did 'YOU' fly today??

[Bad Raven]

So the Rekon 3 today:-

Setting down the PIDs for roll and pitch have improved but not totally eliminated the wobble. Its not camera loose or FC loose.

Unfortunaely the slightly better image has now revealed dirt inside the lens, this is a pic aimed at a pure white card.




Also look at the horrendous bands across the screen, and this is with the quad disarmed so motors not running!!

[ched]

So the Rekon 3 today:-

Setting down the PIDs for roll and pitch have improved but not totally eliminated the wobble. Its not camera loose or FC loose.

Unfortunaely the slightly better image has now revealed dirt inside the lens, this is a pic aimed at a pure white card.




Also look at the horrendous bands across the screen, and this is with the quad disarmed so motors not running!!

That doesn't look good. Is it a Caddx as they did/do have quality control issues but the banding shouldn't be a QA issue. Wonder if it's vtx and Pal?

[Bad Raven]

This last couple of weeks has thrown so much carp in my direction.      

Today was the first day my school after-hours club could run (Lunatic Govt COVID restrictions, the kids can associate in school all day, but the very same ones in the very same bubble/group can't inside school but after hours!  Unbelievable! So schoolkids only get COVID after 15:00, take note!

SO, first session this year for them for 2.4GHz quads and race hovercraft (converted Eachine E010 quads). Have run these models for several years in the same place inside school often twice weekly, but at least once a week.

Spent hours of prep checking and charging at home because of the ong stoppage, They ALL bound and ran first time.  Final check on the transponders and PC timing system this morning.

Get to school, set up the track (30 mins work) and now its almost time for kids to arrive.

Take a hovercraft, go to bind it, and it won't. Try another, no. Work my way through all 25 of them, two do bind, ones I know have slightly different firmware (not that there's any normal way to change, they are just newer and for unstated reason older pre 2020 Tx will not work with them). Same with the quads.

Go back to my car in the car park with two that bon't bind (having repeatedly tried), they instantly bind.  Back indoors to track and........... they now bind there, too!  WTF........... 

Try other models, and they still won't bind. (but do at car)

Its not just my set of models either, as many of the kids have built their own. Luckily few came today as the word has yet to percolate their limited cranial control systems! 

School I.T. deny all knowledge of any changes, traditional "dunno mate, nuffink to do wiv us". The two spoken to didn't even know (or admit to know) radio control models existed!!!     

One kept asking what I was trying to build after I'd clearly explained that it was equipment that had been operated weekly there for years perfectly OK but now would not, so what had changed?.

Caretakers think there was a phone upgrade two months back but don't know what was done.

SIGH................ 
 

[badger1]

Caretakers think there was a phone upgrade two months back but don't know what was done.

SIGH................ 

new 2.4GHz WiFi in the school maybe?  might be worth getting a WiFi scanner on your phone & seeing whether it's a particularly noisy environment.  I use the imaginatively named "WiFi Analyzer" - I live in a flat & periodically have to change my wifi channels depending on who's blasting what at me the the walls/floors.

saying that, I'm not sure whether 2.4GHz WiFi actually overlaps the frequencies that R/C gear uses, or if they're in different ranges within the general 2.4GHz ISM band.

[Bad Raven]

AND...............its worse than that!

Now back home only the two with the latest v5 board bind and run as they did during prep at home AND at school.

But NONE of the version 1-3's work here now either!!!  I got out all the quads as well, none of them bind, either to their transmitters, or to the Horus with multi module.

During prep earlier in the week I bound and ran every one of them successfully here at home, now none of them will bind.

Obviously I have checked new batteries in Tx, fully charged battery on quad/whoover. Makes no difference.

[ched]

That sounds very weird. Almost like they have had an EMP hit. The school opposite me has a huge number of 2.4Ghz wifi networks, they cover the entire band. If I look with an android app then the whole band of 2.4Ghz it occupied at decent strength and I am across a road from them. I have a suspicion that they are using high gain antennas to get that sort of strength at the distance they have as I don't get a great signal about 20 meters from my router outdoors! Probably swamped. Although any item I can I switched to 5Ghz although that's not an option for you.

Very mysterious. 

[badger1]

any tactical nuclear devices detonated in SE London yesterday BR?  I know it might be hard to tell   

[Bad Raven]

any tactical nuclear devices detonated in SE London yesterday BR?  I know it might be hard to tell   

How the hell would I know, I'm 100 foot underground with my tinfoild hat on.............

[Bad Raven]

I'm now in sunny Sussex, 60 plus miles away, and having taken a fair sized sample of the fleet with me, they all work perfectly.   

[badger1]

the motor fell off one of the club trainers in flight today - certainly livens up a dead-stick landing.    

[Bad Raven]

the motor fell off one of the club trainers in flight today - certainly livens up a dead-stick landing.    

Certainly does, that sudden rearwards CG shift adds interest!

Seen so many over the years, two that stick:-

1. I was watching a hooligan pilot in our club do a beat up of the runway with a very overpowered engine delta (one of the Weston things).  Climbing to the stars he flipped it on its back, half looped and came back considerably faster than a bat out of hell, engine screaming.  His low pass was a teeny bit too low though and the prop, enginestill screaming, firewall and tank exited the airframe, hurtling another 100 feet and impaling itself into a mature Oak trunk.  The airframe described a huge loop, and "belly landed" on the runway.

2. I was reluctantly maidening a plane built by another member. After doing a normal flight and on calling approach he insisted that I show him what it was capable of speed wise.  After a couple of circuits and in a shallow speed dive,  I realised I had no elevator, or very little.  I angled it so it went behind and out of sight of a mature lone Oak (not thee same one!) and the tree line, which had a small gap. Luckily I managed to align with both, and it JUST had enough control to miss the long field grass and climb out.  Flown slow it was OK, so I positioned and landed.  AND?  He'd got a long piano wire elevator rod that was unsupported, and at speed it was blowing back.

I told him to fix it, but he flew it again that day, ran out of room and talent and took the engine off the front on another Oak. That airframe looped and fluttered right into the top of another tree.

[badger1]

a good weekend's flying - mostly FW.  should have used more sunscreen though - I currently look like I've been involved in some sort of radiological incident.   

[Bad Raven]

Flew yesterday and today.  Yesterday was mostly GEP Mk4 6"

Today was mostly Sport Hawk 5", but I also flew two batteries through the Rekon 3 (alias Nano LR).

It's CADDX Ant camera is rubbish, has dirt behind the lens. "Noise" grey banding too, though not from motors, happens even disarmed.

It was quite breezy, my flying buddy thinking it was reaching 15mph on gusts, which I doubt, but it didn't seem to affect the flight performance other than requiring a higher throttle setting, up from around 50% to 60% and consequentally shorter duration. 

I didn't push it below 3.0/3.1v but still got roughly 12 minutes 30 seconds decent flight per cell. What stopped me was the VTX dropping out heading back into wind, just occasional half second picture loss to a plain screen as the gusts made the motors work hard and took the cell down under the voltage the VTX is happy with. No real loss of flyable image though.

Its a 25/100/200/350mW VTX. Today I trialled 100, and pushed it right out very low to our boundary and behind a now fully leafed up mature Oak. Mild flicker and no loss of colour, so actually for the tiny antenna not bad at all.

He commented that you don't really appreciate its speed since its so quiet.

I now have the motors so all the parts are here to make my own build Nano LR. End week wet forecast seems likely to give workshop time? (once I FIND the workbench, that is, its in a right state!)

I have several frames printed ready, should I use Gold, Silk Flouro Orange, or really violent Flouro pink? Prob the latter as if it goes down it'll be a 'ugger to find, and only having feeble motor buzzer really is not good enough.

[badger1]

3.0/3.1V - is it LiIon?

[Bad Raven]

3.0/3.1V - is it LiIon?

Rekon 3 (alias Nano Long Range) uses a single 3,300mAh 18650, Sony VTC6 preferred as that is capable of the highest discharge.

It seems that the first item to drop out is the VTX, and on a calmer day when the current sag was more stable mine ran quite happily down to under 2.6v.  In the wind and 100mW it was occasionally briefly dropping to vtx cut off level at a screen figure of 2.8v, giving a clean break and resume of picture of maybe half a second.

I had no problem getting 16 mins cruise on a lower breeze day with the VTX on 25mW and NO loss of video, which allowed me to push circuits to the range of my spotter. It's tiny and black! 

Others have found below 3.4v was unattainable. I suspect those people have no "feel" for throttle management, and are using the max mW VX output probably not aware you don't get power for free!!!   

Its under 70g (mine weighs 64g) and a 3,300 VTC6 weighs 48g.

There are rubbish clone VTC6 out there that are inferior and you need to know how to tell!!

[badger1]

Rekon 3 (alias Nano Long Range) ...

looks interesting - I'd quite like something light & non-scary-looking that I could fly in public.  I wouldn't be happy flying a 5" in, say, a park - too much weight & speed to do damage if something did go wrong.

[badger1]

got out & flew today.  decided to teach myself to fly Acro LOS & actually did okay - no lost quads, nothing stuck in a tree or lost in the river,  only two broken props.   

I think I need to tweak the pitch & roll rates a bit, or perhaps just a bit more expo.  & maybe a custom throttle curve with a flatter section for the hover.  I may even remove the clicky thing from my throttle stick.   

[Bad Raven]

I'd quite like something light & non-scary-looking that I could fly in public.

Then its a balance between low noise/low impact and ability to fly in the sort of weather you want/need to.  The higher the wind, the greater the weight/inertia required, and that means power and noise and greater risk to public.

Remember that you cannot fly closer than 50 metres to anyone not under your control regardless of size/weight/power unless its specifically sold as a toy (and TBH none that are worth a light are so labelled!).

The EMax Tinyhawk Freestyle is a smaller unit even less threatening but more capable of a lively performance as well as stable cruise, but does not offer the flight lengths. Flies on a 650mAh 1S or 2S.

If you want duct protection then the Mobula 7 HD should be looked at.

Have had all three and IMO the Freestyle is the one I usually reach for.

[badger1]

10 packs of LOS quadding tonight.  orientation is much easier with different coloured props front & rear, funnily enough.   

feeding in down pitch through a co-ordinated tun is very counter-intuitive after years of flying planes, but gradually getting the hang of it.   

[Bad Raven]

feeding in down pitch through a co-ordinated turn is very counter-intuitive after years of flying planes, but gradually getting the hang of it.   

You've clearly not been asked to maiden or suddenly take over some of the planes I have then!!        

I have had "Dave, Dave" and a Tx thrust into my hands a number of times, once memorably I soon discovered due to aileron reversal caused by build dihedral and a badly set CG, and at that point I also discovered that the guy flew with up elevator stick being up.

All my quads have different front and rear colour props, apart from once when in a hurry I put them side to side. I noticed as I placed it on the start pad but didn't have time to change before that flight or I'd have lost my turn. Concentrated the mind. Usually mine are transparent grey at the front as some intrude in camera area FPV, and transparent red rear.  (I'm a firm believer in the DAL folding props)

I use an all orange LED strip when armed, the centre pair being green when disarmed, this colour is by much testing the best for spotter sighting and in the event of several people looking for a downed quad they can be told or already know that if they see green LEDS its safe to pick up (carefully).

[badger1]

push-to-turn shouldn't be entirely alien to me as I used to fly (full size) hang gliders & they're "push for up".

my turns going away from me are pretty good; turns coming back towards me rather less so still.   

[Bad Raven]

Arrived first at field so did a REKON 3 flight LOS throwing it about inc forward and side flips.

Not what it is intended for and a crash from aero height/speed with a super light frame and quite a heavy (relative) battery is never going to end well.

It CAN do it quite competently though.

It does overall fly better with the right props that don't need screw fitting, on something so light removing 8 screws is not insignificant, and removing that inertia weight on the motors is another saving worth having.

No video, forgot the SD card in the goggles..............DOH!

[badger1]

10 packs of LOS quadding again today - still crap   

8 packs of FW LOS - not quite so crap   

I might even do some FPVing tomorrow

[Bad Raven]

Damn, damn, damn, damn....................

Flew the now CADDX Vista equipped Hawk 5 today, 5 1800mAh packs as DJI replaced the faulty Goggles V2 (Thank you HobbyRC).

And............. I  forget to put an SD back in it!

Have sort of given up with trying to update and remove potential issues for a while.

This the current screwed up state DJI are in:-

Brand new batch 2 Goggles V2

Goggles report they are on 01.00.01.0600

Assistant software reports they are on 01.00.01.0603, offers me 0604 and 0606.

There are by legend (DJI being silent, no help at all) two completely separate firmwares, one for the Air Units, the other for the DJI FPV Drone in the goggles.

The above is Air Unit firmware. but I need the DJI FPV Drone firmware as best info says what I have is bugged and if it goes into it (which a battery glitch can cause) there's no menu way to get out again. Its also come to light that allegedly you have to be IN that firmnware to update it

The problem now is that people are finding, like me, that they have a working Air Unit system, but allegedly with the above risk............. BUT they have NO menu option available to change to the DJI FPV Drone mode to update to the corrected version. (and of course no drone to force it).

And I thought DJI were competent.............    

[badger1]

DJI do seem to be making a pig's ear of the digi goggles/air units at the moment - hope you're able to get it sorted BR.

I had a fun day - morning at the heli club where they have some race gates which we were playing with.  I usually just end up crashing into them & knocking them over, but I was doing rather better today with my extra-expo LOS rates.  one of the lads has a lap-timer which picks up your peak VTx signal each lap & is blue-tooth paired to his phone which reads our your name & lap time each lap, which is rather good fun. 

all fun & games until we had a full-on head-on collision going through a gate because he was going **the wrong way around the course** 

no harm done, just a few props to straighten.  didn't get it on video though as I'd forgotten to stat the DVR.

then a bit of LOS quadding the the FW club - I'm getting better at the co-ordinated turn stuff, but honestly, hovering in Acro is like trying to keep a ball bearing in the middle of a sheet of glass, plus maintain constant height & heading at the same time. 

plus some FW LOS flying & instructing, so I'm all flown out for today. 

[badger1]

@ched - have you been able to get out at all or are you shielding still?

[ched]

@ched - have you been able to get out at all or are you shielding still?

Had second jab about 6 weeks ago so have been out for last 3 weeks but starting new business so not much free time at moment. Don't think I have actually flown out doors this year! I have been keeping fingers in practice with sims. The other thing that stopped me was I accidentally killed most of my little quad lipos. I left them plugged into a switched off charger and the charger gradually drained the lipos to an unrecoverable voltage! So nothing to fly round garden at moment. I am sure when business is more established I will have more time and funds for lipos :-)
Cheers for asking.

[hoverfly]

Try charging them as nmh to get them started then go back to lipo. It might just resurrect them.
I've managed to save several batts doing this.

[badger1]

10 packs of LOS quadding again today - progress is being made.  rather less fishing it out of the long grass this time & a few flights with no crashes at all.

[badger1]

more LOS quadding today - definitely getting the hang of it.  I'd probably not be far off being able to pass a BMFA 'A' cert if I had the depth perception to hover a 5" quad on the spot 10m directly in front of me.   

also some FPV tear-arsing around