Airsight 4: A Strong Shouldered Quad

[leor]

Steve I've been tempted to build myself a "Super quad" with the cinestar frame for a long time, Do you know how much it the frame weighs?

 

[stevemaller]

Steve I've been tempted to build myself a "Super quad" with the cinestar frame for a long time, Do you know how much it the frame weighs?

I haven't weighed the bare frame, but the whole copter's AUW is about 9 pounds with a 8000mAh 6S LiPo, a GoPro on a gimbal, and all the other stuff.

 

[stevemaller]

Thank you, KDE Direct!

I have been using this big quad as a test bed, and as you know if you've read this thread, I'm using the new-ish KDE Direct 35A ESCs. I was a little reluctant to use them when I found out that they have no programmability interface...that they "just work". Well, we all know how that usually ends. :apathy:

I'm happy to say that with my motors (Avroto 3515) and the 6S power, they've been super smooth.

Well, I was bitten in the rear by a problem with the 1.3 vTX and the NAZA GPS the other day, and I had to ditch the copter in a nearby field. A few things happened in the crash...

• the 25mm CF boom holding my camera snapped, and my gimbal's set screws sheared off
• the motor wires that ran through one of the booms were partially sheared off causing a short to the motor (which was fried)
• that short caused some serious heat to propagate back to the hub which caused...
• 3 of the 4 servo wires between the ESCs and the NAZA partially melted
• the red lead to one of the KDE ESCs separated from the ESC
• the CF boom holding the bad motor wires partially melted at the hub
• all four 14" Foxtech Supreme Light props were damaged

I was concerned that all this would be super expensive, but here's the damage:

• lost one motor (I have several backups as these were left over from an octo build)
• lost two CF booms (400mm motor and 300mm camera)
• lost the mini PDB (main voltage was fine, but the integrated 12V BEC was fried)
• lost 4 props
• gimbal is TBD...haven't gotten that far, but I was not that happy with it, anyway, so I may switch over to the Tarot 2D I have instead.

About those KDE Direct ESCs? Amazingly, I replaced all the fried servo wires by soldering new wires to the ESCs, and I made a new + lead for the one KDE Direct ESC that lost its one, and they all work great. Pretty remarkable. The copter's back in the air, although I have the wrong size props on it right now. New props should be here in a couple days.

Thank you KDE Direct for these bulletproof ESCs!

 

[stevemaller]

After reconfiguring things and replacing my dinged up props with some 16" Foxtech Supreme Lite props I had, the copter flew like dog meat. ATTI was shaky and GPS/ATTI was all but unusable. My GPS mast was all the way forward (30cm) on the copter and in the NAZA assistant. Bleh.

So I made a couple changes. I moved the GPS mast a little closer (19cm) and replaced the 16" props with some 14" Xoars I had laying around (no idea if they were balanced...just stuck 'em on).

And she flies like a dream. ATTI/GPS is dead on, and the GPS mast is far enough forward out of the blast of the 1000mW 1.3gHz vTX to have a consistent 13-14 satellites. Got 17.5 minutes of basically just hovering and landed with about 20% left on the battery. Recharging the battery and going to taker her back out and fly it around a bit.

Next step: put the gimbal back on.

 

[stevemaller]

Ditched the Feiyu-Tech gimbal...piece of junk.
Built up a Tarot and it seems much sturdier.

 

[cootertwo]

Ain't it nice when it all comes together!:tennis:

 

[stevemaller]

I haven't updated this thread in a while, but just a heads up to the half dozen or so of you who are watching this: I'm going UHF with DragonLink. More news as it breaks.

 

[stevemaller]

The DragonLink is up and running! Maiden flight was a success. After my holidays I'm planning to push this copter to at least a mile, maybe more. AFAIK, at a solid 20-30mph ground speed without pushing it, even 2-3 miles should be no problem, especially with my new VAS 1.3gHz pepperbox antenna.

 

[Mike SF]

Hi Steve - good luck with the Dragonlink. I tried for over year to get an UHF system going (Dragonlink, EzUHF and TLRS) but always had significant range problems with RF noise from the copter (cameras, OSD, current sensor, RX). I spend a lot of time trying to find a solution, even using the RFExplorer. Finally I switched to a Taranis and now get 1km / 0.6miles without any RSSI warning. Usually I never fly farther than 500 meters, so that's enough of a cushion. My conclusion was that they need a minimum physical distance to the rest of the electronics, otherwise the harmonics they emit are too strong in the 433MHz band.

 

[stevemaller]

Hi Steve - good luck with the Dragonlink. I tried for over year to get an UHF system going (Dragonlink, EzUHF and TLRS) but always had significant range problems with RF noise from the copter (cameras, OSD, current sensor, RX). I spend a lot of time trying to find a solution, even using the RFExplorer. Finally I switched to a Taranis and now get 1km / 0.6miles without any RSSI warning. Usually I never fly farther than 500 meters, so that's enough of a cushion. My conclusion was that they need a minimum physical distance to the rest of the electronics, otherwise the harmonics they emit are too strong in the 433MHz band.

I'm wondering how I can capture the RSSI output of the DragonLink to see what is going on up there. I've tested Failsafe so it should behave properly. And I did the micro power range check and got the transmitter 25 feet away behind a wall before it failed. So I'm cautiously optimistic. According to Mike from DragonLink, if the micro power test succeeds, I should be good for miles and miles.

 

[Mike SF]

One of the RX pins of the Dragonlink has the RSSI signal. Not sure anymore if this is an analog or digital signal. That's one thing I really like about the Taranis, the telemetry is all built-in and you can play a media track (e.g. voice) when you reach the end of the range. Without a proper RSSI signal that you can see in the OSD or on your radio, you are left to range tests that may or may not be accurate. I hated that, flying away and not really knowing what's going on. I added a failsafe buzzer to a free channel and sometimes when I flying very low and farther away, I heard the buzzer go off for a second (in the audio of the video recording). Even with proper failsafe, I felt I wasn't in control.

 

[stevemaller]

One of the RX pins of the Dragonlink has the RSSI signal. Not sure anymore if this is an analog or digital signal. That's one thing I really like about the Taranis, the telemetry is all built-in and you can play a media track (e.g. voice) when you reach the end of the range. Without a proper RSSI signal that you can see in the OSD or on your radio, you are left to range tests that may or may not be accurate. I hated that, flying away and not really knowing what's going on. I added a failsafe buzzer to a free channel and sometimes when I flying very low and farther away, I heard the buzzer go off for a second (in the audio of the video recording). Even with proper failsafe, I felt I wasn't in control.

Thanks, Mike!
So you're local in the Bay Area?
PM me and let's get together and fly if you're up for it.
I'm in Half Moon Bay.

 

[stevemaller]

Another update...
She is now DragonLink V2 powered! I've been waiting for some time to get all the pieces together to allow me to increase this copter's range. The previous 2.4 TX/RX I had barely made it to 500-600 meters before encountering dropouts and other issues. But the DragonLink has no such issues. I have seen many other drone guys push these to ridiculous distances. At the speed this quad flies and considering its battery capacity, I figure I've got 3km+ of range now. Today, I tested it for the first time on extended flights. First, I sent her out 1km to make sure I didn't have any surprises waiting for me. Then I went for a big 2km (1.25 mile) flight. At the apex of that flight, I had what we drone guys call a "brown trousers moment" when the copter inexplicably pitched about like a tasmanian devil. I am not sure what happened, but I have an idea. Anyway, it is at about 2:25 in this video if you're one who likes to fast forward to the good parts (so to speak).

 

[stevemaller]

Here’s a video I shot on the coastline near where I live. I think you will enjoy it.

 

[stevemaller]

Another recent adventure with this quad. And some interesting moments.