DucktileMedia
Drone Enthusiast
Please show some flying shots from the HFP. Im all for discovering the new MK. I find it hard to give in to them for some reason. Im all a mac guy too. I had to salvage my wifes old pc just for my helicopter. Ick.
Time to try a Y6
- Thread starter RTRyder
- Start date
Yes, I loaded the latest release when I switched it over to Y6 config and its no less quirky than previous releases in my experience.
Still have to take off, turn on autolevel, counteract whatever way it tries to fly off to, switch off, land, disarm, rearm, take off, and now auto level works reasonably well, still never exactly the same two flights in a row but much better than before.
Altitude hold still not useable for the most part, takes way too long for it to react to throttle changes and even when trying my best to find equilibrium for it to stay at the same altitude, it won't. They tried to copy MKs vario altitude control and aren't even in the ballpark yet. I have both and have tried to use the Hoverfly version knowing how well the Mk version works, no comparison, not even close.
And lets not forget the camera mount on crack routine it started doing just before I gave up on the quad frame and migrated all the electronic bits over to the Y6! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8tpJ2jKQiM)
Basic flight capabilities are pretty good, but then again I have a half dozen various flight controllers I can say the same thing about.
I know there are a lot of people out there that are very pleased with the Hoverfly Pro, but as far as I'm concerned until I can just take off and turn things on and have them work correctly every time the board, or perhaps more correctly the firmware, still has serious problems and can't be relied on like I can either of the MK hexa I have. No BS, just fact...
That said, I'm very pleased that it appears I may finally be able to get some use out of the Hoverfly Pro board on the Y6 frame but I seriously doubt that it will ever be capable of doing all the things I routinely do with the Mikrokopters. If there was any chance I could get back the majority of the $ I paid for the Hoverfly Pro board I'd sell it in a heartbeat and order another Mk 2.1 flight controller to replace it.
Ken
Still have to take off, turn on autolevel, counteract whatever way it tries to fly off to, switch off, land, disarm, rearm, take off, and now auto level works reasonably well, still never exactly the same two flights in a row but much better than before.
Altitude hold still not useable for the most part, takes way too long for it to react to throttle changes and even when trying my best to find equilibrium for it to stay at the same altitude, it won't. They tried to copy MKs vario altitude control and aren't even in the ballpark yet. I have both and have tried to use the Hoverfly version knowing how well the Mk version works, no comparison, not even close.
And lets not forget the camera mount on crack routine it started doing just before I gave up on the quad frame and migrated all the electronic bits over to the Y6! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8tpJ2jKQiM)
Basic flight capabilities are pretty good, but then again I have a half dozen various flight controllers I can say the same thing about.
I know there are a lot of people out there that are very pleased with the Hoverfly Pro, but as far as I'm concerned until I can just take off and turn things on and have them work correctly every time the board, or perhaps more correctly the firmware, still has serious problems and can't be relied on like I can either of the MK hexa I have. No BS, just fact...
That said, I'm very pleased that it appears I may finally be able to get some use out of the Hoverfly Pro board on the Y6 frame but I seriously doubt that it will ever be capable of doing all the things I routinely do with the Mikrokopters. If there was any chance I could get back the majority of the $ I paid for the Hoverfly Pro board I'd sell it in a heartbeat and order another Mk 2.1 flight controller to replace it.
Ken
Didnt the camera mount on crack routine turn out to be something other than the HFP?
Dont get me wrong Ken, I have watched you and Shawn try and work out the things causing you problems on the HF forum but I thought the crack routine was something other than the board?
Dont get me wrong Ken, I have watched you and Shawn try and work out the things causing you problems on the HF forum but I thought the crack routine was something other than the board?
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George agreed with me that it is directly related to how they handle the state of the camera mount between power up and arming the board, the problem being amplified by the somewhat wobbly MK flexlander landing gear. It could happen to any frame with landing gear that has some flex to it and a similar type of camera mount, supposed to be fixed in the next release of firmware. Whether or not it is I won't be able to test as I've disassembled the entire setup to build the Y6 so I have no way to check.
Ken
Smile for the camera
What I did this evening while charging batteries...
I'll find out tomorrow how well it works. Won't have a lot of roll compensation, the top edges of the Hisight frame hit the cross braces of the landing gear well before it runs out of servo travel. If I have time in the afternoon I'll make a pair of offset cross braces on the mill for the landing gear so the mount will at least have full roll travel assuming the video comes out decent enough in the morning to make the effort worth it.
Ken
What I did this evening while charging batteries...
I'll find out tomorrow how well it works. Won't have a lot of roll compensation, the top edges of the Hisight frame hit the cross braces of the landing gear well before it runs out of servo travel. If I have time in the afternoon I'll make a pair of offset cross braces on the mill for the landing gear so the mount will at least have full roll travel assuming the video comes out decent enough in the morning to make the effort worth it.
Ken
DucktileMedia
Drone Enthusiast
Because the angle between the legs is greater making it less likely to capture a prop in your shot.
The same can be said for a regular Tricopter.
Is it to do with teh redundency factor of having double motors at each "corner"?
Would a Y6 really still fly if one of the motors / ESC's really fail?
you would have to make sure that the payload stay's under what is achievable for just one set of props and motors other wise it would be vastly out of balance if flown on just 5 motors/props.
Correct?
Ben
Is it to do with teh redundency factor of having double motors at each "corner"?
Would a Y6 really still fly if one of the motors / ESC's really fail?
you would have to make sure that the payload stay's under what is achievable for just one set of props and motors other wise it would be vastly out of balance if flown on just 5 motors/props.
Correct?
Ben
matwelli
Member
its more than just the angle, its also to do with behaviour in wind
to get the same lift with 6 motors arranged as a hex, you have alot of prop area that the wind can hit and cause instability,, the Y6, by stacking the props, sacrifices some efficiency in favour of having only half the prop area exposed the wind, and the Y6 is now balancing on three relatively thin colums of fast moving air, and not a huge donut of slow moving air
To get a tri to lift a similar weight, things get bigger - so back tot he same issue of prop area, and also having to control the rear tail servo (gryoscopic forces get rather large with large fast props)
Saying all that , Stackys hex seems to love the wind - i guess its ok when you are angled into it, its the supprise gust from underneath that does the damage
to get the same lift with 6 motors arranged as a hex, you have alot of prop area that the wind can hit and cause instability,, the Y6, by stacking the props, sacrifices some efficiency in favour of having only half the prop area exposed the wind, and the Y6 is now balancing on three relatively thin colums of fast moving air, and not a huge donut of slow moving air
To get a tri to lift a similar weight, things get bigger - so back tot he same issue of prop area, and also having to control the rear tail servo (gryoscopic forces get rather large with large fast props)
Saying all that , Stackys hex seems to love the wind - i guess its ok when you are angled into it, its the supprise gust from underneath that does the damage
First video
Got out to the flying field today with most of the fleet although the main goal was to get a flight or two on the Y6 which I did manage to do. I bolted the camera mount on the bottom last night while I was charging batteries and did a quick and not so accurate setup of it this morning before loading up the car and heading out. Worked OK, wasn't quite level and it hits the cross braces on the landing gear but limiting the amount of tilt kept that from being a major problem. Everything was hard mounted and the props aren't balanced so there is a bit of jello in the video, just didn't have time to do a proper setup and be able to make it out to the field today. Windy out there as well, you can hear it in the video, overall the stability was very good and I find it much easier to fly this configuration low and slow than the flat Hexa.
Still needs a lot of refinement but overall I was pretty happy with the way it worked. Really does need bigger motors though...
Here's the car on arrival at the field, couldn't fit much more in even if I wanted to...
Here's the first attempt at a video flight with the Y6, not bad considering it was built in a day and a half and hasn't been properly setup yet...
Now I'm sitting here considering turning the Droidworx AD-6 into a Y6, really wouldn't take much to make the change...
Ken
Got out to the flying field today with most of the fleet although the main goal was to get a flight or two on the Y6 which I did manage to do. I bolted the camera mount on the bottom last night while I was charging batteries and did a quick and not so accurate setup of it this morning before loading up the car and heading out. Worked OK, wasn't quite level and it hits the cross braces on the landing gear but limiting the amount of tilt kept that from being a major problem. Everything was hard mounted and the props aren't balanced so there is a bit of jello in the video, just didn't have time to do a proper setup and be able to make it out to the field today. Windy out there as well, you can hear it in the video, overall the stability was very good and I find it much easier to fly this configuration low and slow than the flat Hexa.
Still needs a lot of refinement but overall I was pretty happy with the way it worked. Really does need bigger motors though...
Here's the car on arrival at the field, couldn't fit much more in even if I wanted to...
Here's the first attempt at a video flight with the Y6, not bad considering it was built in a day and a half and hasn't been properly setup yet...
Now I'm sitting here considering turning the Droidworx AD-6 into a Y6, really wouldn't take much to make the change...
Ken
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Mactadpole
Member
+1! Especially since you say you don't have it all how you would like.
Haven't made it to working on my Y6 conversion. Don't know if it will get done this weekend as I had hoped.
Shawn
Don't know if its my laptop or what but the video actually looks like better quality watching it direct on youtube... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcvlYgSsIWc)
Yeah, for something I literally threw together in a day and a half I was quite surprised not only how well it flew but also how well the video turned out. I was expecting complete crap due to lack of proper setup on the camera mount and it wasn't nearly as bad as expected.
I really like the way this frame setup flys, really nice for low and slow and it will literally turn on a dime, something I can't quite do with either of the flat Hexa, they always wind up turning in a bit of a circle rather than pivoting on the center axis. I like it enough to do what I said I wasn't going to do, it will soon be powered by a set of Avroto motors and new ESCs with 12 inch props. All I can say is the current flight controller better work well with the new hardware or I'll go all the way and replace it too. I'm too far into this now to have it be quirky and have to put up with inconsistant operation as I did today, time and patience are finally running out for the H/F Pro, nuff said...
Major upgrades coming to the Y6, hopefully in time to fly with them next weekend.
Ken
Yeah, for something I literally threw together in a day and a half I was quite surprised not only how well it flew but also how well the video turned out. I was expecting complete crap due to lack of proper setup on the camera mount and it wasn't nearly as bad as expected.
I really like the way this frame setup flys, really nice for low and slow and it will literally turn on a dime, something I can't quite do with either of the flat Hexa, they always wind up turning in a bit of a circle rather than pivoting on the center axis. I like it enough to do what I said I wasn't going to do, it will soon be powered by a set of Avroto motors and new ESCs with 12 inch props. All I can say is the current flight controller better work well with the new hardware or I'll go all the way and replace it too. I'm too far into this now to have it be quirky and have to put up with inconsistant operation as I did today, time and patience are finally running out for the H/F Pro, nuff said...
Major upgrades coming to the Y6, hopefully in time to fly with them next weekend.
Ken
Mactadpole
Member
Allright! Are you going to stick with the same motor mounts or use Rusty's large mounts? You should definitely try the regular ones first, I think they will be fine. I have the large X-mounts of his for my Y-6. You have to use them with the metal x-mount that comes with the motors unless you are will to trust two screws to hold the motor or drill your own two additional holes. I think we should talk Rusty into adding the two holes to these mounts for Avroto/Pulso type motors. I am also using two standoff's on the end of the mounts for more support.
Excited to see how it comes out for you!
Shawn
Excited to see how it comes out for you!
Shawn
I do, however the AD-6 won't be getting changed over for a while. Last night I loosened one of the front motors and rotated it so it was pointing down to check prop clearance to the landing gear. Got maybe a half inch, if that, with 11 inch props, 12 inch definitely would not work. Its a little too close to be comfortable even with the 11 inch so it looks like at a minimum I'll need the next size up on booms to change to Y6 and have plenty of room for spinning propellors, maybe over the winter but not right now.
Ken
I'm going to give it a go with the same motor mounts for now. One thing I am going to do is make a set of aluminum standoffs to go between the upper and lower mounts to keep them square to each other and add a bit of strength for the bigger and heavier motors. I've got plenty of 6061 round stock and it won't take but a half hour or so to cut 6 small pieces and drill/tap them on each end for screws. I think just the two 4-40 screws holding the mounts on now is marginal for big motors and props, tying everything together and maybe going to a 4mm bolt though the mounting blocks will give me more confidence that it's all going to stay together carrying a load.
Might also try milling a larger engine mount to see how much work it is to make one without CNC equipment. I have a choice of Delrin or aluminum though I think I'd go with aluminum for some added heatsink for the lower motors. I did notice out at the field yesterday in the heat the lower motors were getting HOT, enough that I couldn't hold my finger on them immediately after landing. By the time I got back to the car and checked with the temp gauge I was getting readings around 125 so they had to be at least 10 degrees hotter on landing. I'm hoping the Avrotos will run a bit cooler since they won't be working as hard to keep it flying.
Ken
Mactadpole
Member
Your motor mount thoughts really have me thinking about a Rusty frame for heavy-lift X8. I placed one the Avroto's on the regular Rusty's motor mount today and you are definitely going to have to drill two new holes in each plate if you are positioning the standoff's at the outside edge. There is not much room there, so curious to see how you go about it. The aluminum plates as a heatsink are another great thought!
I don't mean to hijack your thread, but excuse me if I do for a moment. On Rusty's frame thread over at RCG there has been a lot of talk about square arms and their disturbance to airflow. It got me to looking at the arms on my RC-Carbon X8 and they are really wide and rectangular with the wide side in the prop wash. I found recently that if I lighten the X8 by removing camera weight and fly a single 4s 4500 instead of the two 4s 6000's it does not have the wobble issue (this is with MK FC). Or if I remove the lower motors and fly it as a quad with one 4s 6000 it doesn't have the problem. I am fairly convinced there is some point at which all the weight is causing vibrations (which is counter-theory) or it might have something to do with those super wide arms. I am contemplating having Rusty cut me some 7.5" center plates so the DW landing gear will attach perfectly and having him just move the outer arm clamp holes out proportionately. I would use his large motor mounts and drill two more holes in them so I can have all four screws into the motors and not use the X-mount's. That way I can use the outer holes (motor X-mounts) in these mounts for the standoffs between coax mounts. I would also use his 5/8" round clamps with pultruded carbon or T-rex 500 aluminum booms for arms. I know this would all end up a bit heavier than say a Droidworx's but it would also probably be like $600-700 cheaper. I currently get about 13 minutes flight time with the 2-4s 6000 batteries and camera weight. If I were to still get 10-11 minutes I would be happy. Thoughts?
Sorry to deter from the thread topic. I'm at wits end with the X8.
Shawn
Shawn, Im using trex 500 boom arms for my arms on my X8 and I run the wiring through the center. I have a x468HD frame and that frame clamps the boom arms between its 2 frame plates. I wish i had gone for slightly bigger boom arms, maybe a trex600 boom arms because there is a fear of crushing the boom arms as i tighten the frame plates. I have everything nice and snug but the extra strength would have given me a bit more comfort. The boom arms from align I have are the aluminium type. they also do CF arms in those sizes. Just food for thought