Bandwagon's Drones Thread

Palum · Jun 18, 2015

I mean materials can have some affect I'm sure but most of the time buffeting or noise is going to be because of blade pitch. I'm guessing it's not variable pitch, so have you done the calculations to get the proper pitch prop for cruise RPMs and speed? I mean, you'll never do away with noise 100% on a fixed pitch prop aircraft, at some point you are just beating the shit out of the air. I can't imagine that's good for battery life either.

Bandwagon · Jun 18, 2015

10X4.7 is what was recommended to me by a friend, for a 1000kv motor on 4s.

I'm still working on timing, as I've only done 2 flights on it, but the prop is very flimsy. I'm going to order a few apc props, one with the same pitch, and see how those sound.

Palum · Jun 19, 2015

Bandwagon_sl said:
10X4.7 is what was recommended to me by a friend, for a 1000kv motor on 4s.

I'm still working on timing, as I've only done 2 flights on it, but the prop is very flimsy. I'm going to order a few apc props, one with the same pitch, and see how those sound.

I dunno with full size aircraft I never really have the, uh, 'flimsy' problem. Motor/engine RPMs and or power are great but that's only indirect, it really matters what airspeed is like.

Bandwagon · Jun 19, 2015

Why is airspeed what matters?

I don't know what you're getting at. My other fixed wing stays between 6m/s and 17m/s. Because this is the same model with slightly less weight, the airspeed minimum will be close to the same. If I need 6m/s to maintain lift and plane 1 is maintaining that speed at 30% throttle and drawing 4amps, and plane 2 is maintaining that speed at 17% throttle and drawing 1.7 amps, how does airspeed matter at all when I'm focusing on efficiency?

Bandwagon · Jun 19, 2015

Oh, you're talking about what speed the prop is most efficient at. Yea, on the 9 it's about 11m/s, but I get longer flights if I run at 6 or 7, because when the V start dropping at the end of a mission, I can squeeze out another 6 minutes or so.

No idea on the 10 inch, I'll punch it into ecalc when I get the apc blades.

Palum · Jun 20, 2015

Yea, I mean I really don't fly drones - but from regular fixed wing flying going from fixed pitch to constant speed or variable pitch is pretty sweet so *shrug*.

Bandwagon · Jun 20, 2015

Got an hour and 3 minutes for TimeInAir on the new drone, with a 6000mah 4cell. Considering its way out of tune, I'm pretty excited to see what the flight time will be when it's dialed in.

But more importantly, the Quanum FPV kit from hobby king was sitting on my doorstep when I got home. I forgot to charge the battery for my other fixed wing and only got about a 10 minute flight, but that was definitely the coolest thing I've seen yet with these things. The range is way better than my stock Q500, and using a ps4 controller to control the camera gimbal while the plane flies an auto mission was a blast.

If you guys are wanting to try FPV, the hobby king kit is $90 for everything you need. You can upgrade piece-by-piece at a later date if you want. As soon as the fire chief gets back from vacation, I'm going to put the headset on him and go dive-bomb my partner's house. He's an aviation nut, so I think I can get him to buy some bigger "toys" to play around with on fires.

Here is a link to the setup. I do get store credit (supposedly) if you use the link and end up getting one, and it would be much appreciated.
http://www.hobbykingcom/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=63646&aff=1742490

Bandwagon · Jun 26, 2015

Maybe it's because I'm pretty new to twitter, or because I think Chris Anderson is kind of a rockstar in the drone industry, but this made me smile quite a bit...

Bandwagon · Jun 30, 2015

So I was setting up to do a survey today when my coworker said his Turnigy Action Cam from hobby king arrived, so he brought it over and I threw it on the new plane real quick.

Putting that much weight on a plane that still hasn't been tuned very well was almost a disaster. The plane did ok in transit, but as soon as it started the survey, you can see multiple stalls, which get worse and worse. I eventually landed it on the street when it got stuck in a stall loop at the end. A minute or two before the end, you'll hear the motor cut off for a second. that's when I took manual control back.

First "Oh Shit" moment at 9:20. 12:15 is where I commanded a RTL.

edit: 4/9/16 - Looking back through old posts...I forgot about this one. I realized later that one of the main reasons the Penguin couldn't recover from stalls was because I had the rudder reversed.Simple mistake, almost cost me a plane.

Bandwagon · Jul 3, 2015

I know you guys like the FPV stuff a little more than the commercial side, so here ya go:

Guy runs into his own head with a racing drone

Kais · Jul 3, 2015

Oh god lololol

Bandwagon · Jul 7, 2015

Recorded on a shitty laptop through Mission planner, so the quality is fucking terrible....but I just wanted to share the test.

Palum · Jul 7, 2015

Bandwagon_sl said:
I know you guys like the FPV stuff a little more than the commercial side, so here ya go:

Guy runs into his own head with a racing drone

OK but whohasn'tdone that with a redeemer?

BrutulTM · Jul 7, 2015

Newbie question. I got another cheap quad copter and I'm trying to get better at flying it. Should I be able to fine tune it to the point where if I just push the left stick forward it will fly straight up and hover? It seems like no matter what I do it wanders off in one direction or another.

Remit_sl · Jul 7, 2015

Is there a generally recommended quad RTF in the $200 range for a first timer? I see the hubsan x4 v2 recommended earlier, but I wouldn't mind spending a bit more. Sorry for my laziness, but this drone stuff is overwhelming. Video would be cool too just to dick around with.

Bandwagon · Jul 7, 2015

Brutal, the sensors like a barometer and GPS are the things that allow the drones to just hover in one spot. The smaller quads usually just have some sort of accellerometer (I think), which is why they drift even on the rare occasion that they are perfectly tuned. The best way to get used to flying is keep a steady forward pitch and find the throttle that lets you maintain that altitude, then just use your yaw to steer around. It's the same idea as flying a plane.

Remit, I'm not speaking from personal experience, but I hear the Hubsan is pretty good. Also, the 350QX is supposed to be a decent, lower end quad.

On another note, just made a 3d map out of a small sample from a flight a month or so ago. I have no idea if I can create an NDVI 3d map, but that's the goal now.
Small 3d test - number 2 by derrickabroad77 - 3D model - Sketchfab
[sketchfab]b2bc567f491d4a9d961495faa58e4ef2[/sketchfab]
Small 3d test - number 2byderrickabroad77onSketchfab

Bandwagon · Jul 9, 2015

Nothing too exciting, just flying around the neighborhood. This is using a PS4 controller hooked up through the computer to control the gimbal. I didn't expect much out of a $14 camera, but I think it's out of focus. It should look a little better than this.

Srathor · Jul 12, 2015

Remit_sl said:
Is there a generally recommended quad RTF in the $200 range for a first timer? I see the hubsan x4 v2 recommended earlier, but I wouldn't mind spending a bit more. Sorry for my laziness, but this drone stuff is overwhelming. Video would be cool too just to dick around with.

The hubsan ones are great for the money. They are from 30ish bucks to 150 for the fpv one. Then the price really jumps to 350-500 range. And only goes up from there. You also have to remember that the peripherals are kinda important too as you go up in price. (Transmitters, comm devices, goggles, optional diapers for crashing your 3K investment.)

Probably the best hobbyist quad out right now is the Immersion RC Vortex. It is a race quad and needs all the bells and whistles to really make it sing but you can replace parts and tweak and screw with it to an extreme.

But if you just want to fly and crash shit get the Hubsanx4 they are fast, easy to fly, tough as hell and won't dent your wallet.

Bandwagon · Jul 15, 2015

Got to do a field trip while I was in Portland today. The guy that runs this company has been giving me tips and advice since I called him before starting my own company. We finally got to have a face-to-face and he showed me one of his smaller UAS, because it's sort of the type I've been working on building for firefighting. We played with this for a few hours, then went and grabbed some lunch and a beer before going back to his office and watching videos of them blowing up Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

Remit_sl · Jul 25, 2015

I ended up going with a Syma X5C-1. Hands down the most fun I've had with $50. I'd recommend it to anyone. For me personally, the range is amazing (can't see the damn thing when it cuts out anyways), and it flew just fine in about 10mph winds today. Got some hilarious video with it too. My wife even gave me the green light for a Phantom 3, but I'm going to log another 10 hour or so on the Syma first

Bandwagon's Drones Thread

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