Octocopter Using Traditional Receiver With 5.12a
- Thread starter Aviator
- Start date
Blacksails
Member
To be honest I don't think many octo users are flying 5.12a. I've only seen a few who have.
I'm terrified of trying it on my rig and expect quite a few others are too. There aren't many cheap octocopters out there...
I'm terrified of trying it on my rig and expect quite a few others are too. There aren't many cheap octocopters out there...
Aviator
Member
I think you are right? mine is probably £4000 to £5000 not to mention build time?
But I managed to save it last time when it all went Pete Tong.. So am taking the bull by the horns and spending today thoroughly testing 5.12a with my expensive Octo and traditional receiver setup! And hopefully make a report this evening? I hope to bring good news to the few of us big boys using traditional receivers
Blacksails
Member
I salute you, sir! And good luck
Totallycommitted
Member
Aviator and all, are there any concerns about the power shutting down ? There seemed to be some complaints when the 5.12 first came out ? But since then very little chatter about this. I am now wondering if the people that had motor shutdowns might have had them because of other reasons ? Or, is this still a problem and has the 5.12a addressed this ? DJI have had no comment on this, any ideas ?
Matt
Matt
redridinghood
Member
I believe people are too afraid to try DJI's beta firmware. I know I am. Everybody is waiting to hear the new firmware results from brave beta testers.
Totallycommitted
Member
Yeah red we are all sort of stuck here, what would be nice is too see DJI flying this new software with an octo, you would think they would immediately do this to restore faith..... ? But then sadly it seems that they haven,t understood the Octo's importance for AP because of payload (camera).
I have been flying on 5.12 and heaven't heard of this problem before I got them. 2 days back 1 motor quitted while flying. Lucky for me it revived straight away, but yesterday it wouldn't power up in any way. Gladly someone sended me this thread, otherwise I would have been looking the day for the problem.
So I won't fly at 5.12 or 5.12a. I downgraded to 5.08, how are the experiences with that firmware?
So I won't fly at 5.12 or 5.12a. I downgraded to 5.08, how are the experiences with that firmware?
Totallycommitted
Member
firware 5.08 is fine to fly with no problems
BorisS
Drone Enthusiast
Im to chicken at the moment to test my s800 new assembled with new ESCs and the new FW on
Ill just got FPVing a little were it doesnt hurt as much if something happens
Aviator
Member
O.K I am back from my first stage of testing 5.12a "30 mins flight time", so I have tested most modes and low volt failsafe and my findings are a follows....
Please bear in mind that all setups are different as regards to motors, esc`s and weight are concerned so use this only as a guide.
On startup motor speed has been increased, this is just something I noticed not an issue
Starting with basic gain at 100% I found it very unstable, more like manual mode, so perhaps start at 150%? After tuning in all gains I found thst the end setting worked out at 30% less than I previously had using 5.08, so maybe a few of you could start off reducing your gains by 30% and work from there?
Leave advanced settings alone, I had altered them on 5.08 and got better performance but this is not needed on 5.12a as the standard settings are better than I accomplished by tuning on 5.08..
After tuning in all parameters I tried POI mode and found it worked very well indeed, apart from some height loss whilst banking around the target? this was stopped by increasing the thrrottle slightly, the same height was then held until I stopped banking then the machine would slowly climb until I returned the stick to around 50%.
It wasn`t long before I noticed the home position was not automatically set when GPS signal is first locked? I tried rebooting several times and no luck? so I programmed a mix into my radio to use home lock. Then after toggling the switch between off and home lock a few times, the green lights were visible on the LED.. So I continued to test return to launch and failsafe, both worked flawlessly. So it is worth bearing in mind at present to set the home position manually, otherwise failsafe and rtl will not work.. This is not such a bad thing as sometimes I power up right next to my van and home position is set there.. If I forget it could be an issue?
Manual mode is a little lively, and could be cooled down by programming in some expo on your radio? but if you can fly without any stabilisation then it isn`t a problem at all.. But if you dont have much experience in flying I wouldn`t recommend it.
With the low voltage failsafe I found the machine dropped very quickly and would probably cause some damage if allowed to continue its course? but putting in some throttle, stops the descent and you can land without issue.
I will continue to get some more flight time in later today and report any issues? but for now I am happy with the performance.
Please bear in mind that all setups are different as regards to motors, esc`s and weight are concerned so use this only as a guide.
On startup motor speed has been increased, this is just something I noticed not an issue
Starting with basic gain at 100% I found it very unstable, more like manual mode, so perhaps start at 150%? After tuning in all gains I found thst the end setting worked out at 30% less than I previously had using 5.08, so maybe a few of you could start off reducing your gains by 30% and work from there?
Leave advanced settings alone, I had altered them on 5.08 and got better performance but this is not needed on 5.12a as the standard settings are better than I accomplished by tuning on 5.08..
After tuning in all parameters I tried POI mode and found it worked very well indeed, apart from some height loss whilst banking around the target? this was stopped by increasing the thrrottle slightly, the same height was then held until I stopped banking then the machine would slowly climb until I returned the stick to around 50%.
It wasn`t long before I noticed the home position was not automatically set when GPS signal is first locked? I tried rebooting several times and no luck? so I programmed a mix into my radio to use home lock. Then after toggling the switch between off and home lock a few times, the green lights were visible on the LED.. So I continued to test return to launch and failsafe, both worked flawlessly. So it is worth bearing in mind at present to set the home position manually, otherwise failsafe and rtl will not work.. This is not such a bad thing as sometimes I power up right next to my van and home position is set there.. If I forget it could be an issue?
Manual mode is a little lively, and could be cooled down by programming in some expo on your radio? but if you can fly without any stabilisation then it isn`t a problem at all.. But if you dont have much experience in flying I wouldn`t recommend it.
With the low voltage failsafe I found the machine dropped very quickly and would probably cause some damage if allowed to continue its course? but putting in some throttle, stops the descent and you can land without issue.
I will continue to get some more flight time in later today and report any issues? but for now I am happy with the performance.
Aviator
Member
Now got an hours flight time on 5.12a still no issues.. I would say it was safe to use for Octo with traditional receiver..O.K I am back from my first stage of testing 5.12a "30 mins flight time", so I have tested most modes and low volt failsafe and my findings are a follows....
Please bear in mind that all setups are different as regards to motors, esc`s and weight are concerned so use this only as a guide.
On startup motor speed has been increased, this is just something I noticed not an issue
Starting with basic gain at 100% I found it very unstable, more like manual mode, so perhaps start at 150%? After tuning in all gains I found thst the end setting worked out at 30% less than I previously had using 5.08, so maybe a few of you could start off reducing your gains by 30% and work from there?
Leave advanced settings alone, I had altered them on 5.08 and got better performance but this is not needed on 5.12a as the standard settings are better than I accomplished by tuning on 5.08..
After tuning in all parameters I tried POI mode and found it worked very well indeed, apart from some height loss whilst banking around the target? this was stopped by increasing the thrrottle slightly, the same height was then held until I stopped banking then the machine would slowly climb until I returned the stick to around 50%.
It wasn`t long before I noticed the home position was not automatically set when GPS signal is first locked? I tried rebooting several times and no luck? so I programmed a mix into my radio to use home lock. Then after toggling the switch between off and home lock a few times, the green lights were visible on the LED.. So I continued to test return to launch and failsafe, both worked flawlessly. So it is worth bearing in mind at present to set the home position manually, otherwise failsafe and rtl will not work.. This is not such a bad thing as sometimes I power up right next to my van and home position is set there.. If I forget it could be an issue?
Manual mode is a little lively, and could be cooled down by programming in some expo on your radio? but if you can fly without any stabilisation then it isn`t a problem at all.. But if you dont have much experience in flying I wouldn`t recommend it.
With the low voltage failsafe I found the machine dropped very quickly and would probably cause some damage if allowed to continue its course? but putting in some throttle, stops the descent and you can land without issue.
I will continue to get some more flight time in later today and report any issues? but for now I am happy with the performance.
Aviator
Member
Blacksails
Member
Bravo Aviator, you have bigger balls than me!
Just out of curiosity, what are you flying? Cinestar/skyjib/AD8 ect?
And can you clear up the problem with failsafe? I've never used IOC so just power up, fly, and as long as I had decent gps before taking off then that's where it returns to if failsafe activates. Are you saying that you now have to manually set this point after each time powering up?
Cheers
Alex
Just out of curiosity, what are you flying? Cinestar/skyjib/AD8 ect?
And can you clear up the problem with failsafe? I've never used IOC so just power up, fly, and as long as I had decent gps before taking off then that's where it returns to if failsafe activates. Are you saying that you now have to manually set this point after each time powering up?
Cheers
Alex
Aviator
Member
Flying this monster.. Note the cheapo camera for tests such as these..
View attachment 5389
Yes you now have to set home manually by switching between home lock and off three to four times, you will then see the green flashes indicating it was succesful, otherwise when you switch into failsafe or rtl it doesnt do anything, just drifts off.. Until you take control of it because it has nowhere to go so it defaults to doing nothing I suppose? I will let DJI know about this and maybe they will change either the manual or the firmware? It may already be in the manual? but like most men i tend not to read manuals :tennis: I actually prefer doing it this way? but there will be others that dont?
Attachments
Vojec
Member
You have guts to be a rabbit and delivers valuable test experience to us. I wonder why DJI can't test it with all possible quads, hexa and octo before releases firmware. They have more money then all of us together, for sure. That kind approach from DJI is not good for their customers in long terms, guarantee...
Blacksails
Member
Ah! Carboncore octa and megaradius. I was so close to purchasing one of those! Love that big *** cam mount
Blacksails
Member
Managed any more flights Aviator? How's she performing? Would you say it's safe to fly 5.12a on a traditional rx flat octo?
Alex
Alex
Aviator
Member
have got another couple of hours in and still good... Will be testing later, so I will upload a video also with my results...