Multi-Rotor Thread

[Clive]

I shouldn't find this funny .....

But I do .......

It seems there's no end to the fun you can have with these things

[SoutherlyBuster]

Well at least the bull won this time.

[.Joel]

Brilliant video from the quarry here in Victoria by Khanx.

[Clive]

Starting to fly now, went out to the golf course and took some footage early in the morning.

Gave the golf course the raw footage so they can do something with it, as a result I'm welcome to come again.... And again. Sweet.

https://vimeo.com/94723966

[SoutherlyBuster]

Great Clive, think the other golf clubs will be lining up to get their's done as well. Glad you're finally having some fun with it rather than banging your head on the $%^%$%$$$%%$%$%!$$ with the RC woes

Like how the parrots fly by, the high shots slowly rotating around -- great.

Regards,

Norman.

[Clive]

No norm the $$$$ just keep going down the drain

Not sure about the compression, I uploaded 108.5 meg, maybe if I was a plus member of vimeo it might be better. I've made a full 1920x1080 to give to the golf club.

President of the golf club has offered to supply me a couple extra batteries which will give me more film time once he saw the raw footage, I can't be paid for it, but they will have no use for the batteries once filming is over, the flying a long distance away around trees gets a bit scary, simulation software arrived so I can practice while it's raining.

[.Joel]

Really, really, really nice Clive. 5 Stars

Just a tip for smoother aerial photography, on your Futaba TX setup a switch for increased Yaw expo. When you want to do a panning shot flick the switch and do your pan motion slowing the drag of your thumb back to centre. This will buffer out a lot of the jerkiness of the yaw inputs when you're using a 2 axis gimbal.

[Clive]

Really, really, really nice Clive. 5 Stars

Just a tip for smoother aerial photography, on your Futaba TX setup a switch for increased Yaw expo. When you want to do a panning shot flick the switch and do your pan motion slowing the drag of your thumb back to centre. This will buffer out a lot of the jerkiness of the yaw inputs when you're using a 2 axis gimbal.

Thanks for the appraisal of the video, I get the concept of a separate switch, gliders set them up for crow or butterfly so when they land they can set flaps and ailerons in different directions. What does yaw expo mean ( I know what yaw is but "expo" is that exponential) .

Will pm you on some other matters to do with the setup.

[SoutherlyBuster]

Clive,

exp stands for exponential. What this means is that when the stick is near the centre, the amount the aircraft yaws with a certain stick movement is small, then when you move the stick further out the gain increases so the small movement makes the aircraft yaw a whole lot more.

So near the centre it's more gentle with movments, then gradually as you reach the limits of the stick travel, the movements of yaw become more exaggerated. Zac and I use this on our gliders.

Hope this helps,

regards,

Norman

[Clive]

Thanks norm I should be able to sort that one out, saw something about that in the manual.

Project for this week.

[Goz]

Think you have quick reflexes

Soma Warpquad (trust an Aussie to bomb the arse out of a mini quad)

[Goz]

With some time off my feet over my holidays, I resurrected the SK450.

Flashed the KK2 with 1.6 Firmware, flashed the Multistar Escs to BL Heli, added remotely controlled lighting to help with orientation at dusk.

[Slartibartfast]

Think you have quick reflexes

Soma Warpquad (trust an Aussie to bomb the arse out of a mini quad)

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[Clive]

Didn't look sped up, somehow sped up footage just looks jerky and usually you can pick it. Crazy flying.,tough little quad, sure takes a beating, don't think mine would cope at all with such punishment.

Onto another topic...... Simulator programs.

Bought pheonix 5 , it has 4 quads in it but the physics behaves nothing like the DJI phantom, probably because it has a gps component which stops the momentum drift, the sim versions behave like they are puks on an ice rink and drift until you input another direction. I haven't yet flown the dji in manual mode..... Not planning to in the near future.

Is this how most quads behave or is the program missing something.

[Slartibartfast]

Didn't look sped up, somehow sped up footage just looks jerky and usually you can pick it.

Yeah, I don't think it actually is sped up.

In that part right at the beginning where the quad does those two and a half really tight circles in the middle of the field the quad has such a steep angle of bank that it would have to be travelling really fast in order to stay in the sky. So yeah, it probably hasn't been sped up. I just don't know if I should be more impressed with the flying or the camera work

[Chook]

Nah it's sped up.

Listen to the props when they load and unload the sound is not consistent to what they are doing.

[Clive]

Filming was done by the pilot with a mobile phone camera strapped to his head , which explains the tracking. My vote remains for real time.

There is a link at the bottom of the video to the RC forum it's from which covers the detail.

[Goz]

Nah it's sped up.

Listen to the props when they load and unload the sound is not consistent to what they are doing.

Video is legit and not speed up

You can follow the development and testing on this thread on RC Groups FnBL - Franken Brushless Warp Quad appears around Post 231

Specs:

230mm Frame - Designed for the Sunnysky X2204 2300KV motor

Blue Series 12A ESC's - SimonK 2013-05-15

Lemon-Flip-Pro RX-FC

3S 1000mAh 45C Lipo - 1300mAh 45C may be needed. (2S capable)

6x4.5 Props.

AUW with 3S 1000mAh 45C is about 300 grams

Approx 2.8 kg of Thrust

740 Watt peak power

Each motor is producing more than double the thrust of the AUW of the Quad.

The Power to weight Ratio is ridiculous.

[Clive]

Quick question about flying near to large power lines, done some research, suggestions is that running wires through magnetic fields creates a voltage in circuits which can cause interference, plus general staic which could affect the radio transmission to the yet some think it's all rubbish

So would you fly at this location .....

I've been asked to do some filming here with the quad for something. (sporting promo), I only just realized its got massive power lines running through it.

[SoutherlyBuster]

Hi Clive,

What they are talking about is inductance. That is how transformers work, there is no copper connection between say the 240 V AC end of the transformer to the say 12 V AC end, it's all done through "inductance". So you could for instance "pinch" power from a 240 V overhead power line with out actually connecting any copper line to that power line, yep it's been done before, some farmer tried it but got caught in the end.

Peak inside a transformer and you see lots of wires parallel to each other, ie two coils, this is to magnify the effect. You also need an AC current for this effect to work. DC works as well but then you need movement between the two wires for it to work.

There is a good explanation of this at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductance

So if any of your wires in your device are parellel to the AC power lines then there will be some signal going into your device. I see this first hand when I record music (analog) near an AC transform -- lot's of interference.

A Faraday shield would stop the signal coming in, ie if you put your device into a totally enclosed conductive box, nothing gets in. Hm what about the antenae, well need that one to poke out!

Practically speaking, I would just go to the site, hold your device, have some one control it and see if you notice any interference, note the distance you are away from the power lines. If you get no interence, then don't go any closer and I would say you're ok.

Hope this helps,

Norman

[Clive]

.

Hi Clive,

Practically speaking, I would just go to the site, hold your device, have some one control it and see if you notice any interference, note the distance you are away from the power lines. If you get no interence, then don't go any closer and I would say you're ok.

Hope this helps,

Norman

I'm going to be right underneath them...... So less than 30 m away,

It's for an auskick kids thing, they want about 500 kids to make the shape of a football in the middle of the oval, I fly around them and film it, without being a pessimist, if something goes wrong and it flys off into a child, would I get the press saying I'm an idiot to fly there.

My first thought is just give it a miss...... Anyone else want to do it ?

[SoutherlyBuster]

Why not just put a cam say 300 meters away (horizontal distance) from the park, sure the picture will not be directly down but skewed, or tell them to pick a different oval -- explain to them, if you want the picture from above, you need a venue where there are no over head wires. Take it a change in venue is out of the question, so personally I'd bow out.

[Slartibartfast]

I'd go there beforehand and practice and fly much closer to the lines that you would on the day and see what happens.

Worst that's likely to happen would be your quad dropping like a stone. If that happens just dust it off, repair the broken bits and never fly there again. All in all I think it's unlikely to be a problem but I'd give a practice run first just to be safe.

I know it's a nitro heli rather than electric but the video does say this:

Power lines do not interfere with the radio-control equipment. The only point when this could happen is when the powerlines are turned off or on - and this is ultra unlikely during the 5 min. we fly:

Here's an RC Groups thread about it and, as usual, you can pick your favourite opinion

The general consensus though seems to be that 2.4GHz should be fine.

[Clive]

Worst that's likely to happen would be your quad dropping like a stone.

The general consensus though seems to be that 2.4GHz should be fine.

I get the feeling no matter what happens you could say I told you so

The camera end of the phantom is particularly weak, the gimbal mount is deliberately made so if you bang it, it's stuffed. Already had to replace one plus the anti fall screws ( only $120) so it wasn't too bad, but I've had to recalibrate everything also . I think I got off lightly.

The little quad previously mentioned in the above video, bombproof, smack it around and refly.......Not the phantoms, there's one for sale on eBay, flown once and busted.

I'm going to pass, if someone else wants to do it PM me.... Haven't got to discussing a price with the club so it's open to negotiation I guess. The field is in Glen Iris .... ( Melbourne)

EDIT.... The DJI phantom is generally run in GPS mode, it has an Atti plus manual mode, the phantom is particulary susceptible to TBE ( Toilet Bowl Effect) essentially its compass doesn't read correctly and it ends up in a looping search pattern .... To a complete fail. Dumping the gps mode might solve the problem . Done some reading about high voltage lines and compasses...... Not a Great idea

the helicopter above might have less sensitive electronics , particularly as the rotors are so chip controlled just to make them stable, it's all a bit out of my field of expertise, interesting topic though.

[SoutherlyBuster]

Comment from video

... and AC power lines turn on and off all thge time, well close to it by reversing current direction at 50 Hz, all the time. Makes me laugh though.