Learning to Fly Mini Quad FPV With the FT Versacopter

BankNYank!

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After flying fixed wing FPV a little I've decided to try my hand at flying FPV with a mini quad and I wanted to start a thread detailing my adventures in learning to fly FPV with the FT Versacopter.

I ordered some parts from Flite Test and everything came in Thursday so between yesterday and today I got my quad all put together.

To start off I wanted to share some photos of my build...

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I have to finish hooking up my video transmitter and get the flight controller locked in and then I'll post a video of my first FPV flight with the Versacopter. It should be... interesting!

More to come so please stay tuned!
 

Snarls

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Very clean build as always BankNYank. I'm sure you will feel comfortable flying the Versacopter FPV in no time!
 

BankNYank!

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Very clean build as always BankNYank. I'm sure you will feel comfortable flying the Versacopter FPV in no time!

Thanks man. The only thing I don't like about the build is I left the motor wires hanging free where they run along the booms. But I did that so when I crash it'll give the the wires some room to move so I guess I'll have to live with it! :/

Can't wait to fly this thing FPV! I'll post some videos as soon as I do.
 

BankNYank!

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I see lots of broken props in my future so I decided to make myself a prop nut wrench printed in PETT.

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I did some more work on my quad today and it is now ready to go. I plan to do the FPV maiden tomorrow and I'll post the video here. I'm sure it will be... entertaining.

I wasn't happy with the little motor mount disks that come in the Versacopter kit so I printed out some beefed up motor mounts I designed a few months back and swapped them out. They also double as low profile landing gear.

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So that's where I'm at now. More to come so stay tuned!
 
Are those printed parts available for download? Love that camera mount! Which was the one thing I didn't really like about the Versacopter.
 

BankNYank!

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I'll set my DVR. That's the sleekest Versacopter, maybe even the sleekest multirotor I've ever seen. Looking good :cool:

Thanks man, I've really enjoyed building this one.

Are those printed parts available for download? Love that camera mount! Which was the one thing I didn't really like about the Versacopter.

Thanks! I'm off to bed now but tomorrow I'll upload the files somewhere and post a link for you. I've been meaning to find somewhere that will host all of my files so I can share them. Maybe I'll take the time to look into that tomorrow.
 
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cranialrectosis

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Beautiful build.

What's it weigh?

I also note that the booms are hollow. Could you run the motor leads inside the booms and allow them to slide and move in a crash but keep them covered or is that not possible with these booms?

You have some tight builds. Can't wait to see this fly.
 

BankNYank!

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Beautiful build.

What's it weigh?

I also note that the booms are hollow. Could you run the motor leads inside the booms and allow them to slide and move in a crash but keep them covered or is that not possible with these booms?

You have some tight builds. Can't wait to see this fly.

Thanks! I'm glad you like it!

The boom is one continuous pieces from the left side to the right so unfortunately there is no place to route the wires through to the inside. Though I have used your idea on larger builds and it works splendidly!

The total weight with the Mobius but without a battery is 596 grams.

Thanks for commenting!
 

BankNYank!

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Well, here it is as promised!

I have to admit it's a bit embarrassing to be this bad at something but I guess everyone has to start somewhere! :p

I did learn one valuable lesson. It's not a good idea to learn to fly with your camera tilted up 20 degrees! My biggest issue was I couldn't see the ground in order to judge my altitude. I'll be designing a new camera mount with probably zero tilt and installing it before I go out again!

So here's the video for your viewing enjoyment. Please don't laugh too hard. I'd hate for you to fall out of your chair and injure yourself! ;)

 

Snarls

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So when did the ground get so bouncy? :p Haha the tilted camera definitely needs some getting used to. You pretty much have to fly fast if you want to see the ground. Looks like a good start otherwise.
 

BankNYank!

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So when did the ground get so bouncy? :p Haha the tilted camera definitely needs some getting used to. You pretty much have to fly fast if you want to see the ground. Looks like a good start otherwise.

Hahaha. At least it bounced and didn't smash!

I don't think I'll be flying fast for a while so I think I'll put this mount on the shelf for the time being.

I discovered I don't have any smaller batteries anymore and I only have two 2200's. That makes it a bit of a pain and the craft feels heavy carrying a 2200. Maybe it's just me. Regardless, a couple 1800's have moved to the top of my list. What are your thoughts on 4s? Will the FT mini quad power pack handle it? I'm thinking about maybe buying 4s batteries because I like to try to future proof as much as possible and I hate buying things twice.
 

BankNYank!

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Are those printed parts available for download? Love that camera mount! Which was the one thing I didn't really like about the Versacopter.

I signed up on Thingiverse today and uploaded a bunch of my designs then found out that they make you wait 24 hours before you can publish your uploads. So I'll post a link for you tomorrow once everything goes public.
 
Thanks! Looking forward to it!
Oh and is that flight camera a board camera or one of those with a case? I presume you designed the the camera mount with a specific camera?
 

BankNYank!

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Thanks! Looking forward to it!
Oh and is that flight camera a board camera or one of those with a case? I presume you designed the the camera mount with a specific camera?

Yes I did! It's designed for the camera located here. But I also designed other mounts. Check them out on RcPartsHangar.com

All of the files for the 3D parts in my store will be available tomorrow. Just click on the part then scroll to the bottom of the description for the download link.
 

BankNYank!

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I just published all the parts available on my store. You can go to RcPartsHangar.com to view my parts. If you see something you want to print just scroll to the bottom of the description and you can view and download the stl!

Happy printing everyone!
 

Snarls

Gravity Tester
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What are your thoughts on 4s? Will the FT mini quad power pack handle it? I'm thinking about maybe buying 4s batteries because I like to try to future proof as much as possible and I hate buying things twice.

Sorry for the late reply. I myself do not have much experience with 4s. It looks like the motors in the powerpack should be able to handle it, down propped of course. I think the may concern in the ESCs. Check out the prop data for the motors and see if they significantly pass 12a on 4s. Any way, I think going for 4s now is a good move for the reasons you say.
 

BankNYank!

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Sorry for the late reply. I myself do not have much experience with 4s. It looks like the motors in the powerpack should be able to handle it, down propped of course. I think the may concern in the ESCs. Check out the prop data for the motors and see if they significantly pass 12a on 4s. Any way, I think going for 4s now is a good move for the reasons you say.

Thanks for the feedback! You just kinda verified what I was already thinking. And I'll check the prop data but I feel that as long as I down prop the current pull should be fine. I can also run a bench test to make sure the motors are staying within acceptable parameters.

Looks like my next purchase will be some 4s batteries! :D
 

BankNYank!

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So I finally got to go flying again yesterday. This is my second time flying FPV with a mini quad.

I downloaded FPV Freerider and have been using that for about three days prior to the flght in the video below. Compare this video to the one I posted above and you can see that there is a lot of improvement. I give most of that to the practice I've had on Freerider. I highly recommend FPV Freerider to anyone learning FPV.

Apparently I ruined a motor in the crash at the end of the video. It will spin but it kinda jumps forward rather than spin and it wont spin up fully like the others. I plugged the esc into another motor and it was fine so that narrows it down to the motor. I peeled the shrink tubing off the connectors and all the wires are still connected. So I peeled the shrink tubing off where the wires go into the motor and all three are still connected to the windings. I used a volt meter to make sure there is contact through the coils to rule out a broke wire that I can't see and all three wires show good continuity. So I'm not sure why it's not working but I think this motor is non-repairable. If anyone has suggestions I'd love to hear them!

In the video everything was going great until that dang deer jumped out in front of me at the end! :rolleyes:

Second flight learning to fly mini quad FPV.