Search results

I bought my flight controllers from Amazon. They are fairly cheap - $35 - $45 U.S. I use the APM 2.6 and use an external GPS/compass. If you want GPS you might want to consider buying a "bundle" consisting of the flight controller, GPS, APM power module, etc. Regarding 3DR I found an article...

Sorry, but I've been a 3DR bigot. I don't have any experience with any other flight controllers.

It is indeed an obsolete flight controller and is no longer sold/supported by 3DR. That doesn't mean that it's no good - you can still buy cheap clones, in fact I just ordered two. And the firmware is still available with Mission Planner, which is a free download. It is a great f.c. but due to...

If you've spent any time in this hobby, building or modifying your aircraft, you already know what I'm talking about - buying parts online can be a real crap shoot. But for most of us, the lack of hobby shops that stock the things we need near where we live leaves us little choice. Just...

As usual, I progress one step forward and have a setback. I was concerned about low endurance flight times, and so I tried connecting two Lipo's in parallel and tried flying that configuration with my other Elev-8. I found it hard to fly and the motors were straining with the additional load. I...

I just saw this - although there is a "no drone fly zone" in and around the stadium, the FAA has given permission for hundreds of lit quads to be in the show...

Depends on the trajectory of the bullet. If you shoot a gun straight up the bullet will eventually lose enough kinetic energy so that gravity becomes the predominant force and it will simply fall. If it hits you on the head, you might get a headache, but it won't kill you. However, if you...

I had an Spektrum AR8000 that was in a crash. When I put it on my new quadcopter I'm building, It's light would come on regardless if the transmitter was on or not. Could not do the radio calibration, so I replaced it with another six channel receiver and it's working. The quad is not ready to...

I crashed my Tarot FY680 pro hexcopter in a stupid accident. The aircraft was totaled but I managed to salvage some parts including the motors. But somehow I misplaced/lost the propeller washers. Later, I decided to build a new quad using some spare parts I had laying around, some of the...

Trust me. APM's are really great flight controllers. But occassionally you do get a lemon. I bought my last one from Amazon for $37 - works great. My only complaint is that the pins are on the top, not on the sides and I had to lengthen some wires due to how it's positioned on my quad. If wire...

One other, somewhat remote possibility is that your APM may be bad. I've had to replace two APM's over the course of my building and flying. I have now built four multicopters - all have used APMs.

Did you successfully complete all calibrations? Using Mission Planner, and hooking your computer to the APM via USB, the first thing ou want to do is the accel calibration - that tells the APM which is up, down, etc. Also, did you check to make sure that you mounted all props so that they spin...

Yesterday, I practiced turning about a point with the nose pointed at the center - both clockwise and CCW. Put it in Loiter mode - made it easy to figure it out and why. Mine too was rising, and it was breezy - lots of factors to take into account!

I agree with Wildwelder above. Practicing with a small cheap quad will sharpen your reaction as well as become familiar with the controls. If you can master a Hubsan X4, a Phantom 4 will be a piece of cake.

The file may have gotten corrupt in the crash, like perhaps it couldn't close properly. Try reading it into some other application, such as a video converter (like Movavi), or video editor, like Moviemaker or iMovie and see if it can be read and viewed, or converted. There are tools for fixing...

Part of the problem is that you have to control at least four flight functions - throttle, rudder, aileron, elevator. In an airplane, you've got one hand to control elevator and aileron and the other for the throttle; your feet control the rudders. I get that it's hard for a newbie to use two...

Finally! I have completed the wiring except for the GPS - still waiting for delivery of the replacement module. I was too aggressive on the ESC signal leads and had to lengthen the signal/ground leads for the #1, #3 ESCs to the APM: And I needed longer signal leads from the receiver to the...

This is another really bad idea that should be scrapped like FCS (Future Combat Systems) was.

This question came up while exporing my disappointing endurance result (see thread). The consensus pretty much is that I have a weak battery, and I'm thinking about buying one of these Turnigy Graphene 4S 6000 mAh lipos. But on another forum, a guy suggested that my 4S, using 1553 props was too...

I'm using 4S lipos on my quadcopter that's equipped with an APM 2.6 flight controller, 200 mW video transmitter, and Tarot 4006 620 kv motors. My ESC's are 30W OPTO's. I can switch back and forth with no problems - the ESCs/motors are fine, the f.c. gets its power from an APM power module that...