Boscam lens, Spektrum RX, Naza RTH + crash video!

[KK1W]

Everyday is usually a learning experience. Some days you learn more than others - today was one of those days

I put this in general discussion category because there';s so many different subjects in the post - feel free to move it around if you like. This all started because I had too much time on my hands and a rainy start to the day kept me from flying.

Since upgrading my Naza-M V1 to v3.16 it lost the ability to completely turn off failsafe/RTH. In 3.14 I was able to uncheck both boxes. I';ve had no need for RTH but figured I should at least set it up so if it did kick in it might actually work. Thus started a day of learning.

Lesson #1 - the older Spektrum AR7000 RX';s, even though they have ';preset failsafe'; don';t implement it on all channels - or at least mine doesn';t. After setting things properly on the TX side I rebound the RX. Watched the assistant, turn of the TX - throttle goes to where I set it - mode stays in GPS. After an hour or so of trying to figure out what I was doing wrong I tried it with a 7ch Orange RX  - voila! So I swapped out the receivers and got on with the setup. The rain had stopped so I was looking forward to a test flight.

Lesson #2 - (Well maybe 2.5). I put a new lens on my HD-19 Boscam. I wasn';t planning on it but a guy wire strike and plowing face first into the driveway put a nasty scratch on the original. I purchased this http://www.foxtechfpv.com/wide-angle-lens-for-horyzonhd-p-528.html from FoxtechFPV and it works very well. Sharper than the (unscratched) original and seems to do better in low light. Well worth the $20 (lens + shipping). I had to file off about 1mm from the front of the lens barrel to get it to focus but that was pretty easy.

Lesson #3 (and associated crash video). No matter how prepared you ';think'; you are for an RTH test something will inevitably go south on you. It was so cool flipping the RTH switch, watching the quad go up 15'; or so, start flying back to the starting point, yawing to face the right direction... well you probably should watch the video

http://youtu.be/HA06_XVPUT8

The good news is there was no damage other than my pride. I went over the quad, checked it all out and flew a few more RTH';s with much better results. I don';t know if moving to the grass from the driveway helped soften up the bounce but they worked as expected. It is pretty cool to watch for the first (and 2,d and 3rd...) time. Now if I could just figure out how to correctly program a mix on my Futaba 9C that worked correctly

My apologies to those of you looking for crash vids with flying parts - didn';t happen this time. The one from the guy wire strke would have been spectacular but the the file was corrupted - sorry!

The biggest PITA was the AR7000. At least an hour trying to make that work.

Some day I';ll try this FPV stuff - then the real learning will begin!

Jim

[firey1]

I think the biggest prob with using the land on RTL is that if the gps does not register the 0 feet properly esp if the gps isnt fully updated before launch (the 3 min pause before lift off )  it tries to keep going down creating the bounce

I have mine RTL then hover at 2 meters then land manually to counter this

[KK1W]

firey1,

Yep, that';s what I did with the next few I tried. But I just ';had to see it'; land itself the first time around.

Update on the AR7000 problem. I think the RX has issues. I just had it on the bench and half the time it doesn';t want to work at all - WTH? Best to put it out to pasture. Or place it at the home point and let the quad auto-land and beat it to death ::)

Finally figured out the mixing for the 9C - had to use either mix 6 or 7 (curve mixes) instead of 1 through 5. Time to go to bed, it';s still early morning over here.