Hi, got the multicopter bug here in Southern CA

[Raldan]

Hi everyone. I'm new to RC and have come in through the gate marked "Quadcopters". I edit video for a living and after seeing my friend's DJI Phantom II with a GoPro, I started looking for a platform to learn on.

I went to my local Hobbytown USA and after some chatting picked up a Blade 350qx bnf and a DX6i. I am at square one, but the Blade is giving me some good lessons as I move from the Green mode (safe mode) to Blue mode (stability mode). Blue mode is the closest I've come to real flying.

I've watched a load of flightest videos and am working on a Anycopter Hex. If there's a place in these forum's for someone with my particular malady, please point me the way there. I have much to learn.

Corona, CA

 

[Benjamin Kenobi]

Welcome my good man! Lots of help here. :nevreness:

 

[jbrumberg]

Welcome Raklan. Everyone should start at square one. One really learns to fly the way you are going with your learning curve. Practice, practice, practice. A lot of owner/operators think they can start at square 3 or 4; they waste a lot of money generally and usually discover they really do not know how to really fly these things. Challenge yourself flying as you practice over time you will crash less, but you will crash much better. Have fun

 

[kloner]

welcome to mrf... i drive through there from time to time on the way to work

 

[Raldan]

Thanks, guys. jbrumberg, I like your sig. My wife also looks on this new obsession with a jaundiced eye, but it beats robbing banks. She might encourage the latter though, once she sees the trickling cost of this hobby.

I'm on the lookout for a thread where we can list our finished projects with specifics on AUW vs. Batt/ESC/Motors/props/batts and subsequent flight times. I keep finding threads where someone asks for help, gets it and forgets to tell us what they finally found successful. I promise that once I do, I'll try to remember to share.

BTW, you can't miss it, but I recommend the following thread to my fellow beginners, very helpful!

http://www.multirotorforums.com/showthread.php?1617-Before-you-buy-please-read-this

 

[jbrumberg]

Raldan- There is the build thread and there are a couple of recent newbee builders' threads who during their respective builds and for various reasons rebuilds have posted a lot of good information in the build thread, their own, and/or fellow builders' build threads. It's a haphazard assortment of mixed "data". What you suggest is a very good idea, but there are a lot of variations to the multi-rotor chassis, flight, power, and control systems and tuning everything. I would suspect if there are no further posts whatever was suggested must have worked to some degree, but it would be nice to have confirmation and it would be polite to thank the person for sharing their suggestion. One thing about this hobby is that there is a need for research, lots of research. Good luck.

 

[mdntblu]

I live in Corona and have been looking for people with quad or hex. I have a quad and a hex both custom built. If you want to meet up somewhere that would be cool.
Text me - 951-316-9402 or reply to this post.

 

[Raldan]

I live in Corona and have been looking for people with quad or hex. I have a quad and a hex both custom built. If you want to meet up somewhere that would be cool.
Text me - 951-316-9402 or reply to this post.

Hi, tried to reply to your msg, but didn't go through. Yes let's look to get together and compare notes. Looking for a multicopter friendly club in the area.

 

[SoCal Blur]

Check with the AMA http://www.modelaircraft.org/ and see if they have a sanctioned club in your area. I went to the meeting of my local club last night. Turns out the primary tester of the FrSky Taranis radio is a member. We talked for a couple of hours and I found out all of the goodies about the Taranis, upgrades, and a soon to be released HobbyKing radio that is supposed to give the Taranis a run for its money.

 

[mdntblu]

Just text me. My number is above. I sent you another PM.

 

[Raldan]

Thanks SoCal. I'm intrigued by HK's new radio, too.

mdntblu, look forward to meeting ya. I thought we were the only propeller heads in Corona. The APM 2.6 looks interesting. Are the units on eBay the same as the ones on the APM site? They're quite a bit cheaper.

 

[dazzab]

Thanks SoCal. I'm intrigued by HK's new radio, too.

mdntblu, look forward to meeting ya. I thought we were the only propeller heads in Corona. The APM 2.6 looks interesting. Are the units on eBay the same as the ones on the APM site? They're quite a bit cheaper.

No, they aren't. If you have an issue with them it's going to be difficult to get support as well. Not to mention you won't be supporting the great work of 3DR and all the developers. All that aside, I'd consider paying the extra bit for a Pixhawk instead. The APM is at it's capacity and won't have any new cool things that require processor power or memory.

You edit video for a living? That's very cool. You can probably contribute here to help out from a professional's point of view. Lord knows I need all the help I can get in spite of having been a commercial still photographer in the past. What type of work are you doing?

 

[mdntblu]

I love my APM's. No the ones on eBay are not the same. They are clones and I tried them out at the beginning of my builds and had nothing but crashes and flyaways due to them not pilot error. Since I've had my 3dRobotics ones I haven't had a single problem. Before I couldn't go 1 or 2 batteries without a crash. I almost got tired of the hobby and quit until I read some things about 3DR. Anyways like the guy above said the Pixhawk is the next gen version of APM. Should be interesting what can be done in the near future.

 

[fm725fm]

You guys mind that if i join you all when there is any meetup? I'm around the area too, but i'm new and still need more time to practice my skill.

Frank
951-500-0068 From Chino/Pomona Area

 

[Raldan]

No, they aren't. If you have an issue with them it's going to be difficult to get support as well. Not to mention you won't be supporting the great work of 3DR and all the developers. All that aside, I'd consider paying the extra bit for a Pixhawk instead. The APM is at it's capacity and won't have any new cool things that require processor power or memory.

You edit video for a living? That's very cool. You can probably contribute here to help out from a professional's point of view. Lord knows I need all the help I can get in spite of having been a commercial still photographer in the past. What type of work are you doing?

Yeah, I'm intrigued by the APM software. I watched a video by one of the developers and was amazed at the control he has of his quad. I using a DX9, and have read that there is a compatibility issue with the APM. Is that still true? I agree about supporting 3DR. If I go that direction I'd be a fool to ignore mdntblu's experience with clones. Fly-always scare the heck out of me.

I work on a game show, and do online editing (Avid) and motion graphics using after effects. I'd be glad to answer questions about video editing, I have even more questions about RC and building copters. Seems like a good trade-off.

 

[mdntblu]

Frank that sounds good. Hopefully some time in May we can meet up somewhere. I was telling Raldan that the Church I do work for has lots of open land which we can fly in because the city of Corona doesn't allow flying at their parks. But the church doesn't mind. It's just a couple acre dirt lot. This video shows the whole lot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4WCl9KZb34 if you want to see.

 

[Raldan]

You guys mind that if i join you all when there is any meetup? I'm around the area too, but i'm new and still need more time to practice my skill.

Frank
951-500-0068 From Chino/Pomona Area

Sounds good! Maybe we can setup a local "meetup" group or something of that type.

If you haven't already, check out AMA membership as well.

 

[SoCal Blur]

If you're looking for something similar to the APM, Multiwii Pro Ez3.0 is a good alternative. It is open source, so not plug-n-play. If the stories I've heard are true, it was developed as an affordable alternative to APM. the FC with GPS module is about $80. It can do all of the different flightmodes: Angle (auto level) Horizon (auto level with no roll limits), Altitude hold, GPS position hold, Return To Home. It can also be set up to use waypoints. If you do decide to go that route, get it from Witespyquad.com rather than Hobbyking. They come with the firmware pre-configured and will generally fly out of the box. You still would need to tune it to dial it in, of course.

 

[Raldan]

If you're looking for something similar to the APM, Multiwii Pro Ez3.0 is a good alternative. It is open source, so not plug-n-play. If the stories I've heard are true, it was developed as an affordable alternative to APM. the FC with GPS module is about $80. It can do all of the different flightmodes: Angle (auto level) Horizon (auto level with no roll limits), Altitude hold, GPS position hold, Return To Home. It can also be set up to use waypoints. If you do decide to go that route, get it from Witespyquad.com rather than Hobbyking. They come with the firmware pre-configured and will generally fly out of the box. You still would need to tune it to dial it in, of course.

Thanks SoCal. This looks good. I especially need the pin out for battery monitoring, which isn't on my HK MultiWii Pro.

 

[SoCal Blur]

Thanks SoCal. This looks good. I especially need the pin out for battery monitoring, which isn't on my HK MultiWii Pro.

If you go that route, I would get the "Blacked" version of the Multiwii which removes the MAG from the main board and puts it on the GPS board. Less likely to have interference problems that way. Just make sure you mount the GPS facing the correct direction or you will encounter bad things when you use any GPS flight mode.