Bills Law strikes again! Life of a Psyborg documented.
- Thread starter PsyBorg
- Start date
PsyBorg
Wake up! Time to fly!
So Bills law hit me again today.. Minor one but still a slap in the face. Started the day late to begin with. My own doing as when I woke up there was something interesting on tv so I sat thru that instead of charging my last few batteries before I went to fly. Then got busy posting here while the last battery was charging.
Went to the other room to start packing to go up to the local park for the day and took out the container I keep my Goggle battery in so I could put the Gremlin packs in a different one. While doing that I was busy thinking how to transport the Gremlin. Seeing the pack is pretty much packed to the gills already I decided I would just hang it with the rubber band of one of the harness straps.
I walk up to the park and the weather was getting better and better each step I took it seems. I guess I messed up and smiled again.. Got to the field no one there perfect.. Set up the course, nice spread to run both the Alien and the Gremlin on. Dig out everything and when I reach for the battery for the goggles.. well yes.. its still all the way back home sitting on the table. I REALLY have to stop smiling. Every time I do Bills Law kicks in.
So I pack everything back up and walk back home. Go upstairs grab the battery and something to drink and head out back to the play area to fly. Set it all back up. Get my five batteries in with the Alien. The 4th flight was a great one I ripped that one hard. No crashes, burned 900 mah in just over a minute and a half. That reminds me I need to rest my timer on the Taranis for racing. I use the throttle % one and have it set for 1:20 and the Graphene packs I fly are done by the time I get the 30 second warning now.. I THINK I am getting faster.
Anyway I was all psyched up and the day was looking better after good runs on the Alien so I think I may have cracked another smile. And we all know what that means now right.. I change programs on the Taranis. Dig out a battery for the Gremlin and wrap the rubber band around it so it was ready to fly. The property manager was asking about the Gremlin as they were out earlier watching the Alien and I told her about it. Well as I walked over to show her and I was having trouble getting the battery to sit even and balance out. I finally figured why when I held it up higher to show her that I had broke two of the nylon screws when I pancaked it the last flight of the day I maidened it and smooshed the antenna. I was more focused on the antenna and never noticed it til the rubber band put pressure on the frame and started twisting which off set the plates and reveled the fault.
Moral of the story... Yes the nylon screws do exactly what they are meant to and that is shear off in hard crashes saving the frame. It also is to drive it further into my brain to CHECK MY JUNK BETTER BEFORE I LEAVE to fly.
Went to the other room to start packing to go up to the local park for the day and took out the container I keep my Goggle battery in so I could put the Gremlin packs in a different one. While doing that I was busy thinking how to transport the Gremlin. Seeing the pack is pretty much packed to the gills already I decided I would just hang it with the rubber band of one of the harness straps.
I walk up to the park and the weather was getting better and better each step I took it seems. I guess I messed up and smiled again.. Got to the field no one there perfect.. Set up the course, nice spread to run both the Alien and the Gremlin on. Dig out everything and when I reach for the battery for the goggles.. well yes.. its still all the way back home sitting on the table. I REALLY have to stop smiling. Every time I do Bills Law kicks in.
So I pack everything back up and walk back home. Go upstairs grab the battery and something to drink and head out back to the play area to fly. Set it all back up. Get my five batteries in with the Alien. The 4th flight was a great one I ripped that one hard. No crashes, burned 900 mah in just over a minute and a half. That reminds me I need to rest my timer on the Taranis for racing. I use the throttle % one and have it set for 1:20 and the Graphene packs I fly are done by the time I get the 30 second warning now.. I THINK I am getting faster.
Anyway I was all psyched up and the day was looking better after good runs on the Alien so I think I may have cracked another smile. And we all know what that means now right.. I change programs on the Taranis. Dig out a battery for the Gremlin and wrap the rubber band around it so it was ready to fly. The property manager was asking about the Gremlin as they were out earlier watching the Alien and I told her about it. Well as I walked over to show her and I was having trouble getting the battery to sit even and balance out. I finally figured why when I held it up higher to show her that I had broke two of the nylon screws when I pancaked it the last flight of the day I maidened it and smooshed the antenna. I was more focused on the antenna and never noticed it til the rubber band put pressure on the frame and started twisting which off set the plates and reveled the fault.
Moral of the story... Yes the nylon screws do exactly what they are meant to and that is shear off in hard crashes saving the frame. It also is to drive it further into my brain to CHECK MY JUNK BETTER BEFORE I LEAVE to fly.
Yeah, I've decided to use metal standoffs and fasteners on anything structural after having similar issues. Every time my Owl frames started acting wonky and I tore them completely down, I found all sorts of broken fasteners which were probably amplifying vibrations and causing the gyro/accel sensors to freak out. Been using knurled aluminum standoffs and anodized metal screws which only add a small percentage of weight. Still trying to figure out what to use for my Pico-X as the 20x20 spacing doesn't leave much room for anything other than M2 fasteners. Still have not found a source for M2 metal standoffs....
Cheers!
LitterBug
Cheers!
LitterBug
@rockboy,
After destroying all the electronics on the maiden of my Krieger225 because the plastic parts gave, and seeing how there was absolutely no damage to any of the carbon parts, I'm willing to take that chance. Part of the frame's job is to protect the innards. If there isn't enough structure holding it together, stuff WILL get broked. I still use plastic, but only as supports between the PDB/FC/OSD/ETC... Not quite sure what to do when those are structural components, and currently have a mix on my Pico-X due to limited availability of metal standoffs. May have to take some of my M3 standoffs and turn them down where they meet the boards using my drill press as a lathe. Currently running long M3x18mm screws through 3D printed standoffs. There's that one cap that is right against the mount hole. DOH... BAD BAD BAD design.... But what are we to do when it's about the only option on these micro builds....
After destroying all the electronics on the maiden of my Krieger225 because the plastic parts gave, and seeing how there was absolutely no damage to any of the carbon parts, I'm willing to take that chance. Part of the frame's job is to protect the innards. If there isn't enough structure holding it together, stuff WILL get broked. I still use plastic, but only as supports between the PDB/FC/OSD/ETC... Not quite sure what to do when those are structural components, and currently have a mix on my Pico-X due to limited availability of metal standoffs. May have to take some of my M3 standoffs and turn them down where they meet the boards using my drill press as a lathe. Currently running long M3x18mm screws through 3D printed standoffs. There's that one cap that is right against the mount hole. DOH... BAD BAD BAD design.... But what are we to do when it's about the only option on these micro builds....
Ouch! Frame damage is definitely the better risk there! :black_eyed:
PsyBorg
Wake up! Time to fly!
LB if you are going solid metal for bolts and chant find stand offs Maybe go with long screws instead of stanoffs and lock it down on the fram with nylock nuts? I did that with my Versacopter FC mount. Frame plate.Nylock, nyloc fc mounting plate, nylock, nylock, top frame plate, nyloc.
That will be three nylocks per bolt but may still end up lighter then an aluminum stand off and probably cheaper too. I swapped to all metal screws today so I could get in the air. Even the hardest of hits I have done on the gremlin it still bounced light. The only time things get weird is when you come in sideways and the props grab the grass and launch it into a hundred cartwheels.
When I mounted the esc's on the gremlin build I stood the esc straight up in the center of the arm to get my wire lengths. The FC to esc side traveled along the frame to the pads. Then the wires from the motors I ran along the arm past the esc then UP to the pads on that side with the esc right up against the stand off. Did the heat shrink and then laid the esc down and had enough room to move the esc to where all the wires had slack, the heat shrink was not rubbing and all seemed happy. This way if I have to check or work on them I cut the tape holding them to the arm and stand it up straight to do what I need and not have to work in that cramped space between the motor and the frame.
@Rockboy, I was flying mine hard again testing the tune after lowering my settings even more and slammed it few times hard enough to toss the battery a good 5 or 6 feet with no signs of stress or damage so far on the Josh B design. I was doing LOS so orientation is still a joy when you are running full throttle. They disappear pretty fast. I am however building up the reaction times to fly by movement changes and not actually seeing the quad and where its facing.
That will be three nylocks per bolt but may still end up lighter then an aluminum stand off and probably cheaper too. I swapped to all metal screws today so I could get in the air. Even the hardest of hits I have done on the gremlin it still bounced light. The only time things get weird is when you come in sideways and the props grab the grass and launch it into a hundred cartwheels.
When I mounted the esc's on the gremlin build I stood the esc straight up in the center of the arm to get my wire lengths. The FC to esc side traveled along the frame to the pads. Then the wires from the motors I ran along the arm past the esc then UP to the pads on that side with the esc right up against the stand off. Did the heat shrink and then laid the esc down and had enough room to move the esc to where all the wires had slack, the heat shrink was not rubbing and all seemed happy. This way if I have to check or work on them I cut the tape holding them to the arm and stand it up straight to do what I need and not have to work in that cramped space between the motor and the frame.
@Rockboy, I was flying mine hard again testing the tune after lowering my settings even more and slammed it few times hard enough to toss the battery a good 5 or 6 feet with no signs of stress or damage so far on the Josh B design. I was doing LOS so orientation is still a joy when you are running full throttle. They disappear pretty fast. I am however building up the reaction times to fly by movement changes and not actually seeing the quad and where its facing.
PsyBorg
Wake up! Time to fly!
Yes sir I do. That will be the next thing on my to do list. I will fly again tomorrow and do some finalizing on the Gremlin tune and see how the video is holding up with the deformed antenna. When it gets to be too much an issue or breaks entirely I will make the switch. Right now I want to enjoy it for a bit after the hassles getting it flashed for a bit more. Hopefully I was able to dial in the video focus better so the flight videos don't look so bad as the first FPV one did. That was horrible but still a blast to fly.
PsyBorg
Wake up! Time to fly!
Sooo... here we are once again...
I was so happy to see when I woke up today there was little to no wind and a whole lot of sunshine. That made the goal for the day to set up the SE 5 and get that in the air. First thing I did was grab a "working" motor / esc combo" I had set up for a failed / incomplete hovercraft project. I paired that up with the D4R II I borrowed from my Versa copter once again. I set up a new model in the Taranis and proceeded to bind the radio. Both servos jumped to center like they should and I completed the bind process. I go to test the motor direction and nothing. After looking everything over I decide I did not like the factory solder joints for the esc wires out to the motors and grabbed my other already tested pairing. SAME darn thing. Nothing working. So I grab the black widow motor with the built in esc Rockyboy sent me for the Baby Baron and paired that on the receiver and it works fine. Mounted that in the power pod and proceeded to mount the Receiver in the plane and hook up the servo connections.
At that point Igoo57 stated he was coming over to put plans together and get them onto poster board to begin a Simple Cub build this evening. While he was on his way I continued with the SE 5 working out why I had the throttle on channel one the rudder on channel two and the aileron on channel three why rudder was STILL working on the rudder stick in my radio and not on the aileron channel on the receiver when everything was set up to default in the TAER channel order.
Anway Igoo arrives and we get into the ways to get plans together and mounted on poster board. While he was matching plan tiles up I returned to setting up the SE 5. When I plugged the battery into the plane the servos snapped to center again (already still in position from the last time) as I heard them power up and twitch. When I wiggled the aileron stick they both commenced to freaking out and started going spastic so I unplugged the battery to start again. Again it all booted properly on power up and again any stick input this time threw it all into spasms. I unplug again and look it all over and see nothing out of the ordinary. While I was at the receiver I rearranged the connections to see if that changed my channels where the sticks would correspond to the proper movements I Thought were happening from before Igoo arrived. Again as soon as I touched the sticks mayhem occurs but only one control surface is going nuts.
Bottom line after changing channels I am now left with the receiver only functioning on 3 channels and the only working channel goes goofy on any inputs. So I am back with Igoo finishing up the plans for his Cub so we can start on foam cutting and gluing methods.
More to come I AM sure.....
I was so happy to see when I woke up today there was little to no wind and a whole lot of sunshine. That made the goal for the day to set up the SE 5 and get that in the air. First thing I did was grab a "working" motor / esc combo" I had set up for a failed / incomplete hovercraft project. I paired that up with the D4R II I borrowed from my Versa copter once again. I set up a new model in the Taranis and proceeded to bind the radio. Both servos jumped to center like they should and I completed the bind process. I go to test the motor direction and nothing. After looking everything over I decide I did not like the factory solder joints for the esc wires out to the motors and grabbed my other already tested pairing. SAME darn thing. Nothing working. So I grab the black widow motor with the built in esc Rockyboy sent me for the Baby Baron and paired that on the receiver and it works fine. Mounted that in the power pod and proceeded to mount the Receiver in the plane and hook up the servo connections.
At that point Igoo57 stated he was coming over to put plans together and get them onto poster board to begin a Simple Cub build this evening. While he was on his way I continued with the SE 5 working out why I had the throttle on channel one the rudder on channel two and the aileron on channel three why rudder was STILL working on the rudder stick in my radio and not on the aileron channel on the receiver when everything was set up to default in the TAER channel order.
Anway Igoo arrives and we get into the ways to get plans together and mounted on poster board. While he was matching plan tiles up I returned to setting up the SE 5. When I plugged the battery into the plane the servos snapped to center again (already still in position from the last time) as I heard them power up and twitch. When I wiggled the aileron stick they both commenced to freaking out and started going spastic so I unplugged the battery to start again. Again it all booted properly on power up and again any stick input this time threw it all into spasms. I unplug again and look it all over and see nothing out of the ordinary. While I was at the receiver I rearranged the connections to see if that changed my channels where the sticks would correspond to the proper movements I Thought were happening from before Igoo arrived. Again as soon as I touched the sticks mayhem occurs but only one control surface is going nuts.
Bottom line after changing channels I am now left with the receiver only functioning on 3 channels and the only working channel goes goofy on any inputs. So I am back with Igoo finishing up the plans for his Cub so we can start on foam cutting and gluing methods.
More to come I AM sure.....
So Bill I'm thinking... two different aircraft, same transmitter. Could there be something going on with your Taranis or those new gimbals? Sounds too similar and even the receivers are different aren't they? So what does that leave? Transmitter, pilot, or maybe signal interference? I remember you talking about an M9 mod. Maybe it's related. What do you think?
PsyBorg
Wake up! Time to fly!
Well I am thinking radio as I may have screwed up the profile but I did have both servos working but not on the sticks I wanted them too. I may have made the wrong changes in the radio and locked out the rudder altogether so I will be starting with a fresh profile and a fresh mind in the morning. I am nearly positive both servos still work so like I said fresh start after morning coffee n bagels.
I will test the gimbals here in a few minutes on the sims now that my friend Igoo57 has headed home for the night after we got him going cutting out and putting plans for the simple cub on poster board this evening. Will start that build with him tomorrow evening.
Edit: Come to think of it.. This is a whole different radio system as I was working on the hovercraft when I was still using a Devo 7 and receiver. Anyway tomorrows another day and I will start from scratch on the set up.
I will test the gimbals here in a few minutes on the sims now that my friend Igoo57 has headed home for the night after we got him going cutting out and putting plans for the simple cub on poster board this evening. Will start that build with him tomorrow evening.
Edit: Come to think of it.. This is a whole different radio system as I was working on the hovercraft when I was still using a Devo 7 and receiver. Anyway tomorrows another day and I will start from scratch on the set up.
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PsyBorg
Wake up! Time to fly!
Soo time for a new episode of Bills Law strikes again...
Got motivated to do a complete rebuild of my RR5 Alien to get ready for the coming season. Even managed to get a few videos of the process which will get posted over time as I get a chance to review them and piece good parts together worthy of a look. Got it all set back up and pretty and decided to go out and remaiden it today at the local park.
Anyways, started charging batteries at ~3 am since I was up again. Kept busy binge watching Star Trek TNG while working on the FT3d to finish that up today. Got done charging batteries for the Alien and the Gremlin by noon and headed out to fly at the local park.
It was a nice sunny day not too warm but not super cold. The ground was starting to soften with the sunshine and I found a few squishy spots by the parking lot so decided to walk the street down to where I sit. Got all set up to dvr , did a quick test hover and turns and mild flips to make sure it would behave properly and sat down for some FPV.
I should have stopped right there as the first pack I learned that the AXII antenna I got was not so great where it was mounted. First I upped the VTX to 200 from 25 MW and that kind of helped I could at least get more then 30 feet or so away and face myself without total loss of video. Messed around like that and stayed real close for the warm up pack.
After that was done I decided I would cut the zip ties and relocate the antenna to see if that got better. It helped a little more but still not what I need or desire for video. I flew around and did short hops to get it re tuned better. The OSD makes for easy tuning on the MR. Steele PDB. I did have one panic attack as I did one last tweak at the end of the third pack and got the message in my goggles that there was no connection to the FC... Up shoots the heart rate... Bills Law again warning me to walk away while I still can.
Decided to at least see if the PDB was fried and tossed the 4th battery on. The pdb popped to life I could get into the osd and it saved things fine. Took off out over the field a bit further to test a few punch outs and see what TPA was doing and if I need to adjust I gains or anything like that.. ZOOM!!!1 up it goes and gets a bit wobbly as expected as TPA was defaulted and really high. turned on the apex of the punch out to start coming back to make changes and the video goes full static. Tried to yaw the quad and get it back and was a tad too late and it bounced of the ground and flipped over.
Time for the first walk of shame for 2018... the further I get out into the field the squishier it was getting since the sun has been on the open field all day. As I got closer to the quad I realized that it was NOT mud sticking to my shoes. Anyone care to guess what it is? Don't bother .. It was cow poop. The ENTIRE field had been covered in it at the end of sports season to winter in for spring... now me AND my shiny new rebuild quad are smack dab in the middle of it.
Needless to say the quad is no longer clean and shiny. I cleaned as much off the props as possible so it would not spray the electronics and make an even bigger mess. Bills Law stage two warning to just go home... I got the message at this point but decided to fly the quad back to where I was set up instead of carrying a poo covered quad. I set it on the ground and get ready for take off and was frustrated enough I was not paying attention and missed the balance connector and wires had got free of the main wires and was swingin free.
As soon as I hit arm and throttled up the balance connector got into the props and I heard that all too familiar "tink" as the connector was tossed off the wires. Normally the few times this has happened in the past the connector merely was chipped or split but never fully removed. This time however since the quad was covered in poo it was totally gone and the balance wires were now in the process of welding themselves to each other. I knew there was no way to get the battery out of the straps in time so I pulled the main connector out of the pdb and commenced to separating the balance wires before I ended up with an explosion or a fireball in my hand from a near full charged CHL 100 C battery.
Needless to say the Gremlin has not been flown today nor has the FT3d got its maiden. I am catching up on the forums and calling it a day and just curling into a ball and going back to TNG binge watching. Probably not even gonna attempt to cook tonight the way the day has gone.
Soooo how was yer day....
Got motivated to do a complete rebuild of my RR5 Alien to get ready for the coming season. Even managed to get a few videos of the process which will get posted over time as I get a chance to review them and piece good parts together worthy of a look. Got it all set back up and pretty and decided to go out and remaiden it today at the local park.
Anyways, started charging batteries at ~3 am since I was up again. Kept busy binge watching Star Trek TNG while working on the FT3d to finish that up today. Got done charging batteries for the Alien and the Gremlin by noon and headed out to fly at the local park.
It was a nice sunny day not too warm but not super cold. The ground was starting to soften with the sunshine and I found a few squishy spots by the parking lot so decided to walk the street down to where I sit. Got all set up to dvr , did a quick test hover and turns and mild flips to make sure it would behave properly and sat down for some FPV.
I should have stopped right there as the first pack I learned that the AXII antenna I got was not so great where it was mounted. First I upped the VTX to 200 from 25 MW and that kind of helped I could at least get more then 30 feet or so away and face myself without total loss of video. Messed around like that and stayed real close for the warm up pack.
After that was done I decided I would cut the zip ties and relocate the antenna to see if that got better. It helped a little more but still not what I need or desire for video. I flew around and did short hops to get it re tuned better. The OSD makes for easy tuning on the MR. Steele PDB. I did have one panic attack as I did one last tweak at the end of the third pack and got the message in my goggles that there was no connection to the FC... Up shoots the heart rate... Bills Law again warning me to walk away while I still can.
Decided to at least see if the PDB was fried and tossed the 4th battery on. The pdb popped to life I could get into the osd and it saved things fine. Took off out over the field a bit further to test a few punch outs and see what TPA was doing and if I need to adjust I gains or anything like that.. ZOOM!!!1 up it goes and gets a bit wobbly as expected as TPA was defaulted and really high. turned on the apex of the punch out to start coming back to make changes and the video goes full static. Tried to yaw the quad and get it back and was a tad too late and it bounced of the ground and flipped over.
Time for the first walk of shame for 2018... the further I get out into the field the squishier it was getting since the sun has been on the open field all day. As I got closer to the quad I realized that it was NOT mud sticking to my shoes. Anyone care to guess what it is? Don't bother .. It was cow poop. The ENTIRE field had been covered in it at the end of sports season to winter in for spring... now me AND my shiny new rebuild quad are smack dab in the middle of it.
Needless to say the quad is no longer clean and shiny. I cleaned as much off the props as possible so it would not spray the electronics and make an even bigger mess. Bills Law stage two warning to just go home... I got the message at this point but decided to fly the quad back to where I was set up instead of carrying a poo covered quad. I set it on the ground and get ready for take off and was frustrated enough I was not paying attention and missed the balance connector and wires had got free of the main wires and was swingin free.
As soon as I hit arm and throttled up the balance connector got into the props and I heard that all too familiar "tink" as the connector was tossed off the wires. Normally the few times this has happened in the past the connector merely was chipped or split but never fully removed. This time however since the quad was covered in poo it was totally gone and the balance wires were now in the process of welding themselves to each other. I knew there was no way to get the battery out of the straps in time so I pulled the main connector out of the pdb and commenced to separating the balance wires before I ended up with an explosion or a fireball in my hand from a near full charged CHL 100 C battery.
Needless to say the Gremlin has not been flown today nor has the FT3d got its maiden. I am catching up on the forums and calling it a day and just curling into a ball and going back to TNG binge watching. Probably not even gonna attempt to cook tonight the way the day has gone.
Soooo how was yer day....
Damn dude, just damn.
The cowpoop express! 
I went to work. It was dark when I left home. It's dark now that I'm back home.
At least you got to fly, but I get dinner!
Sorry man. Tomorrow is another day.
Here's to a sunny tomorrow.
I went to work. It was dark when I left home. It's dark now that I'm back home.
At least you got to fly, but I get dinner!
Sorry man. Tomorrow is another day.
Here's to a sunny tomorrow.
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