Tag Archives: fpv

FPV, Acro, Flips… and crash

Posted by on June 10, 2015 No comments

Yesterday I received two new battery packs, so it was time for flying again. Charged the batteries, packed all the stuff and on the go 🙂

I got over 10min with the first 1300mAh Zippy 40C battery flying FPV. The last two batteries were for Acro training, as I am not so good, yet 🙂 Making flips and so on, I crashed with the last battery pack. The crash was with full speed and the one rear arm got broken. Sure the hole for the cables is a weak point, but this is also the first arm broken for an year. But I will think about using 4mm carbon instead of the 3mm. Anyway, wanted to share this experience and two pictures too: before and after the crash.

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Short FPV flight and a broken FPV antenna

Posted by on June 6, 2015 No comments

The weather was perfect today, so I decided to go for an FPV flight in the morning. Packed my FPV Quad, FatShark goggles, Transmitter and two battery packs and went to the field.

Sadly, after the first one minute flying I didn’t manage well the speed of descending and got a small crash. The propeller hit the FPV antenna of the ImmersionRC Transmitter and broke it. That was all with the FPV flying today. Then I flew just for fun making flips and so on 🙂

Quick info about the flight: 10:30min with one Zippy 1300mAh 25C battery (AUW including GoPro Hero3 is 485g). At home I charged again 1211mA. Here is the short video of the flight:

…and a picture of the broken 5.8Ghz FPV antenna 🙂

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FPV Racer Quadcopter Build Log

Posted by on June 3, 2015 No comments

The summer is coming and it is time for FPV flying. It is just great feeling to fly around. In the past months I have used mostly my SG Acro quadcopter and that one is not suitable for FPV flying, even it is great fun making flips with it 🙂

I will be using my own SG Adventure Mini v4 frame. I spent many hours learning CAD from zero and trying to create an unique FPV frame, that is as good as possible. I just love this asymmetric carbon fiber frame 🙂

Let´s get started with the parts that I have used for that FPV Racer:

  • SG Adventure Mini v4 frame
  • T-Motor MN2206 2000kv
  • HK BlueSeries 12A ESC flashed with SimonK firmware
  • CC3D flight controller
  • 6” carbon propeller
  • Power distribution board
  • ImmersionRC TX
  • Nylon Spacers and M3 screws

First I mounted the M3 6mm nylon spacers on the top center plate. Next I mounted the MN2206 motors on the arms and cut the 2mm gold connectors as I was going to solder the motor cables directly to the ESCs.

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Then unsoldered the original motor cables from every ESC. I also removed the 5V and GND cables from 3 ESCs and left only the signal cable (I was going to use the supplied BEC on the fourth one).

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Took the bottom center plate and mounted the power distribution board with on it. Next step was cutting the power cables from the ESC, so these can fit on the bottom plate. Then soldered these cables to the power distribution board. I also soldered the power cable to the battery, the LEDs and a power cable for the ImmersionRC video transmitter.

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After that I put heat shrink on the ESCs and soldered the cables from the motors to every ESC. You should care when soldering to reverse two of the motor cables because of the different rotation.

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Next step is assembling the arms with the center plates. I don’t like to see the locknuts on the top, but it is much easier to mount the arms by that way. Once you are done with two of these, you can put the other screws from the top and then remove or reverse the firstly mounted screws and locknuts.IMG_9863IMG_9865

Finally I have mounted the CC3D flight controller, a carbon cover for it and the 6” propellers. I also put two 6mm nylon spacers in the middle between the two center plates for more strength. On the top of the flight controller cover I mounted the ImmersionRC TX with a zip tie until I receive my third FPV cover plate.IMG_9866IMG_9871IMG_9872

SG Adventure Mini Quad

Posted by on September 21, 2014 3 comments

This is the third revision of my SG Adventure Quad, that I made back in may this year (link). This is a short review of the Mini Quad (the normal/bigger one uses just longer arms for 8” or 10” propeller).

The SG Adventure Mini Quad is a V-Type frame. I went on this type, because I wanted something different from the Mini H-Frame hype and I love the asymmetric frame 🙂 It is also designed for mounting an action camera and FPV gear.

Details about the frame:

  • V-Type asymmetric 260mm frame (measured motor shaft to motor shaft diagonally)
  • Weight: only 83 grams 80 gram (v4)
  • Material: High quality carbon by SGL Carbon and made in Germany

Features:

  • Designed to mount a GoPro or a Mobius camera on the front.
  • Use of 5” or 6” propellers.
  • Mount of almost every flight controller: Naze32, KK 2.1.5., Crius (or clones such the HK AIO Board), OpenPilot, AutoQuad, MultiwiiPro, DJI Naza and also the bigger ones APM 2.5 and Pixhawk.
  • Motor mounting holes: M3 19mm x 16mm; M2 16mm x 12mm (T-Motor MN1804) and M2 12mm x 12mm for the small T-Motor MT1306.
  • Distance between the two center plates is 6mm, so there is a place for small receivers such as the FrSky D4R-II (by using the additional carbon spacers).
  • There is a cover plate for direct mounting of GPS, FPV gear and covering the flight controller (additional weight of 8g).
  • Mounting a Tarot 2D Gimbal (v4 frame).
  • Cover plate for LEDs on the front (v4 frame).

Photos and more details:

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The arms and the small parts are made from 3mm carbon, the other plates from 1mm carbon.

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As said the center plates can be used with longer arms for mounting bigger motors and bigger props.

On the SG Adventure Mini I am using the MN2206 2000kv motors from T-Motor. A budget version could be the Multistar 2206-2150kv Baby Beast motor from HobbyKing.

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For the flight controller I used some spacers. It is not necessary, but so I have some space for ESC or receiver cables. On the down side there are holes for battery strap. Between these could be mounted a standard 30.5 x 30.5mm power distribution board, such the one I used instead of the cable harness.

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I also used 8 – M3 x 16mm screws for assembling the frame and 16 – M3 x 6mm for mounting the motors.

I had a big problem mounting the ESCs, because I only had Afro 30A. Ideal would be the Afro 12A, HK BlueSeries 12A, KISS 12A or KISS 18A ESCs. Although the Afro 30A are big, I succeed mounting them by cutting the wires. The Afro 30A are a bit heavy too, almost 100 grams with the power board and cable.

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Fully assembled without the battery the Mini Quad weights only 367 grams. With smaller ESCs there could be definitely saved another 50 grams, which would be great for the mini and the flight time. And there is so much free space, when using the small Naze32 instead of my HK Pilot32.

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Update 29.09.2014: Here two more photos with the new carbon 6×2 propellers.

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I made some flights today for the first time with the Naze32 and the Mini frame and got about 15 minutes with the 2200mAh 3S battery. Still waiting for some small carbon props for better look and experience.

Production costs are a bit higher because of the quality material from SGL Carbon and the production in Germany.

Let me know, what do you think about my mini frame and if there is something to be done better 🙂

Update 29.01.2015: Clean Install & CleanFlight & Naze32 Carbon Cover

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Update 21.03.2015: The actual version is v4 now. Changes:

  • Design changes: the frame is much lighter, looks better and has better aerodynamics.
  • Front and rear arms are the same now.
  • SG Logo on it 🙂
  • Possible to mount an Tarot 2D Gimbal on the down side.
  • Tiny cover plate on the front, including holes for LEDs.
  • Redesigned the 3mm carbon spacers. Motor cables can go directly to the inside of the frame.
  • Redesigned the third cover plate. FPV antenna can now be mounted on it.

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Update 03.06.2015: Added a build log for an FPV Racer with that frame here.

SG Adventure with the KK2.0 board

Posted by on June 21, 2014 No comments

My new SG Adventure carbon frame was designed to be used for FPV flights and filming with my GoPro Hero 3, so the arms on the front are not on 45 degree, but on 60 degree to the pitch axis. In order to have a stable and good flight, I should change this settings in the Mixer Editor of the KK2.0 board. How do I do this:

As said the front arms are on 60 degree to the pitch axis, and 30 degree to the roll axis (if your frame has other angles of the front arms such the TBS Discovery, just figure out the angles and keep reading). The numbers in the KK2.0 Mixer Editor are sinus of this angles:

Aileron/Roll: sin(30)=0,50 or for the KK2.0 settings 50.

Elevator/Pitch: sin(60)=0,86 or for the KK2.0 settings 86.

These settings should be changed in the Mixer Editor for CH1 and CH2 (front motors), and on CH1 the Aileron should be negative number or “-50”. CH3 and CH4 should not be changed, as the rear arms are on default 45 degree to the pitch and roll axes.

Update 23.09.2014: I also wrote a more detailed how-to of the “problem” with different frame types.

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On Thursday I had the chance to test my SG Adventure QuadCopter with the KK2.0 board and it worked as it should be – stable and responsive. A lot of fun flying in the wild! Here are some pictures of the QuadCopter.

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If you liked this article please share it with your friends. Thank you and have a fun!