The 20mm lens is equivalent to 40 mm on a full frame 35mm Canon 5 D etc. So no distortion etc. But the narrow angle of view will show up any vibrations.

 

[skypyro]

well done m8 looking good, envious of that lovely warm weather and sea too lol

glad its working well !!

 

[Denny Rowland]

That beach is a mess because we had some really bad weather last week. Howling gales and below freezing on one night. It soon changes though....

 

[Shelipso]

Denny that is impressive. Gives me hope to work on my m690. I certainly get a lot of vibrations and have tried a fee variation in dampener configuration. That aside I totally agree that the flight characteristics are excellent.

May I ask How did you get the balance with your gimbal this far back? What battery size are you using?

 

[mrreddog]

Awesome vid Denny....

 

[Denny Rowland]

@Shelipso
I found that the 20mm lens (Mk2) just comes within the standard adjustment range. It is a short pancake lens. I am using 8 and 10,000 mah batteries. in the standard holder. I can't wait to try this voltage booster as when I tried to use my 14-140 lens I did see a little shake. I tried all of the dampers Black, Grey and some of my own white ones. Not a lot of difference really. The only thing that works is killing the vibration and keeping the lens weight to a min. One other thing that may work for you is reducing the prop dia. slightly to move the natural frequency away from where it is now.

 

[Denny Rowland]

I have now tried the HV adapter and found that one needs to reduce the P gain significantly. Most vibration issues that cause jellow are in fact not vibration at, all but high frequency oscillation from too much D and P gain.
Anyone else found this?
I would say that the Calibration algorithm still needs some work as it does not always work as it is supposed to. Usually after a few attempts the cross axis interference disappears. One day something will turn up that is perfect!!!