Hoverfly Something Big?
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Aerovideo
Member
Was that the one the hit the creek?
Oddly enough the one that took the dip in the swamp works great!
It was the one that had a pretty good free fall but nothing on the quad broke (see video below), not even a prop. But the Hoverfly Pro never worked again...
It was my brand new Black Board too It was even in one of those mad labs protective cases, doah!
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DucktileMedia
Drone Enthusiast
I recall Al getting on here one time and saying you actually could use 6s but it wasnt advised. I interpret that as the 6s voltage wont directly fry it but is close to its tolerances not making it worth while.
The trouble with that work around is that it makes the OSD battery voltage display of no use.
Earl E Adobtr
Paul
Pete, Was flying helium tethered quads 4 years ago. Very peaceful. I haven't tried it since but keep thinking with all the awesome equipment available now, compared to then, it might be time to resurrect. Paul
[video]http://www.youtube.com/user/spacemon58?feature=mhsn[/video]
Bartman
Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
this is what i've been doing with their boards for over a year now, i run two 6000 or 8000 mah 6S packs for the motors and a single 1200mah 3S pack for the flight control board and LED's. it works really well.
everyone seems to fixate on the ability to hover over a point with GPS but if you're shooting video it's not really something you'll do very often. it's video after all, right? you want motion to some degree and hovering over a fixed point will be an infrequent requirement. being able to fly and drift without constant wobbling or twitching is what's important and the GPS return-home feature is a nice thing to have when you need it but HF's PRO/GPS does that just fine.
ok, back to wondering, when will the next big thing come along from HF?
jfro
Aerial Fun
Not sure what to think. Been in the tech business for over 30 years and have seen lots of companies come, go, expand, get sold etc...
Silence is silence. It can mean anything. It could be but not limited to, bye bye or maybe new products and new priorities. Only time will tell.
In the meantime, some peeps are hanging on using what works, some are selling, sounds like a couple people have bought new or used, and others are looking or trying alternatives.
The thread title Something Big. IMO, the tethered flight isn't something big for Multirotors flying. Right now I'd settle for an incremental update to the HFP line. Maybe a few more features. Actually, I'd even settle for something from the company that is straight forward and honest like we are or aren't working on HFP firmware updates or a new board for MR use.
Silence is silence. It can mean anything. It could be but not limited to, bye bye or maybe new products and new priorities. Only time will tell.
In the meantime, some peeps are hanging on using what works, some are selling, sounds like a couple people have bought new or used, and others are looking or trying alternatives.
The thread title Something Big. IMO, the tethered flight isn't something big for Multirotors flying. Right now I'd settle for an incremental update to the HFP line. Maybe a few more features. Actually, I'd even settle for something from the company that is straight forward and honest like we are or aren't working on HFP firmware updates or a new board for MR use.
Aerovideo
Member
I would disagree that GPS features are okay on the Hoverfly. Frankly they are down right SCARY! Works in one test, horribly fails in the next.
While true for aerial video nobody probably holds a single point. But the ability to hold a single point would be nice.
Big thing would be bringing this flight controller on par with the competition. I thought for sure it would happen but with this silence I doubt it now... thus my searching for a new FC.
While true for aerial video nobody probably holds a single point. But the ability to hold a single point would be nice.
Big thing would be bringing this flight controller on par with the competition. I thought for sure it would happen but with this silence I doubt it now... thus my searching for a new FC.
I do like how HFP flies , but I would love to have a solid GPS for a reliable return home function and an altitude hold that doesn't yo-yo up and down about fifteen feet. Other than that it's pretty solid and they're provided good customer service, so it's sad to see them disengage.
Seeing as this is the most visited thread of late I just saw this from Ben on the old RCGroups forum.
I thought it might be of interest to the GPS users.
"With regards to the HoverflyGPS: We have been improving the performance, but a lot of what makes this technology work is antenna performance. Until recently, we have been using a MediaTek product which is the most cost-effective perfomance out there. However, its performance can be hampered by electronic noise, requiring mast-mounting and other precautions. That makes it somewhat temperamental to work with and accounts for a lot of the issues that have been seen over the past year.
Right now we are working with the Ublox LEA-6, which has a built-in filter to eliminate the electronic noise that has plagued our previous antennas. The down side is that the LEA-6 is a very different animal than anything we have previously used. It requires specific firmware on both the antenna and the boards, and a custom-made cable to communicate with the board. This is a big time sink, so we haven't been able to offer this solution commercially quite yet.. "
I just wish that HF would be smart enough to work out that if they communicated these sorts of things to their users on a proactive basis they wouldnt cop so many negative comments. These forums are filled with tech heads and all tech heads love to have this sort of info relayed to them.
I thought it might be of interest to the GPS users.
"With regards to the HoverflyGPS: We have been improving the performance, but a lot of what makes this technology work is antenna performance. Until recently, we have been using a MediaTek product which is the most cost-effective perfomance out there. However, its performance can be hampered by electronic noise, requiring mast-mounting and other precautions. That makes it somewhat temperamental to work with and accounts for a lot of the issues that have been seen over the past year.
Right now we are working with the Ublox LEA-6, which has a built-in filter to eliminate the electronic noise that has plagued our previous antennas. The down side is that the LEA-6 is a very different animal than anything we have previously used. It requires specific firmware on both the antenna and the boards, and a custom-made cable to communicate with the board. This is a big time sink, so we haven't been able to offer this solution commercially quite yet.. "
I just wish that HF would be smart enough to work out that if they communicated these sorts of things to their users on a proactive basis they wouldnt cop so many negative comments. These forums are filled with tech heads and all tech heads love to have this sort of info relayed to them.
CrashMaster
Member
My Xaircraft X650 Pro with WKM flies just fine on firmware 5.26 so have no issues at all with it. Although I did have some worrying issues with 5.20 and 5.22 (never tried 5.18). There are a lot of people complaining that 5.26 falls out of GPS Hold to Atti mode. This has happened to me a couple of times after 10 mins of flight but no big issue as I simply flew it in Atti and when next booted it worked.
I have no experience of the A2 so can't comment. However, always remember that people are more likley to come here and ask for help with a problem than come on and tell everyone their system is working fine. Although I have been a little nervous since upgrading to 5.26. I have also been following the SuperX comments and most are good although not all as they have had some issues with firmware upgrades too. HoverFly, I am lead to believe is as solid a system as any, if a pit pricey. If you went to the SuperX you will be almost the same position waiting for waypoint navigation to. If you went to AMP you can have it all but they are apparently difficult to set up but very stable and have waypoint navigation already.
There are many many others which never appear to get a mention on these forums:
http://oddcopter.com/flight-controllers/
I have no experience of the A2 so can't comment. However, always remember that people are more likley to come here and ask for help with a problem than come on and tell everyone their system is working fine. Although I have been a little nervous since upgrading to 5.26. I have also been following the SuperX comments and most are good although not all as they have had some issues with firmware upgrades too. HoverFly, I am lead to believe is as solid a system as any, if a pit pricey. If you went to the SuperX you will be almost the same position waiting for waypoint navigation to. If you went to AMP you can have it all but they are apparently difficult to set up but very stable and have waypoint navigation already.
There are many many others which never appear to get a mention on these forums:
http://oddcopter.com/flight-controllers/
| Board | Open Source | Gyro Stabilization | Self Leveling | Care Free | Altitude Hold | Position Hold | Return Home | Waypoint Navigation | Pricing |
| AeroQuad 32 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on | Medium | |
| ArduCopter (APM 2.5) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Medium |
| AutoQuad v6.6 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | High |
| Crius All In One PRO | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on | Low |
| Crius MultiWii Lite | Yes | Yes | Yes | Low | |||||
| Crius MultiWii SE | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Low | |||
| DJI Naza | Yes | Yes | Add-on | Yes | Add-on | Add-on | Medium | ||
| DJI Wookong | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Add-on | High | |
| Free Flight | Yes | Yes | Low | ||||||
| FY-30A | Yes | Yes | Medium | ||||||
| Gaui GU-344 | Yes | Medium | |||||||
| Hobbyking KK2.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Low | |||||
| HoverflyPRO | Yes | Yes | Add-on | Yes | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on | High | |
| HoverflySPORT | Yes | Add-on | Medium | ||||||
| KKMulticopter | Yes | Yes | Low | ||||||
| MikroKopter Flight-Ctrl | Yes | Yes | Add-on | Yes | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on | High | |
| MultiWii PRO / MTK GPS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Low |
| MultiWii PRO 2.0 / MTK GPS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Low |
| OpenPilot CC3D | Yes | Yes | Yes | Low | |||||
| Paris MultiwiiCopter | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on | Medium |
| Quadrino ZoomFlight | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Medium | |||
| Rabbit | Yes | Yes | Yes | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on | Low | ||
| SmartAP Autopilot | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | High | |
| TMF Pro FH-X46 AQ50 | Yes | Yes | Medium | ||||||
| UAVP/UAVX | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Add-on | Add-on | Low |
| XAircraft FC1212-P | Yes | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on | Medium | ||
| Zero UAV YS-X6 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | High |
JZSlenker
Yeah, I can blow that up.
Well the others don't get mentioned here because this is a Hoverfly forum. Many of us have tried other control systems. Three months ago we tried several again. We decided that if you want to fly well and do pro work HFP is still the best. If you don't want to fly, you want to stay in one place for some reason then others are better. We actually use our X-8s like giant jibs so staying put isn't of much use. For a pilot, not a novice, not beginner... nothing beats HFP. I'm not flying a RED with anything else.
CrashMaster
Member
Sorry, I wasn't trying to upset HFP owners here just pointing out that there is a whole world outside HFP where development is thundering forward but not all is roses for them all either. It may be that HFP will not throw out dodgy hardware and firmware because they know the risks, unlike others who appear to treat their paying customers as unpaid Beta testers.
As for flying a RED I too wouldn't trust anything which was the slightest bit flaky: there is just too much to loose. I am worrying about setting up to fly my Sony NEX 7 with SELP1650 so goodness knows how you lot cope hanging 10X the cost in the air.....
However, what a lot of APers really want is a platform which almost flies it's self because they either don't trust their own fingers or they haven't got the RC experience to fly should things go wrong because they are primarily photographers or viddiographers and not RC modellers. In my mind, every pilot should be able to fly in manual mode or not try AP until they can do that competently and seamlessly. I could go further and demand at least competent Heli flying first, but that is easy for me to say having flown RC Helis for 27 years: Back in the bad old days when Sanyo tail giros were 2" boxes and were just being developed, before the inventions of mobile phones, GPS and electric flight.
As for flying a RED I too wouldn't trust anything which was the slightest bit flaky: there is just too much to loose. I am worrying about setting up to fly my Sony NEX 7 with SELP1650 so goodness knows how you lot cope hanging 10X the cost in the air.....
However, what a lot of APers really want is a platform which almost flies it's self because they either don't trust their own fingers or they haven't got the RC experience to fly should things go wrong because they are primarily photographers or viddiographers and not RC modellers. In my mind, every pilot should be able to fly in manual mode or not try AP until they can do that competently and seamlessly. I could go further and demand at least competent Heli flying first, but that is easy for me to say having flown RC Helis for 27 years: Back in the bad old days when Sanyo tail giros were 2" boxes and were just being developed, before the inventions of mobile phones, GPS and electric flight.
I'm calling BS on this one. I have at least a dozen flight controllers of various makes and models all with various GPS units attached and nothing special needs to be done to make any of them work as intended provided the software is correctly installed and any needed parameters like declination properly configured. Yes, performance can be impacted by RFI though usually because the GPS is too close to a 500mw or larger video transmitter or other add-on component that is poorly designed/inadequately shielded.
I think it's long past time these folks stop making excuses and either just make it work or stop selling whatever if they can't. If open source projects like Multiwii can make generic GPS units work with far less processing power on the flight controller, it speaks volumes about the engineering capability at H/F IMO...
Ken
JZSlenker
Yeah, I can blow that up.
BINGO!
Honestly it scares me when I see people who can't fly a CP heli nose in - flying a MR that weighs a lot. I won't say we never fly in AH or AL but we very rarely use anything other than manual. With a trained pilot and HFP it's just not necessary. I hope whenever the FAA finally figures this mess out, that they require a license and a test to fly RC for commercial use. The lack of safety and experience I have seen in the MR commercial world really worries me.
workshop
Member
I agree Ken... HoverFly Pro/GPS is unique in its inability to provide reliable GPS and Ben's excuse falls flat to any reasonable Multicopter hobbyist, system integrator or engineer.... Those of us that moved here on Al's request know that the "user to user forum" excuse is disingenuous at best.
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