Aeronavics / Droidworx New Build Planned - SkyJib-X4 Heavy Retractable

baja-king

Here for the ride :)
Thanks, I did order these from Stock RC in Spain and online the webby said yep yep all in stock no worries, so out I checked and paid. Transpires that they did not in fact have 8 (Only 2 pairs):sorrow: Hmmmpf!! I will checkout Multirotor. On a positive note my Herkules III arrived.. Yay but I think the comprehensive manual fell out somewhere over the English Channel and I am a bit thin on clues as to how this sets up with A WK-M. I could not find on Andreas web site where you register an account so I can download the config tools and firmware either any pointers?? :dread: View attachment 16056

PM'd you my login details for Andreas site until you get yours :02.47-tranquillity:
 


Cheshirecat

Member
Appreciated, right now I feel there will be some. Just braiding and heat shrink protecting my Motor wires, slow but oddly satisfying work...
 

Cheshirecat

Member
Am I correct thinking that the little arrow in the corner of the Herk board should be in line and facing the nose of the ship?
 

baja-king

Here for the ride :)
it doesn't matter really... I made a mark with a pen on mine so that if I removed it I would know where to put it back in relation to the motor wires...
attachment.php
 
Last edited by a moderator:

BatCam

RPAS Pilot
Baja, particular preference for flying the T-Motor Carbon's as opposed to the Xoar 15 x 5? Still deciding which props to go with on a very similar setup to yours

Cheers,
Cam
 

baja-king

Here for the ride :)
Baja, particular preference for flying the T-Motor Carbon's as opposed to the Xoar 15 x 5? Still deciding which props to go with on a very similar setup to yours

Cheers,
Cam

Hi BatCam, the T-motor Props win hands down, I have tested Xoar 15 x 5 & 16 x 5 and I prefer the T-motor Carbons all round...

T-motor also make 16 x 5.4 Carbon props now which should be interesting for heavier lifts....
 

BatCam

RPAS Pilot
Good to know you've tried them all! Thanks for the info. Be interested to know how the 16 x 5.4's go. I think the heaviest camera I'll be lifting will be black magic cinema.. no RED in the plans as yet. Do you think it would be more worthwhile with the larger props or the 15x 5.5's will be golden? I know thats a pretty subjective question ha! It's so hard to choose without flying them personally.

Cheers,
Cam
 

baja-king

Here for the ride :)
Good to know you've tried them all! Thanks for the info. Be interested to know how the 16 x 5.4's go. I think the heaviest camera I'll be lifting will be black magic cinema.. no RED in the plans as yet. Do you think it would be more worthwhile with the larger props or the 15x 5.5's will be golden? I know thats a pretty subjective question ha! It's so hard to choose without flying them personally.

Cheers,
Cam

Hi Cam, If your looking to fly around the 9-10kg mark (all up weight) then the 15 x 5.5 are the way to go...

Steve
 

BatCam

RPAS Pilot
Hi Boris,

Just spoke to Novalee over at Droidworx, she's been a huge help through my buying process so far, really great crew and support from droidworx! They just got a shipment of the T-Motor Carbons, 15x5's and a new size not listed on their site, 17x5.8's. She said the tech guys recommend the 17's definitely over the 15's so I'll guinea pig those in a few weeks when I'm in the air.. can't wait!
 

Cheshirecat

Member
Hi Steve.

I have a question about the Herkules III, i am setting up my I2C Motor mapping addresses, i am OK with writing these into NVRAM but appear to have a conflict in the motor layout between DJI in the WKM manual and the instructions from Andreas and i don't know which way is correct.

DJI say.....
View attachment 12862

But the instructions from Andreas appear to contradict this with

View attachment 12863 View attachment 12864

So DJI have all top motors turning CW (in relation to viewing as per the diagram) and all bottom turning CCW and the motor sequence from front R/H CW 1&5 then 4&8 then 3&7 and 2&6.
According to Andreas (and the instructions are written with reference to the WKM) the sequence is very different, he has (again CW from front R/H Boom) 8&7 then 6&5 then 4&3 and 2&1, he also shows the top 4 motors alternate and counter rotate as do the bottom 4.

Can i ask how you have yours setup? Did you follow DJI in relation to the boom/motor locations? maybe Andreas way is better for resilience but as the WKM will be doing all the thinking it seems counter intuitive to ignore the DJI setup.


Thanks
 

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baja-king

Here for the ride :)
Hi Steve.

I have a question about the Herkules III, i am setting up my I2C Motor mapping addresses, i am OK with writing these into NVRAM but appear to have a conflict in the motor layout between DJI in the WKM manual and the instructions from Andreas and i don't know which way is correct.

DJI say.....
View attachment 16295

But the instructions from Andreas appear to contradict this with

View attachment 16296 View attachment 16297

So DJI have all top motors turning CW (in relation to viewing as per the diagram) and all bottom turning CCW and the motor sequence from front R/H CW 1&5 then 4&8 then 3&7 and 2&6.
According to Andreas (and the instructions are written with reference to the WKM) the sequence is very different, he has (again CW from front R/H Boom) 8&7 then 6&5 then 4&3 and 2&1, he also shows the top 4 motors alternate and counter rotate as do the bottom 4.

Can i ask how you have yours setup? Did you follow DJI in relation to the boom/motor locations? maybe Andreas way is better for resilience but as the WKM will be doing all the thinking it seems counter intuitive to ignore the DJI setup.


Thanks

Hi Ches, this is how I did mine as per the DJI setup:
attachment.php


Top Herk board:
A=M3 (CCW)
B=M8 (CW)
C=M1 (CCW)
D=M6 (CW)

Bottom Herk board:
A=M5 (CW)
B=M4 (CCW)
C=M7 (CW)
D=M2 (CCW)

This is setup so that you have some redundancy should 1 of the Herk boards fail...

Once you setup your Herk and motors as above you will need to check the rotation direction is correct for each motor... eg 1,2,3,4 counter clockwise, 5,6,7,8 clockwise
If any are wrong then just swap 2 of the 3 motor wires around for that motor and it's direction will be correct :)
 

Cheshirecat

Member
Thanks


That makes perfect sense as per your setup, i had the top Herk handling all the top motors and the other the bottom. I can see why that would not give the right redundancy.
Time to get the serial to USB Cable out again.


Thanks
 

Hi Guys,

there is another good working Koax8-Setting. This is even more safe with HERKULES III because:

1) The Top Herkules QUAD-ESC (all on one PCB) spin the Top Motors as a fully self-running Quad-copter
2) The Bot Herkules QUAD-ESC spin the BOT Motors also as a self running Quad-copter.

Motor_Mapping_Herkules-DJI-X8-Customized_jpg.png


So if in worst case one complete Herkules quad-ESC would fail, the copter would be "at leased" controllable and should be able to land in a controlled way
I personally fly this setting and the stability is even better than the original DJI proposal.

This setting is more or less the same as the Mikrokopter Setting and is working really perfect!

The Motor Mixing Table for this setting will be attached in the Herkules User Manual. This is also almost ready for release.
=> If using on Top and Bot the same propellers, the upper ones should run about 5% slower than the lower ones. This improves the overall-efficiency and balances the power better between top and bottom.


By the way: The Telemetry Interface is now also ready for delivery.

Currently tested and released are the following Telemetry interfaces:

  1. Jeti Duplex (+ EX)
  2. Graupner Hott

Currently in Beta-Test:
  1. Futaba S-BUS
  2. Multiplex M-Link
  3. JR Telemetry
  4. Hitec
  5. Spektrum

A detailed description of the features will follow soon...
 

baja-king

Here for the ride :)
Hi Guys,

there is another good working Koax8-Setting. This is even more safe with HERKULES III because:

1) The Top Herkules QUAD-ESC (all on one PCB) spin the Top Motors as a fully self-running Quad-copter
2) The Bot Herkules QUAD-ESC spin the BOT Motors also as a self running Quad-copter.

Motor_Mapping_Herkules-DJI-X8-Customized_jpg.png


So if in worst case one complete Herkules quad-ESC would fail, the copter would be "at leased" controllable and should be able to land in a controlled way
I personally fly this setting and the stability is even better than the original DJI proposal.

This setting is more or less the same as the Mikrokopter Setting and is working really perfect!

The Motor Mixing Table for this setting will be attached in the Herkules User Manual. This is also almost ready for release.
=> If using on Top and Bot the same propellers, the upper ones should run about 5% slower than the lower ones. This improves the overall-efficiency and balances the power better between top and bottom.


By the way: The Telemetry Interface is now also ready for delivery.

Currently tested and released are the following Telemetry interfaces:

  1. Jeti Duplex (+ EX)
  2. Graupner Hott

Currently in Beta-Test:
  1. Futaba S-BUS
  2. Multiplex M-Link
  3. JR Telemetry
  4. Hitec
  5. Spektrum

A detailed description of the features will follow soon...

Great, Thanks for the info! Looks good.

And the Telemetry now works with EX protocol?? :)

Steve
 

Great, Thanks for the info! Looks good.

And the Telemetry now works with EX protocol?? :)

Steve

Yes, now Herkules works also with Jeti EX Protokoll... but...:
=> We decided to go a slightly different way with our telemetry!
We now use an additional controler board with integrated Datalogger on SD-Card which translates the Herkules internal protokoll to the different Telemetry protocolls.
This step was necessary because there are so much variants on the market (and we want to cover all of them ;-) and therefore we had to use an additional microcontroller.

So if you have the first version of the Telemetry Board, send it back and you get an upgrade with data logger and allmost all telemetry systems on the market....
 

Hi BatCam, the T-motor Props win hands down, I have tested Xoar 15 x 5 & 16 x 5 and I prefer the T-motor Carbons all round...

T-motor also make 16 x 5.4 Carbon props now which should be interesting for heavier lifts....

Why do you like the T-Motor props over the xoars? Flight time? Stability? Noise?
Really interested, looking at getting some 16x5 xoars for my skyjib x8.
 

baja-king

Here for the ride :)
Why do you like the T-Motor props over the xoars? Flight time? Stability? Noise?
Really interested, looking at getting some 16x5 xoars for my skyjib x8.

I prefer the T-Motor carbons mainly because my skyjib just feels more 'locked in' with them over the Xoars, they are slightly quieter. Can't comment on flight times as I didn't measure them that closely

Steve
 

Do you feel they are worth the extra cost? There's a big difference in price when you buy 8. We're you able to up the gains with the t motor props or was it just a feeling of more locked in?
 

JDoe

New Member
Hi Steve,

I have loved reading this thread, really helped in making decisions on my next build. You really care about the little details and I think this shows very well in the end result. I have one quick question, the bullet solder joints on the Herkules appear to be black - is this to insulate them? What did you use to to cover them\ colour them black?

More Pics - I got the Hercules setup today with help from BorisS :tennis:
 

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