Hi!
After using so many good advices from this forum I thought I would give my share.
My F550 project is now completed and with the following configuration I get 8 good minutes of flight, having 20% left in the battery. Since I am flying for still photography, I am not flying any stunts, only up, finding a good spot and shooting. So this fits quite well my needs. I will try with a lighter battery later on (but with fewer mAmps) and see what it does. The platform is stable and responsive, the engines and ESCs are not particularly hot.
The gimbal I bought is very basic, but also very light. It carries without problems the camera. I added two lightweight servos and connected it to the Naza controller. Since the servos are not so strong, I had to be careful not to tighten the screws of the gimbal’s axis too much. The gimbal is now smoothly compensating the rolls of the craft, albeit with a small delay. It wouldn’t work well for filming.
I was a bit worried that the Nikon 1 J2 (11-27mm) would be too heavy, but this is not the case, the craft has power enough to carry it. As a camera it fits my requirements with a very quick and precise AF, and good sharpness. I found a cheap all-round remote camera-shutter that works flawless and doesn’t need to be near the IR receiver of the camera to work. I might try to remove the battery of the camera to use the same power source I have for the downlink.
The downlink works fine, I reduced the total weight by scraping the case of the HDMI converter (which worked without any problems). The major problem I had with this part of the project was to make good connections between the different parts. You tend to press too hard on the crimpling plier resulting in bad connections. I might change the antennas for some clover leaves antennas later on. A minor thing to think of is that the video Tx requires quite some current to work properly, so the battery is drained rapidly. Having a couple of spares can be a good idea since they are not particularly expensive.
I am not using Naza’s voltage warning, but a voltage buzzer on the craft. I had difficulties in properly setting-up Naza ‘swarning, and seeing the blinking leds. I saw recently that DJI had a new iOSD mini. Sounds like a great tool to add.
Well, that’s it for now. I’ll keep you posted on the evolution of my F550!
Francois
Configuration:
Note:
Except for the F550 / Futaba that I bought from a French web-shop and the props (German web-shop), all parts were bought from aliexpress.com.
I have spent quite some time to compare prices and products. The products sent on aliexpress are the same as on “regular” websites but to a lower price. I have made about 30 orders on this site without any problems. Very good communication with the dealers, and rapid delivery to Sweden: 2 weeks. It has happened once that a product was defect and it was no problems to return it (with freight refund).
After using so many good advices from this forum I thought I would give my share.
My F550 project is now completed and with the following configuration I get 8 good minutes of flight, having 20% left in the battery. Since I am flying for still photography, I am not flying any stunts, only up, finding a good spot and shooting. So this fits quite well my needs. I will try with a lighter battery later on (but with fewer mAmps) and see what it does. The platform is stable and responsive, the engines and ESCs are not particularly hot.
The gimbal I bought is very basic, but also very light. It carries without problems the camera. I added two lightweight servos and connected it to the Naza controller. Since the servos are not so strong, I had to be careful not to tighten the screws of the gimbal’s axis too much. The gimbal is now smoothly compensating the rolls of the craft, albeit with a small delay. It wouldn’t work well for filming.
I was a bit worried that the Nikon 1 J2 (11-27mm) would be too heavy, but this is not the case, the craft has power enough to carry it. As a camera it fits my requirements with a very quick and precise AF, and good sharpness. I found a cheap all-round remote camera-shutter that works flawless and doesn’t need to be near the IR receiver of the camera to work. I might try to remove the battery of the camera to use the same power source I have for the downlink.
The downlink works fine, I reduced the total weight by scraping the case of the HDMI converter (which worked without any problems). The major problem I had with this part of the project was to make good connections between the different parts. You tend to press too hard on the crimpling plier resulting in bad connections. I might change the antennas for some clover leaves antennas later on. A minor thing to think of is that the video Tx requires quite some current to work properly, so the battery is drained rapidly. Having a couple of spares can be a good idea since they are not particularly expensive.
I am not using Naza’s voltage warning, but a voltage buzzer on the craft. I had difficulties in properly setting-up Naza ‘swarning, and seeing the blinking leds. I saw recently that DJI had a new iOSD mini. Sounds like a great tool to add.
Well, that’s it for now. I’ll keep you posted on the evolution of my F550!
Francois
Configuration:
| Type | Weight (g) | Price ($) | |
| Plateform | F550, NazaV2, Naza GPS | 1300 | |
| Motors | Stock motors | -included | |
| ESCs | Stock ESC | -included | |
| Battery | 4S – 5000 mAH | 485 | -included |
| RC | Futaba T8J | -included | |
| Props | eProps 9x5 from Graupner | 60 | |
| Landing skids + Gimbal + servos | 55 | ||
| Remote shutter | 7 | 29 | |
| Camera | Nikon 1 J2 + 11-27mm | 360 | 300 |
| Video Tx – Vx | 900mW, 5,8 GHz | 70 | 91 |
| Converter HDMI-AV | 25 | 29 | |
| HDMI Cable | 2 | ||
| Stepdown | 16 | 2 | |
| Battery | 3S – 500 mAH | 42 | 12 |
| Fpv screen | LCD 7” | 47 | |
| Total | 2.53 kg | Ca 2000 $ |
Note:
Except for the F550 / Futaba that I bought from a French web-shop and the props (German web-shop), all parts were bought from aliexpress.com.
I have spent quite some time to compare prices and products. The products sent on aliexpress are the same as on “regular” websites but to a lower price. I have made about 30 orders on this site without any problems. Very good communication with the dealers, and rapid delivery to Sweden: 2 weeks. It has happened once that a product was defect and it was no problems to return it (with freight refund).
