little O/T, Zephyr ZII FPV

[kloner]

It's a little off topic, but another avenue and wanted to share my new ride. man, that is a smooth sweet kit. Followed the TBS build vids and threw in a little of my own ideas. Shes drying ready for a maiden.

ZII kit
Dragonlink uhf
ICE 75
Scorpion 3014
8800 mah of 3s, 6000 mah of 4s
graupner folding prop
golden rod
ET OSD pro hooked up ppm, one wire like sbus
cc bec 9v for the video system

Went through and cut/made every wire to perfect length. no coiled up anything, no extensions anywhere. even blew open the ET logger and resoldered wires straight from the esc and a longer wire for the battery. It is extremely "electronically clean" I've been messing with different materials for vibration dampening. one is a mask type silicone material i made a sheet of and wrapped the motor mount with it before gluing it into the airframe. There is zero vibrations in the airframe.

If anybody is considering getting into fpv and wants a performance type plane,,,,, this is a hell of a deal for the money. Love the foam, extremely easy to work with and tough as nails.

 

[kloner]

got this thing ready, leave in three days, looking forward to tearing it up

for those that don't follow fpvlab, this is supposedly the secret to gorpo jello free 1080p, ear plugs, gonna do my quad with them next

 

[DucktileMedia]

I've thought about getting one of these a few times but held back. I cant wait to see your results. Doesnt the carbon fiber cloth make it too rigid and not flex plus must add weight. When I had a Zagi it was just bare foam wrapped with 2mil. packing tape.

nice job!

Yuri

 

[kloner]

Thanks

It's just a 2 mil vinyl wrap.......

http://www.ebay.com/itm/160799730850?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2648

 

[kloner]

got a chance to maiden this thing, just don't trust this dragonlink to save my life. get unreal ground range checks over 130 yards, but take it up and i get this disconnected feeling in LOS range, look at the rssi and it's all over the place. that aint gonna work. had read alot of horror stories about the zII and launching it. i stopped off at this alfalfa field and tossed it up, when it went in, realized i just threw it into a mud pit, what do ya do but give it hell. in my case, the 3s just wasn't enough umph to take it up right, the 4s are a little too much, but it dealt with it. peaked at 90 amps, 93 mph and i never got to really open it up. that third crash i hit throttle hold going for the cyclic stick after throwing it up

one thing it did do was film jello free 1080p and the stabilizer for the plane was never turned on so this should smooth out nice

 

[rcmike]

Nice! I just bought an original Zephyr that was built by Webdr at the Southeastern FPV Flyin weekend before last. I am really liking it so far. Flies fast but also runs pretty efficiently for long range flights. One question on yours. What type of hub are you using for the 10x6 folding prop? Mine has a regular prop on it but I'm thinking of putting a folder on it. I don't know much about folding props and noticed there are several different hub measurements.

 

[kloner]

mine was clunkin along 35 mph on 7 amps. carries 6000 mah

i know, confusing as hell aren't they. i got this one
http://www.espritmodel.com/bb-aluminum-turbo-spinners-for-folding-propellers.aspx
and it's smooth, but solid so you can't ditch the cone and use a prop stop. That you want this one
http://www.espritmodel.com/aeronaut-white-turbo-spinners-for-folding-propellers.aspx
and you don't mount the nosecone

my motor has a 5mm shaft, the 30mm motor is 38mm wide outside........ the yoke you want 8mm, that's what the 10x6 graupner blades come as......

they show there version of prop stops there at the bottom

 

[rcmike]

Cool, thanks! I'll try to figure it all out later. Worked out in the hot sun all day and I think my brain is fried right now. lol

 

[jeffscholl]

Nice looking Zephyr!

Here is a quick lap from mine:

Cheers,
Jeff

 

[kloner]

that's weird how everybodies has a little different wiggle to it....... when i finally got it to the sky 2 things were wrong, the cg got off to the left with a vtx battery i had to change last minute so it gave it a slow left when stalled. made launching and landing extra work but my main problem was the outside wingtips/landing gear were tweeked pretty bad. at first it only had a wobble in big wind, later it wobbled no wind, but the things were folded, rolled, center part was coming loose, it was a mess. Getting it ready for the 4th of july weekend, hope to put some miles on it. Ordered another 6 4s 3000 packs to make 10 packs total. That should feed the zII and TBS Discovery well. I wound up cutting one wingtip with the corrugation going horizontal, then another 45 degree corrugation and laminated them together. Then on the middle i realized why the tbs camera box is so wide, so the LG glues to it and keeps it from cutting loose from the plane....... I'll get it, takes me a while, reverse engineer my life, i can get this thing going

I also have a problem with my osd, when i want to change stuff with the rx and while flying, i can select stuff, nv it fine, but when it comes to making a number higher or lower, for somereason my radio doesn't engage that part. I also gotta get a better understanding of how gaurdian is calibrated and used. it's all hooked up ppm

here was the actual first flight,,,,, then it flying in 15-25mph winds out on the river. It was howling, temps went from 116 the day before to 98 then 90 the next day.

mud and all

this is why i need the guardian stabilizer, it'll make ya sick to watch this

 

[hjls3]

Kloner - nice flying area. reminded me...my zephyr floats. found out the hard way. (just in case you were wondering.) mine went into river, caught up with it in an eddy. few days later - about 70% good. they are lots of fun to fly. hope you enjoy yours.

 

[kloner]

that was alot of the reason wanted the thing, nice big foam float for flying the river.

Thanks, lovin it so far, just never played with a stabilizer on one so it'll take some learning. I really need a laptop to tune this thing out

 

[kloner]

I guess i missed the mark on my zeph, woud up too nose heavy. instead of tearing it apart and making something of it, i ordered another one. Things i learned on the first one, keep it light,,,,,,,, gorilla glue back all the openings you over cut, spend extra time making a useable battery tray, spread it out, and i mean everything as much as possible. Last time i had the sat too close to the vtx and it made tracking come and go, use big servos, shes heavy and last but not least, build the antennas into the airrame as much aspossible. Esp cloverleafs. there easy to crack hanging out there on there own, but you implant it with gorilla glue and it's liven la vida loca. Last time i wound up having to troubleshoot and had all my hatches glued, this time i'm hinging everything that something can be done and making access holes for everything else.

Shes alot more thought out and alot better quality build. now if i can keep it out of the dirt, i'll heading down the right path

this was the last flight of v1

 

[Jessestr]

Really love these things..

But what if it breaks.. You have to rebuild everything. Would love to have a flying wing or an fpv plane one day..(recommand anything?)

Sorry to ask but what is the cost of this wing with electronics?

Thanks

 

[kloner]

This is THE wing right now, but wings are pretty advanced. To start out with something easy to fly is like a skywalker (my next build) bixler, something along those lines. this thing is fast, sensitive to input and just tough to fly, like flying a naza in manual, what it reminds me of. the others are like naza in atti, trainer type planes

these things are pretty easy to repair. CA, Gorilla glue, hot water. Theres tons of way to fix em in the zephII thread at rcg. This is the "team black sheep" wing

Lets say you had a radio and camera, it'd be about the same as a discovery ready to go, about 1300-1600 depending the components. This is a scorpion motor, castle ice esc, $140 ea servos, it's a little overkilled. But it's also autopilot, return to home, etc so it's alot of plane. I flew the last one 23 minutes and used 3200 mah, this thing flies forever, carries 6000 mah

 

[Jessestr]

I really want a high speed FPV plane.. Been thinking on bixler but that's not really a high speed model..
I'd love to rush over my town. Also I always flew manual mode with my copters. Only thing I never did is flips, rolls and flying in circles (because I can't keep my orientation well enough - > don't know how to train without making expensive crashes)

What I love about these things is that you can fly forever as you mention. But I don't own the money to get $140 servo's or castle esc's..
I have a basic 9X upgraded with FrSky.. Main goal will be a better radio with ezUHF.

I have dominators, immersionRc 5.8Ghz, 5.8Ghz fat shark receivers, FPV Cam. New antenna's are coming in too. So I have the basic gear to start with. Only thing I need is the wing/plane, motor , prop, esc and servo's.. But I really like the high speeds of the wing and flighttimes is one of my biggest concerns..

My TBS Discovery will arrive tomorrow, my quad for FPV flying.

But is a cheap motor/esc/servo setup possible?

Thanks!

This is THE wing right now, but wings are pretty advanced. To start out with something easy to fly is like a skywalker (my next build) bixler, something along those lines. this thing is fast, sensitive to input and just tough to fly, like flying a naza in manual, what it reminds me of. the others are like naza in atti, trainer type planes

these things are pretty easy to repair. CA, Gorilla glue, hot water. Theres tons of way to fix em in the zephII thread at rcg. This is the "team black sheep" wing

Lets say you had a radio and camera, it'd be about the same as a discovery ready to go, about 1300-1600 depending the components. This is a scorpion motor, castle ice esc, $140 ea servos, it's a little overkilled. But it's also autopilot, return to home, etc so it's alot of plane. I flew the last one 23 minutes and used 3200 mah, this thing flies forever, carries 6000 mah

 

[kloner]

look at the ritewing motor combo...... that'd be what i'd run. alot of guys use $10 turnigy servos. I tried a set of smaller hitecs that had like 80 gram and it wasn't enough. This time i got these

http://www.servocity.com/html/hs-5995tg_servo.html

guess they are $120, same difference but on blowout. need a programer to make move right, another $25 or have them do it for $10. I'm using the guardian flight stabilizer so need a good fast strong servo. like a flybarless heli

noticed this last night popped up on tims site, i really gota stay out of there. It's a hundred buck a day habit, like crank
http://www.readymaderc.com/store/in...ex&cPath=101&zenid=m3i7jp600jlo5ctqq3qi1e77u5

 

[hjls3]

Kloner my first attempt barely flew. 2nd attempt rock star status. I have yet to dive into the FPV like you have. My wing flying is all LOS with hero2 getting some footage. That said, even without the FPV stuff - it was a bit tricky to dial everything in. I bet your 2nd attempt will be a beast.

 

[kloner]

if it hadn't been for the interferrence i was getting and how much was involved to make it right i'd of left it flying. the uhf stuff and trying to fly off has to be perfect and it wasn't.

I'll get it, want it too bad

 

[Jessestr]

Awesome stuff kloner.

The bixler looks actually very good to do some FPV.. But I don't know if it can handle high speed.