TAZ Psyborgs attempt at a 100 mph quad

[PsyBorg]

Well back in early summer I started laying out and getting parts for a more realistic race quad then the heavy and more freestyle oriented Alien. I only had a frame and motors when I hit FFE17. The rest of the build was handed to me as I met others at FFE who knew what I wanted to build and contributed to the cause.

Thank you for all who were generous and thoughtful to do that even though my help and friendship does not come with a cost. I appreciate what you guys have done and graciously accept the help to pull this off. While not all of the donated parts made it into this particular build they will ALL at some point be used on other builds. I can not thank you guys enough. Just another amazing part of how this community really is.

AS busy as it was at FFE I did not get the chance to document the build process as my camera was off with other people on other missions but I do have pics of the various stages of final assembly here at the house as well as one of the truly scary maiden attempts where I made a classic new builder mistake.

All up weight with the Grpahene 1300 pack is 502 g with a tattu 1300 75c normal pack it is 486 ish? Once its tuned and I am used to the faster speed it will be getting a 5s battery for full on speed runs and racing.











The noob mistake I made was mounting the FC facing aft and not telling the FC it was facing aft. Made for a very clean build but some VERY scary maiden attempts as you will see. Luckily no one was hurt and no damage other then exploding props everywhere and the way I did the battery connection worked perfectly for a no stress battery ejection on a crash.

 

[French]

I saw your video before seeing this post. All I can say is... WOWZA!! I liked the broom approach, but I've started checking using the following method, frankly, every time after I switch props

 

[PsyBorg]

I started way back the first time. I did not touch the throttle at all after I armed. As soon as I rocked it a little like he does it kicked into air mode and did the Pyborgnaian buzz saw exploding 3 props.. I came back in looked it all over changed to lower pitch props and a 25 c battery and the second attempt I had to touch the throttle just to get it to tilt. the video I posted was actually the Third attempt to keep it under control.

It threw me off for a while because with it flipping over on its side and running away I thought it was going into full throttle fail safe so I was chasing down that route. When I plugged it into the computer to lower pids is when I remembered I mounted the FC facing backwards so I had better access to the usb port and the wiring lined up with less crossing over everything.

Now that I told the FC that is is facing backwards it will lift off the ground. Sadly I have found the freakin frame I got is a darn tuning fork. It will literally ring a tone when you flick it with your finger even after everything is mounted. So now I am trying to knock down that resonance and tune it as I go.

It flys nice in level mode but as soon as I set it to acro the frame sings and the FC shuts down. So that is where I am with it atm. I am just about to wrap the esc's with tape even though they are double side taped to the frame to see if that buffers some of the resonance. Then its back out for more hover tests.

 

[French]

Which frame? Are those the the 2750kv?

 

[LitterBug]

Reminds me of the time I forgot to set the FC to 45 degrees on the owl. Amed it and it started doing a hula dance as it kept clibing higher and higher. All I could do is disarm and hope it landed somewhere soft, and not in the creek. Pretty sure it will happen again with that frame. My memory isn't aĺl that great. I'm getting better at checking that the model moves in the right direction in the configurator, but every now and then I'll get in a rush and forget.

Really looking forward to some FPV from this puppy!

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[Liam B]

I saw the video this morning, and I can’t waiting to see how this goes! Definitely worthy of 100mph.

 

[PsyBorg]

Its a qav X knock off I learned at FFE and the motors are 2400 kv as I read some issues about the 2750 kv ones when I was looking into these motors. I am starting to believe this may be a problem child and will end up over time getting swapped over to top of the line parts to reach the goal.

I set the filters on the KISS controller to medium. I may have to go a little tighter filtering to clear some of this up. The last flight I dropped from one shot 42 to one shot 125 and that seemed to make it low power flyable. I started bouncing to test I gains and it would desync and drop after a few soft punches. Then the very last time I was doing them I saw the lights on the FC and the receiver go out and it fell from the sky so that was a definite brown out as they came back on after I dropped throttle just before it hit the ground.

So needless to say I have a list off issues to address. The frame being the main one of them. THEN I can get into the tuning and electronics to see whats electrical once I know its not overloading the gyros. I will probably have to get one of those add on memory card things so I can black box it and see what specific frequencies it does sing at.

 

[PsyBorg]

Soo spent the day messing around with this again. The RTV on the frame to dampen vibration was a fail. After researching more and more I am pretty sure I have two distinct issues going on. One is this cheap frame sings like a tuning fork and drives the FC bonkers. I played around with filters and got it so it would actually fly nice and smooth in auto level mode. (could not event arm in acro as it insta desynced and shut down.) Once in the air I could switch to acro and fly low n slow.

As soon as any throttle changes happened that were not slow and smooth the motors would desync and the quad would fall. At this point after the research and the issues I have I am calling the Bullet esc's garbage. Hopefully I can get the refund from FT and put that towards the Stretched X frame they have to replace the tuning fork. Then all I have to do is source better esc's. Will probably try a set of the Aikons since so many actually competing racers are using them. I wish Kiss had 30+ amp race editions so I could go with full KISS as I still LOVE LOVE LOVE my Alien and how that flies.

So for now it is all broke down and sitting on the floor with me sadly staring at it... On a bright note my friend has caught the bug after seeing what we do with those "Evil" drones and now has a Taranis on the way so I can get him on the sims a bit before we build him a Gremlin to start.

 

[French]

What version of BlHeli were you running on the 35A escs? What protocol were you running?

I wonder if you had a screw into the windings or something? Were all the motors desyncing or just one?

Were you running a capacitor on the build? I don't know if one would help an immediate desync issue, but should calm some of the noise in the system.

Are all the motor signal wires soldered to the right pads? I know you said you flipped the FC backwards.

 

[ElectriSean]

No idea how I missed a new PB build... How is the FC mounted? Hard to tell from the pictures, but it looks like nylon standoffs. Have you considered trying isolating mounts like these: http://rotorgeeks.com/index.php?route=product/product&keyword=vib&product_id=599

Could try soft mounting the motors as well.

 

[rockyboy]

I hear soft mounting your transmitter can help too

 

[cranialrectosis]

Jeez that's a beauty PsyBorg.

LMAO Rockyboy!

I LOVE just freaking LOVE my 30A Aikons. You can do a lot worse.

 

[flitetest]

Sup PSY!

That whole broom thing was SKETCH Glad all is okay and that the only thing being picked up is broken props!

Hope all is well out in NYC my friend! Keep on tuning my friend... thats the great thing about quads... it can always be a LITTLE better (continuous impovment! ) ha

Blessings my friend!
Stefan

 

[French]

Stefan, have you guys (maybe TJ) heard of any issues with the Emax Bullet escs?

Psy and I have seen a few reports of them turning into balls of fire, but who knows what those users are doing (adequate airflow, capacitors, etc)

 

[PsyBorg]

I hear soft mounting your transmitter can help too

I think after that fiasco with the FC facing aft and forgetting to tell it so that I would be better off soft mounting my brain...

 

[PsyBorg]

Stefan, have you guys (maybe TJ) heard of any issues with the Emax Bullet escs?

Psy and I have seen a few reports of them turning into balls of fire, but who knows what those users are doing (adequate airflow, capacitors, etc)

TJ recommended them to me at FFE when I told him what I wanted to do. He said he used them and got quads into that 100 mph range. If they stopped that desync and falling out of a hover long enough for me to get a tune I would try to do a run on them. But that whole flashing thing was NOT gonna happen here. I can not risk a fire where I am and lose my place to live as it is funded housing and the Govt frowns when things burn.

I will stick to my original plan and go with the Aikons as they are race proven and used a lot on high end race quads.

 

[flitetest]

Stefan, have you guys (maybe TJ) heard of any issues with the Emax Bullet escs?

Psy and I have seen a few reports of them turning into balls of fire, but who knows what those users are doing (adequate airflow, capacitors, etc)

I did hear from IAN that some "smoking and explosion" has been happening... the BIG reason why people are using them though is because they are SO small that on skinny arm race quads... they FIT and are light...so they feel that it is worth it. Also, ian said they SHORT really easily during set up if things shift so.

Im more about keeping everything working rather then racing! ha So, ill prob steer clear for now! lol

Stefan

 

[French]

Thanks Ian and Stefan!

The 30A bullets on my new Chameloen build are TINY!

 

[PsyBorg]

Sup PSY!

That whole broom thing was SKETCH Glad all is okay and that the only thing being picked up is broken props!

Hope all is well out in NYC my friend! Keep on tuning my friend... thats the great thing about quads... it can always be a LITTLE better (continuous impovment! ) ha

Blessings my friend!
Stefan

Yeah I knew it was when I did it but that thing is pure violence when them motors hit full throttle. I soo cant wait to get it on a better non knock off frame that does not act like a tuning fork. I will be swapping to the 5 inch stretched X frame in the FT store when the returns on the ESC's is complete. Then its just a matter of time to save for the esc's and a 5s battery or two to make go.

Things are going well so far out here. I knocked out the SE 5 build last night and will be starting a thread on it as soon as I am done looking over todays posts. It actually looks like the next four days here will be great flying weather and I can not wait to get out and rip as many packs as I can charge. I think I will probably be doing the final glide test and maiden on the SE 5 tomorrow as well.

Sunday I got the podcast in the afternoon with the FTCC guys and a few other guests. That will be a fun time. I will probably rip a few Freestyle runs before that to loosen up and relax a bit.

Give the family a huge hug from me and tell them I say hello. I have a four page letter that has to be re written to send to FT HQ and that should be hitting your mail box some time next week thanking you all for such an amazing time at FFE.

Oh yeah and pimp that shirt for the auction. Hopefully that brings in a decent chunk o change for the STEM program.

 

[PsyBorg]

Lookie what came in the mail today...

4 shiny new spedix IS45 speed controllers.

Anyone wanna take a guess what I will be doing this week or weekend providing the returned esc's get to FT in time for them to ship the Reaper stretch X 5 inch frame to me.

Them esc's are solid and well built from visual inspection. WAYYY better quality build then I have seen on any esc's so far. Hope they work as good as they are dressed.



Looks around >>> <<<< ^^^^^^
Now who wants to sponsor me so I can have batteries and props to fly it

The switch to 5s and then 6s is gonna hurt. I be like buying one battery a year.