ImmersionRC Vortex build

[PHugger]

I was out flying this weekend at the club field.
My son flies around a Blackout on 4s and it sounds very cool - powerful.
One of the club members was flying his new Vort on 4s. That sucker sounds downright angry and man is it fast.
He had one bad tumble and broke off the front "bumper". It seems very durable.


Best regards,
PCH

 

[C0d3M0nk3y]

Time for some upgrades.



I'll be swapping the stock 1806 2300KV motors with Cobra 2204 1960KVs, replacing the stock plastic arm clips with the metal upgrades, and replacing the stock camera plate with the GoPro recliner.

Here's the assembled GoPro recliner:



And here's what the tiny ESCs look like:

 

[narcolepticltd]

I'm glad you've got some decent photos... all the ones I took are horrible due to no natural light getting into my garage! Did you get it fired up? smoke test passed? I'm hopefully going to get back in the air this afternoon...

 

[C0d3M0nk3y]

Smoke test... FAILED!



As soon as I plugged it in, smoke started rolling off of the two bolts that hold the metal spring that goes over the vtx. I found the culprit. It was actually just a dumb mistake on my part. When I attached one of the lower metal arm clips, I pinched the power wire going to the ESC. Carbon is conductive, and I guess the spring was just the point of least resistance, so that's why the smoke was coming from there.



The only damage was to the top plate, the two side pieces, and the wire to power the GoPro that came with the recliner. It was between the metal spring and the plastic side piece. The metal spring is a little charred, but it still works fine.

 

[narcolepticltd]

Oh man! that sucks! I can't believe I didn't mention that when we were talking about how much of a pain this thing is... I figured you'd see how close that was and adjust the angle when you soldered :/

Even though I put a good angle in on the power lead, it still rides really snug against the bracket... I slathered on some conformal coating but I may be in the same boat after a good smack.

Is the top plate still serviceable till you can replace it, and did the ESC survive?

 

[C0d3M0nk3y]

Oh man! that sucks! I can't believe I didn't mention that when we were talking about how much of a pain this thing is... I figured you'd see how close that was and adjust the angle when you soldered :/

Yeah, I had enough room to route the wire around it, but I took that bracket off a few times. I guess while I was worried about just holding everything in place the wire moved on me. I've resoldered it so it's as far away as I can get it now.

Is the top plate still serviceable till you can replace it, and did the ESC survive?

I have a replacement. I thought I might break some of the parts in a crash, not in a fire on my bench. The ESC wasn't damaged, luckily.

 

[narcolepticltd]

Man I'm glad you have the carbon crash kit... I didn't bother with them but kinda wish I had just to be on the safe side now lol. I really hate working on this thing.

 

[C0d3M0nk3y]

Alright, I have everything back together (without smoke this time).



The quad weighs 419 g without a GoPro or battery. The Hero 3+ Black with LayerLens and 3D printed faceplate and a Lumenier 4S 1300 make the AUW 664 g.





The 1300 looks like it's going to work as long as I'm not going really heavy on the throttle.

 

[cranialrectosis]

You're gonna start needing a soundtrack.

 

[narcolepticltd]

Sweet! glad it didn't keep you hard down man.

I finally got a chance to fly this afternoon and I'm really digging the cobras compared to the stock motors (also really digging sbus compared to ppm). I may give the 1300's a go if I can get CoG to balance... but definitely had a bit of a tune issue on mine most likely attributed to CoG. Gonna see if I can set the back of the battery on top of the rx and get the weight back a little more. Really wish my hero4 black would power up with that stupid power cable. It flew great, but was bobbly on quick control inputs (more of an effect on video then flight).

Got some video, crashed for the first time (several times) and my first try at proxy (lots of trees and hills at my dad's place...)

Yours is definitely locked in and doesn't exhibit the shakes I was seeing. Much happier with it in general after the upgrades (and definitely noticed a difference with the CCD vs CMOS).

 

[C0d3M0nk3y]

I got a question about how I attached the 2204s to the Vortex. There are two holes on the sides of the stock motor mounts that aren't used with the 1806s. These line up with the bolt pattern on the 2204s.