What Did You Do FPV Today?

[toryander]

Wondering why my vtx has been disconnecting even when close by I made a couple of adjustments and tried again. I made sure the antenna was connected firmly to the vtx, then I straightened the antenna cable from it's tightly bent position and taped the antenna upside-down onto the outside fuselage. I don't know if this is what made the difference, but it performed well this morning at 330mw and 1km distance. It was a nice flight.

 

[toryander]

Has anyone ever connected two batteries (like 3300mAh 3s) in their Stratosurfer? I'd like to get more flight time. I have the connector, but the two batteries seem really heavy. Will the Stratosurfer fly with two 3300s? I could just try it, but I don't want it crashing and breaking if someone could tell me in advance.

 

[LitterBug]

I have only flown LiPo in the stratosurfers up to this point. Mostly 3S 4200mah 35c, and one time 4S 5200mah. The 4S 5200 35c had WAY more punch, so much it had a violent torque roll on launch due to me not knowing I should have used less throttle. Energy density wise, 2x3300mah in parallel should weigh less than the 5200 4s I flew. I can easily get 20 minutes out of the 4200mah 3S packs. More with restraint. I fly mostly <400' AGL at a comfortable cruise speed. Not trying to set any speed records. Sometimes I do touch and go repeats with long glides on final and punch back up to 2-300'. We are allowed max 700' at the AMA field I fly most.

I have some 2S1P 5000mah LiIon 21700 packs that I am going to use in series for 4s. I believe they are 30-40C. I should really do some weight comparisons between packs. Have those in 2S2P 10,000 mah too which would also double the C rating. Curious to see what times I can get out of them and how much punch they will have.

Also have some individual cells that I could build 3s packs from

 

[toryander]

I have only flown LiPo in the stratosurfers up to this point. Mostly 3S 4200mah 35c, and one time 4S 5200mah. The 4S 5200 35c had WAY more punch, so much it had a violent torque roll on launch due to me not knowing I should have used less throttle. Energy density wise, 2x3300mah in parallel should weigh less than the 5200 4s I flew. I can easily get 20 minutes out of the 4200mah 3S packs. More with restraint. I fly mostly <400' AGL at a comfortable cruise speed. Not trying to set any speed records. Sometimes I do touch and go repeats with long glides on final and punch back up to 2-300'. We are allowed max 700' at the AMA field I fly most.

I have some 2S1P 5000mah LiIon 21700 packs that I am going to use in series for 4s. I believe they are 30-40C. I should really do some weight comparisons between packs. Have those in 2S2P 10,000 mah too which would also double the C rating. Curious to see what times I can get out of them and how much punch they will have.

Also have some individual cells that I could build 3s packs from

Good info. Thanks. I tried putting both 3300s in the Stratosurfer on a ground test this morning. Turns out they won't fit. Oh, they will go in, but I can't get the canopy back on. There's not much room to rearrange things due to where my fc is (just behind the canopy area. I guess I will get 4200 3s 35c and go with that. 20 minutes should be good. I have my Crossfire nan tx and rx, now. I'm waiting on the Avatar GT2 and the mount. Looking forward to getting it all together and stepping things up a level.

 

[toryander]

I installed my Crossfire Nano Pro 3 and my Nano module tx, yesterday. I got the wires soldered on in the correct order and updated the firmware. Got things bound. Then the fun started. All the online info I found (AI and YouTube videos) told me that the Crossfire rx used UART 1; the gps, UART 3; and the display port (for OSD), UART5 (f405 Wing v3.) It turns out that the rx is UART 6; the gps is UART 5; and the displayport is UART4. Talk about running in circles until late at night. But I got it in the end and had a fun flight buzzing the canyon road this morning.

 

[toryander]

Further tested my crossfire rx/tx (nano pro 3/nano module) with the Eternal T antenna it came with. Antenna was tucked lengthwise in the fuselage. It seems like my Er6 did a better job. I'm sure I just need to figure some things out. I was running 1watt/dynamic mode on the tx and had 55 rsi just half a mile out. I was expecting 100% that close (nothing between me and the rx). Perhaps a different antenna position or a different antenna altogether?

The second is is that I had a failsafe twice. Once in the air (just 300 meters from me), then again right after I landed. I'm guessing loose connection (bad soldering) on the RX? I'll be checking it out today. Just leaving some notes here in case any of you FPV / crossfire people recognize what my problems might be and can offer your experience.

What does a failsafe on the ground look like?

 

[toryander]

I took my Stratosurfer out two miles today with my Avatar GT2. The only problem I had was losing satellites. The most I ever had was 7, but during the flight I was often down to 4. I'm wondering why that would be? Probably lots of possibilities. I'm going to extend the wires to the GPS and see if I can attach it outside near the end of the fuselage. I'm also looking at getting the larger GEP 1025Q GPS module (I'm using a nano right now).

 

[toryander]

I flew 3.77 miles away today with my Stratosurfer (Crossfire, Avatar GT2). Video cut out there (rather suddenly) but came back up and flew home with no problems.