Zee "spare-parts" Quad

[Zeeflyboy]

Well, I've accumulated quite a bit of spare FPV stuff and thought I may as well put it to use in a new quad...

I bought the Turnigy Talon v2 which is a surprisingly solid and well built little quad. Unfortunately it lacks room for FPV equipment so needs modifications... I made small carbon fibre shelves and mounted all my electronics on them.

The GoPro is temporary since I fried my spare 600 TVL Sony Had II due to a servo connector I made being wrong... whoops... let that be a lesson - don't make stuff at 2 in the morning when you should be asleep. That is why the GoPro is now poorly situated where it can block the Video antenna, because when I was designing the layout the GoPro wasn't supposed to be there. I'm now waiting though for the Fatshark AirFLO HD which will be mine just as soon as it's released. HD recording, live video out, none of the issues of using a GoPro and a fraction of the weight.... it'll be under slung just beneath where the GoPro sits now.

Anyway, just did some quick test flying in the garden and all seems well. It zips around quite happily using a 5000mah 3s pack, even with the Gopro on there too. I do think I've over-propped though with the 10x4.7 - the motors and ESC's get a bit hot and it's impossible to get the gains quite right as it's either too loose or a bit bouncy... hovering is easily at half throttle or maybe slightly below, so I think I definitely need a less aggressive prop.

I'll be swapping out for either some 9x4.7 or some 10x3.8 when I get a chance... now I'm off to fly it in the park FPV! I have given it one of Sircana's beautiful antennas from the eurofighter just to test them out, hopefully I'll post some video later... I might have to get another one!

I'm also testing out mictronics EZUHF PPM to analog convertor for signal strength indications on the OSD pro... I would like one for the eurofighter but I don't currently have any channels to spare there!

[Malcr001]

Thats a damn nice quad for something youve made just out of spare parts!

[Zeeflyboy]

haha, yes... it was quite a bountiful spare parts bin. I bought a couple of bits that I needed too, but the majority was stuff going spare.

The full spec:

Airframe and power/control System:
- Turnigy Talon v2
- HK SS 25-30A ESCs
- Turnigy Aerodrive SK3 2830 - 1020kv
- Eagle N6 Control board
- EZUHF Diversity Rx
- Mictronics PPM to Analog convertor (RSSI)
- 3S 5000mah Lipo

FPV kit:
- ImmersionRC 5.8Ghz vTX + Circular Wireless Antenna
- GoPro (for now)
- ET OSD Pro
- ET eLogger v4 150A
- ET GPS v4


The only thing I want to add is a barometric altimeter, didn't have one of those lying around. I'm eying up the DJI Naza too, but I'll save that for a later date... if it had a built in OSD and PPM sum support I'd be all over it like a fat kid with cake.

Just had a great crash, first backflip fine, second backflip couldn't pull out of the dive in time and ended up in the long grass. went in right side up full throttle trying to arrest the rate of descent but failing - No damage!

[Malcr001]

I have the eagletree OSD pro too as well as ezUHF 8ch reciever. Im also waiting on that Mictronics PPM to Analog convertor. Just curious what flight time are you getting out of that?

[Zeeflyboy]

I have the eagletree OSD pro too as well as ezUHF 8ch reciever. Im also waiting on that Mictronics PPM to Analog convertor. Just curious what flight time are you getting out of that?

About 10 mins. I'm sure I'm over propped though and I think It'll be more efficient when I get new ones.

The mictronics convertor seems to work great. Set the EZUHF to link quality (better to use than RSSI) on e.g. channel 8, plug in the convertor and then connect only the positive out to the middle pin on Temp1 on the eLogger... you can desolder the negative out from the board... enable Temperature A on your OSD display, rename it to LQ or whatever you fancy, go into the parameters and select "use Temp 1 as RSSI" to yes.

When you run servo analysis, the OSD Pro will record max values and then min values when it comes to switching off the controller.

You then end up with a % figure for link quality... 100% is happy days, 0% is no signal. M'excellent.

[Zeeflyboy]

This really is an addiction this hobby....

I ordered a naza for my little quad the other day, and then just now I ordered some new NTM motors and plush ESCs so that I can run it on 4S and share batteries with my eurofighter (4S 3300... Although I'll use two at a time of course in the euro!).

Now I patiently sit and wait for all my new kit to arrive!

Here she is with the pixim camera installed though - bit more sleek than with the go pro i'm sure you'll agree! The Naza will just pop on the now empty top mount.

[Coyote]

Looks very nice, looking forward to seeing this one fly :)