Multicopter Megathread

[Hackentosher]

46 minutes ago, straight_stewie said:

I just saw that literally 30 seconds before you posted this  
 

I was looking for Blade Nano CPS parts. I could practically build one out of their discounted spares for half what I just paid for it.

right? some good deals in there.

[straight_stewie]

Got 8 flights in on my new Blade Nano CPS today. I think I'm doing well for a first helicopter: All I broke was one of the canopy mounting posts.

I mounted the optional blades that came with it because they are supposed to be slightly more docile, but I'm not sure if they printed them upside down or not. Are the the bulbs supposed to face forwards or backwards?

 

PS: No, I'm not using the crappy radio that came with it, I'm using the identical crappy radio that came with the Sport Cub S  Speaking of which, it turns out that, while airplanes are much more intuitive to me, I'm getting much more enjoyment out of the helicopter on the first day than I ever did out of the airplane.

[Hackentosher]

I still want to see someone fly a 3d helicopter fpv one day. 

[KaminKevCrew]

That's lit. Too bad I'm absolutely tapped out for the month - DLGs are expensive.

[KaminKevCrew]

Also, the Armattan Rooster has finally been released, so I'm likely going to grab one of those in January, because I love the look of that frame. I just with you could get the Titanium parts, and the steel screws in the rainbow colors, so that I could use them as a wonderful match to the Freybot motors. 

[KaminKevCrew]

Later today, I'm heading out to a field to check out my DLG. I finally finished enough of it to fly (I haven't done the rudder up just yet - I managed to lose the second spring wire, so I can't set it up yet though I should have about 240' of the stuff coming in today, so I'll make another one.)

 

This DLG (an Armsoar GO) is my first really involved build. I've done work with foamies before, and I've done quads, but building a moldie is a whole new ballgame. It was lovely to have a real challenge when building this thing. It definitely isn't perfect (The tail is angled a bit and the wing sits farther back than it really should, but I think I did an alright job for my first involved build. It's been really enjoyable regardless.)

[KaminKevCrew]

i flew the GO today for all of 10 minutes (I got to the park about ten minutes after sunset, so I really didn't have much light.) and it was an absolute joy. It's amazing how much more challenging and rewarding flying is when you don't have a motor to pull you out of difficult situations. If you stall, you're going to stall. There's not a lot you can do about it. It's really cool. It's also really amazing to try to fly on the edge of a stall, try to turn, and have a tip stall. It's really stressful, but it really adds to my learning of how to fly well. 

 

I think I know what I'm going to be doing when I feel like doing something a little less frantic than flying quads.

[KaminKevCrew]

On 12/25/2017 at 5:09 PM, straight_stewie said:

Got 8 flights in on my new Blade Nano CPS today. I think I'm doing well for a first helicopter: All I broke was one of the canopy mounting posts.

I mounted the optional blades that came with it because they are supposed to be slightly more docile, but I'm not sure if they printed them upside down or not. Are the the bulbs supposed to face forwards or backwards?

PS: No, I'm not using the crappy radio that came with it, I'm using the identical crappy radio that came with the Sport Cub S  Speaking of which, it turns out that, while airplanes are much more intuitive to me, I'm getting much more enjoyment out of the helicopter on the first day than I ever did out of the airplane.

Do you have a Taranis/Other radio that supports modules? I've found that modules are a great way to use Horizon products with Frsky radios. There's a way to mod the RF module in the low end Spektrum radios that will let you control the horizon models very reliably, though if you don't want to do that, you can grab the OrangeRX module from hobbyking. I've had good luck with the V1.2 of that. (Though I never really had issues with the V1.0 either.)

[straight_stewie]

6 hours ago, KaminKevCrew said:

Do you have a Taranis/Other radio that supports modules? I've found that modules are a great way to use Horizon products with Frsky radios. There's a way to mod the RF module in the low end Spektrum radios that will let you control the horizon models very reliably, though if you don't want to do that, you can grab the OrangeRX module from hobbyking. I've had good luck with the V1.2 of that. (Though I never really had issues with the V1.0 either.)

This is the first aircraft that was ever fun enough for me to bother with. I'm considering a dx6 or dx8, but I would entertain other options that have similar features.

[Hackentosher]

Holy crap these 2406s are huge! One of my ESCs is dead, but I'm waiting on more parts anyway.

[KaminKevCrew]

I flew my Armsoar GO for 2 hours straight today. I started with the battery at 4.1V and ended two hours of constant flying later at 3.7 volts. It's amazing how liberating it is to be able to fly for a whole day on a single battery. Also, I learned a ton about flying. When you don't have the safety net that a motor provides, you kind of have to learn quickly if you don't want to break your aircraft. 

 

Plus, the silence that a glider flies with is really serene. I can't wait to take it out to an area where I'll be able to slope it so I can fly all day without ever coming down!!!

[straight_stewie]

On 12/28/2017 at 8:00 PM, KaminKevCrew said:

Plus, the silence that a glider flies with is really serene.

 

On 12/28/2017 at 3:51 PM, Hackentosher said:

Holy crap these 2406s are huge!

Is a DX8 (original, not the new g2 version) for $180 US a good deal or should I buy the G2 if I already have the money?

[Hackentosher]

7 minutes ago, straight_stewie said:

 

Is a DX8 (original, not the new g2 version) for $180 US a good deal or should I buy the G2 if I already have the money?

I don't know the difference tbh, I'm an fr-sky guy. But, from what I know, $180 for a dx8 is a pretty good deal. I just don't like how expensive their receivers are when fr-sky equivalents are so much cheaper. 

[KaminKevCrew]

6 hours ago, straight_stewie said:

 

Is a DX8 (original, not the new g2 version) for $180 US a good deal or should I buy the G2 if I already have the money?

Honestly, if it isn't going to be your main Tx/you're just planning to use it for horizon Bnf stuff, I'd say that you should just grab a DX6i for less than $100.

[straight_stewie]

6 hours ago, KaminKevCrew said:

Honestly, if it isn't going to be your main Tx/you're just planning to use it for horizon Bnf stuff, I'd say that you should just grab a DX6i for less than $100.

I don't make a lot of money, and I don't see that changing any time soon (for reasons that have been discussed elsewhere on the forum), so I'm leaning towards buying a radio that I can grow into.
 

13 hours ago, Hackentosher said:

fr-sky equivalents are so much cheaper. 

I like fr-sky radios alot. But by the time I configure them to be compatible with horizon BNF stuff, I've spent as much money as just buying an equivalent spectrum radio

[Hackentosher]

56 minutes ago, straight_stewie said:

I don't make a lot of money, and I don't see that changing any time soon (for reasons that have been discussed elsewhere on the forum), so I'm leaning towards buying a radio that I can grow into.
 

I like fr-sky radios alot. But by the time I configure them to be compatible with horizon BNF stuff, I've spent as much money as just buying an equivalent spectrum radio

What about a qx7 with an Orange module? Talk about growing into, this is a $100 radio that is as good as you can get for miniquad stuff and has all the benefits of fr-sky. If you want, you can also throw in a module for long range or spektrum compatibility. 

 

Edit: I was talking about the receivers in particular, an RXSR is $20, for 16 channels, telemetry, full range, and it's the size of a penny. That's pretty damn good if you ask me. 

 

Upon further investigation, I discovered the Spektrum Quad receiver is now $25 (down from 50)  which makes it a lot more reasonable in my mind. It's not as small or as long range as the FR-Sky stuff, but that's a lot better now. Spektrum is looking pretty good for miniquad stuff now that they reduced the price so much. Hopefully it's not just a holiday special.

 

edit #2: The Spektrum quad receiver with telemetry (important if you want RSSI) is $40 https://www.amainhobbies.com/spektrum-rc-dsmx-quad-raceserial-receiver-w-telemtry-spm4649t/p531831. Personally I think anything much over $30 is a lot to ask for a receiver when the competition is so cheap.

[straight_stewie]

2 hours ago, Hackentosher said:

Edit: I was talking about the receivers in particular, an RXSR is $20, for 16 channels, telemetry, full range, and it's the size of a penny. That's pretty damn good if you ask me. 

The problem that I'm facing here is that I need a setup that will allow me to run the Blade Nano (which requires a DSMX radio; actually, Horizon says that only JR and Spektrum radios are supported, however I think that's just to get the "Panic button" functionality, which I don't use anyway), but I know that I'm going to enjoy the hobby and eventually want to move into some larger kit, and therefore want a nicer radio than required to run the micro. Personally, the nicer FR-Sky and Futaba radios look really attractive to me, if only they were compatible with my bird out-of-the-box.

I should have looked into radios more before selecting my first helicopter, If I had I might have selected something like a Trex 250, which would allow me more flexibility in radios.

EDIT:: It actually bothers me that the communications protocols are proprietary. It seems to me that, given the explosion in popularity of RC, a standardized, regulated, and published 2.4GHz spread spectrum protocol that will allow all protocol compatible radios to interface with all protocol receivers would be extremely nice. It would really open up the RC world to more competition and better options.

The only question remaining is "has RC progressed to the point where regulatory groups (think PCI-SIG) are valid and worthwhile"?

[joeythebold]

i dont know if this thread is still active but i was wondering if anyone has tried to turn a runcam split v1 into a runcam 3 like item, thx trying to save a old runcam split

[Hackentosher]

1 hour ago, joeythebold said:

i dont know if this thread is still active but i was wondering if anyone has tried to turn a runcam split v1 into a runcam 3 like item, thx trying to save a old runcam split

I guess you could just add a 1s battery to it, idk how you'd control recording though. 

[Hackentosher]

Press F to pay respects  

[joeythebold]

On 12/30/2017 at 6:48 PM, Hackentosher said:

Press F to pay respects  

basically 

[Hackentosher]

58 minutes ago, joeythebold said:

basically 

I haven't killed an FC in about a year, that F4 Pro lasted so long, but the video circuit died  

[Hackentosher]

Burnout sucks, I feel like all footage looks the same and I haven't been motivated to fly in a while

 

[straight_stewie]

1 minute ago, Hackentosher said:

Burnout sucks, I feel like all footage looks the same and I haven't been motivated to fly in a while

 

I know it. I've had to cut back to an hour of practice every other day only.

 

[Hackentosher]

8 minutes ago, straight_stewie said:

I know it. I've had to cut back to an hour of practice every other day only.

 

I just need to go out to a place and fly on my own.