In a Pickle... Advice Much Appreciated.

[Roto5411]

If it would make you feel better, this one belonged to my flying partner. An S-800, battery came lose and it fell from 276'. The frame was a total loss. The camera, gimbal and A2 survived.View attachment 21918 $1200 down the drain. And that was the second one he destroyed. The first one he put into a tree. Several sites purport their hexicopters will autorotate...total BS!

 

[smootheye]

Oh WOW, I feel your pain Sir. I destroyed a 550 back in September while putting it into trees at full speed. I think I had a motor get to hot and seize up. Problem is you have a mere second to react and DO SOMETHING....and what I did was dead wrong!
I had a prop break off today while flying the 550 pictured above. I was luckily in a hover at about 10 feet. I dumped the power and suffered a broken arm and two gear struts. I will post a video when I get home and can edit the video.

I look forward to your video. Somehow I wasn't too bummed about it. I looked at it as a learning experience, although I'm not sure what the lesson learned is supposed to be. Maybe I was coming in too hot, maybe too dark outside, maybe I accidentally flipped a switch on the Tx, maybe the heli momentarily lost power (which is what it looked like) then regained after crashing??? It looked like a weed-wacker out there in the grass w/ props spinning!

Either way I am excited for new parts to arrive. I did go ahead and order landing gear w/ rails like yours, a new f550 frame, & folding GPS antenna.

I am ready to buy Naza V2 and saw many variations/kits for sale but was too confused on exactly which components I actually NEED vs. what I can utilize from my current components. I know I want to do FPV eventually. I spoke w/ a local (AZ) RC store employee that said I can use my Naza-M V1 GPS with Naza-M V2 components. Do you know if there is anything special that I need to do to marry the two (firmware, etc)? Or would it work just the same?

I also want the HD-3D Gimbal, so I need whatever that entails as well.

Should I tinker around with trying to make "old" & "new" work together or simply purchase all new?

What I know is that I need:
Mini iOSD (for future FPV)
Naza-M V2

It's late, I'm tired so this may all sound like gibberish but can't go back and proof-read at this point. :/

 

[smootheye]

If it would make you feel better, this one belonged to my flying partner. An S-800, battery came lose and it fell from 276'. The frame was a total loss. The camera, gimbal and A2 survived.View attachment 21918 $1200 down the drain. And that was the second one he destroyed. The first one he put into a tree. Several sites purport their hexicopters will autorotate...total BS!

Holy crap... that does somehow make me feel better. Thanks.

 

[smootheye]

If it would make you feel better, this one belonged to my flying partner. An S-800, battery came lose and it fell from 276'. The frame was a total loss. The camera, gimbal and A2 survived.View attachment 21918 $1200 down the drain. And that was the second one he destroyed. The first one he put into a tree. Several sites purport their hexicopters will autorotate...total BS!

All I searched for just now was 'S-800' & this came up (read the description):

 

[Roto5411]

Not convinced the video above was anything more than the operator backing up into a grass berm. Looks like pilot error!
If memory serves, I had a NAZA M on the machine I crashed into the trees. Have a V2 on my camera ship now. I believe all you need, if your controller is still good (under the "Tools" tab in the NAZA software, complete an Advanced IMU re-calibration before you fly with the unit again) is a NAZA-M PMU V2 to supply power and signal to the mini iOSD. The PMU will turn your M into a V2. HeliPal sells them for $65.
Here is the awaited blade separation video. Note, 1/2 of the #1 motor's blade broke off at the hub first, then a fraction of a second later the second half separated. No warning, just popped off. Since it banked 90 degrees and showed no sign of recovery. I cut the power before it hit the ground. Crazy! Same thing happened to me in Colorado last summer, but I believe the blade hit a big grasshopper that flew up out of the alfalfa field I was flying low level over!

 

[Roto5411]

Here is a vid from my big crackup back in September. Lessons learned. When flying in hot temp climate (98F that day), allow the motors to cool between flights. Secondly, don't panic, full throttle to gain altitude was not the best idea!

 

[Roto5411]

And a month before that, my flying partner lost sight of his S-800 in the setting sun and put it into the only fricken tree in our practice area! I was working on my mine in the back of his SUV when I heard him fly over then heard the sickening sound of blades hitting something. He thought I was messing with him when I said he had hit the tree! That one was a total loss, but the GoPro survived! So yes Sir, we feel your pain.

 

[smootheye]

Here is a vid from my big crackup back in September. Lessons learned. When flying in hot temp climate (98F that day), allow the motors to cool between flights. Secondly, don't panic, full throttle to gain altitude was not the best idea!

Haha. Great ending! What video software do you use?

 

[Roto5411]

AVS4YOU Software. For about $50 it comes with lifetime updates and has a complete suite of programs for video, photo and audio editing and converting. It's very simple to use and very intuitive, especially the AVS Video Editing program. I really like the Audio Editing program as well. Granted, its not a high end program but I'm not making productions for the movies or TV!