It's all ched's fault....

[ched]

Great that it arrived so quickly.
EV100's don't seem cheap at all on amazon or ebay, I haven't seen any uk retailers selling them for any where near  £80, sorry.

Cheapest thing I can think to get you fpving is Eachine ROTG01. That is about £18 on ebay and you could use your Android mobile with a cheapy virtual reality for your phone box. Double check that the frequency it covers match your vtx on the quad. There are some others if you search for 5.8g otg that look like they will work on an android phone. Check delivery date though as some uk sellers seem to take '2 weeks' delivery!!!!

As for the warp drive  ::) ::) That's why I suggested limiting the throttle  ::) ::) ::)

[tipsy trucker]

I've got that video receiver but no phone box unfortunately.

It's difficult, I spent a while (by no means a long time but ~10hrs) learning to fly fpv and then tried to fly Los, but it's so small and evenly proportioned that I can't tell when it's level or pointing up/down side to side or coming/going! I'm hoping goggles will put me back on the right path - a month or so to wait's pretty painful now that it's arrived though

[ched]

If you have the rx and a phone that it works on all you need is a phone vr headset. They are about £4 on ebay or most cheapy shops have them, like B&M, PoundStretcher, Wilko, the works etc you might even find them in supermarkets. The only slight issue is there is a bit of latency so you will have to try and fly slowly 
Just thought

LOS is megga difficult in rate mode especially orientation (which way it's pointing) on a small quad. Even on my F450 I added different coloured strips of led on each side to help.

One thing I did on my Martian3 220 was put a bright coloured strip on 1 side on my battery. This did help with orientation.

Flying rate mode in fpv is still difficult but a LOT easier than LOS. As I said my eye hand co ordination is not good and I try and practice on Velocidrone for 1hr a night while soaps are on :-)

[tipsy trucker]

That was very useful; I'd more or less written vr goggles off because £20 or so just to fill a gap was a bit too much.

Spent my £4.99 at b&m and went out for a whirl; so so much more successful! I'm not very brave with it yet and landing isn't a strong point but at least I can fly the thing!

Latency doesn't seem to be a problem, in fact I felt very strange because, whenever I flew past myself, the sound seemed later than what I could see!

[ched]

That's great glad you sorted it.
Flying with 'goggles' is a bit weird especially when you fly behind yourself  ::) I agree sound does almost seem delayed on fly pasts.

As for bravery, it's over rated  ::) Take it slow and build up to things that way you will be more able to deal with them.

Landing is not that easy as we normally tilt the camera up so less ground in the view but also if you have airmode on (which helps for flips rolls and zero throttle in the air) it does tend to give you a 'bouncy' landing. Air mode is all about giving the PID controllers authority to still have control when you go to zero throttle. So when you are doing dives, flips, rolls etc you will be on zero throttle but the FC still needs to be able to spin motors to maintain the attitude. That causes an issue when you want to land, i.e. you go to zero throttle to touch down, the FC thinks you may be doing a maneuver and 'feels' the touch down and tries to 'correct' and increases the throttle to 'stabilise' and that makes the quad lift up again, and then FC drops throttle again and 'touch' down and this sort of creates a bouncing effect when trying to land.
Well that's sort of my understanding of Air Mode.

Anyway landing is a bit difficult especially if you are trying to get within about 10ft of you. Tip don't come in to land with the quad heading towards you as if it's not a good landing the quad will be heading towards you!!! So come in from your left or right for the landing, that way if you get it wrong it should bounce past you  ::)

Have fun  ::)

[tipsy trucker]

I just wanted to say a quick thankyou ched; your help's been invaluable all along! Though I'm sure I'm not done just yet....

I've set myself a little challenge for tomorrow; if there's no-one using the playing field, I'll go through all three "packs" just going through the goals. I know they're not all that small but it's a start and it'll force me to keep it down (I was struggling with that earlier, out in the open). So.... I may have a quad to rebuild in the near future!

[ched]

I am more than happy to have helped. I had lots of help starting out so I am very glad I could pass on some of my experience.
Getting through goals is an achievement. Throttle/height control is difficult as the more you are pitched forward the less throttle affects height, its more a speed control!
For me the difficulty is that depending on how fast (how much pitch) you have depends on how much yaw/roll is required in turns.

I will bet you are not the only one asking very similar questions. So your questions are helpful to others in the future.

So keep asking questions or posting solutions  ::)

Happy flying and don't be afraid to post vids of your flying

[tipsy trucker]

 

No video as yet, I haven't got a memory card in my phone but I think it'd make for quite painful viewing at the moment 

Well, today....hmmm

I'm still having real difficulty keeping low but it's improving slowly. I only hit the goal posts twice and made it through quite well on the many passes. Hitting the ground's becoming quite frustrating but fortunately the little quad's holding up quite well.

I don't think I've done the camera much good so that might well be the next investment, the image isn't as clear as it was; even after a re-tune and focus. Though I'll try to hold off until I'm crashing a bit less frequently 

[ched]

All sounding good, well done.
Throttle control is very difficult as you have to yaw a little, roll and correct the throttle to maintain height. It is so easy to have a little too much throttle and go zooming up  ::)

Check the camera isn't tilted too high, you do need to be able to see the ground  a little ::)

Camera 'quality' isn't too much of an issue at the moment. When you get to 'going for small gaps' then you need a decent camera to see little branches etc.

I was really happy when I could manage to fly round the field and come back and land when the battery was flat without crashing. It was a real achievement for me to do a complete battery without crashing  ::)

[tipsy trucker]

I was really happy when I could manage to fly round the field and come back and land when the battery was flat without crashing. It was a real achievement for me to do a complete battery without crashing  ::)

Hmm, that might be a way off yet lol

[ched]

Hmm, that might be a way off yet lol

It took me quite a while  ::)

[tipsy trucker]

Time for an update again....

I found a Josh bardwell's video last night suggesting you start out in "acro trainer mode" so I set a switch up and headed for the field (with the goal posts).

I'd imagine it's this new mode that's made the difference but it was certainly quite an improvement today despite me not feeling 100% so I'm more than happy.

Barely any crashes, by the end of the three packs I wasn't just getting through the gates square on - if you look down the length of the first goal, the three are aligned that way but the middle one is offset so the three make a loose zigzag and I managed a couple of zigzags through the three sort of side on - albeit a little bit untidy. So I'm very much a happy bunny.

The camera's still a bit of an issue, it's ok to start with but turns grainy by the end of the first pack and, at times, it gets bad enough that I can't judge altitude or make shapes out very well - the goal posts nearly disappear. I have a runcam swift2 micro on the way and the goggles have finally been posted today do things are looking up in that respect, the next purchase may well be a little pagoda or cloverleaf to go on the quad itself, once I've figured out exactly what I need

[ched]

Sounds like you are doing well. I have not tried trainer mode but it just sets a max angle of 'tilt' so you can't push too hard and flip or roll the quad.
You can, when you feel up to it change the max angle in the BetaFlight CLI Tab:
set acro_trainer_angle_limit =40 sets to 40 degrees default is 30. After you type in cli hit return then type save and hit return to save the settings. Without the 'save' command the setting will be lost in the cli!

I have a swift v2 micro on my Martian and find it's great. There are better cameras out there now as the swift v2 is over a year old but it's still a good camera. Mine came from HobbyRC.co.uk who are actually only about 3 miles away from me but they only do mail order  They are a good company and you get a little piece of rock in the box (the Blackpool Rock type ).
It should come with a little joystick that you plug into the camera to adjust settings, ie. cloudy day or sunny day etc.  The camera also supports the 'Runcam Control Adapter' https://www.hobbyrc.co.uk/runcam-control-adapter which is about £3.50. This allows you to connect the camera to a spare uart port on the Flight Controller (if you have a spare uart) and then like the BetaFlight OSD there are stick commands to control the camera  ::) Some newer cameras have this feature built in but the little circuit board is only about 14mmx10mm.

Anyway well done, sounds like you are getting the hang of things. Did the extra power help vtx wise, I assume you might have forgotten to switch back to 25mW  ::) ::) ::)

[tipsy trucker]

Oh! Oh that was careless of me, I wondered what had changed! Yes, the range was quite an improvement; shame I'll have to put it back but there you go...

I thought the swift2 had built in osd, that's a shame but at least it's cheap to sort it. I just hope that's the cause of the poor image and not the Vtx

Thanks for the heads up on how to change the angles, I'd been wondering how to do that - I think I'll increase it bit by bit until I no longer need it

[ched]

The swift does have an osd, that is actually why I bought mine. My new FC that I was using on my Martian3 build didn't work, so seller shipped me another. That had a fault that stopped the BetaFlight OSD from working and I was about to go on holiday for 2 weeks to somewhere that i had the use of a field!!!! So HobbyRC to the rescue with the swift v2 micro. That was over a year ago and it is still great.
I no longer use the OSD on the swift as I replaced the FC in July. I also added the control board which is nice for changing camera settings while in the field.

The increasing the angle is a good way to progress. I think as it's not limiting stick resolution or the speed of rotation just the max angle you can achieve. I'm not sure you want to get too used to it as part of flying in rate/acro is the speed of the stick movement plus how far you move the stick and getting used to sort of speed and angle together as muscle memory. I think it's a great idea for a while but don't get too comfy with it 

[tipsy trucker]

*double post*

[tipsy trucker]

Makes more sense now; I've just watched a video about It- I was getting osds muddled up.

If I've got this right; my fc's osd will still work as it does now but with this little board I'll also be able to change the cameras settings with the tx? Is that through the fc like it is with the current camera?

[ched]

Makes more sense now; I've just watched a video about It- I was getting osds muddled up.

If I've got this right; my fc's osd will still work as it does now but with this little board I'll also be able to change the cameras settings with the tx? Is that through the fc like it is with the current camera?

The little board will allow you to change camera settings in a similar way to the BF OSD. In that you have stick commands (Yaw right, centre throttle, centre pitch and roll) to get to the RunCam camera menu. The little board needs hooking up to the FC on an unused uart (I dont know if your fc has any, maybe documents will say?). This page has some good info https://www.unmannedtechshop.co.uk/product/runcam-betaflight-camera-control-adapter-pack-of-2/.

So existing fc osd will work as it does the board just gives additional ability to control camera settings.

You don't need the control board, i just like it as it means 1 less thing to carry, not that the little joystick is big 

When your new camera does arrive don't assume it plugs directly in where the hglrc one did, the pin outs could be different!!!!!!!!! Also don't assume red is +ve on the existing camera!!! It's always best to check all wiring before connecting as reverse polarity will let out the 'magic smoke' 

[tipsy trucker]

The new camera's made a considerable improvement. Well, to what I can see at least....

I need to order a new frame after an argument with one of the goal posts, the quad's still usable but took a really hard hit to one of the upright plates which is no longer laminated... not entirely my flying ability this time, I think the wind played a part but these things happen so fast it's difficult to say. Thankfully they're not too expensive at around £18 posted

I'm back to crashing quite a lot but I think overall I've improved but also got a bit braver with it and that's maybe not as helpful as I might think....

I've noticed a few times it doesn't want to pitch forward hardly at all, it only seems to do this in trainer mode but it's not how that works the rest of the time, I'm starting to wonder if I have a dodgy gyro somewhere; the artificial horizon often seems to be miles away from level (even after carefully recalibrating). All I can do is monitor that for now though.

I've also ordered the pro58 receiver to modify my goggles at some point (though they've yet to arrive) and a little pagoda for the drone itself