Popular Post JAB1a Posted January 14, 2014 Popular Post Posted January 14, 2014 Hi All, Well what a great start to 2014. Its been a few months since I have been able to fly FPV due to other commitments and terrible weather. The start of the video is the first full FPV flight I had done in good weather since before the new year and I enjoyed every second of it. I had to calm my nerves doing the close proximity as I had forgotten how much of a rush and fun it was. 2:16 is my first ever FPV flight at night. I have added extra LED's (5050) to the arms so that my spotter had a better chance at understanding orientation at distance in the dark. My hats off to CamSump for being a great spotter in a difficult situation. The Sony PZ0420 (my FPV camera) performed well beyond anything I had expected in these conditions. At 3:21 I could see all the outline of the buildings and details in-between the lights of the town via my goggles but the GoPro just does not pick out all that detail the PZ0420 could see. Best viewed full screen @1080p 6
hawc Posted January 14, 2014 Posted January 14, 2014 Where did you go? Oh and that music needs a health warning on it!
JAB1a Posted January 15, 2014 Author Posted January 15, 2014 Where did you go? Oh and that music needs a health warning on it! The weather has been terrible here and with Xmas I was very busy so n ot much FPV at all, also I'm building/testing a new platform (TelsaHex) which has taken most of my tinkering time. Too true about that music, its from one of those royalty free sites, it is a bit heavy for some
FragglePete Posted January 15, 2014 Posted January 15, 2014 Nice as always @JAB1a Managed to get mine out for a quick spin the other day; struggled with the low sun though. Played with the new 3.1 Firmware on the APM and tried the new 'drift' mode which automatically yaws the quad for you to keep it nose forward, not sure if I like it as it locks out the Yaw Control on the left stick. RTL still working nicely as well !!! I'm going to make changes.... As much as I want the FPV gear, I just can't afford it presently. I have a fund running but I've just order a Spider frame and am now seriously looking at a cheap gimbal. The X525 I'm finding too limiting to expand and I want to get some silky smooth video that hides my not so smooth flying. Still debating to get the Fatshark Predator V3 set as it'll be a good cheap-ish way to get into FPV as it contains everything needed. As much as I would love to get the Attitudes, the cost of those alone and all the necessary TX, RX and Camera gear just makes my eyes water thinking about it. With the Predators, I can see how I get on and upgrade them later on down the line and sell them for a decent price. Pete 1
JAB1a Posted January 15, 2014 Author Posted January 15, 2014 Nice as always @JAB1a Managed to get mine out for a quick spin the other day; struggled with the low sun though. Played with the new 3.1 Firmware on the APM and tried the new 'drift' mode which automatically yaws the quad for you to keep it nose forward, not sure if I like it as it locks out the Yaw Control on the left stick. I'm going to make changes.... As much as I want the FPV gear, I just can't afford it presently. I have a fund running but I've just order a Spider frame and am now seriously looking at a cheap gimbal. The X525 I'm finding too limiting to expand and I want to get some silky smooth video that hides my not so smooth flying. Pete I like those vids Pete, the first one made me a bit dizzy looks like it was perfect conditions for a good flight. 'Drift' mode! I want that! its gotta be so much fun, would be perfect for flying around a multi-story car park with some car tyre effects in the back ground. Where you using that mode in either of your video's here? The X525 has to be modified to give you more real-estate but its a very good, simple and reliable platform to start with and expand as your skills grow. Be careful about just buying a new frame and thinking it will be the end of your troubles, every frame has to be tweeked and setup just right to perform how you want, which can take a very long time and many crashes to do. Spider frames seem to be even harder to setup just right as they are a strange config with weight stretched out in either direction. Do you have a link to your new frame? I got this one... Fiber Glass Spider Style Frame 635mm Shaft Distance for Quadcopter Multicopter $37.33 Free Shipping @GoodLuckBuy.com Its was a terrible bit of kit, super thin plates and arms made out of tin foil, I never got it to fly right so went straight back to the X525 frame and nicked all the bits off it for other things, CamSump is using the landing gear from it
FragglePete Posted January 15, 2014 Posted January 15, 2014 I like those vids Pete, the first one made me a bit dizzy looks like it was perfect conditions for a good flight. 'Drift' mode! I want that! its gotta be so much fun, would be perfect for flying around a multi-story car park with some car tyre effects in the back ground. Where you using that mode in either of your video's here? The X525 has to be modified to give you more real-estate but its a very good, simple and reliable platform to start with and expand as your skills grow. Be careful about just buying a new frame and thinking it will be the end of your troubles, every frame has to be tweeked and setup just right to perform how you want, which can take a very long time and many crashes to do. Spider frames seem to be even harder to setup just right as they are a strange config with weight stretched out in either direction. Do you have a link to your new frame? I got this one... Fiber Glass Spider Style Frame 635mm Shaft Distance for Quadcopter Multicopter $37.33 Free Shipping @GoodLuckBuy.com Its was a terrible bit of kit, super thin plates and arms made out of tin foil, I never got it to fly right so went straight back to the X525 frame and nicked all the bits off it for other things, CamSump is using the landing gear from it Wise words as always; fully aware that it's going to take a bit of time to setup right, the X525 has been a brilliant learning curve. The frame I've got on order is: RCT Spider FPV Quadcopter Frame W/ Landing gear - 450 -600 Size - RCTimer RC Plane Car MultiRotor APM and MultiWii Carbon Fiber Propeller Hobby Store - fully aware that its using Flamewheel arms but I figured they're cheap enough to replace. A few cheap gimbals going on ebay that I like the look off (one without controller board for £31 as the APM has gimbal control built in, and one with a seperate controller for about £70 but I'm still looking into the specifics of those yet.) The flight in the videos had some 'drift mode' action in (mainly the first one) - it's a bit bizarra. It's detailed here Drift Mode | ArduCopter; I just found it a bit odd with LOS, but I think FPV it will be quite something. Pete
JAB1a Posted January 15, 2014 Author Posted January 15, 2014 Nice frame @FragglePete that looks 100times better than the one I got, I like how it has the connection for a 3axis gimbal as well. I don't think the APM supports brushless gimbals, I think it only has the outputs for servo gimbals like most FC's at the moment, the other control boards have (I guess) ESC's built into them to power the brushless motors directly but I am not sure about the APM totally. If you get a gimbal then I would not recommend this one or a design like it with no support on the GoPro side... 2 Axis Carbon Fiber Brushless Camera Mount Gimbal for GOPRO3 GOPRO3 Cameras | eBay Great build quality but I think the design is flawed 1
FragglePete Posted January 15, 2014 Posted January 15, 2014 Nice frame @FragglePete that looks 100times better than the one I got, I like how it has the connection for a 3axis gimbal as well. I don't think the APM supports brushless gimbals, I think it only has the outputs for servo gimbals like most FC's at the moment, the other control boards have (I guess) ESC's built into them to power the brushless motors directly but I am not sure about the APM totally. If you get a gimbal then I would not recommend this one or a design like it with no support on the GoPro side... 2 Axis Carbon Fiber Brushless Camera Mount Gimbal for GOPRO3 GOPRO3 Cameras | eBay Great build quality but I think the design is flawed Ah, see, I was still looking into it - thanks for the heads up! Was looking at something like this: DJI Phantom Brushless Gimbal Camera w Mount Motor Controller for GOPRO3 3 2 1 | eBay Pete
JAB1a Posted January 15, 2014 Author Posted January 15, 2014 Ah, see, I was still looking into it - thanks for the heads up! Was looking at something like this: DJI Phantom Brushless Gimbal Camera w Mount Motor Controller for GOPRO3 3 2 1 | eBay Pete That gimbal looks a bit more solid than the carbon one, my issue with them is the L shaped piece the GoPro sits on, as one end of it is not supported it adds a point for vibration and with the IMU attached this ends up in oscillations (regardless of your gains), there are ones which have a support one side and the brushless motor the other side or instead of the L shaped shelf it uses a flat plate (held vertically) which you strap the GoPro too, this is a much better design (I think)... like this one....its a bit more pricey lol DJI Zenmuse H3 2D GoPro Brushless Gimbal fpv | eBay This is a good design by the looks of it...I want that little tray! Brushless Motor Gopro3 Gimbal Camera Mount Full Set HMG188 Golden | eBay
JAB1a Posted January 16, 2014 Author Posted January 16, 2014 I managed to squeeze this onto Vimeo for better quality... best viewed full screen FPV Quadcopter Night Rider on Vimeo 1
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