I understand that my problem is a common problem but the forum search doesn't work well and so I tried searching out answers but it keeps finding nothing (apology with excuse)...
I built a 3DR quad at the beginning of the year and thought I had it all debugged but I couldn't really fly it at the time because this is snow country so it sat on the table for about 6 months. Finally decided to fly it and impatiently did so without rerunning the motor test and/or all the stuff that I did when it was built. The result: it flipped and broke two of the props. I would assume lack of preparation but then I noticed one or two entries that suggest that this is common in "new builds".
Machine is a stock 3DR kit with 2.5 hardware and black (880Kv) motors and 11x47 props. I saw the spreadsheet in this section but it seems to apply mostly to APM1 machines. Two questions:
- Are there any settings that I should pay attention to until I am comfortable this thing can fly?
- Are there any more durable props (from another vendor) or other newbie helpers kind of like the ping pong ball rigs for heli's?
John
Replies
Ok just to close the thread. I am now officially up in the air and had my first hard landing: graduated from breaking props ot breaking legs (unfortunately the legs are actually more expensive).
What I ended up using is a fairly wide melamine shelf cut to a square with two eye bolts. The 3/4 particle board is quite heavy so its plenty weight. The first time I used it my knot came untied on one side and the thing flipped anyway but my bad.
The the thing that made the difference for me was swapping out the collets for the new model bolted directly to the motor. A pain in the butt to install but its now holding the props in place and flying as opposed to having props fly off. Not to pile on the "bad support" topic too much but before ordering I queried support whether or not I should replace the collets with the new ones (giving the order no. of my kit). They replied that it was "not necessary" which I guess it strictly true albeit bad advice in my case. Fortunately it took them so long to respond I'd already ordered the collets. The best advice always seems to come from the community in my experience.
Hello John,
Welcome to the flock! Here are a few common items to check
You will get through this soon enough.
Props? I like the APC brand, grey nylon. I've only broken one. The black EPP type are stiff but seem to break by just glancing at them.
As far as rigs are concerned, early on I suspended my quad to correct a front/back flip issue. My TX pitch needed reversing. A simple rig is four cords tied to four heavy items (that the quad cannot possible lift), one cord to each leg. The idea is that you leave enough slack for the quad to lift about 10 to 15 inches vertically but not enough to allow it to flip over. Too much cord could blow up into the props making a real mess quickly.
If you know how, pull the *tlog from the APM and post it here. Instructions for this are located HERE.
Stay positive! We will help you through this.
-=Doug