Multicopter Megathread

[straight_stewie]

Managing Lipos is such a pain. I can't wait until I graduate to fuel. I may look for a vintage trex 250 nitro bird to learn on after I get my hover orientations and autorotations down.

You charge your batteries up thinking you're going to fly, and then you only get to fly 2/5 batteries. Now you have to charge 2 of them to storage voltage and drain the other three to storage voltage. 

[Hackentosher]

They made a nitro t-rex 250 ? I thought the smallest nitro they made was the 500? Also the smaller ones will be more squirely, soo be careful. 

 

But yes, having to discharge batteries sucks. What I do is take an old 3d printer heated bed with an xt60, throw it in a bucket of water, and plug in my LiPos, monitoring it with a multimeter. Make sure you actually monitor it tho and don't walk away from it for 45 minutes like I did or you'll lose a battery. 

[straight_stewie]

1 hour ago, Hackentosher said:

They made a nitro t-rex 250

 

[KaminKevCrew]

ISDT makes a pretty cool discharger for less than $50

 

[Hackentosher]

8 hours ago, KaminKevCrew said:

ISDT makes a pretty cool discharger for less than $50

 

Buuutt, why not hillbilly it and risk your batteries? 

[straight_stewie]

9 hours ago, KaminKevCrew said:

ISDT makes a pretty cool discharger for less than $50

I just use my heli in idle up mode. Tie it down to a lazy susan and let it drain the battery. Works as a nice fan too with negative collective.

[KaminKevCrew]

On 1/7/2018 at 7:11 AM, Hackentosher said:

Buuutt, why not hillbilly it and risk your batteries? 

Because some of my batteries literally cost more than that discharger

[KaminKevCrew]

So. I have an all in one flight controller/esc coming tomorrow. I did some wiring on my quad the day before yesterday, and killed the esc, due (I think) to some flux paste, or some wires being bent into each other when I reassembled the stack.

 

Also, I bought the new Mr.Steele Taranis. I've been missing my first radio (a Taranis plus) and I kind of want to collect the best/highest end version of each FrSky radio (I currently have the QX7s, the X9e, and the Horus X12s. Next up: an Amber Horus X10s)

 

I'm also going to build a 6 inch armattan rooster built for 6s on 2800kv motors for an absolutely monster quad.

[Hackentosher]

1 hour ago, KaminKevCrew said:

So. I have an all in one flight controller/esc coming tomorrow. I did some wiring on my quad the day before yesterday, and killed the esc, due (I think) to some flux paste, or some wires being bent into each other when I reassembled the stack.

 

Also, I bought the new Mr.Steele Taranis. I've been missing my first radio (a Taranis plus) and I kind of want to collect the best/highest end version of each FrSky radio (I currently have the QX7s, the X9e, and the Horus X12s. Next up: an Amber Horus X10s)

 

I'm also going to build a 6 inch armattan rooster built for 6s on 2800kv motors for an absolutely monster quad.

Oh noes, I hope it wasn't one of those expensive asgards. 

 

Aren't they only making 500 of those? Also why do you want more than one radio? You can only use one at a time, so why not use the one you like? 

 

I think 2800kv will be too much for 6s. You'll melt the motors... But if you don't you're going to the moon every time you blip the throttle. 

[KaminKevCrew]

20 hours ago, Hackentosher said:

Oh noes, I hope it wasn't one of those expensive asgards. 

 

Aren't they only making 500 of those? Also why do you want more than one radio? You can only use one at a time, so why not use the one you like? 

 

I think 2800kv will be too much for 6s. You'll melt the motors... But if you don't you're going to the moon every time you blip the throttle. 

The ESC that I blew up was one of the Cicada ones, I think. The thing I got to replace all of it was on amazon. It ended up being about $90, which is a lot, but I wanted something fast and easy for the time being.

 

They are only making 500 of them. I think having two is a good policy. That way if one totally dies for whatever reason, all you have to do is rebind and you can fly some more. The reason that I like having more than two radios is that I like to give my friends the opportunity to try flying, and they might prefer some radio style over another. Also, in some situations, I LOVE having my X9e tray radio. It's extremely comfortable to wear, and it's really nice to have all of the switches right on top of the radio when you're flying a large model.

 

But, I also really like to have the portability of a smaller radio like a QX7/X9d. And, since the QX7 isn't mine, and the Horus X12 is currently the only radio that I use with smaller radios, the X9d will be nice to have. Who knows, maybe I'll sell the X9d. I've certainly been considering selling the X9e, so we'll see if that happens.

 

I don't think I'll melt the motors, but if I do, I'll replace them with a lower KV. I won't go to the moon - not with 60 degrees or so of camera uptilt - I'll just go to the next state over

[KaminKevCrew]

Is the HS1177 still a good camera? I've got one at home that I haven't been using, and I've found that I'm not all that impressed with the Micro swift on my current quad.

[Hackentosher]

38 minutes ago, KaminKevCrew said:

Is the HS1177 still a good camera? I've got one at home that I haven't been using, and I've found that I'm not all that impressed with the Micro swift on my current quad.

They're all pretty much the same as far as I'm concerned. I only look at features like size, construction, cost, and the lens. 

[KaminKevCrew]

1 hour ago, Hackentosher said:

They're all pretty much the same as far as I'm concerned. I only look at features like size, construction, cost, and the lens. 

Okay. I really want to grab an eagle 2 pro. I think that will end up being my next camera.

[Not_Sean]

1 hour ago, KaminKevCrew said:

Okay. I really want to grab an eagle 2 pro. I think that will end up being my next camera.

My mate just ordered one, I'm keen to see what its capabile of I'm still on a $6 camera off ebay and its been fantastic

 

This was the other day when I first drop my Transmitter seemed to lose signal, and in the big slam my GoPro snapped off and is still laying in the field somewhere. 

 

TyrantS Flight

 

Will upload a bit more of my recent flights  

 

 

[Hackentosher]

I did a thing downtown for the first time in a long time. https://youtu.be/heMl2hGhtcc

[KaminKevCrew]

I'm mildly upset. My Mr Steele edition Taranis has been delayed by the postal service. It's annoying because the company I bought it through (horusrc) didn't ship it through the advertised channels, and the USPS sucks.

[Not_Sean]

On 1/19/2018 at 4:42 PM, Hackentosher said:

I did a thing downtown for the first time in a long time. https://youtu.be/heMl2hGhtcc

Dude the jump from your first few videos to that is big, congrats man. that video is awesome! 

 

My Raceflight went up in smoke today

[Hackentosher]

50 minutes ago, Not_Sean said:

Dude the jump from your first few videos to that is big, congrats man. that video is awesome! 

 

My Raceflight went up in smoke today

Awe thank you! I want to get better footage that's easier to watch in the future, maybe long range, maybe not. That's kinda my idea behind the 6". But thank you!

 

Oh noes, what happened?

[Not_Sean]

2 hours ago, Hackentosher said:

Awe thank you! I want to get better footage that's easier to watch in the future, maybe long range, maybe not. That's kinda my idea behind the 6". But thank you!

 

Oh noes, what happened?

Yeah I also need to do a longer ranger one for the acro flying, Been having issues with my reciever dropping out, lost it at the bottom of a 1km cliff had to climb down a like 80 degree slope to find it, got home and redid my antenna to help with the issue and plugged it all back in and poof.. sucks cause I didn't even touch the FC or anything just the receiver but think my PID is creating the issues 

[Hackentosher]

1 hour ago, Not_Sean said:

Yeah I also need to do a longer ranger one for the acro flying, Been having issues with my reciever dropping out, lost it at the bottom of a 1km cliff had to climb down a like 80 degree slope to find it, got home and redid my antenna to help with the issue and plugged it all back in and poof.. sucks cause I didn't even touch the FC or anything just the receiver but think my PID is creating the issues 

Oh noes maybe a wire came loose and shorted something. Usually bad PIDs kill motors and maybe ESCs, but not flight controllers. Then again it is raceflight, they have a habit of making things go up in smoke (ESCs, motors, paychecks to their developers, friendly relations with the public and their competitors) so it could have been a few things. 

 

Speaking of flight controllers, let's see how this one goes. So far it's pretty nice to basically just wire up a pdb, but I've always hated wiring the ESCs the most. Also I have to flip all the ESCs over because of the pad layout on the board, but whatever. It's a lot easier than the tiny bank of pins on my old OMNIBUS. 

[KaminKevCrew]

On 1/21/2018 at 3:51 PM, Hackentosher said:

Oh noes maybe a wire came loose and shorted something. Usually bad PIDs kill motors and maybe ESCs, but not flight controllers. Then again it is raceflight, they have a habit of making things go up in smoke (ESCs, motors, paychecks to their developers, friendly relations with the public and their competitors) so it could have been a few things. 

 

Speaking of flight controllers, let's see how this one goes. So far it's pretty nice to basically just wire up a pdb, but I've always hated wiring the ESCs the most. Also I have to flip all the ESCs over because of the pad layout on the board, but whatever. It's a lot easier than the tiny bank of pins on my old OMNIBUS. 

Is that the Bardwell FC?

 

I have an Omnibus F4 pro corner coming in the mail eventually - it was sent to the wrong fulfillment station, so it's been delayed.

 

Also, I saw an FC the other day that was an AIO with 50A 32 bit blheli ESCs. I think I'm going to grab that for my next frame. (It's going to be the crazy, UD carbon two piece molded carbon frame - I forget what it's called.)

 

And, I finally got my Steele TX! Though it came with a silver balancing bar, instead of a black one, which is disappointing...

[Hackentosher]

1 hour ago, KaminKevCrew said:

Is that the Bardwell FC?

 

I have an Omnibus F4 pro corner coming in the mail eventually - it was sent to the wrong fulfillment station, so it's been delayed.

 

Also, I saw an FC the other day that was an AIO with 50A 32 bit blheli ESCs. I think I'm going to grab that for my next frame. (It's going to be the crazy, UD carbon two piece molded carbon frame - I forget what it's called.)

 

And, I finally got my Steele TX! Though it came with a silver balancing bar, instead of a black one, which is disappointing...

It is! Something let out a puff of smoke on the first power up, but everything still works. Finished wiring the rx, VTX, and cam today. 

[KaminKevCrew]

On 1/22/2018 at 9:42 PM, Hackentosher said:

It is! Something let out a puff of smoke on the first power up, but everything still works. Finished wiring the rx, VTX, and cam today. 

Nice!

 

The reason that I grabbed the Omnibus F4 pro corner is that I wanted separate telemetry pads for each ESC, rather than one pad for all of them - but you have to be using BlHeli 32 ESCs for that to matter in the first place, haha!

[Hackentosher]

1 hour ago, KaminKevCrew said:

Nice!

 

The reason that I grabbed the Omnibus F4 pro corner is that I wanted separate telemetry pads for each ESC, rather than one pad for all of them - but you have to be using BlHeli 32 ESCs for that to matter in the first place, haha!

I personally don't really see the need for BLHeli 32 ESCs, but if they're cheap and high power enough, I'll get them. 

[Hackentosher]

Update on the plane, I printed the rear third of the fuselage, but I'm not sure why. The first two thirds are super outdated, and these parts will never fly. I think I just wanted a good sense of scale for the finished project? The fuselage is about 15" long with a 24" wingspan btw.

Spoiler

 

Anyway, I finished designing super basic retracts, It's just a strut directly connected to a servo. I fear that impacts on anything but a perfect landing would damage the servo or the wing, so I may have to redesign it with some kind of spring and or shock absorber. Also modeled internal servo mounts in the rear third of the fuselage, added a hatch that will be held in place with magnets, added an SMA sized hole in that, and modeled a wheel and tire for the retracts. All that is left (I think) is to model a tail wheel, figure out how to make that steerable without adding another servo ( I think I'm up to 6), hollow out and divide the wings into printable pieces. 

Spoiler