Story
About 10 years ago I acquired a box with a half of a crashed up nitro helicopter and a Gen 1 DX8.
It all sat in storage until about a year ago when a buddy offered me most of a blackout hex for 80$. Have wanted to get into flying for a wile but its an investment. After looking at what i had I ended up stripping down the hex storing the Pixhawk stuff for a future 400+ or a rover, and posted the parts from the helicopter on Facebook as a trade for "drone parts". I got a reply an ended up with a banggood omnibus controller, an eachine vtx, and a bunch of other stuff. So I recently took everything and threw together a frankenquad with a 180 frame from amazon, to crash with less guilt and a way to get into the hobby. Have it all together and to my knowledge everything seems alright and working aside from the camera blacking out and the OSD occasionally going all twitchy and fuzzy I believe this to just be a wiring issue, there wasn't a cable for the camera and I couldn't find one at the time. So I used a Spektrum satellite cable I had a plane prop cut that I had lying around, the end I used tested good but I'm honestly just going to hard wire it all to eliminate any cause for issues. I can hover it around on the floor for a few seconds before oscillating and doing a flip (hoping ground wash and what not being indoors and low). I don't believe the flip is related to board orientation or motor direction because it isn't immediate it's after it starts oscillating.
Build
I have a Turnigy 2200mah 3s from a boat that's been upgraded to a 5000mah. 3s is my cap with the hardware don't plan to upgrade the frankenquad either. Long term plan would be to buy a 6s 5-6 inch and either leave frankenquad for the kid to learn with if he becomes interested, or shrink it down to a 4 inch on 4s because it seems to be the preferred route for these motors now. But that's just more ranting I apologize goal for now is the current build flying.
I feel it's on the large side I have been looking into the GNB 1500mah ?
Mystery 12a ESC AKA "BlueSeries"
Running what I believe to be SimonK? Will be looking into flashing BLHeli as i get more comfortable.
mn1806 2300kv T-motors AKA "Blackout Motors"
HQProp 5x4.3x3V2S.
Originally used 2 blade 5030 while playing around with the hex and at first with the quad simply based on the motors datasheet.
Being dirt cheap plastic ones, and well learning. They didn't last long anyways
While ordering new ones with what i learned and because it was 3/4 throttle to lift of the ground.
I added an extra blade and increased the pith giving me liftoff just before 50%Think I was right there ? While playing around and some bench tests the motors don't seem to be getting overly warm
Did tests with it strapped down doing some bursts and a couple longer term just up down all around kind of stuff
Doing the "Lip test" as le drib called it because my fingertips have been burned and cut and basically turned to asbestos over the years. I don't think they're overheating ? I can touch and hold it to my lip.
Banggood Omnibus F4 clone
Eachine VTX003 with what I believe to be a Wizard 220 camera.
Being an Arduino guy, and just because, I also added the mag, baro, GPS
After many many weeks of debating and frustrations with a Spektrum satellite I ended up settling on https://www.crossover-rx.com/productinfo/302364.html. IT had some great reviews as far as the frsky version, found next to nothing on the DSMX. Telemetry works rssi works and for 25$ thanks to a sale and a promo
My monitor is a hacked up toy fpv monitor with a larger battery, an arduino, and an rx5805 receiver for now. If I decide to get into it heavier goggles will be an investment eventually.
Finally Questions
What else should I be looking into because of the oscillation ? Or is it probably just ground effect and needs flight tests ? PID's ?
PID's are something I plan to do in the field so if they're likely the oscillation problem that's perfect.
Possibly gyro calibration ? I had a nearly leveled glass sheet last time because I only had the level on my phone with me.
Most of my stuff is currently in storage but I'm grabbing all of that this weekend and will be redoing my configuration.
What bench tests should one do before going out and just jumping in the air ?
That oscillation being my concern here, hoping its not an FC problem being a clone.
Where I live because of the airport and some other bylaw crap i have to travel to fly so the ADD won't allow that unless I'm certain.
Also being in Canada I haven't done my license yet, so I have some time to kill on the bench while I finish studying.
Betaflight VS iNav for a beginner ?
The board came running Cleanflight, I currently have it on Betaflight 4.2.11.
Already having all the sensors being my reason for asking.
Sorry for the runtiness the ADD does what it wants sometimes.
Wanted to give as much detail as possible while explaining decisions on parts.
Some will say "Just order", the wife is budget intensive to be polite (Buying a house in the near future), so i have to establish the hobby to justify the spend.
If I need to clarify anything let me know.
Also looking for any beginner's advice in general.
Have been watching the more popular and recommended stuff Bardwell Mr Steele and the Rotor Riot group, Oscar Liang and such so I have been doing homework.
Sim's are already a part of my daily life at this point. Using an arduino micro and a 4ch park flyer RX I'm able to use my DX8, the audio jack route doesn't seem to play well with my computer. Currently have DRL and FPV Freerider, Liftoff is on my wishlist.
About 10 years ago I acquired a box with a half of a crashed up nitro helicopter and a Gen 1 DX8.
It all sat in storage until about a year ago when a buddy offered me most of a blackout hex for 80$. Have wanted to get into flying for a wile but its an investment. After looking at what i had I ended up stripping down the hex storing the Pixhawk stuff for a future 400+ or a rover, and posted the parts from the helicopter on Facebook as a trade for "drone parts". I got a reply an ended up with a banggood omnibus controller, an eachine vtx, and a bunch of other stuff. So I recently took everything and threw together a frankenquad with a 180 frame from amazon, to crash with less guilt and a way to get into the hobby. Have it all together and to my knowledge everything seems alright and working aside from the camera blacking out and the OSD occasionally going all twitchy and fuzzy I believe this to just be a wiring issue, there wasn't a cable for the camera and I couldn't find one at the time. So I used a Spektrum satellite cable I had a plane prop cut that I had lying around, the end I used tested good but I'm honestly just going to hard wire it all to eliminate any cause for issues. I can hover it around on the floor for a few seconds before oscillating and doing a flip (hoping ground wash and what not being indoors and low). I don't believe the flip is related to board orientation or motor direction because it isn't immediate it's after it starts oscillating.
Build
I have a Turnigy 2200mah 3s from a boat that's been upgraded to a 5000mah. 3s is my cap with the hardware don't plan to upgrade the frankenquad either. Long term plan would be to buy a 6s 5-6 inch and either leave frankenquad for the kid to learn with if he becomes interested, or shrink it down to a 4 inch on 4s because it seems to be the preferred route for these motors now. But that's just more ranting I apologize goal for now is the current build flying.
I feel it's on the large side I have been looking into the GNB 1500mah ?
Mystery 12a ESC AKA "BlueSeries"
Running what I believe to be SimonK? Will be looking into flashing BLHeli as i get more comfortable.
mn1806 2300kv T-motors AKA "Blackout Motors"
HQProp 5x4.3x3V2S.
Originally used 2 blade 5030 while playing around with the hex and at first with the quad simply based on the motors datasheet.
Being dirt cheap plastic ones, and well learning. They didn't last long anyways
While ordering new ones with what i learned and because it was 3/4 throttle to lift of the ground.
I added an extra blade and increased the pith giving me liftoff just before 50%Think I was right there ? While playing around and some bench tests the motors don't seem to be getting overly warm
Did tests with it strapped down doing some bursts and a couple longer term just up down all around kind of stuff
Doing the "Lip test" as le drib called it because my fingertips have been burned and cut and basically turned to asbestos over the years. I don't think they're overheating ? I can touch and hold it to my lip.
Banggood Omnibus F4 clone
Eachine VTX003 with what I believe to be a Wizard 220 camera.
Being an Arduino guy, and just because, I also added the mag, baro, GPS
After many many weeks of debating and frustrations with a Spektrum satellite I ended up settling on https://www.crossover-rx.com/productinfo/302364.html. IT had some great reviews as far as the frsky version, found next to nothing on the DSMX. Telemetry works rssi works and for 25$ thanks to a sale and a promo
My monitor is a hacked up toy fpv monitor with a larger battery, an arduino, and an rx5805 receiver for now. If I decide to get into it heavier goggles will be an investment eventually.
Finally Questions
What else should I be looking into because of the oscillation ? Or is it probably just ground effect and needs flight tests ? PID's ?
PID's are something I plan to do in the field so if they're likely the oscillation problem that's perfect.
Possibly gyro calibration ? I had a nearly leveled glass sheet last time because I only had the level on my phone with me.
Most of my stuff is currently in storage but I'm grabbing all of that this weekend and will be redoing my configuration.
What bench tests should one do before going out and just jumping in the air ?
That oscillation being my concern here, hoping its not an FC problem being a clone.
Where I live because of the airport and some other bylaw crap i have to travel to fly so the ADD won't allow that unless I'm certain.
Also being in Canada I haven't done my license yet, so I have some time to kill on the bench while I finish studying.
Betaflight VS iNav for a beginner ?
The board came running Cleanflight, I currently have it on Betaflight 4.2.11.
Already having all the sensors being my reason for asking.
Sorry for the runtiness the ADD does what it wants sometimes.
Wanted to give as much detail as possible while explaining decisions on parts.
Some will say "Just order", the wife is budget intensive to be polite (Buying a house in the near future), so i have to establish the hobby to justify the spend.
If I need to clarify anything let me know.
Also looking for any beginner's advice in general.
Have been watching the more popular and recommended stuff Bardwell Mr Steele and the Rotor Riot group, Oscar Liang and such so I have been doing homework.
Sim's are already a part of my daily life at this point. Using an arduino micro and a 4ch park flyer RX I'm able to use my DX8, the audio jack route doesn't seem to play well with my computer. Currently have DRL and FPV Freerider, Liftoff is on my wishlist.
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