CranialRectosis' Alien Build

[cranialrectosis]

LMAO!

Seriously, saint Final Glide?!? I almost blew my cereal out my nose.

LMAO!

Copter is all dried out. I ran a brisk but stable flight around the yard for 3 1/2 minutes with no trouble at all. Video is downloading from the GoPro now.

I warmed up with my 3S mini-Tricopter. Twitchity, I LOVE that machine!

Going from 3S, 3 motors and the Turnigy 9X with it's tight gimbals to the Alien 4S, 4 motors and the Taranis with it's much looser gimbals it is a real challenge to keep the Alien low in the yard.

I took a few, chopped all but the last few laps and added some music.

Here's to hoping the issue was snow in the Sparky2!

I do think I am gonna wait for more of that snow to melt before I try to flip it.

 

[cranialrectosis]

Well. Merry Christmas to me!

4" Alien arrived today!

 

[Ocean]

Well. Merry Christmas to me!

4" Alien arrived today!

5" for the new year??

 

[cranialrectosis]

Naw. 4" for next year.

One toy per year, not counting foamies.

 

[cranialrectosis]

Well, it warmed up to 30 today!

I have now officially flipped this thing and have now broken my first GoPro (hit a tomato cage).

Fortunately, I just cracked the plastic lens cover and can't see any damage in the video and it still records.

 

[Darkback2]

Wow! Love the fact that the gopro (action camera, supposedly designed to take a beating) broke, but the frame didn't! Glad things are still working. I seem to break stuff when I try to fly like the other people on this forum. Glad to know I am not the only one.

DB

 

[cranialrectosis]

I got a patch antenna for the FatSharks. At first my video was much worse with the new antenna until I figured out that I don't need to face the copter to fly. The antenna does. So now I sit facing the side and my antenna faces the copter. Video got MUCH better. Then I figured out I should sit on the table not the bench. This raises me (and my antenna) above the concrete and steel retaining wall.

Video is MUCH MUCH better. Tomato cages are still an issue as they cause the video to flicker but I have no more complete whiteouts from signal loss with the new antenna and seating arrangement.

I am putting together a ground station. I figure raising my antenna to 15' or so should take out most of the interference even from the tomato cages.

 

[The-One-Who-Never-Crashes]

Maybe you'll try diversity? If the Fatsharks that you're using are modular, Fatshark has a diversity module coming out for $50. Which patch antenna are you using?

 

[cranialrectosis]

I have FatShark Attitude goggles from 2014. Not sure if they are modular but probably not.

I am using the mini-spironet patch antenna and am pretty happy with it now that I understand how to sit.

I got the new monitor working and noticed that my FPV cam is pretty loose and out of focus on the copter. I got that tightened up but didn't fly today as it is just snott drippin' COLD outside.

 

[Cyberdactyl]

Wow! Love the fact that the gopro (action camera, supposedly designed to take a beating) broke, but the frame didn't! Glad things are still working. I seem to break stuff when I try to fly like the other people on this forum. Glad to know I am not the only one.

DB

And if you use the plastic enclosure and mini-stand, it becomes basically indestructible, but more than doubles the weight.

 

[cranialrectosis]

And if you use the plastic enclosure and mini-stand, it becomes basically indestructible, but more than doubles the weight.

I am running a GoPro session. I am unaware of a plastic enclosure for it. I am wondering if a layer lens would fit and have one on order. Still, I think my best option is to strap it in so that in a crash the GoPro ejects or shifts out of the way.

 

[Cyberdactyl]

Ahh yea, I have no idea how durable that model will be. I was thinking of the old form factor.

 

[cranialrectosis]

I have decided to remove the Sparky 2, the D4R-II rx and the QOSD.

I will be replacing them with a Brain FPV and an X4R with Sbus. The Sparky2 and QOSD will go to my hex which has more real estate for the OSD. The Brain FPV board has an on-board OSD eliminating the need for the wiring that is taking up so much room on this frame.

There is no need to do this. The Sparky2 and QOSD are working fine. In fact, I love flying with the OSD. I just wanna move things around and play with the Brain on this copter. The new receiver allows me to play with SBus.

The first thing I notice here is that the Brain is clean on the bottom. I won't have the problems mounting it that I had before. The second thing I notice is that the Brain only has 4 pins for motors. This makes powering the board using a low profile, underside mount interesting. Without the two additional pins rows, I will be mounting power and ground at 90 degrees to the motor signal pins.

Lastly, to mount the Brain with the USB pointing to the left, I must completely reverse the board (rotate 180).

 

[cranialrectosis]

I got the copter rebuilt with the Brain and new X4R receiver running SBus.

I also removed the back antenna mount plate. This will give me more room for the Lumenier 1800s or a GPS module should I choose to go that route. The only downside is that I lost voltage monitoring when I took the QOSD out.

It took a few hours but I have the board set up and calibrated, the copter is smoke tested, failsafe is tested and it arms on the desktop without USB support. Once I get a day with decent weather I will maiden this copter again and try autotune with a Brain.


Maybe I will add a voltage sensor to the X4R and send voltage back to the Taranis.

Ain't this hobby grand? The more you dig, the deeper the hole goes.

 

[cranialrectosis]

Got to playing with this again today and installed the dRonin software. There are some oddities with it, but there is good support at the dRonin IRC and I was able to get up and running and post a TAU of 25.6.

With a few tweaks per the wizards at dRonin, I attempted another autotune and got a TAU of 9. That is ridiculously low and I suspected a problem.

With the sun long gone and dinner hitting the table, I rushed out and ran another autotune and before I could get the copter back and landed, my lipo died and the copter went into the snow.

I'll try again after it dries out...

 

[jhitesma]

You finally dropped into the IRC channel and I missed it I'm going to have to check out my scrollback in the morning I guess

Gotta get you some waterproofing to help with the white death.

Looks like you're getting advice from the real geniuses in there - I'm sure they'll have you sorted out real quick!

Really looking forward to seeing how it does for you!

 

[cranialrectosis]

Gotta get you some waterproofing to help with the white death.!

Yeah. It's called Texas.

 

[jhitesma]

Yeah. It's called Texas.

Well Autotown seems to think you're already there

I'm honestly not convinced that ~10ms is unreasonable for your setup. The setup fujin got his ultra low tau's on isn't too far off from what you have. I was actually more surprised that you were getting something over 20 originally. I've gotten better than that on my Nighthawk on 3s. With your motors, props and 4s I was expecting you to be in the low teens honestly.

 

[cranialrectosis]

VPN Jason.

I played with this thing for a little at lunch and have a good tune (TAU at 22) and am pumping up the rates to I can flip and roll. I hope to try some FPV after work today.

 

[cranialrectosis]

Flew a few LOS runs with these settings and went for FPV, but the camera is now out of focus.

Hope it has nothing to do with the video connections to the Brain and is something I can just twist into shape. Anyway, its a good time to figure out this monitor so I can use it to see the video feed without putting the goggles on.