First FPV flight of TBS Discovery

[Tahoe Ed]

You paid more than I did two weeks ago. Maybe the price is going down?

Part Number	Description	Sell Unit	Quote	Quantity	Extension
V10Z62MSN05	Silicone Gel Pa	Each	$85.19	1	$85.19

Sub Total:	$85.19
Freight:	$9.98
Handling:	$3.95
Sales Tax (NY State Only):	$0.00
Total:	$99.12

Yes, I did set up an account.

 

[Coomkeen]

@Ken... Can I ask how you how you set up RTH?

I've read and re-read and re-re-read the Naza manual, but the only reference there is to RTH is as the failsafe, and I really wouldn't feet right about turning the TX off to trigger RTH.

Ron
www.bandonmodelflyingclub.com

 

[Tahoe Ed]

Ron,

You can set up a mix in your Tx to force RTH. If you use Spektrum, AR7XXX with a data port and above support preset failsafe for loss of signal or if you turn your Tx off. I have done it, but would not recommend it. The WKM now supports a switch to do RTH. I think that the Naza will have that feature eventually.

 

[Coomkeen]

Thanks Ken.

You've made me think that if I pulled the three position mode switch (I think it is) to between click positions, it would go into failsafe.
At least, according to the Assistant SW that's what happens.

Maybe I'll have to try it at 3ft altitude over long grass.

Ron
www.bandonmodelflyingclub.com

 

[kloner]

my mistake

Part Number	Description	Sell Unit	Quote	Quantity	Extension
V10Z62MSN05	Silicone Gel Pa	Each	$85.19	1	$85.19

Sub Total:	$85.19
Freight:	$10.03
Handling:	$3.95
Sales Tax (NY State Only):	$0.00
Total:	$99.17

my freight was $.05 more. AZure and i split a sheet

 

[kloner]

Koom, yes that works. That was how i used to do my failsafe bind and it failed safely alot, just be aware it may go to one side or the other on ya without knowing it cause there is also either endpoint right to the side of floating the switch in the middle but before it actually clicks

 

[Coomkeen]

Kloner: yes I'll watch out for that.
Maybe I could file another notch on the switch


Ron
www.bandonmodelflyingclub.com

 

[RTRyder]

my mistake

Part Number	Description	Sell Unit	Quote	Quantity	Extension
V10Z62MSN05	Silicone Gel Pa	Each	$85.19	1	$85.19

Sub Total:	$85.19
Freight:	$10.03
Handling:	$3.95
Sales Tax (NY State Only):	$0.00
Total:	$99.17

my freight was $.05 more. AZure and i split a sheet

The company is in the next state over so the shipping was pretty cheap in my case, plus it arrived on the second day after I ordered it. First flight I used it on there was a noticeable difference so it's nice to have the other half in case I find one of the other quads needs it.

Ken

 

[Tahoe Ed]

I just finished my discovery. I am using the Core, TBS 69 FPV Camera, an Immersion 5.8gHz 600mw vTx 4S 3000mAh lipos with 10" Graupners, and Naza with GPS. I have everything calibrated including the camera. The video looks great through the Goggles. I have not had a chance to fly it yet. It will be a nice companion to my F450 Naza with GPS. Now to finish setting up my S800. Waiting on my new S/N for the MC so I can set up the Data Link. Looks like lots of fun next weekend.

View attachment 5542View attachment 5543View attachment 5544

 

[kloner]

your ready

 

[RTRyder]

I just finished my discovery. I am using the Core, TBS 69 FPV Camera, an Immersion 5.8gHz 600mw vTx 4S 3000mAh lipos with 10" Graupners, and Naza with GPS. I have everything calibrated including the camera. The video looks great through the Goggles. I have not had a chance to fly it yet. It will be a nice companion to my F450 Naza with GPS. Now to finish setting up my S800. Waiting on my new S/N for the MC so I can set up the Data Link. Looks like lots of fun next weekend.

View attachment 7378View attachment 7379View attachment 7380

Very close to my setup with the exception of the video gear and prop size. Today I was at the field testing out a new 2.4 gHz Lawmate system with Cloverleaf antenna on the TX and 10dbi crosshair on the RX. Very windy flying and the TBS handled it well though a couple times I had to max the throttle to keep the wind from pushing it too close to the trees.

You will love the view from the TBS camera, I have yet to fly another FPV camera as good as this one. The core I'm not sold on, either it has a heat issue when not flying or maybe the one I have has a problem but after a few minutes the OSD data on the top of the screen starts to blur off to the right. A quick shot of freeze spray on the core board and the data goes back to normal until it heats up again. At the end of the day I was getting some bad wavyness on the video and it seemed the picture was not fully in sync so I'm hoping it was just the hot humid weather and not the board starting to fail. Have to wait and see what happens next time out...

Ken

 

[kloner]

I'm wondering about the osd part too. mine is logging 1.5 times the amperage it sees, but mine doesn't blur or get hot. The first frame i burned was from a solder too close to another solder and it finaly burned the trace after i just finished flying it.

but, even with the osd being crap, the power part and the way it keeps the power clean so it is a much easier rig to "make work" than going about it yourself. mine out of the box flew a mile and rssi never went bellow 98 and i never switched out of low, never had static even on the deck a mile out. The fpv performance that switching and filters has is some good stuff. i never even got the tin soldered on

 

[RTRyder]

I'm wondering if the video problems I was seeing have anything to do with the OSD/Core. It didn't do it when I had the 1500mw 1258 TX onboard but I haven't flown it in weather as hot as it was at the field yesterday, and I didn't have the current monitoring turned on then either. If I can find some time to get out to a field nearby I can give it a try with the 1.2 setup again, I have the TBS setup so I can just unplug one TX and plug the other one in, frequency swaps take less than 5 minutes.

The other thing I may do is disable the Core OSD and use something else. The one thing I use an OSD for more than anything else is altitude. Where I fly the most is only a few miles from a general aviation airport and I really need to be aware of how high I'm flying, I have to stay below 400 feet that close to the airport. Small planes are supposed to stay above 500 feet but the other day when I was flying the F450 sans OSD I actually saw a plane fly by at or below the altitude I was at. Either I was way too high or he was under the limit, or both, but I don't ever want to see that view again from the FPV cam nor do I want to have a midair with a Cessna. Since the Core will never have an altitude readout I'm probably better off disabling it and using an OSD that can give me the data I need.

Ken

 

[kloner]

i agree, altitude is my main number when skimming along it gives ya piece of mind it's not slowly falling.

core is suppose to support up to 1000mw vtx....... i wonder if the bigger one at first didn't do something to it. I keep trying to hit buy on that immersion simple osd but just have a hard time with it for some reason. i contacted that guy doing those naza gps osd's, waiting to hear back about buying one to beta for him. Christ, i'll pay to play

 

[DaveM]

I just finished my discovery. I am using the Core, TBS 69 FPV Camera, an Immersion 5.8gHz 600mw vTx 4S 3000mAh lipos with 10" Graupners, and Naza with GPS. I have everything calibrated including the camera. The video looks great through the Goggles. I have not had a chance to fly it yet. It will be a nice companion to my F450 Naza with GPS. Now to finish setting up my S800. Waiting on my new S/N for the MC so I can set up the Data Link. Looks like lots of fun next weekend.

View attachment 7378View attachment 7379View attachment 7380

I must have been reading these TBS threads for too long, as a birthday treat to myself I have just ordered
a setup almost identical to yours

Would you be kind enough to explain your Rx and Antenna setup ?



Dave

 

[RTRyder]

i agree, altitude is my main number when skimming along it gives ya piece of mind it's not slowly falling.

core is suppose to support up to 1000mw vtx....... i wonder if the bigger one at first didn't do something to it. I keep trying to hit buy on that immersion simple osd but just have a hard time with it for some reason. i contacted that guy doing those naza gps osd's, waiting to hear back about buying one to beta for him. Christ, i'll pay to play

In order to do a little testing I made this last night for the 1258 VTX system...

I swapped the VTX on the Disco from the 2.4 to an 800mw 1258 and then did a backyard test flight using the newly built crosshair antenna. During the entire 7 minutes or so I was in the air the data from the Core OSD displayed correctly with no blur or video problems. Matter of fact this was probably the best video I've ever gotten from an FPV camera (TBS69), the color and clarity very closely resembled what the onboard GoPro recorded. I can't wait to test this setup in the field!

So now I'm wondering if the problem is just the Core board getting too hot on the bench without the airflow it gets while in flight, or if there's an issue with the Lawmate 2.4 VTX. I guess the only way to find out is more flight testing...

I still would like to have an altitude readout and the mAh used according to the Core OSD doesn't match what I just put back into the pack on the charger. I'm going to do another short flight to see the current usage numbers one more time and then recharge to see if I get the same results. If it's not accurate I see no reason to continue using the Core OSD feature, I'll have to try and get the Skylark TinyOSD I have to play nice with the Disco if that's the case.

Ken

P.S. a thought just occurred to me that the problems I had with the 2.4 video at the field got worse during the day which also corresponded to an increasing number of heli pilots using the other field with several 2.4 Spektrum and Futaba radio sets in use while flying. I'll have to try the 2.4 again when there's no one there to see if the problem still exists, maybe a big part of it was just interference from their radios...???

 

[kloner]

now that's a possibility......... even cell phones you fly over will make junk

interesting

 

[RTRyder]

I did two more flights using the same battery and only after it had be recharged to 100%. On the second flight the current monitoring was off by a large amount (low) and pretty much inline with what I saw on the first flight today. Before the third flight I recalibrated the Core board for both RSSI and Current monitoring, this time the mAh used was a lot closer and now a little on the high side which I suppose is better than it being on the low side. On landing the Core reported 1998ma used, the battery took 1653 to charge back to 100% so as an indication of battery usage it's still not reliable. What I did notice was the RSSI reading is much better, it doesn't wander all over the scale anymore, staying up in the 90 to 100% range as it should. My bad on that one as I changed the RX from the single antenna EZUHF to a Diversity and never redid the RSSI calibration so it's no wonder it was off.

The good news is that the video was fine on all the flights and the OSD data display never blurred as it did on the bench with the Lawmate so now I guess I'll have to swap back over to the 2.4 gear and do a couple test flights to determine if the problem is just heat buildup on the bench or if there's asomething wrong with the 2.4 VTX. On the third flight I also swapped from the crosshair antenna to an SPW on the RX, what a difference between the two! Lots of static and dropouts overhead in the null with the SPW, nowhere near as good on the video quality as the crosshair. Now I'll have to build a crosshair for 5.8 and see what kind of difference it makes on that frequency.

Ken

 

[kloner]

i had really good luck with the crosshair. just make sure to use calipers and sand down the wire lengths when you get close. the more exact that is to the thousandths the better.

 

[Milo]

The good news is that the video was fine on all the flights and the OSD data display never blurred as it did on the bench with the Lawmate so now I guess I'll have to swap back over to the 2.4 gear and do a couple test flights to determine if the problem is just heat buildup on the bench or if there's asomething wrong with the 2.4 VTX.

Could be your VTX is too powerful. Had the same problem with heat buildup with a Boscam 5,8 Ghz 500mW. Changed it to a 200mW VTX and voila! No heat.