Comment by Daniel Chote on December 5, 2012 at 8:24am

I would also like to ask 3DR to provide a "lead-less" version of the voltage sensor. The board trace started to lift during desoldering, and i wasn't applying any real pressure. I have a feeling that most people will want to attach their own wiring to better fit their build.

3D Robotics Comment by Chris Anderson on December 5, 2012 at 11:33am

Daniel, thanks for the post. In general, we're moving away from solder-yourself products because they lead to a huge amount of customer support costs. You may be good at soldering, but it turns out that most people aren't. Any product that we sell unsoldered will require about 5x as much customer support, mostly due to user soldering errors. I suppose we could charge more for unsoldered products to compensate for that, but that doesn't feel like the right answer either.  It's also harder for us to warranty products where users do the soldering, since we have to diagnose every board that is reported faulty to find out whether the problem was the user or the factory.  

In short, we're moving away from the old bag-of-parts model that we started with years ago to a more RTF model, mostly to ensure a better product experience for most people, including those who aren't technically skilled. Or to put it another way, our products will always be hackable, but you won't have to hack them. 

Comment by Daniel Chote on December 5, 2012 at 11:37am

Thanks Chris, I kinda figured that was the case. Making it more accessible to the masses is definitely a better business model for 3dr. And I couldn't agree more with your point on support and warrantee, I didn't think about it that way.

Thanks for the new products, and thanks for spearheading an accessible marketplace in the US for us :)

Comment by LanMark on December 5, 2012 at 12:58pm

Yeah I much rather have a RTF approach with the same modularity then a bucket of parts approach... as time goes by more and more modularity will exist and everything will work a lot better more of the time.

 

Daniel, how do you like the QAV500 frame?

Comment by Daniel Chote on December 5, 2012 at 1:05pm

My first pass build of the frame I did quite a lot off spec, making it taller between the dirty and clean sections. the result of it made it top heavy, resulting in a very "rolling" flight. Quite unstable.

I have since fixed that and its an amazingly stable and easy to fly frame. I am still learning how to fly, but currently the stability is allowing me to get my position in 3d space processing (flying based off the direction of copter, vs direction of self) figured out without worrying about crashing it :)  

Comment by LanMark on December 5, 2012 at 1:08pm

I have a TBS Discovery frame and I really like being able to spread things out especially the RX and TX... I am considering moving my larger quad to a QAV500 frame... but in order to do that I would have to go from 14" and 15" blades to 10 which would require going up to a 5S battery to get the same lift.

Comment by Daniel Chote on December 5, 2012 at 1:12pm

I agree. 11s actually fit, but "just" i ran 11s initially until vibration of the clean frame pushed it too close, causing a large chunk of the prop to fly off and hit the wall next to me.  Also to note, a 3s 5000mah "just" fits in the battery area, going to a larger battery would require mounting the battery on top of the clean frame... and more than likely cause a roll issue.  I am yet to find a cost effective 4s to test with. I have a 6s battery which makes it a very scary beast (actually lifts with gopro and battery slightly above no throttle). I built this with 6s capable esc's (hence them not fitting where they were supposed to go). But I have done all my flying 3s just fine.

Comment by LanMark on December 5, 2012 at 1:21pm

well my 600KV motors don't produce the lift I would need with 10" blades.  I have a modified XAircraft X650 frame that allows me to run 15" blades.. runs great on 3S and personally I like 3S.. much better effecency.. however I think my issue with my large quad is my own piloting fault.. it has a tendancy to tip over if I gradually give it throttle.. but I think that is just an inherit problem with the WooKong as it is trying to figure out where center stick = hover is located and without being in the air it can't.

Comment by W. Joe Taylor on December 5, 2012 at 8:50pm

Daniel, that is the best quad design I've seen ever. Simple. Functional. Minimal. Its got everything incuding the gopro and If i ever get un-broke, I'm doing it. You rock. My fav features are motors and props, but I was wondering about thrust and flight time with the payload shown for 3s, 6s (comparison)? Looks like really good set up for Fpv.

Comment by Daniel Chote on December 6, 2012 at 6:34am

W. Joe Taylor Thanks! I have only flown it on 3s 5000mah, I did test with 6s once, but it was far too aggressive with my kv800 motors and 10" graupner e-props (which i highly recommend). 

On the 5000mah 3s I get around 15minutes of fly time, with a little to spare. That is with go pro attached.

I recently attempted to drive my 600mw 5.8ghz ImmersionRC video transmitter + minimOSD, but the extra draw was very apparent. It barely took off, and the battery was down to critical voltage in around 4 minutes.  I do have a 100mw 5.8 tx also, which I may eventually try. I have a hexa build that I was going to use for fpv due to the payload capacity of it.

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