Houston.... We have lift off......

[johnrs]

The eagle is in the air......  We have lift off......

Finally after over two week I have lift off...  Still a little work to do which I will need a little more open space...  But the main thing is I am in the air   

When in the air it flies forward so need to sort that so it hovers...

So excited I video it 

http://youtu.be/EbUmA0S4bjY

[usnooz]

I had the same problem with my kk board. (Actually i dont think i ever really got of the ground) 

I gave up and got a naza. best money i ever spent. plugged it in 30 mins setting it up and i was away.

Saying that i have seen clips of kk boards set-up and looking solid in flight

[Gaza07]

Looking good john glad you managed to get it in the air, you have your gain set to high thats why it wobbles and makes the pulsing sound, turn down which ever pot is the P,
I would also suggest getting some expo dialed in to the radio it will soften the sticks near the centres and make things feel much nicer for you 

Very well done your persistance has payed of and now the real fun starts 

[Balders]

gains look far too high...it's oscillating a lot...you can hear it more than see it, and it also looks very twitchy. Take a screwdriver to the pots and give them a fair old adjustment...make sure you disarm and rearm the board.

[johnrs]

Thanks   

Am much happier now I am making real progress..  I was going to ask about that wobbling so thanks again for answering that one.  Also when I throttle up it starts to move forward.  I take it that down to the Pitch pot or is that a trim setting on the TX

Thanks for sticking with me on this and all you help   

[Gaza07]

The pitching forward it probably due to the copter not being trimmed level do your best to hover it and feel where it wants to drift and then trim that out the best you can, Look forward to seeing some more video as you progress, its a real buzz tho aint it 

you can click a load of backwards trim in before you leave the ground as you already know it goes forward, a quick blast of power off the floor often shows whats out of trim it should go straight up 

[johnrs]

Just so I get this straight in my head.  I am trimming Elevator trim (right hand side up/down trim button - mode 2)   

[Gaza07]

Yes exactly each trim switch / button / slider just thought I would cover all options    is in line with what it adjusts 

Just so I get this straight in my head.  I am trimming Elevator trim (right hand side up/down trim button - mode 2)   

[johnrs]

will give this a shot when I get home tonight as long as its not raining.

Think I am going to get myself a Naza with GPS in a few weeks   :evil

Also just a thought.  What do you guys use to tighten the prop adapters.  I have been using a screw driver which is now bending. 

[Gaza07]

Well you deff wont regret gettng a Naza they are very good but I would order from the UK rather than try to save cash as if some thing goes wrong you have a UK warranty BOYD has a excellent customer service and you cant go wrong, I will get mine from Martin when I have the funds 

[teslahed]

Think I am going to get myself a Naza with GPS in a few weeks   :evil

Also just a thought.  What do you guys use to tighten the prop adapters.  I have been using a screw driver which is now bending.

I use a bent screw driver or a metal rod that i found somewhere. Be careful tightening your prop adapter - its very easy to overtighten them and bend the prop adapters - after which you'll never get your quadcopter to fly smoothly until you replace the prop adapters with new ones. I discovered this for myself the hard way

The NAZA does fly very well - but you may want to keep flying the quadcopter you have for a bit first - if there are any other problems with your setup you might be better off finding them before you spend lots on one of the more expensive flight controllers. The KK2 board is a very good option for beginners as it's cheap and has auto-level (the one feature the KK1 lacks that would really help you) and doesn't require computer software to setup. Auto-level would take a lot of the hard work out of flying the thing whilst you were learning - you'd not have to worry about keeping it level the whole time, you'd just control it when you wanted to move away from level.

I bought myself a KK1 board back in March of this year when i was first starting out and in hindsight i should have gone with KK2 or Multiwii because they are much easier to learn to fly on (with autolevel). It's easy to buy the wrong thing when you are new to the hobby.

Having said that all the NAZA owners seem very happy, especially those wanting the smoothest possible controlled flight for aerial photography - although you'd hope so given the price!

[johnrs]

now booked marked 

I had one spin off yesterday and spent 15 mins looking for it

At just under £300 its a big investment and I am aware I am still very very new to all this and still and so much to learn.  Plus there is the problem of getting it past the the boss... 

Me - "evening darling..  Can I get you a glass of wine perhaps ..... Cook your favourite dinner"
Wife - "ok what do you want and whats it going to cost....."
Me - "well now that you mention it..  Was looking at a new flight controller....It has GPS, fly home function, GPS hold........"
Wife - "how much ??"
Me - "Errrrrrrr"  Thinking to myself - Be a man and tell the truth its the only way....   "about £50 ish"   

[Balders]

There is certainly nothing at all wrong with the original KK boards (ie pre KKV2) indeed I use one on my tricopter and that thing is as smooth as silk.

It's all in the setup/pot settings.

If your copter is drifting forward (or whichever way) then yes this can be fixed in trim, although you may also wish to check if your airframe is balanced...maybe try shifting the battery backwards if your design allows this.  Whilst you can use main trims to get it flying and learn to fly, it's neater once you've got it flying to make those adjustments in the sub trim menu, so you can keep your main trim throws at their maximum should you need it.  It's just generally good practice.

The pot's though certainly need adjusting.  This isn't so straightforward to dictate, as it's possible to configure the board so that the pots work in different directions.  Clockwise on one might increase gain and decrease it on another, so I would recommend you try quite a large deviation to your current settings...if it goes hyper, you've gone the wrong way :) You want to reach a happy medium where the oscillations disappear but it's still responsive.

Don't forget you have 3 separate pots, yaw, pitch and roll. Maybe take a photo of where they are set now so you can always revert if needs be.  For now don't worry about playing with YAW, and also don't turn the pots to their full extent, as this can put the board into programming mode (ie for reversing yaw direction etc).

Good luck, keep posting video's, it makes diagnosing issues far simpler.

[teslahed]

There is certainly nothing at all wrong with the original KK boards (ie pre KKV2) indeed I use one on my tricopter and that thing is as smooth as silk.

When properly configured they fly great - and teach you how to fly on fully manual (no auto-level) so once you've got that mastered you can fly pretty much anything.

My KK1 flew fine once properly setup - it's just not the most user friendly FC to setup or learn to fly with.

Learning to properly tweak the pots is vitally important - you want to be doing lots of short flights where you land and adjust with a screw driver by a couple of degrees or so (and as balders says, could be reversed so try both ways) and see if it improves things.

If you want to get a little more technical, have a look at this;

Multicopter PI-tuning: How to recognize different settings.

[johnrs]

Cheers for the info.  Hoping the weather is going to be ok to try some of this tonight

I quad is more than likely off balance as I put some PVC tubes to extend the arms a little to help protect the props