EMAX Nighthawk Pro 280 ARF

[jhitesma]

hopefully no other issues come up for you.. always sucks when something goes wrong and you have to wait for the mail. heh.

chris.

You're cursed buddy. And I think you rubbed some of it off on me with that comment

The new card that was scheduled to arrive on Wednesday didn't show up until Friday. Along with some heavy winds.

And then the battery in my mobius died.



I did do a quick test flight at lunch on Friday and confirmed I can now record blackbox at full 1/1 rate with 1000 looptime.

I also got in an order of the 6x4.5" DAL props. My prop stash is getting low again and I figured I'd do some more experimenting with cheap props on this cheaper setup. Plus I'm still trying to figure out what the props that came with this thing were and Fujin suspected they may be the 6x4.5" DAL's. But let's backtrack just a little. I ordered two boxes of the ultra cheap KingKong (http://www.banggood.com/KINGKONG-60...Pairs-For-QAV250-RC-Multirotors-p-988179.html) props from banggood. I've always had good service from banggood and surprisingly fast shipping even with their default free shipping. And at $5.29 for 10 pairs of props even if they aren't great performers (as I've heard) I figured they're worth giving a spin. So I grabbed two boxes and tossed in a $12 5.8ghz VTX just to have a spare...or maybe to finally finish building this BNVersa for FPV that's been gathering dust for over a year while multis have sucked me in. Well, here it is week and a half later and they still haven't even shipped the order. Sent them a message and they said the VTX is backordered (even though it still shows as in stock ships in 1 day on the website.)

But I'm getting low on basher props so I ordered up some of the DAL 6x4.5's from RMRC. I almost ordered some of the 6045's as well but I've heard the 6x4.5's are much better and wanted to confirm or deny Fujin's theory that they were what the emax shipped with.

Well, they're definitely not the same as the props the emax shipped with. The blade shape is fairly similar, but the hubs are smaller. These look more like the 6040's and 5040's from DAL than my FC's or HQ's. So far the balance on them is better than most other DAL's I've used though, about the same as FC's. So not bad there...and they're about the same price but easier to get in smaller quantities than the FC's. In the air they remind me of the FC's a lot as well...but feel just a bit less punchy. One of these days I really need to build up a test stand and put some numbers to my tests insead of just using the "finger dyno" (kinda like the "butt dyno" for car guys but since we fly with our fingers...)

May order some of the 6045's to compare...see if the rumors are true that the 6x4.5's are better or if I got that reversed, they're cheap enough and seem to be tough enough I don't mind experimenting

I also got my mobius fixed. When nilsen sent me the Tri (which I still need to try swapping ESC's on) he also sent along a broken mobius. I had hoped to swap the cam from that to mine since it was the wide angle lens...but I managed to break the connector on the CMOS module Still..it had a good battery. So I swapped that into my mobius and it's alive again. Apparently I had been forgetting to turn mine off after plugging it in to charge so it was never charging properly. Smallest lipo I've puffed but it's super puffy. Oops.

Long story longer...with the mobius working and blackbox working I had hoped to get the quad in the air today for some test flights. But the wind. Bleah. They had to cancel the flights for our annual balloon festival this morning and it only got worse as the day went on. Even the balloon glow this evening was more or less ruined by the wind - only 3 balloons even tried to inflate and they didn't have much luck. Glow ended being about 6 baskets just firing their burners into the sky

Fingers crossed that tomorrow sees calmer air. Both for the balloonists and for me

 

[Byter182]

Would Like Your Help Resolving NH280 Pro Issue

Hi All,

Please welcome me to this forum. I'm new to Drones but have approximately 15 years of RC experience. I've gotten pretty good at building and tinkering w/my Airplanes and Helicopters and thought when I got into Drones that it would be more of the same stuff. But I gotta admit, drones are a whole new different animal.

I decided to go w/the Nighthawk 280 Pro quadcopter as my first quad. Flew it for the first time about 3 weeks ago and loved it. However, I couldn't leave well enough alone and decided to tinker with it and now I'm having problems. Hoping someone here can help me resolve my issue with the quad.

I'm in desperate need of help getting my quad to fly stable again. My NH280 was flying pretty good when I originally setup it up for the first time using baseflight and a Spektrum AR8000 Rx. Started reading about how much better it was to switch Rx to the R615x on cleanflight, so I decided to do that and ever since then, I've been having nothing but problems. I don't attribute this problem to switching but more to my inexperience. It was too early in my learning curve to attempt that switch. After the switch, on my initial attempt at a hover, I could not get the quad to lift off the ground. The quad would start lifting off on the right side first. Then in another attempt, the quad just flipped over and crashed. Yet another time, it lifted off the ground but began to oscillate back and forth violently.

So I decided to switch everything back to the way I had it setup in the beginning w/the Spektrum AR8000 and Baseflight. However, I'm still having problems w/my quad. I'm at least able to get the quad into a hover now, but It no longer flies as stable as it did when I first got it. When I try to hover in any mode (ANGLE, HORIZON, ACRO), the quad will periodically jerk or twitch to the left. The motors will just suddenly speed up and push the ship surging to the left and then it stops and corrects itself. After about 5 seconds, it does the same thing again. It's like the quad is having a seizure. Pretty scary. I cannot trust the quad in this condition.

Would like someone w/experience to help me troubleshoot this issue. I do not know where to start.

Thanks in advance,
Byter182

 

[French]

My NHP280 ARF made it to me from China in record time. I'm really excited about this little quad. It is a bit porky, but powerful!!! I'm going to have a lot to learn. I've already had to get it out of a tree once. Even in horizon mode, this thing will tilt and go.

In an effort to better protect the mainboard from crashes, I thought about adding some 2mm soft foam to the bottom. Do you think that'll heat up the electronics too much?


Also, I need some tips on using the battery strap on this thing. I feel like it's too long. I want to mount the battery inside the body of the quad, but it's awkward to get strapped in there. Thoughts?

 

[jhitesma]

The foam shouldn't cause any issues. There are a few hot spots on the bottom under the power regulators but on 3s I wouldn't worry about burning up the foam or anything.

And yeah, the battery strap is kind of long. I mount my pack on top so can't help with internal mounting but even on top a shorter strap is a good idea. I add a chunk of 1/4" thick foam between the pack and the frame to help pad it and give it some grip and that took up enough space I could just barely use the stock strap.

 

[French]

This looks promising...

For those who have Cleanflight 1.12 and disabled oneshot, try cli command set_gyro_sync=OFF. You should then be ok enabling Oneshot if you haven't updated esc firmware. In Cleanflight 1.12, gyro sync is automatically enabled. Another option is gyro_sync_denom=2. However, that sticks your cycletime at 2K. Disabling gyro sync allows you to use oneshot and set your looptime.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=34501624&postcount=2781

I also noticed that cleanflight 1.12.1 (stable) for the NAZE was released today.

 

[jhitesma]

Disabling gyro sync kind of defeats the whole point of oneshot. You can still run 125us signals (the 125 part of Oneshot125) but that just lets you run a faster update rate. Oneshot IS the gyro sync since it's doing an ESC update for each gyro read that's what it's "oneshot" of - you get one update of the ESC's each time the gyro is read. The sync is what makes for a more accurate control loop. 125 without oneshot is to me kind of like a car with a big engine....but lousy brakes. It's got the power but can't really use it well.

 

[French]

Thanks for the explanation.

Should I have active braking on or off for the ESCs?

 

[jhitesma]

Thanks for the explanation.

Should I have active braking on or off for the ESCs?

With the stock firmware it doesn't make a huge difference. Braking can help, but I'm not convinced it's actually blheli's damped light like they claim. Real damped light feels a little different to me and seems to have more effect.

 

[French]

What size are the nuts holding on the mainboard? I swear a 5.5mm wrench is too big and a 5mm is too small.

 

[jhitesma]

5.5mm socket is what I've always used. But they aren't well made and it's easy to round them off

 

[French]

I almost fried my NHP tonight. I accidentally shorted 11.3V over the accessory voltage plug in the front of the quad when trying to make sure I was going to hookup the Vbat correctly.

After changing my undershorts and realizing that everything seemed to be working correctly, I finished setting up my profiles in cleanflight and cleaned up a few things.

I installed my Vbat line properly by soldering it on

I installed new zip tie antennas because the included antenna tubes were a pain to take on and off when the quad was stored in a case. I installed some 3D printed feet and a barrier to keep the battery from slamming into my electronics. I mounted the buzzer in the front with a dab of hot glue. And I installed my new TBS Triumph antenna.

 

[TheAdviser99]

good review

 

[jipp]

I almost fried my NHP tonight. I accidentally shorted 11.3V over the accessory voltage plug in the front of the quad when trying to make sure I was going to hookup the Vbat correctly.

After changing my undershorts and realizing that everything seemed to be working correctly, I finished setting up my profiles in cleanflight and cleaned up a few things.

I installed my Vbat line properly by soldering it on

I installed new zip tie antennas because the included antenna tubes were a pain to take on and off when the quad was stored in a case. I installed some 3D printed feet and a barrier to keep the battery from slamming into my electronics. I mounted the buzzer in the front with a dab of hot glue. And I installed my new TBS Triumph antenna.

can you explain your mod here? why did you have to ditch the traces on the pdb?

looks like a nice quad.. lots of bang for your buck.. when is tarted this hobby about the same time i joined the forum.. there were no quads for under 600.00 that worth there salt.. things sure have changed. im just glad there were kits avialbe.. it did mean i had/have to learn a lot of skills i did not know or have.. but im glad i went down this path. its a lot of fun.

and i have a much better idea of what is going on in my rc builds.. but with ready to fly kits like the one here, its also good to know there are good bind and flys now too for a fair price using the same parts that use to be sold only in kit form.

chris.

 

[French]

what jhitesma said...

 

[jhitesma]

can you explain your mod here? why did you have to ditch the traces on the pdb?

It may not be clear from French's answer but....the issue here is some really boneheaded design by emax. I assume that Chris is assuming that there are traces to read the voltage - there aren't. There's a header for battery voltage but even though this quad features an all in one PDB/FC board there's no traces conneting vbat to the vbat sense input!

They expect you to run an exposed jumper from that external facing plug to your battery. Which to me is just...silly.

So instead most people are soldering a wire internally to get the voltage which is what French did.

 

[jipp]

yeah, that clears it up.. i assumed they had traces for it.. silly they did not. so i was just thinking maybe something happen in a cash or something.. but you cleared it up.. thanks

 

[French]

So I added a HK E-OSD to the NHP. I really wanted something to show battery voltage. Looking back, I may have preferred the size of the micro MinimOSD, but the E-OSD fits. I have full access to the button via the access hole and all the wires fit without issue.

 

[French]

jhitesma,

I've decided to update the BLHeli on my NHP280 escs. I've read and watched videos. I've ordered a Arduino mini/nano and built a 0.5 amp / 2.1 amp smoke stopper:



I plan on soldering on one ground, one C2D and the 4 C2CK leads. I see where they all went on your Mega, but where do they go on a mini/nano?

Also, would there be any reason to tweak the BLHeli programming on my FT fixed wing escs?

 

[French]

Nevermind, looks like I need pins D3-D6: http://control.gwnu.ac.kr/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/BLHeliSuite-4w-if-interfaces-pinout.pdf

 

[jipp]

i know the smoke tester i made saved my bacon and the harsh reality of blue smoke.

mine is made from a 1970 el Camino front fender

here is the PDB i bought for my zmr which i never used maybe next time.


chris.