Suggestions for an upgradable beginner quad.

[Tench745]

It does have an airfoil to it, but, just looking at it I think it'll be ok. If you draw a line from nose to tail along the center of the chord the quad will be tipped forward at a good angle. Of course, I'm new to quads and this is just my first attempt at a body. I'm thinking a formed PET bottle canopy would be lighter than fiberglass, durable, and easily duplicated. That is where my future canopy efforts will be directed.

 

[Tench745]

Brief update on my future floor wax on fiberglass test. Don't do it. It goes on thin, requires multiple coats with dry time between, and stays very flexible. If that's what you're looking for, maybe do it. It didn't seem to add significant strength though it adheres well. On my small sample the glass cloth tore at the break in the foam before it unstuck. Might be useful for hinge reinforcements.

 

[Tench745]

It's probably silly to dredge up this dead thread and hope for a response, but I'm wondering about the current state of drone tech.

I haven't flown this in quite some time. I could control it just fine in auto-level, but got spooked whenever I went into angle mode. I have an FPV camera and blocky foam goggles, but I never felt comfortable enough to try FPV with it.
I know there have been some fundamental changes to the programming/flight controller side of things since 2015. Can anyone fill me in on what I've missed?
I think I'd like to update my little ZMR250 as best I can, but I don't necessarily want to have to buy new hardware other than putting a FrSky reciever on it instead of the orange Rx.

 

[PsyBorg]

@Tench745 Hey mate. there are things you can do to make it fly better then it does. Tuning methods have been refined more and is pretty easy to walk someone thru it. There are things you can do like soft mount the flight controller to isolate the vibrations from such an old set up.
Pretty much that is all you can do without spending money.

The hard thing is the FC is so far out of date now its no longer supported so you have to work with what it is flashed on. That means no filtering just pids and know how. The nice thing is a simple change in the rates will do you the most good to get started on fpv with. You can cut them back enough to make it fly like a tiny whoop.

Basically what we fly today is like win 7 and what you are flying is win 95 at best in comparison.

The best way to start is to down scale the rates a lot. Fly line of sight to train up on that muscle memory. THEN go for fpv again without any auto leveling at all.

I dont have a car nor a licence to drive anymore after getting hurt other wise I could easily come meet you as you are only about an hour n a half away from me and help you get it all going better. Maybe pass on some old parts to upgrade it a bit with after sorting out what matches what and making sure what all in my pile o parts actually works hehe.

 

[Tench745]

I always liked windows 95; it did what I needed/told it to and little else.

I'm never going to be a hardcore quad guy, I've realized this about myself. I have flown so little in so long that I probably wouldn't notice a difference between what I have and a modern setup. That said, it's a fun thing to play with now and again and it's hard to fight my natural tendency to try and improve things over time. I'd probably be happy knowing I'd upgraded things to around a windows 98 level.

 

[PsyBorg]

Oh I'm sure with some hints and taunting we can turn you into a quad guy. Once we get you past the nerves part and you start doing flippy floppies you will be hooked specially the first time you do it FPV.

Lets start with seeing if you remember what you flashed the flight controller with and if you still have access to the program to do so. If you do go in and look at the RC rate, Rate, Super Rate numbers. these two numbers might be named differently depending on what software used. Anyways its usually on the same page as the pids you mentioned in another post. let me konw what those are as well as if you used any expo.

I will give you some rates to try and get it flying like a tiny whoop to start you with line of sight flying in acro mode. Get you some skillz and some fun.

 

[outthayr]

I first bought a Vortex 250, but I really learned by building one of these: https://flexrc.com/product/owl-3-frame/
Very sturdy and great beginner frame.

 

[Tench745]

Oh I'm sure with some hints and taunting we can turn you into a quad guy. Once we get you past the nerves part and you start doing flippy floppies you will be hooked specially the first time you do it FPV.

Lets start with seeing if you remember what you flashed the flight controller with and if you still have access to the program to do so. If you do go in and look at the RC rate, Rate, Super Rate numbers. these two numbers might be named differently depending on what software used. Anyways its usually on the same page as the pids you mentioned in another post. let me konw what those are as well as if you used any expo.

I will give you some rates to try and get it flying like a tiny whoop to start you with line of sight flying in acro mode. Get you some skillz and some fun.

Remember? No. But I'm a bit of a slow adopter when it comes to tech, so I'm still using the same laptop I've had since 2014
OpenPilot still works even though it hasn't been supported since 2015. I have the newer LibrePilot on my computer too, but know little about it except that it's only slightly less outdated than the CC3D board in my quad. I remember very little about how this works, so I've included screen shots. I don't believe I used any expo. I've switched from Spektrum to FrSky since then, so I can't verify any settings in my old radio.

 

[PsyBorg]

EEEK.... I was thinking maybe that had clean flight on it. I never touched or worked in either open or libre pilot. I think I remember that @LitterBug dabbled with it onest or twice though so maybe I can pick his brain and work out rate conversions how I know them to what that does and we can adapt something to tone it down a bit to get you weened off auto leveling.


EDIT... ohhh.. just remembered there is our old friend painless360 and I KNOW he did stuff back in the day with both of those *.pilots

 

[Tench745]

I've got his playlist of CC3D videos saved on my YouTube. I'll watch through them over the next week while I wait for my new FRSky Rx