What say you all: Red arms forward and white arms aft? Or the opposite?

[Gary Seven]

Hello everyone. Well thanks to [MENTION=1]Bartman[/MENTION]; and a host of others here, I am finally getting around to my first F450 build. I've watched a ton of videos from people all over the world, and some seem to mount the F450's red arms forward and white arms aft. Others however, seem to prefer the reverse.

I have orientation "issues" (ahem, my distance eyesight is finally starting to fade) and have lost five (yes, count 'em....FIVE!) Hubsan X4's due to losing orientation and essentially forcing a fly-away condition. One reason I'm building the F450 is because I want something bigger that's much easier to see. Based on that it seems logical to me to mount the vehicle with the red arms in the aft position as I tend to fly MR's (up to now at least) with the orientation of nose away and rear towards me.

What say you all? Just curious. Thanks!

 

[mediaguru]

I decided on green front and red back.

 

[Mojave]

I had the red arms forward and white arms all around on my F 550 (hexacopter). On my black carbon fiber HexaCrafter 1100L I made the two forward arms white. I think I like the two forward arms in the lighter colors the best. Later I may get rid of the white shrink wrap, but for now I need the help. Still for me the best indicator for orientation is the FC indicator LED facing aft.

It is important to get your failsafe programmed and also IOC helps. When I was learning it was good to be able to hit failsafe and have the ship fly itself home. Intelligent Orientation Control lets the FC worry about orientation. I feet that these are helpers for newbies and it all takes a lot of practice - I am still a newbie on my 1100L. Eventually I hope all the orientation issues will come a bit better to me.

Good Luck

 

[kloner]

we did a bunch of dji arm testing and the red or white arms shake alot more than the black,,, it makes jello issues, makes rotational deflection worse.... it'd get black arms and dress em with lights for color if you need orientation

 

[Gary Seven]

we did a bunch of dji arm testing and the red or white arms shake alot more than the black,,, it makes jello issues, makes rotational deflection worse.... it'd get black arms and dress em with lights for color if you need orientation

Interesting. My F450 with DJI E300 is already ordered and on the way, so too late to change. I'm not using this as a camera/video platform...just wanted to build something with my own two hands and fly around with it.

 

[Gary Seven]

I had the red arms forward and white arms all around on my F 550 (hexacopter). On my black carbon fiber HexaCrafter 1100L I made the two forward arms white. I think I like the two forward arms in the lighter colors the best. Later I may get rid of the white shrink wrap, but for now I need the help. Still for me the best indicator for orientation is the FC indicator LED facing aft.

It is important to get your failsafe programmed and also IOC helps. When I was learning it was good to be able to hit failsafe and have the ship fly itself home. Intelligent Orientation Control lets the FC worry about orientation. I feet that these are helpers for newbies and it all takes a lot of practice - I am still a newbie on my 1100L. Eventually I hope all the orientation issues will come a bit better to me.

Good Luck

Thanks. Yeah, I'm going to build it with the NAZA FC just for that reason...to gain control with IOC or failsafe should I lose orientation. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Gary Seven]

I decided on green front and red back.

Funny. Cute. I meant arms, not lights (like your tricked out machine, however)! :tennis:

 

[mediaguru]

Funny. Cute. I meant arms, not lights (like your tricked out machine, however)! :tennis:

I did this for orientation purposes. This black bird is completely funky when in a distance. Sometimes it even looks like it is listing 45 degrees when flying LOS. The lights resolve the orientation issues (and look cool).

 

[Gary Seven]

I did this for orientation purposes. This black bird is completely funky when in a distance. Sometimes it even looks like it is listing 45 degrees when flying LOS. The lights resolve the orientation issues (and look cool).

Yeah yeah, I agree with your logic (I was just teasing you with my reply). Once I get my build up and running and stable and all is hunky dory, I'm going to install LED lighting on the craft. Probably red in the back and white in the front.

 

[mediaguru]

Yeah yeah, I agree with your logic (I was just teasing you with my reply). Once I get my build up and running and stable and all is hunky dory, I'm going to install LED lighting on the craft. Probably red in the back and white in the front.

Don't know what your build will be like, but consider running the LED wire during the build. My T960 has tubes and running the wires post build was a PITA.

 

[Gary Seven]

Don't know what your build will be like, but consider running the LED wire during the build. My T960 has tubes and running the wires post build was a PITA.

Yeah, I hear that. Saw an excellent video recently on LED installation to a F450 frame using a Turngy R/C switch to control lights from the ground. Think I'm going to solder in a pair of 20AWG leads to the PDB when I do the ESC and battery lead work. Can't wait to get to it!
http://youtu.be/WN77jzxWCtA

 

[mediaguru]

Yeah, I hear that. Saw an excellent video recently on LED installation to a F450 frame using a Turngy R/C switch to control lights from the ground. Think I'm going to solder in a pair of 20AWG leads to the PDB when I do the ESC and battery lead work. Can't wait to get to it!
http://youtu.be/WN77jzxWCtA

I have that switch installed as a matter of fact. So I can fly in "stealth" mode as I call it or light it up with the flick of a switch on my TX.

 

[Gary Seven]

I have that switch installed as a matter of fact. So I can fly in "stealth" mode as I call it or light it up with the flick of a switch on my TX.

Freakin excellent. Fun, eh?

 

[mediaguru]

Freakin excellent. Fun, eh?

Geeky cool to the max.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

IMO, red on the left, green on the right, and white on the back is the only thing you should do. Well, I'm now doing yellow on the back, but close enough. I find it odd that navigation lighting is white on the back, but then landing lights, headlights (on a boat etc.) are white. Kinda dumb. So I do yellow on the back, and that makes it distinguishable from white searchlights.

 

[JoeBob]

I put 4 inch pieces of pink surveyors tape on the back feet. Visually bright in the sun flapping in the prop wash, and in silhouette.

Cheap and light weight.

 

[Quinton]

IMO, red on the left, green on the right, and white on the back is the only thing you should do. Well, I'm now doing yellow on the back, but close enough. I find it odd that navigation lighting is white on the back, but then landing lights, headlights (on a boat etc.) are white. Kinda dumb. So I do yellow on the back, and that makes it distinguishable from white searchlights.

Personally I agree with this, what aviation aircraft use...
Once you get used to it, it is like riding a bike..

b) Left and right position lights. Left and right position lights must consist of a red and a green light spaced laterally as far apart as practicable and installed on the airplane such that, with the airplane in the normal flying position, the red light is on the left side and the green light is on the right side. (c) Rear position light. The rear position light must be a white light mounted as far aft as practicable on the tail or on each wing tip.