FPV HUB

Hi guys

Well the builds begun :)Here is a quick run down :

Tarot FY-680 (http://www.foxtechfpv.com/tarot-fy68...ter-p-810.html)
Extra damping set (http://www.goodluckbuy.com/tarot-tl6810-m10-metal-silicone-damping-seat.html)
Inverted battery rack (http://www.moonhobby.com/tarot-fy680-inverted-battery-rack-tl68b14-for-6-axis-aircraft-p-63938.html)

Flight Equipment

DJI Naza (http://www.firstpersonview.co.uk/quadcopters/flight-controllers/dji-naza-m-v2-flight-controller)
Naza GPS (http://www.firstpersonview.co.uk/on-screen-displays-osd-gps/dji-naza-gps-v2)
RC Timer 4215 650KV Pancake motors (http://www.rctimer.com/index.php?gOo=goods_details.dwt&goodsid=709&productname=)
RC Timer 30A SimonK ESC`S (http://www.rctimer.com/index.php?gOo=goods_details.dwt&goodsid=779&productname=)
12x4.5 Carbon Props (http://www.omgfly.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6_12&products_id=812)
KK Power Board (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KK-MK-MultiCopter-Power-ESC-Board-V2-for-up-to-8-Speed-Controllers-/231127942932?pt=UK_ToysGames_RadioControlled_JN&hash=item35d04c8714)

FPV Gear

WDR650 Camera (http://www.securitycamera2000.com/products/Super-WDR-Low-Illumination-650TVL-SONY-CCD-OSD-Mini-Camera-2.1mm-Lens.html)
Immersion 5.8ghz Vtx (http://www.firstpersonview.co.uk/transmitters/5.8ghz/5.8ghz-long-range-transmitter)
Flytron video switch (http://www.flytron.com/camera-transmitter-shutter/61-tvs-2-two-channel-tiny-video-switch.html)

Camera gimbal servo`s

Spektrum S821 for roll (http://www.servoshop.co.uk/index.php?pid=SPEKDS821)
Unknown for pitch but a 9 gram digital

J10 Anti-vibration jelly (http://www.flytron.com/multicopter-parts/213-j10-anti-vibration-adhesive-jelly.html)

I don`t see much point or a screw by screw thread, so Ill skip the first 1 1/2 hours of the build and show the basic frame built ( no threadlock )

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0277-1.jpg)

I`m really impressed with the quality of the carbon plates. They are very strong, nicely cut, couldn`t be happier ...................

The landing gear however ......................

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_02882.jpg)

That may look like 4 points of contact, but its only three, under the center screw it is not attached to the skid. This means that all the weight is going to be put on just 10mm or carbon  :o I predict they break almost instantly.

Here`s a close up of the frame though and the fixings, really nice :)

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0293.jpg)

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0290.jpg)

There is a plate that screws on the bottom plate. I have plans for that rear opening and with the top plate being identical I mounted the bottom plate on the top so the Naza was on the COG instead of a useless big hole.

This left the opening below :

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0282.jpg)        (http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0285.jpg)

As you can see I installed spacers, this is so I could mount the KK power board, but have the board lower so my cables could easily be routed under it as well.

I had a chap called Paul ( madoldgit ) on RCGroups make some stickers to go with my RCTimer motors. The motors have turned up so both went on :

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0291.jpg)

I hope these motors work out, the pancake style in my opinion look really cool :)

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0287-1.jpg)

UHF Rx and GPS went on as well as the Naza :

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0294.jpg)

ESC`s turned up !!!!!!! Finally !!!!!!!!!

So I could finally wire the motors up, finally get the directions right, finally solder the power board up and finally start the motors up for the first time :)

ESC`s in, I tried to get them as neat and subtle as I could.

The front :

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0283-2.jpg)

Underneath you can see for its size there is still not a lot of room to play with. Then fixing everything down needs a fair bit of thinking to avoid the moving parts so it is still foldable.

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0290-2.jpg)

A quick system check to make sure everything was running the right way and then I could get the props on

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0292-1.jpg)

Flying weight with 4S 5000mah lipo is 2.4kg

Still the battery tray missing :(But apart from that, its ready to rock n roll :)

I don`t see much point or a screw by screw thread, so Ill skip the first 1 1/2 hours of the build and show the basic frame built ( no threadlock )

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0277-1.jpg)

I`m really impressed with the quality of the carbon plates. They are very strong, nicely cut, couldn`t be happier ...................

The landing gear however ......................

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_02882.jpg)

That may look like 4 points of contact, but its only three, under the center screw it is not attached to the skid. This means that all the weight is going to be put on just 10mm or carbon  :o I predict they break almost instantly.

Here`s a close up of the frame though and the fixings, really nice :)

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0293.jpg)

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0290.jpg)

There is a plate that screws on the bottom plate. I have plans for that rear opening and with the top plate being identical I mounted the bottom plate on the top so the Naza was on the COG instead of a useless big hole.

This left the opening below :

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0282.jpg)        (http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0285.jpg)

As you can see I installed spacers, this is so I could mount the KK power board, but have the board lower so my cables could easily be routed under it as well.

I had a chap called Paul ( madoldgit ) on RCGroups make some stickers to go with my RCTimer motors. The motors have turned up so both went on :

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0291.jpg)

I hope these motors work out, the pancake style in my opinion look really cool :)

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0287-1.jpg)

UHF Rx and GPS went on as well as the Naza :

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0294.jpg)

The gimbal was next, it turned up with no instructions at all. Luckily I found a very long ( 10min ) still video of a complete one and was able to make it in relatively quick time :

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0288.jpg)

I hope in the future to buy a GoPro3 to go on it. So far it works fine, but I wonder how it will cope with vibrations in flight.

And that is as far as I`ve got with it, I need the ESC`s to turn up, the Tarot extras, then I can continue on :)

I forgot a collapsed shot, here is it in my version of compact ( because Ill leave the gimbal on

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0295.jpg)

And as it is now :

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0280-1.jpg)

Put some coin into that already ian, nice build

Thanks :)

To be honest Darren, I havent put a penny into it yet.

I sold my Turnigy 9Xr, FY31AP and Hornet OSD to buy it. Did some online work for the Naza and GPS, the rest I had spares so so far, total actually spent £0 

That is a beast bud, looks great, let me know how good the motors are, did they need balancing.
;) G

pretty impressive plateform coyote nice looking build  :)

dizzy

Thanks Aitch, yeah plenty of carbon so should be challenging getting solid video, but that`s half the fun for me :)

I will let you know how the motors go. On ecalc the motors calculations show a fraction over its rated amps at full throttle. But the motors only state maximum continuous current, not max current for 20 seconds so I don`t know how much this will matter.

Previously ecalc has always for me been out with the amps, I always pull less on my planes than what ecalc says. In this case I`m hoping for the same, although I doubt I will be ever going full throttle ever you never know.

Looks really nice Ian cant wait for the maiden
Stef uses those motors on his Tri, he loves them with carbon props
Try and keep away from water though, etc etc etc  :-*

Lol thanks for the tip Simon  :-*

I`m putting cheap props on at first to keep damage / cost down, once its setup nice then Ill swap over to full sexy carbons :)

watch the cheep props Ian, I had one fly apart whilst I was hovering, lucky It was on sand and only about 5ft hi.
I just ordered some of that jell stuff you put a link to, worth a go I think, bit costly for some rubber, but if it gets the jello sorted, it will be worth it.
:) G

Its great at getting rid of vibes G, curious stuff, like frog spawn :)

Ok so postie came, and delivered nothing :(

But last night I decided to crack on with a few bits.

I drilled the 10mm carbon tubes at the rear, this was to take two carbon rods, the rods were to hold my Vtx on. Here it is mounted, the rods have not been glued in or sanded yet until the battery tray arrives, but you get the idea.

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0281-2.jpg)

Obviously not going to use the stock whip, Ill make us a Skew soon for it

What I wanted at first was tilt on my FPV camera to match my future GoPros tilt, so I could line up shots. Then after a rethink it was much easier to use the live out from the GoPro and switch between the flight camera and the GoPro to line up shots instead.

So I fitted the Flytron video switcher :

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0290-1.jpg)

A nifty little unit that also monitors glitching from the Rx and reacts, if the glitching is bad it will lock onto the camera plugged into the high priority input and stay there. LED indication of which input its using is also a good feature.

Antenna wise I wanted to use a Skew-Planar. The problem being that with carbon frames you really want to be above or below the frame. The obvious choice is to go above, but once up at any height the frames going to play with the transmission, couple with that using carbon props its just not practical at all.

So I decided down it was :) The problem with down is the Skew-Planar is exposed to damage, being fairly delicate I would have to address this.

I took a right angles SMA connector, made a rg316 end off with it then put it inside a carbon fibre tube ( to match the Hex :) ) Then drilled a hole through a Kinder Surprise Egg and slid that down the carbon tube.

Made the Skew-Planar antenna, slid the kinder egg up to the base of the carbon tube and glues it in for strength

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0284.jpg)

Once all was set I could put it on the Hexa

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0291-1.jpg)                            (http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0293-2.jpg)

Happy with the clearance and the clearance underneath I`ll now rough up the egg, primer and paint it black so it does not look like a kinder egg on a stick :)

Good mod mate, gonna do that to my next antennas I make, ......................well shik makes :)

Lol love the kinder egg

I'm surprised what kinder are doing nowadays.   :laugh:
G

Looks good Ian, although you could leave it yellow, it looks cool. What happens if it gets hit, it looks like a long stiff lever hung off the vtx sma connector, hate that to be the weak point and break the vtx. Will it?

not jealous at all...not jealous.

Nice.

I think that skew could be a problem though - if you land on some non-level ground and the kinder egg touches down first it's going to stress your vtx - probably won't do any damage but I reckon it should be higher up so it can't hit first.

Thanks very much :)

Lol Marcin

Mick & Steve, yes very excellent point raised by you both. I had presumed on landing next to me on level ground, but never gave a thought to unplanned landings at all.

So had a think and came up with this ! :

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0285-1.jpg)

http://youtu.be/bcLd01pqAOo (http://youtu.be/bcLd01pqAOo)

Should do the trick, although giving thought to using two bands front and back to give more then just travel backwards

Show me the money...!

Quote from: bignose13 on January 21, 2013, 10:31:19 PM
Good mod mate, gonna do that to my next antennas I make, ......................well shik makes :)

Ianm - nice job on the copter. Recommend getting some tarot cards to match. If you pick death card - don't fly!

Lol Gary, cheers, with my luck I don`t need a death card though :)

Now that's a mod :D Nice!

Its a very pretty looking frame! I Like! :D

I have those landing skids too, but I had to change them for nasty plastic ones so I could use my gimbal :(

Cheers guys, I liked the antenna hinge but it was only on a single axis and didnt totally cure it.

Mk 2 - Dual Axis Skew Protection Device lol

Custom Skew-Planar protection system (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcLd01pqAOo#ws)

don't wont to keep this going, but if you are concerned, if you land strait down and something is sticking up that hits it, at the right angel it wont swing, it will just push up on the hing, but that's pretty unlikely, nice mod.
:) G

Yeah I think Ive ruled out what I can without it being a freak accident really G.

Having now said that, I have realized I could do this while meeting your direct hit from below as well. I will make this tomorrow if I have time for the scrutineers to asses and pass judgement :)

excellent finger control on that knob shaped thing. Something tells me you've twanged it a few times. But to video yourself doing it an posting on the web - that takes it to a whole new level!

good idea - I've cracked a pcb from inverted landing on antenna

Lol Gary thank you its always nice to get a skill recognised :)

But, the idea worked, but it was over engineered really ( yes even with two elastic bands ) and I had an idea.

Mk 3 and final :

Simple, you can land straight on top of it and it will still be undamaged, no elastic bands, 9 grams lighter than the Mk2 and a lower wind resistance lol

Right angled SMA to RG405 rigid cable, kinder egg protected Skew :

Skew base glued to the inside of the egg to stop the egg bearing down on the antenna

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0282-1.jpg)


This should explain pretty much my thinking here :

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0283-1.jpg)

Mk2 vs Mk3 Smaller and nearly 10 grams lighter to boot :

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0284-1.jpg)

Mk 3 version Skew protection (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnlAHpWcKJA#ws)

Looking good Ian,

Not too sure about silver spray paint on the aerial cover and its effect on the SP, might that have fine metallic particles in it (to get the silver colour ?) and so mess up how the SP works, sort of at least detune the aerial due to dielectric effect or at worst shield it.

Might be same with black spray paint if they use carbon black as the main body for the paint...... just a thought.

PK

Best mod yet Ian,
Now stop messing and fly it, I want to see what it's like

Thanks Paul, well the funny thing is it was supposed to be black, but I picked up the wrong tin on the way out the back, sprayed and then held my head as it was lovely sparkling silver.

Mk3 will be black this time as intended :)

Cheers Simon, cant fly it mate, it wont go anywhere. My ESC`s are between china and here some where and yet to make an appearance along with the battery tray :(

Ah the old "Chinksville Journey"

If at first you don't succeed, make a mark 3, well don bud, you cracked it, to stop cracking it.  :thumbsup:
:) G

ESC`s turned up !!!!!!! Finally !!!!!!!!!

So I could finally wire the motors up, finally get the directions right, finally solder the power board up and finally start the motors up for the first time :)

ESC`s in, I tried to get them as neat and subtle as I could.

The front :

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0283-2.jpg)

Underneath you can see for its size there is still not a lot of room to play with. Then fixing everything down needs a fair bit of thinking to avoid the moving parts so it is still foldable.

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0290-2.jpg)

A quick system check to make sure everything was running the right way and then I could get the props on

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0292-1.jpg)

Flying weight with 4S 5000mah lipo is 2.4kg

Still the battery tray missing :( But apart from that, its ready to rock n roll :) 

Quote from: Coyote on January 23, 2013, 12:42:12 AM
Yeah I think Ive ruled out what I can without it being a freak accident really G.

Having now said that, I have realized I could do this while meeting your direct hit from below as well. I will make this tomorrow if I have time for the scrutineers to asses and pass judgement :)

personnally i think its a secret vibration detector  when the video blurs, theres a problem  :D

lol dizzy

Thanks guy n gal`s

Well here`s a quick clip, only a few seconds long. But I decided against any common sense to do my maiden hover in a big wide open space .................. My living room :)

I thought ah if its gonna go wrong I wont have far to go lol

For kicks I velcro`d the key cam to the gimbal, no anti-vibration, just raw footage of if it works and how much vibration I had.

This was of course if it actually went up long enough to try it :)

Untitled (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndnlrPmWnGI#ws)

You're in trouble now... I've just texted the link to Donna's mobile  :)

PK

no balls, no glory. well done mate.

Shit ... :o

you have got to be happy with that bud, good start.
;) G

Haha bet you're not brave enough to show Donna this video... !!!

Looking fantastic mate, and not that much vibration considering you used velcro and not anti-vibe stuff, nice one.

STILL A MULTICOPTER THOUGH!!! :yuk:

Nice :D

Jim.

 :D LIFT OFF nice,  i was wondering if the curtains were going to head your way then lol  A sweet build and sounds mean :)
Ihope your gimbal behaves now after talking about your concerns i was wondering if it dont behave you could always double up on the thickness of the side plates i have increased the thickness of mine to hopefully ward off any probs in that aspect.

Looking forward to some video when the weather improves :)

I recon the nicest looker yet :D

dizzy

Just steal from Ian's house  :P
(http://imageshack.us/a/img854/1750/img5890j.jpg)

Lol very nice Marcin :)

Well the vibrations looked fine inside, after an initial outdoor flight ( in high wind ) it seems like its jello hell lol

I also had a problem with my pitch servo vibrating on the gimbal, any contact would set it off. After a while I found I could stop this by applying pressure to the pitch servo. I whipped it out and mounted it to the outside of the gimbal not from the inside, problem solved :)

So another living room test flight showed no vibrations again. Waiting for the wind to die down for another attempt.

Coyote

So that's your radio controlled method of doing the household dusting is it ??

PS Lots of Tarot parts here if you get stuck with China - this is in Taiwan - takes 3 days for them to fly stuff to Coventry, then only 3 weeks for Customs to clear them !!

Hehehe, I don`t know about dusting, but it gets rid of rubbish :)

Here was another forced indoor test, just to see if gimbal was better after I reworked it. Needs a tweak to the roll gain I think, but was more concerned with vibrations

http://youtu.be/e0HbEOHo4lg (http://youtu.be/e0HbEOHo4lg)

And yes, right at the end when it sounds for a split second something going through the props ................ It was :) It was white, paper like, with writing of some sort on it :) Not sure what it was but early reports indicate Donna has not missed it so it couldnt have been too important :)

its certainly getting there now bud, with such a big bird inside the house, there's a lot of turbulent air blowing around, lets hop it wasn't your tenancy agreement papers.  :laugh:
;) G

Had it out for a first proper flight today. Just trying to get GPS to hold, that failed but Jim mentioned something that I had overlook ed so will try again tomorrow.

This reply is sort of a note for myself more than anything.

I had the timer set to count up and just did mild flying waiting for the lipo alarm to go off and land to see how long my 5000mah 4S would give me.

Instead, no alarm went off, but out of the blue my Hex landed all by itself with no input from me. I immediately though bugger I`ve killed the lipo because I had low voltage protection turned off. As it turned out when I got back it was in fact on, so it had landed itself.

The values were :

Total flight time before auto land : 7:20
On landing 37% of lipo still remained
Cells were 3.8 3.77 3.78 3.8
Charger put 2845ma back in leaving 1155ma available

2845 gave 7 mins 20  ( 440 seconds ) so 6.5ma per second
1155 left means an additional 2mins 57 seconds  ( 177 seconds )

So in theory :) 10 mins 17 flight time leaving 20% of a 5000mah 4S

So I still had 0.1v to loose from each cell so I could drop my low voltage value by 0.4v I have reprogrammed this for the 0.4v and will try again, with lipo alarm still on and see how much longer I get while still saving 20% of the lipo`s capacity.

Adding the second lipo will not exactly double it of course, but I would think 15 mins is no problem.

Nope sadly not, jello still there :(

looking good.
gunna order one of these when chinese new yr finishes..hopefully the brushless gimbals be out then..

Finally sussed out the GPS drift problem from yesterday thanks to Jim :) .

PK got wind of the success and an offer to film at a skate park for a promotional video so decided to pop over. Of course I hadnt even tried mounting a HD camera so had no idea how much of the jello would be seen on a GoPro.  Paul came down with his GoPro and we went out so test it.

Few points :

This was not a flight, it was to check jello

Some of the movement was because I was giving strong movements pushing the gimbal hard, Paul wanted to film 3rd person to show the throws the gimbal was fighting against.

I pointed the Gopro up to see the arms on purpose.

anyway, just a test, no stabilization used, just raw GoPro, not bad for a £20 gimbal I say :)

Watch in 720p

Hex Maiden (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qDjLZ0fOcg#ws)

Looks pretty well sorted now.

Great being able to tilt the gimbal up and down manually from the transmitter.

PK

Wow you've got to be happy with that - nice one.

That's flying great Ian, I love it when a plan comes together, I see your a pincher, I'm a thumb man, feels weird if I pinch.
;D G

Nice :D looking good now bud!

Jim.

Yup I`m nearly happy with it, it was better than I thought it was going to be. The first flight was major boring so I didnt use that footage, but it wasnt twitchy like the second one because I ha the gains lower. To my eyes it looked fine, but the GoPro showed different.

Yes love a good pinch G :)

Cheers Jim for the tip to find out my GPS boo boo :)

I do like the tilt option too Paul :)

Yup pretty happy now the GPS doesnt drift Steve, didnt have much confidence until that was fixed tbh

Very good Ian, makes me wanna buy one, multiwii of course for me
BTW Was the man at the back of the car park playing with himself  :yikes:

Lol it was a woman walking her dog, but I think at that point she was putting squirrel food out while throwing us dirty looks :)

I put a Multiiwii Crius Lite on the Hex to see if it would perform better on the gimbal that the Naza`s own gimbal control. To be honest at first I thought it was better, but then I did this ( all be it naff ) comparison and now unsure.

Mutiwii vs Naza on the gimbal (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT4JX4vkN1Y#ws)

Windy again which really doesnt help the testing, but what do you think ?

Any one better than the other ?

Enough to hard wire the wii in or just stick with the Naza ?

Top Left seems better for me, Bottom Right is jittery in comparison. Top Left is nicely dampened.

I don`t know, to me the top left wii seems to react to slow when you counteract a movement where the Naza doesnt seem to be doing that. But the wii does seem smoother

Stick with the Naza and keep it simple at the same time.

I can't tell any difference, plus too much variable involved for the parameter (twitchiness) you are trying to compare/test  i.e gustiness and pilot input variations in the 4 or 5 minutes between the tests.

OR/ re-do the comparison test when it gets a lot windier (hehehe)

PK

I get jitters with the wii gimbal, your one looked pretty good, to hard to tell which is beter.
:) G

Right well a week or so has past, really happy with the way the Tarot flies :)

The gimbal though is just not cutting it with the servos, the steps that the servos have is killing any chance of good solid footage.

So after all the buzz about brushless gimbals and Hase getting two controllers to try and sending one up to me this seems like the answer :)

The footage from the brushless gimbals is great. I love the way the IMU is on the camera tray so instead of it knowing the platforms orientation and trying to adjust to suit, the sensor knows exactly the cameras position and works much more effectively.

I tried the same principle with the servo gimbal, but no matter what filters I used on the sensors, because the servos stepped on a movement, the gimbal went crazy with the feedback so it was not going to work.

So begins my brushless gimbal for the Hex, the prices for the pre order ones are very steep, way out of my budget so I`m going to have a crack at making my own :

I started off by going through my spare motors and came across these RCTimer 2030/14 750kv.

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0299_zps3a649619.jpg)

A quick check showed these have been used and performed well, get in :)

Next was to strip the motors and remove all the windings for me to rewind them. I`m winding them in Wye with 0.18mm wire, 60 turns per pole.

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0300_zpsc76e80d5.jpg)

I bought one length of 10mm square alloy and started marking up where I wanted everything positioned :

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0301_zps4953785d.jpg)

Then cut the bar to make the lower frame :

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0305_zps5f9c6249.jpg)

Repeated with the upper bar to bring the Gopro further forward than the previous gimbal in a vain attempt to get the props more out of shot in 720p

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0306_zpsa7351dd6.jpg)

I used two other spare RCTimer motors to show the mock up above.

Waiting on 3mm carbon turning up to brace each corner and bend, this should keep it ultra light but very strong. The carbon will also be used for the camera tray and mounting base.

Nice Ian ,looking good job done.

nice idea coyote the simplest is usually the best too :D

dizzy :)

Now you need to get through this s...t   :P
(http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/3407/img5950bz.jpg) (http://img820.imageshack.us/i/img5950bz.jpg/)

You dont do anything by half mate, fair play to you, respect

Don't let this project get you 'wound up' - will you??

Cheers lads, yeah looking forward to rewinding Marcin :)

It wont be any time soon, due to the Chinese new year we don`t expect the controllers turning up til the end of the month.

The instructions are scattered through various threads Aitch, helps if you can speak German and Russian lol :)

Gimbal controller I`m going to be using thread : http://fpv-community.de/showthread.php?20815-Sammelbestellung-Gimbal-Brushless-Controller-50x50mm/page20 (http://fpv-community.de/showthread.php?20815-Sammelbestellung-Gimbal-Brushless-Controller-50x50mm/page20)

Main brushless gimbal thread : http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1815204 (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1815204)

Brushless gimbal website ( German ) : http://brushlessgimbal.de/ (http://brushlessgimbal.de/)

Brushless gimbal site : http://www.simplebgc.com/eng/ (http://www.simplebgc.com/eng/)

Totally impressed by the focus and dedication Marcin and Coyote are showing with this gear, fingers crossed the first power on tests give results you want.... :)

PK

Motor No.1 rewound, was a ballache to say the least :)

Not sure if it works, on the meter is reads correct 10.3 ohms over two phases, on a normal ESC it runs very very slow, so the windings have lowered the KV. But no idea how to test if its going to work until I have a controller in my hands

So the carbon turned up, note to self 3mm is far too overkill :)

Anyway, with the motors rewound I cracked on with the Gimbal :

1) Made the Gopro camera base.
2) fitted a bearing to the camera mount
3) Fitted the rewound motors
4) Started the carbon braces

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0309_zpsee699acd.jpg)

The base is cut for connection to the Tarot, I need to fix dampers to that and the other box section, maybe tonight maybe tomorrow

Base plate for mounting to Hex done.

The plate will also be used to mount the brushless gimbal controller too.

I used four of the Tarot dampers kindly supplied by DakarSG :)


(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0311_zpsad8f3984.jpg)

Quote from: Coyote on February 13, 2013, 06:19:55 PM
Base plate for mounting to Hex done.

The plate will also be used to mount the brushless gimbal controller too.

I used four of the Tarot dampers kindly supplied by DakarSG :)


(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0311_zpsad8f3984.jpg)

Thats looking the biz coyote nice job  :D

Quote from: Coyote on February 13, 2013, 06:19:55 PM
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0311_zpsad8f3984.jpg)

Coyote - great work as usual, but

I suggest you consider bracing the approx. 45 degree bend on the alum sq. section - from behind pan motor up to Base Plate. Any vibration and the weight of the camera will put a great strain on this bend and an even greater strain where the alum sq section meets the base plate.

Thanks Diz

Hi WTG40w, I was going to brace the 45`s, but after ROV mentioned how the CG was I checked, it was just a little further forward than I thought it would be so brought the camera back a bit. I`m now happy with the CG now.

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0313_zpse4bc6c6f.jpg)

looking like sumit from war of the worlds now lol this is going to be interesting to view when your up and running  :D

dizzy

Quote from: Coyote on February 14, 2013, 01:39:18 AM
Thanks Diz

Hi WTG40w, I was going to brace the 45`s, but after ROV mentioned how the CG was I checked, it was just a little further forward than I thought it would be so brought the camera back a bit. I`m now happy with the CG now.

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0313_zpse4bc6c6f.jpg)

That looks much stronger / less susceptable to vibrations now.

Camera very low to ground - ? too low - looks like the slightest landing problem and you'll be landing on the camera !!

You can probably see the clearance better in the video blow

So with motors rewound, after trying them on a standard ESC I had my concerns with will they have enough torque. So after an initial test without gopro weight I tried it out with full weight on board.

Gimbal motor test (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM6DpHyDWTU#ws)

So they do have enough torque to pull the weight around :) Obviously nothing else can be learnt other than the rewind has worked fine.

I`m only holding the gimbal to keep it level because its just sat on two bearings for the roll axis BTW

More progress today, but not much

1) Fitted MPU6050 IMU sensor for the controller board under the camera base

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0004_zps3a1b1c84.jpg)

2) Fitted the wires to the IMU and motors

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0005_zps17a75cdf.jpg)

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0006_zps84bdd370.jpg)

3) Wrapped the IMU wires to protect against chaffing, no one like chaffing do they :)

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0001_zpse7f754bf.jpg)

Nice Ian, looks all set for action :)

Jim.

Cheers Jim, its in desperate need of a controller though or its not happening lol

I didnt know what result I was going to get from this test, but I did it anyway.

Camera swinging free on the gimbal
No controller

Just a test to see if like the other gimbal I was getting vibrations or jello I could address before the controller  came. What I was expecting was the camera swinging around at random and no real worth to the test, turns out I was wrong

gimbal vibration test (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZnotVTyy0w#ws)

It shows no vibrations at all, rock solid picture, so I`m very happy with my DIY gimbal so far. If I get interactions once the controller is on I then know its nothing to do with the gimbal, its either settings or IMU issues.

Exellent job coyote thats a worry off your mind then just one more hurdle to go The controller  ;)

bet your delighted with that test  :)

dizzy

looking good ian

Very happy with the structural integrity of the gimbal, apparently if all goes well the controller should be with me mid next week if all goes to plan, then the fun begins getting it tuned in and sweet :) 

Result!!, no controller required!!  :laugh:

Jim.

Lol Jim, the other good part of teh test is if the GoPro had no vibrations showing, the chances are very high the IMU mounted underneath it will have no problems either which I didnt really realize

I guess I should update this thread :)

A lot has and is going to change with the Tarot. After a few months of ownership now I really like it, last week though, as I thought the landing gear thin carbon brace gave in and snapped. I have put a thicker piece of carbon on but yet to shape it.

Gimbl wise I have been testing one of Marcin`s prototypes for him :

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0022-1_zps21b06824.jpg)

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/DSC_0019_zps54e6139f.jpg)

Its fantastic, took me a while to get my head around the PID tuning of the brushless gimbal board but got there eventually :

New gimbal board on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/64575738)

So I`m pretty happy with that :)

But I`m not happy with the GoPro footage, the one is old now and so much has moved on since the GoPro 1 was released, so I looked at a better alternative to use.

I decided the Nex 5N was going to be my weapon of choice so got one for a good price second hand off ebay

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/highres-sony-nex-5r-10_1359639383_zps4716eca2.jpg)

Of course this is going to need a much bigger gimbal so I went for the Goodluckbuy version :

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/sku_96532_0_zps70a1e3e5.jpg)

So that`s the camera and gimbal sorted, the camera arrived, very impressed with it and the footage just taken today indoors, it blows the GoPro away.

I will need to preview the shots to frame them, but the Nex 5N only outputs HDMI so I bought a converter too :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190654759335?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190654759335?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649)

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/Mini-HDMI-DVI-1080P-to-AV-CVBS-Composite-Converter_9194641_7_zps5c4f967e.jpg)

Then ordered a super thin HDMI cable to go from the camera to the converter.

Updates to follow :)

This is turning into a 2 man operation - one the fly the Tarot and the other to operate the camera. LoL

No00000 :) Its going to be no different to how it is now, just bigger camera that`s all. It`s 2 Axis gimbal not 3, only when I want 3 axis I`ll need two people, but that won`t be on this frame, something bigger if anything

OK so the kit turned up :)

The HDMI converter is nice, lovely image, so I pulled it part :) Stripped the box off, then the RCA sockets as I didn't really need them so I just had the board left.

The Goodluckbuy gimbal turned up as well, looked lovely, total pile of pooh though lol It wouldn't balance, the dampers were too soft and the whole thing wobbled like crazy the whole time. I tried a few different ways to get reasonable results but for £140 its rubbish and I would not recommend it at all.

The motors supplied are equally as rubbish, no torque at all and certainly not enough for a Nex camera. I took them off and rewound them myself to higher specs, but still they just can not deliver the power needed even with a perfectly balanced camera, they would move the gimbal as it should in static tests, but as soon as it was in the air the roll motor just couldn't hold on and it failed every single time.

With the Nex on the Hex the camera sits very very low, too low really, so I wanted to extend the legs, I ordered 12mm carbon arms for the Tarot which double up as extended legs being so much longer. I also ordered replacement landing gear to get rid of the naff and weak Tarot stock aluminum offering.

So first the landing gear : http://www.oomodel.com/tarot-folding-tripod-tblock-dia16-tarot-tl68b16-p-65059.html (http://www.oomodel.com/tarot-folding-tripod-tblock-dia16-tarot-tl68b16-p-65059.html)

$3.59 and great, easy to fit, original landing skids slide an lock straight in, much much stronger :)

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/IMAG0019-2_zpse2237de2.jpg)

The long legs were then fitted and I cut 2" off the length because they were a wee bit too long really :

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/IMAG0018-1_zpsddf01b39.jpg)

The gimbal + modifications to get it to actually balance, the gimbal though is coming off as soon as I find a decent replacement available

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/IMAG0020-1_zps7de87cd1.jpg)

You can also see the stripped down HDMI converter ( for now ) piggybacked on the gimbal controller board as well

Goodluckbuy gimbal was an epic fail, its really not much cop, so into my pockets I venture again :)

This time I have gone for the much more expensive but proven Kamkop aluminum NEU BL gimbal. Weighing in at 234g its not too heavy, very well built and can take a Gopro or a Nex camera by only adjusting the camera base.

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/_wsb_488x387_nex-gimbal-27_zps9d9b85b2.jpg) (http://s108.photobucket.com/user/cayote64/media/_wsb_488x387_nex-gimbal-27_zps9d9b85b2.jpg.html)

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/nex-gimbal-9_zpsb6296059.jpg) (http://s108.photobucket.com/user/cayote64/media/nex-gimbal-9_zpsb6296059.jpg.html)  (http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/nex-gimbal-10_zpsd9a4c3ad.jpg) (http://s108.photobucket.com/user/cayote64/media/nex-gimbal-10_zpsd9a4c3ad.jpg.html)

Coming in at £200 + for just the gimbal ( no motors / controller ) its far from cheap, I have bought it in anodized black.

I have also bought the new RCTimer 5010 purpose made brushless gimbal motors this gimbal was designed for, the motors have been met with great reviews so it would be rude not to try them out :)

http://www.rctimer.com/index.php?gOo=goods_details.dwt&goodsid=870 (http://www.rctimer.com/index.php?gOo=goods_details.dwt&goodsid=870)

I have also ordered 10mm carbon tubes to enable my skids to be longer to compensate for the extra height of the Trot now its on stilts as well

Which RCTimer gimbal Coyote?

I was gonna get this one:

http://www.rctimer.com/index.php?gOo=goods_details.dwt&goodsid=872&productname= (http://www.rctimer.com/index.php?gOo=goods_details.dwt&goodsid=872&productname=)

Keukpa

Sorry, done it again ( its not the first time either ) The rubbish gimbal was not from RCTimer it was from goodluckbuy, got RCTimer stuck in my head :)

Not that one, that looks the same as Simon from Desire has, it looks ok

The terrible Nex 5 one I have that`s useless is  : Rubbish Nex 5 gimbal - Goodluckbuy (http://www.goodluckbuy.com/fpv-brushless-camera-gimbal2-gbm3506-motor-compatible-with-mini-slr-sony-5n-two-axis-carbon-fiber-camera-anti-vibration-ptz-kit-for-aerial-photography-.html)

Ah, fair play!

Thanks,

Keukpa

Oh look ! They are multiplying :)

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/IMAG0032-3_zpsa5ff06d9.jpg)

Tarot Quad now added to my fleet, much lighter, I am going to use it for Marcin`s lighter Gopro camera gimbal and keep the Nex 5 on the Hex

nice surprise this one is :)

How do you like these frames? Certainly look nice with all the carbon fiber.

I love the frames, that`s why I decided to do the Quad as well, they are very strong, my only dislike is the carbon on the bottom of the landing gear, I have replaced the Hex`s, the Quads new piece is on its way over

Looks sweet Ian, The only reason I fly quads, is that I can't afford X6 T-Motors and props  :laugh:
;) G

Does your quad support coaxial configuration? Been hoping to get a Y6 or X8, that being said the foldable T810 looks sweeeeeeet.

You could configure it as a x8 and the Hex as a y6 yes

Looking good ..

so not upgrading the hex any more then ?

I need to work out what frame to get and plan a nice upgrade from the DJI 550


Richard

Oh yes, the Hex is just waiting for its new gimbal that should get delivered in the next few days. Then it will be carrying my Nex camera

Seeing I have ploughed a bit more money into this Hex I figured it could do with looking a bit better. One of my pet hates are the cable colours being all over the place so I have replace none matching cables including the Vtx cables with JR style Orange/Red/Brown to match the rest of the system. I have now also relocated the video switcher to the rear of the Hex.

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/IMAG0056_zps988fb28f.jpg)

I made up cables with connectors for the DesireRC prototype gimbal board

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/IMAG0057_zps726d3f39.jpg)

Now my new favorite toy :) The Kamkop.de gimbal for the Nex 5N, it really is a work of art this gimbal, not cheap but so solid, so well thought out, it`s not going to be replaced, it works brilliantly

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/IMAG0058_zps31e20ece.jpg)

Those huge looking motors really are ! They make my RCTimer 5010`s look tiny even though RCTimer class them as 5010`s lol They have bags of torque so now I can actually use it to film with ( kinda handy I know :) )

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/IMAG0059-1_zps3345a38c.jpg)

The IMU goes on top above the camera which is then neatly hidden and protected with a plastic cover also supplied with the gimbal, nice touch ! Also a nice touch is the camera tripod screw they supply for securing the camera. It is a nice touch, but secure maybe a strong word, I will be adding some rubber webbing to the camera base to make it more secure.

With the new gimbal though the balance had shifted right forward, to sort this out I have now took to mounting the main flight lipo to the top of the Hex and using a separate 2200mah 3S for the gimbal and FPV equipment, for balance and very clean power for non flight related equipment.

That looks so expensive to fly now i would be getting nervious  :D

dizzy ;)

I think I'm going to get that gimbal set up....

limits my cameras a bit but I need a decent gimbal....

Well after a few flights now I really like the setup, I have judders on the roll axis when trying fast forward flight, but Ill get rid of that.

What I am not happy now with is the flight times, she now weighs in at 3.5kg in weight ! The RCTimer 4215`s 650KV motors do lift it, and it seems to fly OK, but my flight times are now down to 6 mins max. What`s noticeable though is the lift off and hover, it now does not lift up at 50% throttle and altitude hold doesn't work very well anymore, this will be down to the motors now being overstressed / under rated for the task.

I`ve been chatting to Hase about motor choices and he is sending me up some T-Motor MT2814`s 770KV to try out instead.

T-Motor MT2814 770KV (http://www.rctigermotor.com/show.php?contentid=132)

From the numbers we were running we have broken it down like this :

Weight of frame = 3.407kg
Max thrust required = 1156g ( Each motor )
ESC`s max rating = 30 Amps
Hover thrust required will be around = 578g each motor

With that in mind, 10x3.8 props on 4S gives :
50%  throttle - 4.1 Amps - 550g of thrust
65%  throttle - 6.8 Amps - 770g of thrust
100% throttle - 20 amps - 1440g of thrust

So at just over 50% throttle I should have enough thrust to hover at say 5 amps per motor, that`s great, 20 amps max, good also and 284g more than required thrust per motor at WOT. At around 5 amps hover that should give me a very decent 10 mins flight time per lipo, much better !

Option 2 is using 12x3.8 props
50%  throttle - 6.6 Amps - 810g of thrust
65%  throttle - 10.5 Amps - 1060g of thrust
100% throttle - 29 amps - 1950g of thrust

This means at under 50% throttle I have enough thrust for hover, brilliant ! Slightly more amps used though, 29 amps which is still OK for ESC`s and 794g more per motor than required at WOT.

So which would you go for for the best performance / flight times ??

I have those motors but have gone 11x4.7 gen  props

I know the Vulcans slightly heavier overall but I recon 10 mins should be possible

That`s another option 11x4.7`s

Better update progress while I`m at it :)

The new IMU turned up, no noise now on the GUI which is good, that meant I could also now mount the IMU under the cover not on top of it making it look much better :


The problem I had with the gimbal after some experimenting was down to vibrations. So I whipped off the original Tarot dampeners which are great for lighter cameras and put on the base plates and dampeners from the useless Goodluckbuy gimbal I have now sitting around :


Right now the camera is cable tied to the base, the base cable tied to that Tarot, yes ........... I cable tied a Nex 5 on :) :) :) Its working remarkably well so I will replace the ties with drilled holes and nuts n bolts soon :)

I had also ordered the Quanum 2.4 telemetry system from Hobbyking. As I have been having unreliable results from my lipo alarms and inconsistent performance from my lipo`s I wanted a system to monitor in real time all the cells so I can have a clear and informed reading of the state of play.

It turned up today, so the receiver went on my 9X :


The transmitter is yet to be fitted onto the Tarot, but I have had the system setup and working fine. The receiver is a tiny unit that could go on even the lightest of multi`s or planes for that matter and I have a feeling, for $50 this is going to be a very good investment

Still waiting on Tarot spacers for the gimbal board ( yes its just hanging off the back ) the right HDMI cable ( ordered the wrong frekkin one :) ) and the motors / props swapping. Then, eventually, I think I`m done with it and ready to actually get some filming done................ Bring on the drifting !

Just use 2 batteries. with the 2814s you have plenty of lifting power.

Two lipo`s is do-able, but wit which props ? :)

imo:

13x4 > 12x3.8 > 10x3.8 > 11x4.7

Yeah 13x4, looking at the specs for that, it seems very good

Ah, cant find any 13x4 props in uk :(

bit big 13" props for that frame ?...

Yeah getting too big probably with 13`s really

Well that sucked :( Only 5:22 on 10x4.5's so it's burning nearly 10 amps per motor to hover, miles away from the 5 amp target

That's a minute less than my old motors :(

Yea defiantly going the wrong way time wise....

Larger props might help but which ones is always the question.

Just got back in after swapping the props over to 12x4.5`s

Still disappointing.................... 5:15 flight 80% lipo used, it was not as calm as this morning but still miles short of what I was aiming for :(

Ian ....try with 5S or 6S lipos ...remember you starts carry bigger gimbal + bigger engines and much bigger camera then GoPro.

Now that's gonna start getting expensive :(

I could Marcin, but that`s another set of motors (x6) possibly then 6x Esc`s, then a whle new set of lipo`s etc.

Not going there, like Simon says, its getting to silly money then. I`d rather go back to my old RCTimer motors and have 6 mins a time

personally i dont think that a 5 or 6s setup is really necessary in that weight class.
plus upping the power requires larger props and therefore an increase in span.

that would pretty much be a whole new multi.

OK so still waiting on a few bits for the Hex so turned my attention to the Quad for half an hour.

The Quad came with white arm holders / locating clips on the front, why ? I have no idea, they look pants too so I ordered replacement black ones.



I then replaced the original Tarot landing gear system that I don`t like with the same upgrades I used on the Hex.

You sill use the original 16mm leg and 12mm skid, but remove the ally and weak carbon brace with the plastic one piece unit and rubber feet that actually stay on when you land :)


The Hex got Orange stickers made up to go with the black / orange look, with the Quad I wanted a black / silver look to match the brushless alloy gimbal. So got the stickers made up and put the gimbal on too :


Looking not too shabby so far :)

OK so update time :)

A bit has changed with the Hex over the last few days. I moved the Quanum Telemetry and the Vtx to the legs to get better separation between them and the UHF receiver and GPS receiver :)

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/IMAG0161_zpsa76c1032.jpg)

Th Vtx now has Bignose LHCP antennas on it to help get me better separation at FPV meets.

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/IMAG0159_zps27d5be2c.jpg)


I fitted upgraded motor mounts that buy me a bit more length on the arms and allow much easier removing / replacing of the motors and neater cabling too. RCTimer 12x3.8 props are my weapon of choice with the Hex now.

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/IMAG0164_zps143908ac.jpg)


I also decided to hang my lipo under the frame now as apposed to on top of it. I believe the lower CG it has now helps it with a more steady hover. I bought an extra lipo base so I could leave the one on top so I can run two lipos if I so wish.

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/IMAG0162_zps45165632.jpg)


I have installed and am really happy with the Tarot 2D brushless gimbal for the Gopro 3

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/IMAG0156_zps01e608b0.jpg)

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/IMAG0158_zpsc5cafb13.jpg)

The only problem now being that even though before putting it on I replaced the short spacers with some Tarot Hexacopter spacer that were longer, the arms and props are still in the shot. I will be adding another set of the spacers to drop it even more, but I think they will still show. I have ordered longer 12mm tubes to then push the gimbal out front further which will then fix this problem ( I hope ) :)

Its Amazing how much the camera can see close in,  looking good though coyote :D

dizzy :)

Nice platform bud,  its going to be some setup.
:) G

Thanks Diz,G its getting there now :)

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/IMAG0155_zps3ce1098b.jpg)

Looking good mate. What's the fight times like now? Any better?

Thanks Gary, now I replaced the Nano`s with Zippy`s the flight times are sorted. 8 - 9 mins with a bit of juice left with the Nex weight on. I have not timed it with the Gopro back on yet though

Here are the first two flights in its new configuration :

Maiden :

Tarot Gimbal Test (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqt3Ya3IE88#ws)

Testing my Tarot gimbal for the first time.

No stabilization used, raw footage, no gimbal tuning. This is how it is, straight out of the box !

I tried hovering still, to prove the dampening was good - It was
I tried jockeying the sticks to throw the gimbal or initiate a wobble - It did neither
I tried fast forward flight which has previously made the roll axis shudder - It held rock solid
I tried fast forward flight yaw turns which has made the other gimbals loose their horizon - It kept the horizon perfectly level throughout

I am very impressed :)



High wind test :

Windy Test (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gea90IHf0JU#ws)

Very windy this morning, but tried the gimbal anyway to see how it copes in very high winds and at full speed forward flight.

Not 100% perfect, but if you could see the Hex struggling fighting the wind I thought the footage was going to be terrible at best. Instead I was happily surprised instead

WOW!

QuoteThe Quad came with white arm holders / locating clips on the front, why ? I have no idea, they look pants too so I ordered replacement black ones.

I read somewhere that the black ones had a tendency to snap as they were a little brittle, so the white ones came out which had more flex.... 

So far I have had no clips break at all after 100`s of folding up`s :)

I don`t see a problem with them, the initial reports I think were from people being simply too heavy handed IMO

Well it did say they broke in cold conditions..... when the wind blows east and between the hours of 1800-2000hrs .... so you're probably right there bud!

The evolution continues :)

The Vtx was moved down to on the leg, this was handy that it was away from the receiver, but in fact did not pay off at all. Every time the Hex was at 90 degrees to me I would get a bad picture from the carbon leg blocking the transmission.

So I did this :)

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/IMAG0247_zps8875aa0e.jpg)

This is a Bignose13 LHCP Skew with a nice long tail and no SMA. I then got some spare alloy tubing and cut it to length, threaded the tail through the alloy tube and made off the end with a 90 degree SMA. The result is a Skew that now sits way above the frame, which clears absolutely everything.

I have flown a few times now with it and I am very happy with the results, no matter how low, what angle, how far away, perfect picture all the time :)

The camera is now fixed to the front brace of the Tarot gimbal, its a better position for flying but it does pick up some vibrations. I might revisit this very soon and improve that some more. I had a problem with my first gimbal board, the tilt started playing up but this is the new board fitted and working fine again

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/IMAG0248_zps6d671243.jpg)

The next change was taking Chainlink UHF off the Hex, with the noise on the Hex from the cameras I was getting less range than ever before. I have now swapped it out for the FrSky X8R receiver to connect to my Taranis

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/cayote64001/IMAG0249_zpsee974b73.jpg)

You may notice a few other additions there. This is so I can connect a cell meter to my receiver. It should be a one plug affair, but right now that`s a no go :( Instead I have to connect the cell sensor to a vario, a vario I on`t need nor will use on a the Hex, then the vario plugs into a FrSky Hub, this then plugs into the receiver to send the cell data to the Taranis as telemetry. Mental ? Yes really, you have to buy two products you don`t need or want to get the only gadget you want to work to actually work ! The next gen cell sensor will apparently just plug into the X8R smart port so I can ditch all the rest of it, cant wait !

Anyway, here is the Cell Sensor, cool little display :)

(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n39/cayote64/cayote64001/IMAG0250_zpsa20f446a.jpg)

Nice mod Ian.

2 thoughts:
Is it worth supporting the sma connector on the VTX to reduce the strain the antenna puts on it?
The FrSky Cellmeters plug into their current sensor as well. No need for hub and stuff and you get a fairly good current/mAh used reading as well.

Wow this is a very nice build  :)

Quote from: hase2 on October 01, 2013, 09:44:34 AM
Nice mod Ian.

2 thoughts:
Is it worth supporting the sma connector on the VTX to reduce the strain the antenna puts on it?
The FrSky Cellmeters plug into their current sensor as well. No need for hub and stuff and you get a fairly good current/mAh used reading as well.

Sorry Stefan, totally missed the two replies

The antenna is holding up really well, no stress relate problems so far and comes off easily for transportation. The picture though that was the whole point of it is great now, no drop outs, no interference or anything, very happy.

The current sensor could be an interesting choice, I like the idea of that, providing they do them with a high enough current rating

Thanks Lupowarrier :)