First Flights under my belt..

[dp106]

So I';ve managed a couple of flights so far with my quad and its still all in one piece so im calling that a success :-)

I';m using the kk2 board so tuning the pid settings is interesting for a newbie. I was really despondent to start with before tuning them, the quad was just really hard to even hover. What a difference now though I can hover without even looking at auto-level :-)

Only thing now is I';m not 100% if they';re as good as they can be. I read somewhere if you get the igain correct it will maintain its attitude in flight. It does mostly but its been a bit windy when flying so I think that will affect it?  Also it tends to rotate a bit on the yaw so is this the pid settings or do I need to try and trim that out? (I';ve done a receiver test and set the subtrim so it shows 0 for yaw. )

Before getting this 450 quad ive been practicing on a ladybird so reasonably confident flying nose in etc. What I do struggle with is keeping track of its orientation! I bought some leds for it but these are hopeless as you can';t see them in daylight!! With the wind today as well I really struggled to tell which way it was pointing and if it was tilting towards or away from me. How do others manage??

[Gaza07]

I';m pleased to hear you have flown and all went well, orientation is one of the hardest parts of flying multi rotors, I use leds that are very bright and I can see them in daylight although I may struggle when the days get much brighter 
What I used to do before the leds';s was to fix a small brightly coloured foam ball to the front of the copter, the sort of thing the cat plays with or did untill I got hold of it 

Here';s a pic of one of mine with a ball fitted

[attach=1]

[teslahed]

Only thing now is I';m not 100% if they';re as good as they can be. I read somewhere if you get the igain correct it will maintain its attitude in flight. It does mostly but its been a bit windy when flying so I think that will affect it?

You can adjust the KK board so that it doesn';t lose height when you tip it forward to start forward flight. Otherwise when you tip forward some of the previously downwardly pointing thrust is now pushing you sideways, so there is less lift and you will lose altitude unless you throttle up to compensate.

Most flight controllers don';t do this as default behavior and most experienced fliers, if they had a quadcopter that did this, would find it off putting. Learning to manage the throttle to keep the altitude constant as you maneuver is an important skill you should learn if you want to really get the hang of flying naturally. Alternatively if you prefer to fly a camera around slowly to get nice stable aerial videos and photos then you might quite like this feature enabled to reduce pilot workload.

Before getting this 450 quad ive been practicing on a ladybird so reasonably confident flying nose in etc. What I do struggle with is keeping track of its orientation! I bought some leds for it but these are hopeless as you can';t see them in daylight!! With the wind today as well I really struggled to tell which way it was pointing and if it was tilting towards or away from me. How do others manage??

Get high density LEDs - red and green work well unless you are colour blind. You want to contrasting colours so that you can plaster the front in one colour and the back in the other. This helps a lot with orientation;

http://www.giantshark.co.uk/high-density-flexible-stripred-1mtr-p-404318.html

http://www.giantshark.co.uk/high-density-flexible-stripgreen-1mtr-p-404317.html

I can see mine in daylight!

Alternatively you can use a foam ball on a stick pointing forwards.

[dp106]

You can adjust the KK board so that it doesn';t lose height when you tip it forward to start forward flight. Otherwise when you tip forward some of the previously downwardly pointing thrust is now pushing you sideways, so there is less lift and you will lose altitude unless you throttle up to compensate.

I said attitude not altitude ;D I think thats the correct term anyway... what I mean is if I pitch it forward it doesn';t always mantain this attitude. I think this might be down to the gusty wind but not sure..

I bought myself some leds that would plug into the receiver so I didn';t have to worry about trying to sloder them or working out how to power them. They were more expensive and turns out a waste of time, doh! :-(

[teslahed]

I said attitude not altitude ;D I think thats the correct term anyway... what I mean is if I pitch it forward it doesn';t always mantain this attitude. I think this might be down to the gusty wind but not sure..

Woops, sorry, my mistake.

[dp106]

Woops, sorry, my mistake.

Wasn';t trying to be rude, hope I haven';t offended. All help gratefully received :-)

[teslahed]

Nope - not at all. I was being sincere.

[dp106]

Get high density LEDs - red and green work well unless you are colour blind. You want to contrasting colours so that you can plaster the front in one colour and the back in the other. This helps a lot with orientation;

Do you have to solder them some how I presume. I used a power distribution cable for my set up so not sure how I';d power them

[bomber]

You can adjust the KK board so that it doesn';t lose height when you tip it forward to start forward flight. Otherwise when you tip forward some of the previously downwardly pointing thrust is now pushing you sideways, so there is less lift and you will lose altitude unless you throttle up to compensate.

Most flight controllers don';t do this as default behavior and most experienced fliers, if they had a quadcopter that did this, would find it off putting. Learning to manage the throttle to keep the altitude constant as you maneuver is an important skill you should learn if you want to really get the hang of flying naturally. Alternatively if you prefer to fly a camera around slowly to get nice stable aerial videos and photos then you might quite like this feature enabled to reduce pilot workload.

Get high density LEDs - red and green work well unless you are colour blind. You want to contrasting colours so that you can plaster the front in one colour and the back in the other. This helps a lot with orientation;

http://www.giantshark.co.uk/high-density-flexible-stripred-1mtr-p-404318.html

http://www.giantshark.co.uk/high-density-flexible-stripgreen-1mtr-p-404317.html

I can see mine in daylight!

Alternatively you can use a foam ball on a stick pointing forwards.

Hi Chris,
That was interesting what you said about adjusting the KK board so the quad doesnt lose height when you tip it going forward..how do you do this???

[dp106]

Hi Chris,
That was interesting what you said about adjusting the KK board so the quad doesnt lose height when you tip it going forward..how do you do this???

I think it';s under the misc settings called height dampening.