FREEFLY Systems Freefly ALTA, RTF collapsible hexacopter




jfro

Aerial Fun
I'll put that on my wish list, the one I'll never afford.

If I were in business and making money, I'd order one. They make stuff that works and that is just plain good looking and seriously functional.
 

Carapau

Tek care, lambs ont road, MRF Moderator
Id like to see how good the Synapse is though. Originally it was going to rock but that was when John Cunningham was behind the design. They may not have someone nearly so good coding it now or indeed they may have someone even better! However, if you are going to lift high end stuff you certainly need to have high end assurance/proof that it will work well. Given Freefly's track record I am sure it will be a hit but I would still like to know more about the Synapse.
 

sk8brd

Member
totally confident in the synapse being ready for prime time, they wouldnt of released it if it wasn't. i'm sure it will have worlds better telemetry then iosd. since these guys mostly ran mk on their cinestars for years i imagine similar telemetry with movi like interface.
 
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Bartman

Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
totally confident in the synapse being ready for prime time, they wouldnt of released it if it wasn't. i'm sure it will have worlds better telemetry then iosd. since these guys mostly ran mk on their cinestars for years i imagine similar telemetry with movi like interface.

funny how a company with a track record of high quality design and development can get the benefit of the doubt with their new stuff.

and you're right, they have all been running Mikrokopter and there must be a certain attitude that if you can't beat MK then why bother? Mikrokopter established the gold standard in flight control performance with their FC 2.1 back around June of 2010 and anybody with the patience to learn it could have been doing what everyone else is now announcing as new. MK did Follow Me two years ago and it worked great! GPS position hold has been solid and RTH was useful and reliable since 2011! So if Freefly can't make it better than MK then there's no point!
 


stevemaller

Heavy Lifter
I spent quite a bit of time with Tabb and a couple other folks from Freefly, and here's some more info.
Retail price is $8500 and includes a Pelican case.
It doesn't include any radios.
Synapse is the flight/nav controller. And it will not be available standalone.
Power distro, ESCs, motors and props are completely new designs from Freefly.
Synapse has diversity for your RC radios with two SBUS inputs and it'll automatically select the cleaner signal. That's super cool.
It also has a complete OSD built in that is customizable.
Regenerative breaking works just like it does on a Prius...as you descend, for example, there is current pushed back into the battery from the ESCs and motors. MK has done that for a while.
It's a beautiful design. Here's me with it collapsed.
View attachment 24271
 

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DucktileMedia

Drone Enthusiast
But on a prius you are completely off the throttle and for longer periods of time. I would think on a heli there is always some small amount of power being applied to each motor for stabilizing. If no power was being applied to 1 motor, the adjacent motors would have to work harder making the little bit captured pointless. Obviously if all motors are off you have a serious problem. That's why that caught my attention. Just curious.

Overall looks like an awesome rig. Like Bart's XY8, I like how you have the option to point the camera up (with the right gimbal. Makes me want to start flying again!
 


stevemaller

Heavy Lifter
But on a prius you are completely off the throttle and for longer periods of time. I would think on a heli there is always some small amount of power being applied to each motor for stabilizing. If no power was being applied to 1 motor, the adjacent motors would have to work harder making the little bit captured pointless. Obviously if all motors are off you have a serious problem. That's why that caught my attention. Just curious.
I think it's more about the deceleration of the motors. That's why it's called "active braking".
Mikrokopter employs this technique in their BL 3.0 ESCs. Here's how they describe it (http://wiki.mikrokopter.de/en/DoubleQuadro-BL-Ctrl_3)
  • rapid acceleration and braking of the propeller. Active and seamless braking gives the speed precisely and quickly on the new setpoint.
  • return energy to the lipo when braking. Seamless transition from acceleration to braking
  • significantly faster control with speed control
 



sk8brd

Member
nice steve- interesting about the telemetry i figured it would mimic- no pun intended what mk could do. another thing- one way dji was able to operate with a motor loss issue is through the use of ioc as many know, you were able to fly it back to you providing you have enough reserve thrust, the yawing wouldn't matter as much until you landed obviously and it flips over but a tip over is better then a hard crash.

if your fast enough to flick over to home lock on a dji fc, have the home point recoded, and enough thrust I've seen people bring back their rigs with a motor out in a continuous yaw.did they mention what the flight modes would be available? i imagine there is something similar to care free mode with the necessary algorithms to do the same as dji could. either way cant wait to see some real world reviews. cant beat the folding design looks like it could fit an large-ish backpack by the way you were holding it.
 
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jfro

Aerial Fun
Be interesting to see how quiet it is. With out the gimbal, what do you think the setup or tear down time is to get the MR ready to fly or put away?

Too bad I'll probably never be able to afford one, but it sure looks nice and assume they will continue their history of only putting out products that work and work very well.
 

stevemaller

Heavy Lifter
Be interesting to see how quiet it is. With out the gimbal, what do you think the setup or tear down time is to get the MR ready to fly or put away?
From my conversations with Tabb and others, it's realistic if you have a camera operator unpacking and setting up your MōVI that you can be from Pelican case to airborne in 5-10 minutes. Talk about a game changer. :D
 


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