So, its been a while since I've posted. Been real busy with work, family, school... life in general. Haven't had a ton of time for my flying.... dang it! Well, that's not 100% true. I purchased an Immersion RC Vortex last year and have had a ball with that little thing. So much, that I've not flown my 810 very much. So that brings me to the stage of where I am at now. We had a 5k mud run a few weeks back and I decided to take my Vortex and my 810 out to do some filming. Yes you can film with a Vortex, albeit much harder to get a steady shot, you CAN move from spot to spot MUCH quicker LOL! However, its nothing like a steadied shot from a gimbal equipped heavy lifter. I took the 810 out thinking that all was well with the gimbal, until I got it up in the air. Mind you I still have the 5d2 gimbal from Tarot. To be honest, I've never really got that gimbal to behave to my satisfaction. Quirky is an understatement. Software is pretty buggy as well. Well just disappointed to say the least. So, I decided to move to the brushless gimbal route. I purchased the 5d3 from Tarot instead. Still selling my 5d2 if anyone is interested ($350). Now, with this, I have looked at battery combinations till I am blue in the face. I have come to the conclusion that if I run 2 10000mah batteries in parallel, I will be able to have flight times roughly where I need them to be. I have, in doing my research come to the conclusion that the super low C multistar batteries are NOT really that great. They don't hold voltage throughout the whole discharge cycle worth a crap. Very rarely do they stay at their upper voltages for very long. Which makes total sense. I wish HobbyKing would state the actual performance of these batteries before people buy them. Now, I am thinking about trying out the Nanotech batteries instead which are 35-50C throughout the entire pack discharge cycle. It seems to me that, the higher C value makes more sense. So, I am still running the Tiger Motor MN4014-9 motors. Tons of torque and lifting capability. I am also looking at different prop profiles to see if that makes any difference. I'm still running the 15x5.5 CF props that came with the kit when I purchased it. Looking at optimizing it some.
So, in the grand scheme of things I realized that I would need to finally use the second remote that I purchased. I took yesterday and reconfigured my Taranis to act as a buddy box to the second radio that I have that was originally intended for gimbal control. This was somewhat of a challenge as the channels that I was wanting to share control of were not the standard 1,2,3,4 channels that are typical of buddy box operation. So, thankfully the Taranis is such a GREAT radio and the OpenTX software allows for the customization that it does. Now, what my original goal was, was to have a setup that I could use either in a one man operation, or a two man operation, retain the same button, switch etc configuration for gimbal control, and allowing for a second radio to assume the role of those gimbal controls with minimal reconfiguration (if any) of the Taranis when switching to 2 man operation. So, in coming up with the configuration for this setup I stumbled across a nice little piece called a Linker. This allows the second radio to wirelessly transmit its signals to the Linker box (which has a separate receiver in it). The linker box is designed to be a wireless buddy box setup. This will allow me to get rid of the connecting wire between radios and have wireless operation between the two radios. The setup I have now completely disables the master radio control of the gimbal controls while the buddy system is in operation, as to prevent interference with the camera operator, yet it gives me the flexibility to simply turn off the second transmitter and still use the Taranis as the main controller if I want to grab a shot and I don't have a dedicated second operator available.
I know that the Inspire is out there, which is all well and good, but honestly I REALLY like the 810 and cant justify spending $3k on another setup when I have this one ready to go. Plus, with this I can put ANY camera on it, and not the one that DJI says I have to have on it. Anyway, as soon as this thing is configured and ready to go, I plan on posting a video on how I setup the radios and how I have the gimbal setup. At this point, I still have parts coming. Anyway, that is what I have. Everyone have a safe and joyous 4th (if you live in the states that is). If you don't, well have a glorious weekend and fly safe!