I've been tweaking and tuning my F550 off and on for the last week. Today was the first relatively windless day I had to do some real flying.
Quick summary: The 8" stock props that came with my F550 last week (hoping they are the new ones) work nicely. I balanced them before my first flight and everything is working nicely aside from a minor and seemingly intermittent slight leftward drift on hover in GPS mode that I'll save for a separate post. Basically, flies great.
The problem: When I switch to 10" props (stock and not yet balanced), flight is VERY erratic and hard to control including very strange jumps in throttle/altitude seemingly on its own. With each test, I'm in a big hurry to get it back on the ground quickly before something worse happens. Go back to 8": perfect. This is true with the DJI props and a new set of GemFan 10" props (their kind of middle of the line ones).
The STRANGE part: It almost feels like maybe something is messing with my reception, but only when using the 10" props. If not my reception, then certainly something electrical and I'll explain why... but bear with me:
I built my own lighting circuit the other night that runs on a dedicated 2S LiPo with the ability to toggle the lights on and off from the ground. This circuit will also power my gimbal servos soon, too. It consists of:
- 2S 2200 mAh LiPo strapped on (but in no way mixed with) with the main, larger 3S batteries of the F550
- Dimension Engineering AnyVolt - tiny little regulator that steps anything up to 14v down to whatever I want. In this case that's 6v for the LEDs and, soon, my servo gimbals.
- Dimension Engineering PicoSwitch - tiny receiver-controlled relay. It connects to channel 8 on my Futaba R2008SB receiver and I toggle my lights on and off with Switch A on my T8J from the ground. Works like a charm. The relay is simply opening/closing the ground wire in the circuit to the dozen 6V LEDs distributed on the arms of the F550. It won't be part of the gimbal power circuit, though, so they remain on constant power from the 2S battery.
- The PicoSwitch connecting to my receiver is the only place where this lighting circuit has any overlap with the rest of the F550 since it connects to the receiver which connects to the Naza. Remember that the power for the lights/gimbals is all coming from the dedicated 2S battery on this circuit.
- The 12 LEDs are spread evenly: two sticky-taped/tie-wrapped per arm with one near the tip and one fastened onto the downward facing, logo-side of the ESC of each arm.
- My R2008SB receiver is velcro'd onto the bottom plate to the right of the Naza (between the plates) with one antenna sticking forward horizontally and the other bent 90 degrees down through one of the base plate openings and pointing roughly toward the ground.
When flying with my 8" props, everything works great. Flight, lights toggle on and off, etc. Love it.
When flying with my 10" props, I get very erratic control, but I ALSO see my light circuit flickering on and off like crazy. Since the power for those lights is coming from a dedicated battery on a mostly closed circuit, the only way I can explain this is that something is freaking with my receiver / channel 8 / PicoSwitch - but only when I have the 10" props in place. Swap back to 8" and everything is stable in every way.
How can the presence of 10" props (on the same 3S battery I used on my 8" props) have this impact on flight control AND suddenly freak with the lighting circuit I described above? Is there any chance something is hosing reception such that my control signals are being spoofed/jumbled, which would include false toggles of my picoswitch on channel 8? In other words, the lights here might be a clue/symptom rather than part of the problem...
Sorry for the length, but this needed some detail to make sense.
Thoughts?
- Aaron
Quick summary: The 8" stock props that came with my F550 last week (hoping they are the new ones) work nicely. I balanced them before my first flight and everything is working nicely aside from a minor and seemingly intermittent slight leftward drift on hover in GPS mode that I'll save for a separate post. Basically, flies great.
The problem: When I switch to 10" props (stock and not yet balanced), flight is VERY erratic and hard to control including very strange jumps in throttle/altitude seemingly on its own. With each test, I'm in a big hurry to get it back on the ground quickly before something worse happens. Go back to 8": perfect. This is true with the DJI props and a new set of GemFan 10" props (their kind of middle of the line ones).
The STRANGE part: It almost feels like maybe something is messing with my reception, but only when using the 10" props. If not my reception, then certainly something electrical and I'll explain why... but bear with me:
I built my own lighting circuit the other night that runs on a dedicated 2S LiPo with the ability to toggle the lights on and off from the ground. This circuit will also power my gimbal servos soon, too. It consists of:
- 2S 2200 mAh LiPo strapped on (but in no way mixed with) with the main, larger 3S batteries of the F550
- Dimension Engineering AnyVolt - tiny little regulator that steps anything up to 14v down to whatever I want. In this case that's 6v for the LEDs and, soon, my servo gimbals.
- Dimension Engineering PicoSwitch - tiny receiver-controlled relay. It connects to channel 8 on my Futaba R2008SB receiver and I toggle my lights on and off with Switch A on my T8J from the ground. Works like a charm. The relay is simply opening/closing the ground wire in the circuit to the dozen 6V LEDs distributed on the arms of the F550. It won't be part of the gimbal power circuit, though, so they remain on constant power from the 2S battery.
- The PicoSwitch connecting to my receiver is the only place where this lighting circuit has any overlap with the rest of the F550 since it connects to the receiver which connects to the Naza. Remember that the power for the lights/gimbals is all coming from the dedicated 2S battery on this circuit.
- The 12 LEDs are spread evenly: two sticky-taped/tie-wrapped per arm with one near the tip and one fastened onto the downward facing, logo-side of the ESC of each arm.
- My R2008SB receiver is velcro'd onto the bottom plate to the right of the Naza (between the plates) with one antenna sticking forward horizontally and the other bent 90 degrees down through one of the base plate openings and pointing roughly toward the ground.
When flying with my 8" props, everything works great. Flight, lights toggle on and off, etc. Love it.
When flying with my 10" props, I get very erratic control, but I ALSO see my light circuit flickering on and off like crazy. Since the power for those lights is coming from a dedicated battery on a mostly closed circuit, the only way I can explain this is that something is freaking with my receiver / channel 8 / PicoSwitch - but only when I have the 10" props in place. Swap back to 8" and everything is stable in every way.
How can the presence of 10" props (on the same 3S battery I used on my 8" props) have this impact on flight control AND suddenly freak with the lighting circuit I described above? Is there any chance something is hosing reception such that my control signals are being spoofed/jumbled, which would include false toggles of my picoswitch on channel 8? In other words, the lights here might be a clue/symptom rather than part of the problem...
Sorry for the length, but this needed some detail to make sense.
Thoughts?
- Aaron
