TBS Discovery Pro

[EastCoastJib]

Oh man... you'll be cooking the turkey this year! Glad you found it. I hope all is well with you.

 

[kloner]

haha, the infamous all for not

get a nice memory card, ever since i just walked into best buy and bought sandisk extreme, my hero3 hasn't missed a beat. Mine used to fight me like yours everyday

all raw, no post. Switched over to all orange and it's letting vibes in and it's bucking a tad, overgain by about 2 ticks....

 

[ChrisViperM]

Parked the DiscoPro in a tree...

Doing a thing for the Biltmore in Miami. It's a super cute, oder, quaint neighborhood and the tree's create these super dense, super long tunnels down the Avenues. At the end of the Tree Tunnel is a Fountain. Shot is down the Avenue then a 360 circle of the fountain. No GPS Lock due to tree's and no way to circle the fountain as I can barely see the bloody thing from where I'm standing at the end of the Avenue. Plan is to fly down the avenue, set it down at the end, do a cut then fly the fountain. No sweat.

Except as I'm approaching the fountain suddenly everything's looking wide open in the goggles. Good signal, and I'm like yeah, I can nail this in one shot!!... Start the swing around the fountain and at exactly the first quarter mark, screen goes blank. As was the plan, as expected, Goggles do not alter physics and the tree's cut the signal completely. I'm quietly ****ting myself. I grab a bit of air, throw GPS, (praying it grabbed a lock) and the Wife brings the truck around... we race towards the fountain. I'm like no way this thing got lock and start easing the throttle down for what I hope is some semblance of a landing.

Get to the fountain. EVERYTHING IS QUIET. Sun is shining, Birds are chirping, no sounds of a Disco trying to thrash itself to pieces. My first reaction is whew, my second third fourth and fifth reactions are, where the hell is this thing!!!!!! Nothing out of the gopro but the flight cam has a tree branches. So its not in the grass, its not in the fountain, its not in the road, its not in the air...its in a tree. One of MILLIONS and MILLIONS OF TREEEEEEEE's!!!!

Trying to start it up, nothing. Wander over to the next tree, start up nothing, etc etc... Finally we hear this click, click. Top of the bloody thing, there it is!! YES!!!! But man thats like right in the middle of "I can get that, You're an old bastard and gonna fall outta there and straight up fire truck" range.

So the wife went up THE SHAME!!!!!!!

So she climbs up there, takes this long stick, hooks the battery cable and manages to pull it in. Now I'm gonna hear about this forever...

Whew Recovery!!!!

Check the gopro, stopped recording 3 seconds in... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

That story made my day..... :nevreness::nevreness::nevreness:

I feel with you, my friend.....


Chris

 

[SMP]

Hey Kloner, The 1000mw Vtx that I had on the Disco died for reasons unknown. Luckily I had picked up two of those little 500mw Txs from HK you mentioned. Had one bad unit out of the two but at 18 bucks who cares. Thing is, the range is bloody awful using 2450 on the Fatshark Doms RX so pulled the Lawmate RX and started the process of wiring everything together for a Radio Mounted Ground Station.

Couple of questions;
1. On the 500mw did you run the power through the core or break out the power cable to the frame (and step down regulator). Had the 1000 wired to the frame but was under the assumption that under 500mw the Core is able to handle it.
2. Can you confirm TBS Core can handle up to 6+S? Youre pushing 6S for your 14" right??
3. On the 500mw Vtx you using the Lawmate RX?? I've got the Lawmate Rx and an Immersion 2.4 Duo which looks like it might be a better fit.
4. I noticed most of your vids on youtube seem to be out n backs. You using the directionals or are these on clovers/mushrooms etc.
5. Whaddaya figure your avg range is with your current setup??

6. Anybody running Fatsharks wired to a RX know where to find a bloody AV cable with the correct # of poles (4) in 3/8 plug on both sides so I can plug the damn thing in all the way on the RX and all the way on the Goggles?? Friggen Fatshark!

 

[kloner]

1 if you got the lawmate 500mw it is 5 volt and will plug straight into the board through the vtx cabling, just make sure to solder to the 5v tab option..... is that what you got?

2 yep, 6s. i've ran it on 6s skyjibs and 6s discos

3 yes lawmate, i use the lawmate receiver too. the pair has the lowest noise floor and make great connections

4 we flt from the desert to the city. obviously the quality of video is less in town

5 i've had the zephers out 8 miles with the same exact gear. I've never gotten the disco more than a mile and a half, i fly too fast to get any more range

6, that's the worst way to go, it is a really weak poor signal compared to a real vrx. the lawmate ones are like $60. It is a 3.5mm 4 place and it's not your average wire, though you will find them some places like radio shack, etc, they don't work. i'vediagnosed like 4 rigs that didn't have a video signal and every time was that stupid cable not being origional.

 

[SMP]

Classic - and THERES the problem... Went back and checked the order - Ordered the Airwave ones not the Lawmates... Oy!!

Actually you nailed it, tired of fighting the fatshark range so planning to just use them like a monitor (disabling the onboard rx and just using the AV in) strapping the real RX under the radio and then wiring antennas around my head like the beer helmet or some ****... Thx for the info mate!!!

 

[kloner]

so the boss ones are pretty dope too. they do need to get voltage from an esc tab on the bottom plate and they are rated for 4s, but they tend to burn up over time, especially on teh bench or ground. They power up, gotta get em flying with air over em

the lawmate 500 are ridiculously reliable, hence the tbs use of it

 

[SMP]

So I strapped the Immersion 2.4 Duo under the remote, added a mushroom coming out the top and a helical pointing forward under the UHF Antenna, wire dangling out the side for the goggles and it is officially the Dorkiest TX Rig ever BUT... worked like a charm!!!! Way farther out with way better clarity! Heavy as all hell and ugly doesn't even approach it. Once the LM 500s show up will swap to the LM RX at half the weight etc.. Finally, NOW I see the 2.4 VTX advantage!!!

Still getting the Gimbal shakes at FFF - Hoping TBS offers up the harder dampers and improved mount soon.

 

[kloner]

try lowering the gains the self leveling gets sloppy but it'll lessen if not eliminate it... i'm in the 90's in basic and 80's on atti

 

[SMP]

Will do, good tip, thanks Mate!!

 

[Boltzman]

Hi!

I had the privilege to test some early prototypes of the new upcoming Klonerarms. Just got my kit and did my first test flights yesterday. The reason why I opted to try them out is that I have an own build front mounted NEX-5 brushless gimbal design based on the TBS Disco frame. I use this setup when I travel and the complete kit needs to fit in a backpack. I have been flying this design since early March and have been concerned regarding the radial flexing using the DJI arms due to heavy lift (resulting in bad yaw stability in wind). I did my first sample flight with a 4000 mah 4S battery without any extra payload (AUW 1513 grams) and got 13 min flight time. The acceleration is so extreme with the 2814 1000kv motors (Naza manual mode) that you can barely see the quad after 3-4s in the sky. The frame is very rigid, no radial flex, and flies extremely locked in. Later on I did a heavy lift stability test with a 5800 mah 4S battery (frame weight + battery weight 1644 gram) and a payload of 1368 grams, hence a total AUW of 3012 grams. The total fly time is 7:53 min. Stability is slightly reduced by the challenge to set the correct center of gravity but the frame is still very rigid, once correctly balanced it flies like a german tank. There is still a lot of power left but if I could I would preferably Use longer arms to manage the momentum interia better (i cannot due travel size). You can still detach the arms in a fairly easy way and I will work on a quick mount design later.

The total AUW with the brushless gimbal, NEX-5 camera with 16mm 2.8 lens + 0.75x wide angle extender and fpv equipment is expected to be lower, in the range of 2700 - 2800 grams. Will come back with some test results later. I already have a kit flying like that based on the DJI arms. I also use 4x inflatable floating units (Waterbuoys) for water crash disasters, another 120 grams required..

My setup:
TBS disco frame v1, specially cut for front mount brushless gimbal
GotheliRC VX5 brushless gimbal, modified without dampeners, hard mounted on the roll motor with an own cut MDF block attached to the frame (see pictures below)
T-motor AS2814 1000kv motors
TBS Simonk ESC
Goodluckbuy 16x14mm 330mm carbon tubes cut down to ~210mm (DJI arms equivalent length)
Rctimer 10x5 E-prop style carbon props
Naza v.1 with GPS
Zippy Compact 4000 mah and 5800 mah
Klonerarms

Bare frame weight (Including all electronics but excluding battery) is 1129 grams.

The build quality of the 3D printed arms is really good, though some minor tweaking was required to fit the screw inserts that are manually ironed in he prototypes, this is expected to be fixed in the real production units. All pieces are designed with the thought of perfection, every piece is very robust and the screw inserts simplifies the installation significantly.

So far so good, this is great upgrade for any serious TBS Disco owner if you want to get improved stability, heavy lift capability, do extreme speed records of +80 mph and have a lot of potential upgrading options by simply extending the carbon arms. You will also be able to build a very compact aerial photography kits that fits in a backpack where you can unpack quickly and start flying by only attaching the props. Imagine this in a comparison to S800 EVO cost, size and weight design. Cost for my full kit is far less than 1500 USD including the brushless gimbal, receiver etc but transmitter and NEX-5 camera.

Later on I will test the Klonerarms with T-motor MT3520 400kv motors and 15x5 props on 6S. This kit is expected to lift a front mounted brushless gimbal for my 4K camera design, all portable in a backpack with long flight time endurance.

To be continued...

Boltzman


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[Thomas_Tank]

Progress report on the "Kloner Arms"?
These pics are killing me, I want some!!

:02.47-tranquillity:

 

[Boltzman]

Yes, progressing very well. Have some tuning to do with the new GotheliRC VX5 gimbal. Total weight excuding battery and fpv equipment is 1900 grams.

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[rudeboy]

Any update on when the kloner conversion will be available?? Looking to build a long range disco and the extended arms are just what I'm after.

 

[kloner]

they will be available at Aerial Media Pros around the first of the year

 

[Thomas_Tank]

Well that timeframe has slipped a bit.
What a shame...

 

[kloner]

We had to make sure the quality was good enough. Everybody is gonna love the price points. Wait till you see what all you get and just how cheap they are. There gonna be tough to get hands on em even once there out in the first batch.... but i'm not exactly sure how many are even gonna be available as a kit form to start and what your gonna have to buy from amp to get them if it's an arf or what. AMP is the exclusive distributor..... after were positive the quality is up to par, we will make em available to the masses by next spring, all you can eat, few flavors, etc.

 

[Thomas_Tank]

Sounds to me like there needs to be a preferred list of early adopters who can get hold of some of that first run (kit form for me please)!!

1) Me
2) ...

:nevreness:

 

[SMP]

Starting to get progressive jiggles, wiggles and jello... Looks like the orange dampers are starting to soften up. Bird does 10+ Flights a week so not too surprised but if your video is deteriorating this might be the culprit. Still crossing my fingers TBS sends the "Fix" sooner rather than later.... They did send me some new Molex and Grub Screw Arms gratis, so superior Customer Service there for sure!!

 

[SMP]

Drat... just got the Pro dialed and had a local production company make the proverbial offer couldnt refuse. So off it went to them and a new one forthcoming. in the process of detuning it as this was their first foray into multi's landed on a sweet combination of Naza Lite 140,130,120,120 and 130, 120 +/- a point (cant remember offhand) to tighten the bird up, then added -50 Expo on Pitch/Roll and -25 expo on Yaw. Ended up flying tight with tons of control but softening up the sticks smoothed out the FC corrections and REALLY made a difference in the visible yaw wiggles that kill video.

(Note: 2.4ghz Mad Mushrooms from Hobby Wireless ended up being significantly better than the setfrom RMCM. Dunno why, supposedly both IBCrazy and looks like only difference was dipped Blue for HW and Black for RMCM)