Comments

• Distributor

  Bask Aerospace January 11, 2013 at 4:15am

  16:00 at Melbourne High School is fine for me as well. Hopefully see you all there. Cheers
• 

  Michael Johnston January 11, 2013 at 2:01am

  Ahh G'day Dave (et al),
  
  Good to see you here - wondering whether you might have hard case for APM2 with pins out the top in stock.
  
  Have earnt my FPV wings over the break and need to put the Shamewheel on a diet. The 'lunch box' I'm currently using as a protective case is too heavy and using valuable real estate.

  Let us know details of flight - will see what I can do if on Satdy..  0407 852 355.

  
  MJ
• Distributor

  Bask Aerospace January 10, 2013 at 10:04pm

  Hi Guys,

   

  I run Bask Aerospace here in Melbourne. I joined this group about a week ago to see who is flying around our wonderful city and also to start getting more involved with local hobbyists. If you do end up flying this weekend and don't mind another tag along, I'd love to come down and meet you guys and see what systems you're flying.

   

  Just to add to the prop spinner chat, we have also had some major crashes due to the poor design of these spinners. Our solution was to go with what's known as a "prop saver" (see below). You may have already heard of them. We have been running them on our test quad for over 6 months and haven't had a problem yet.

  

  

  Anyway, I look forward to hearing from you and possibly meeting you this weekend.

  Cheers
• Tim Wilkin January 10, 2013 at 7:04pm

  I'm quite tempted, as the wife and kids are away for the weekend... but two factors weighing against it are: (1) crappy weather forecast with morning rain and afternoon strong(ish) winds both days; and, (2) I have a conference paper deadline in under two weeks and I'm beating my head against my computer to solve some problems with my data generation... which will probably have me working all weekend.

  I might have to pass this weekend, but would be happy to try next weekend (if you're in town, the weather is good and I have this paper finished).
• Tim Wilkin January 10, 2013 at 5:26pm

  I do put a tiny drop of Loctite only the tip of the motor shaft. If the collet is pushed all the way in (as it should be) then that small amount of Loctite around the end of the shaft is generally enough to hold everything in place... at least for a few flights.

  I have read that you're supposed to make sure the collet and shaft are ultra clean (use isopropyl alchohol or similar) and that the correct torque is applied when screwing on the prop. I find with plastic props that you can't get the right pressure from the spinner onto the adapter... but carbon and carbon/nylon props seem to secure better.
• Tim Wilkin January 10, 2013 at 2:27pm

  I use loctite... but I also replace it regularly... it's the vibration/oscillation due to blade flapping that likely causes prop-loss... and you can't stop it (since blade flapping is desirable)... loctite isn't perfect... and it's a pain if you need to actually remove the collet shortly after putting it on (for instance, when you put your props on in the wrong order)! ;)
• Tim Wilkin January 7, 2013 at 6:36pm

  Thanks for the offer Dave, but I'm okay for telemetry... I've got both 3DR radio and inbuilt telemetry on my new (recent birthday present) DX18 transmitter. I absolutely recommend a voltage monitor to anyone flying electric and NOT simply relying on expected flight time from previous flights, particularly as your batteries get closer to end of life... or your motors start to wear (and burn more energy to maintain a given throttle).
• Tim Wilkin December 25, 2012 at 12:50am

  That's really strange behaviour Dave... any thoughts on what has caused it? I'm wondering if it was trying to calibrate something after you switched it to stabilise mode (such as magnetometer, or accel/level)?
• 

  Michael Johnston December 20, 2012 at 6:07pm

  Hey good luck with the flying over the next few weeks fellas. 

  I've finally sorted the trouble with the Shamewheel - the max throttle was set to about 35%.  A complete rebuild, reflash firware re everything else proved unnecessary.  I am however now awesome at fitting and removing props using a variety of devices.

  I'll be FPV crashing this quad and LOS crashing the Skysurfer up at Kaniva (in far western Vic) and Yorke Peninsula (SA) for the break. No hills and only 4 trees so have nothing to get in the way of those hard landings.

  Make sure you get the camera cables the right way - I had lots of cable rearanging to do to get my SC2000 camera correctly sorted. With luck, yours will be PnP.

  MJ
• Tim Wilkin December 20, 2012 at 4:19pm

  Lol... I'm not paranoid, the world really *is* out to get me! ;)

  Camera finally arrived this morning... gotta love AusPost tracking though... only updated with "on truck" after it's actually been delivered... and nothing to indicate that it had been shipped out of the receiving depot in NSW. Anyway, it's here in time for my Christmas break... let's just hope it works and that I can get some FPV fun in.

  Dave: keep us posted with how your auto flight goes... I'm curious to hear if all goes well... I tried doing some Alt Hold last week after a firmware upgrade and it kept trying to plummet toward the ground (even though hold alt was set to 10 meters)!