Newb to the hobby and need advice! :D

[bruce365]

Not sure about your fatshark but mine came with the genuine fatshark battery and it is 7.4 volts x 1 amp.

From Wiki
CAN bus (for controller area network) is a vehicle bus standard designed to allow microcontrollers and devices to communicate with each other within a vehicle without a host computer.
Development of Controller Area Network bus started originally in 1983 at Robert Bosch GmbH.
The protocol was officially released in 1986 at the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) congress in Detroit, Michigan. The first CAN controller chips, produced by Intel and Philips, came on the market in 1987. Bosch published the CAN 2.0 specification in 1991.

 

[mutley2]

Hi eddie, just like tothank you and all the other guys that posted on this thread, I'mright at the start of the journey that you started this thread about(great read for a newbie). I know you are getting right to the end ofyour build and we seem to have a simular goal of FPV and pic/vidphotograghy, could you summerise you current copter spec and make anyrecommendations for a newbie that wants to start ordering.Think i'mafter a 4 motor set-up thats a little smaller than yours, and wouldyou recommend a build in stages or just go ball's out and ordereverything and once? Thanks again guy for this thread, great read.

 

[ProPilotWannaBe]

Eddie, yes, if you could tell us what your final configuration ended up being, I'm sure it will help others.

Mutley, I recommend you order the core of what you will be flying. At least for me, the visualization of how to arrange all the components, and where I would run the wires, and are my wires long enough to go around this piece, etc, all helped me pick my design. Of course you will never be "done". You will always be adding and tweaking.

 

[eddie200112]

Ya so for the hexcopter I just used the stock DJI f550 gear in the end. The 690kV turnigy motors I ordered were just way! to powerful for the turnigy talon frame, and the frame was kinda flimsy to begin with. I also bought a TBS Discovery and am about to maiden it along with a TBS caipirinha. The build on the Disco is 900kV tiger motors, NAZA v2, EZUHF TX/RX, TBS EZOSD, Lawmate 2.4ghz RX/TX.

 

[eddie200112]

So what voltage do you guys usually drain your batteries down to in flight. Ive been stopping at 15.1-15.3 volts can I go further? Ive noticed im not getting even half of the mAh rating that the battery contains according to my current sensor. So like on a 4500mah battery it says ive only used about 2000mah.. Thanks

 

[ProPilotWannaBe]

So what voltage do you guys usually drain your batteries down to in flight. Ive been stopping at 15.1-15.3 volts can I go further? Ive noticed im not getting even half of the mAh rating that the battery contains according to my current sensor. So like on a 4500mah battery it says ive only used about 2000mah.. Thanks

I presume you are talking a 4S battery based on the voltages your talking about. If so, yes, you should be able to take it further. I recommend (and this is common with several other people's recommendation on this forum) that you gradually lower your voltage alarm/setting to a point where you are putting 75%-80% back into the battery. It will vary from setup, but on my MRs I have the alarm set to 3.5V per cell, and I know that once the alarm goes off I have about 15-30 more seconds of flight for it to hit the magical 80%. Keep in mind this is not a one-time setup, and you will need to monitor your batteries and how they are behaving. Over the life of a battery, you won't be able to get the same life expectancy out them, and you don't want to find out by the voltage just dropping through the floor and bringing the MR with it. Over the life of a battery, you may need to raise it slightly. I am still trying to figure out exactly how to measure or detect that, but just know that you will always be needing to keep a close eye on your batteries.

 

[PeterLester]

It is my experience that one will see a bit of battery voltage recovery about 30 minutes after landing the MR...... due to some electrochemical phenomena...... which is of no use but can confuse some people who were expecting the landing voltage to remain constant. Also a good LiPo battery charger will have the capability to determine the batteries internal resistance. And that will tell you a lot about the remaining safe flying life of your batteries.......HEED the DJI manuals and retire your used batteries according to DJI recommendation.

I presume you are talking a 4S battery based on the voltages your talking about. If so, yes, you should be able to take it further. I recommend (and this is common with several other people's recommendation on this forum) that you gradually lower your voltage alarm/setting to a point where you are putting 75%-80% back into the battery. It will vary from setup, but on my MRs I have the alarm set to 3.5V per cell, and I know that once the alarm goes off I have about 15-30 more seconds of flight for it to hit the magical 80%. Keep in mind this is not a one-time setup, and you will need to monitor your batteries and how they are behaving. Over the life of a battery, you won't be able to get the same life expectancy out them, and you don't want to find out by the voltage just dropping through the floor and bringing the MR with it. Over the life of a battery, you may need to raise it slightly. I am still trying to figure out exactly how to measure or detect that, but just know that you will always be needing to keep a close eye on your batteries.

 

[eddie200112]

OK thanks. Also I recently had a pretty bad crash from 300ft are the ESC's pretty resilient? They don't seem damaged, one is a bit scuffed, but should I retire them and just get new one just to be safe when I get back up and flying? What about the motors too? They look ok but.... who knows.. Id prefer not to have to replace everything but would be better than having something fail and me take a dive again.

 

[ProPilotWannaBe]

OK thanks. Also I recently had a pretty bad crash from 300ft are the ESC's pretty resilient? They don't seem damaged, one is a bit scuffed, but should I retire them and just get new one just to be safe when I get back up and flying? What about the motors too? They look ok but.... who knows.. Id prefer not to have to replace everything but would be better than having something fail and me take a dive again.

I have found that ESCs and motors are quite resilient... at least when compared to the rest of the MR. I've had some bad crashes needing replacement of all kinds of parts, but haven't had a failed ESC or motor yet. (The same goes for the receiver and FC.)

 

[eddie200112]

ya im really worried about my NAZA V2. but it does power up and the usb link works fine when in the NAZA software, so im hopefull. My RX is shot tho as the MR landed on the back directly on the RX.

 

[eddie200112]

 

[ProPilotWannaBe]

Ouch!

 

[eddie200112]

You know does anyone recommend a brand or set of Torx screwdrivers or at least a T8? I keep buying the sets at my home depot and lowes and they literally strip after a few screws! I sont wanna spend $300 or something crazy on a set of screwdrivers but there has got to be something better out there than what im using! Thanks

 

[gtranquilla]

Sorry to hear about the crash... Can you provide additional details leading up to the crash.. did the MR remain level on the way down? Did the MR fail to respond to RC Tx controls? Did it hit sod, pavement, or concrete etc. ESCs tend to get damaged when trying to turn a locked motor not from ground impact. Motors can be knocked out of alignment with bent rotor shaft, bearing damage etc.

 

[tstrike]

That is probably the ugliest aftermath of a crash I've ever seen, cut right in half! Fall on a chainsaw?

 

[eddie200112]

Haha ya I think a prop broke mid air. It seems like the flighr controller was still responding but was able to stabilize as it just barrel rolled to the ground. It hit a sloped roof. All the peices then scattered across the back yard

 

[eddie200112]

The go pro was found a good 30 ft from the body lol. And amazingly I found the sd card as it popped out somewhere during the fall. So I have video of the fall from both gopro and fpv. But doesnt tell me much

 

[eddie200112]

OK starting the rebuild but was curious if there is any product I can use to wrap say my UHF RX in to make it look nicer say like black shrink wrap or something? Anyone done something like this?