Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Geir Engebakken on March 16, 2012 at 4:52pm

Point taken, not really convinced though. I guess "peace of mind" could be a valid reason, but as I said I have never had problems with the connectors on the helis, so why should it be a problem on the quadcopter? OK, there are a factor of 4 more leads, so it is like flying 4 helis simultaneously and thus enhances the possibility of failure, that is true, but the current and vibration is probably higher on the helis. Anyway I  really think that the emphasis on soldering the connectors that I witness in the forums seem to me to be blown out of proporsion. There are other factors involved here that are of far greater importance (IMHO). For instance I cannot understand that the current 2.4.1 release, which has a documented fatal error, is and has been for weeks the "recommended" release in the Mission Planner. Beats me. I have not flown since before christmas, because there has not been a release sufficiently safe to fly, in my opinion. Great hopes for the next 2.5 though :) After all the concept is awesome, and it will "soon" materialize I am sure of that, with so many great people working hard to improve the platform... I just hope that I very soon can take it out to do some real confident flying, and I dont think my worries will be the bullet connectors :) 

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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Graham Dyer on March 17, 2012 at 4:46am

I agree, I've had 1000's of flights with electric planes, heli's and now quads and I've never experienced a bullet connection failure. An EDF of mine at 1.3kW uses the same bullet connectors my quad uses and it's has no problems. I can understand that vibration can cause certain elements to fail or come loose, so I do check my bullet connectors occasionally on my quad but so far have not felt the need to solder them. Each to his own of course :)

Geir, fully with you on the fatal error in the release of 2.4.1, although admittedly it's only apparent on some platforms, Flown 4 x 11 minutes today with the upcoming 2.5 release from the git and it looks very good.

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Permalink Reply by Craig Burden on March 17, 2012 at 10:01am

I have just soldered all my connections and have reloaded v2.4.1 onto my APM, I have not had a chance to go buy some more prop's yet though so feedback on whether it was worth the effort is not yet available. I Am going to try buy some tomorrow, I will let you guys know what happens! 

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Permalink Reply by heikki.tukiainen on March 17, 2012 at 10:27am

A random crasher gives an encouragment!

I had an issue with a flip --> a faulty motor -> changed it and worked fine.

Had a drift / lean issue (copter increasingly tilts to one direction and that needed to be compencated with right stick) --> increased P-terms in rate- roll, rate - pitch and rate- yaw & added padding to the board to remove vibrations

End result is a very steady quad. In low wind conditions it really with no hads. That was not possible with HK-board!

Thanks you all guys developing Arduboard! Thank you!

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Permalink Reply by Todd Hill on March 17, 2012 at 10:59am

Craig,  have you considered your Lipo Batteries, and ESC.  Is your ESC set to slow cut throttle when pack voltage decreases past a set amount. Check your pack voltage as well when it is fully charged.  Do you know how to check the voltage for each cell?  

I have wasted many hours in the past looking through logs, code, inspecting hardware instillation, only to discover It was a bad Lipo cell and ESC settings.  

Check the nominal voltage of each cell charged and discharged.  

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Permalink Reply by Craig Burden on March 17, 2012 at 11:10am

Todd, as I said previously I have tested all my ESC's and calibrated them with the TURNIGY programming card to the lowest cut off voltage with a soft cut off. I have check my battery before some flights with a battery voltage indicator. Also I fly with a battery monitor and therefore never come near the cut off voltage of my ESC's. 

Thanks for the idea anyway.

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Permalink Reply by Craig Burden on April 14, 2012 at 4:52am

Guys please take a look at my new discussion, My problem is continuing!!

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