Darkback2 Learns Acro Feestyle with the Alien 5 Inch

[Darkback2]

Today I felt sloppy again. I really need to just practice weaving back and forth between those couple of trees. I think by the third pack I remembered how to fly... :-( I still can't fly this thing around my yard. With 30 degree up tilt on the camera Things just happen too quickly. The problem is out at the farm anything less than 30 degrees and I'm looking at the ground all the time and floating up in turns.

As for the tune, I can't decide if it is too much I or too much D...The oscillations weren't there when it was just P so tomorrow I'll play around with the other two.

DB

 

[Darkback2]

So after yesterday's flight I am realizing 2 things...My 3s batteries are starting to show their age. They sag earlier and earlier. I had to let 1 of them go leaving me with 4, one of which is a zippy compact which is barely holding on. I also have 2 4s batteries but really I need to retune my quad if and when I use them. Second, I really can't fly this quad in my yard anymore. With my camera uptilt, things in the yard just happen too quickly. I either need to lessen up tilt when I fly at home (sort of a hassle) or just fly my blade 150 at home and save the alien 5 inch for the farms and parks.

So...when I get new batteries (money is sort of tight right now...) do I get 3s or 4s? I think I already know the answer...

DB

 

[Snarls]

So...when I get new batteries (money is sort of tight right now...) do I get 4s or 4s? I think I already know the answer...

Fixed that for you

I am also working on tuning my martian. For now in the yard and hopefully later at the field.

 

[Darkback2]

Awesome flying. What is your camera angle and how are you maintaining control like that!? If I fly slowly I am just looking at sky, and if I look down I am going so fast I can't control things fast enough...I think I realized this when I was doing a flip at the park and realized that during a flip I am basically throwing my quad over a stand of trees as wide as a road. In order to do that the quad has to be moving pretty quickly...

If the weather clears up I'll try working on throttle control to determine speed...Maybe if I work on a bunch of short blips of the throttle I can keep the quad tilted forward but still moving slowly enough to not smack into everything.

Thanks for the help.

DB

 

[Snarls]

That was flying with only 10 degrees of tilt on the board cam (Yi was at 30). Today I'm trying 20 degrees in the yard. That's about what my ZMR was set up for. I agree the more you tilt the camera the faster you tend to fly which gets crazy in a small yard. My martian will eventually have 30 degrees, but I will have to move to the field for those flights. Funny thing is I fly 30 degrees in the sim so much that flying 10 degrees feels a little weird, especially with yaw.

 

[Darkback2]

Bout to try 5045 tri-blades. Hopefully my ESC's won't just go up in smoke.

 

[Darkback2]

Initial test. No camera, throttle is at about 35-40 percent...Did a few punch outs. ESCs and motors cool to the touch on landing. Heading to the farm for further testing.

DB

 

[Snarls]

It should be quite the powerhouse now. Watch those ESCs though. I myself am downgrading to 5040 triblade DALs. Something about a full KISS setup, red bottoms, and the DAL T5045BN props makes it extremely hard to tune out the bounce backs. It is a known issue now that hopefully flyduino can fix in a firmware update. So for now I'll be flying DAL T5040 standard tip blades which I have heard good things about.

 

[Darkback2]

So I'm realizing my batteries are the real bottle neck so my ESCs are probably safe. I'm running the multistar 1400 mah 40-80c batteries, so hypothetically @ 80c would be about 28 amps...enough to smoke my ESCs which also matches up nicely with the max draw of my motors. The thing is...I doubt I'm getting anywhere near 80c out of these batteries, and even a hypothetical burst like that should be ok. (at least that is what I have told myself so that I can sleep at night.

Battery life on the other hand is down to about 2 and a half minutes per pack. That was with me doing flips and rolls every half second or so and with some pretty big climbs. I haven't tried 4s yet and I'm not sure I want to. When I landed the motors and ESCs weren't hot so I am thinking things will be ok.

Happy Flying,

DB

 

[cranialrectosis]

4S gives you punch.

You will be able to dive harder and go faster because you can recover so much quicker due to the increased thrust. Whether or not you use the power to go fast, your hairpin turns will be MUCH tighter your recovery from a flip, much quicker and your craters much deeper.

Nicely flown there, DB. I envy your flying space.

 

[Darkback2]

Thanks Cranialrectosis!

I am doing everything I can to keep the locals happy and allowing me to fly there. Mostly I just offer rides to anyone passing by using a spare set of quanum V2s. I've had to start telling people to sit down because I had a lady fall over backwards when I did a flip a few weeks ago.

I have 2 4s batteries, and 3 good 3s batteries. (I have two more that don't really fit on this quad very well.

I really like using my 360 camera, but it is currently in Vietnam with a friend, and the backup camera is out for repairs...With that camera I have to use 4s because it is so heavy.

(A part of me has a dream of using both 360 cameras at the same time and creating a stereo 360 flying video...)

When I do fly 4s even with the lousy tune I feel like I can pretty much do anything I want...not really obviously, but the quad climbs so much faster that you can get away with a lot. I do need to relax a bit and let the quad fall more, and while I want to say I am working on that, I'm still a bit timid.

I'll try to put together the video from today's flying...

DB

 

[airhawk]

hehe Darkback one more person will be joining the alien owners club very soon(i know the motors are missing but they will be in a seperate order)

 

[PsyBorg]

I am running 4s now on my Versacopter with Dal 5x4x3's. I romp on the 4s set up and my batteries motors and esc's come down nice n cool. Running 6x4.5x3 on my Versa and the batteries heat up fast, the motors are noticeably warm and the esc's are barely warm. I have tried the 5x4.3's on 3s and they cant catch the weight of the versa coming out of a hard turn let alone a flip or roll. The motors get really warm on any 5 in combo I have tried with 3s.

Once you go full on 4s and get a dedicated tune you will notice how nice everything feels after bashing and thrashing. The only Thing with 4s is that you lose track of flight times easily and will on occasion run a battery flat.

I just spent the afternoon rewiring my camera / vtx and battery alarm so they work with 3s and 4s with out having to use balance ports anymore. I learnt my lesson on a crash in the tall grass last week that disconnected the balance connector so my beeper didn't work.. 40+ minutes back and forth in a field even after seeing the general area it went down in 90+ heat and bug swarms so thick out there seriously sucked.

 

[Darkback2]

hehe Darkback one more person will be joining the alien owners club very soon(i know the motors are missing but they will be in a seperate order)

Airhawk. I know you will be happy! the alien 5 inch is a really nice frame.

Just so everyone knows. I am not opposed to 4s, I am just in the position of having more 3s batteries than 4s. I'll switch over as I buy new batteries replenishing my stock. At the moment my wife has the bank account on lock down though, so I am probably limited to one battery a month.

DB

 

[cranialrectosis]

Airhawk, the Aliens are awesome. You are gonna dig how well these fly. They are rigid and can take a beating.

 

[airhawk]

Airhawk, the Aliens are awesome. You are gonna dig how well these fly. They are rigid and can take a beating.

yeah i cant wait ive wanted one since the announcment but that was the same tme i bought a nighthawk so i couldnt get it

 

[cranialrectosis]

Hey! I just saw that 25mW raceband VTX in your photo. Thanks, Airhawk!

 

[Darkback2]

Went out to Monroe today to fly with Team Ecko and the guys from Quadrysteria. Had a great time and learned a ton about my current skill level. I have a lot of work to do.

Happy Flying

DB

 

[cranialrectosis]

Good video DB.

What's your plan now?

Do you have a yard or park with tightly packed trees to practice in?

 

[Darkback2]

Yup. My "property?" (I'm adulating) has a figure 8 pattern that I haven't been able to fly since building the Alien. That said, I might have been a little bit hard on myself in the video. There were several sharp 90 degree turns on that course closely packed, as well as the last turn which I think may have bee setup wrong. It was almost a sweeping turn but turned more into a really tight slolem because the corner gate was offset slightly to the inside of the course, so I'm not sure you could set yourself up for both gates as one sweeping turn which is what I think it was designed to be. That said, the guys who were supposed to be practicing spent most of the day on their computers flashing flight controllers. There were only a couple of us flying the course at all, all of us seemed like beginners (only my second time flying a course) and none of us were successfully completing it. I didn't get to see the actual racers flying the course so I have no idea how it actually worked out.

Enough excuses though. When I notice I'm flying too fast for a given situation I need to be more willing to make the changes necessary to my quad in order to be successful...Either that or I need another quad for flying at home and racing with less uptilt.

DB