About

Gender

Male


Location

Scottsdale, AZ


About Me:

Electrical engineer, small business start-up owner, inventor, instructor pilot and microprocessor development/programmer.


Please tell us a bit about your UAV interest

Building several multirotors for aerial photography, flights over the North Pacific Ocean and farms.


Hometown:

Scottsdale, AZ USA


Activity Feed

Jim Frantz replied to Forrest Frantz's discussion Building a 3-Axis Gimbal for GoPro
"Great research project and nicely finished report.  It should further the art for all that read it.
Jim "
Sep 17, 2015
Jim Frantz replied to Forrest Frantz's discussion Building Copters with Round Tubes - Stronger, Lighter, Easier to Mount Motors than Square Tubes in ArduCopter User Group
"For your LiIon batteries there is simply a two step charging profile as follows:
Constant current - The charger current is limiting set to about 1C or as per the battery specifications.  The voltage increases to maintain a fixed current as the…"
Jan 17, 2015
Jim Frantz replied to Forrest Frantz's discussion Building Copters with Round Tubes - Stronger, Lighter, Easier to Mount Motors than Square Tubes in ArduCopter User Group
"Is there a way to upload a pdf?  We need something that is printed to a scale."
Jan 8, 2015
Jim Frantz replied to Forrest Frantz's discussion Building Copters with Round Tubes - Stronger, Lighter, Easier to Mount Motors than Square Tubes in ArduCopter User Group
"Here is the CAD drawing.  I would only use the particular firewall hole pattern that fits the BLDC motor mount but you could do a two nylon screw mount and choose two holes of each pattern. Notice that each radius cut is outside to the part so…"
Dec 11, 2014
Jim Frantz replied to Forrest Frantz's discussion Building Copters with Round Tubes - Stronger, Lighter, Easier to Mount Motors than Square Tubes in ArduCopter User Group
"Here is the equivalent firewall using only inside radius cuts rather than outside and easier to make using drill bits and hole saws without a C&C milling machine. See instructions on this thread.   Jim"
Dec 11, 2014
Jim Frantz replied to Forrest Frantz's discussion Building Copters with Round Tubes - Stronger, Lighter, Easier to Mount Motors than Square Tubes in ArduCopter User Group
"I use Generic or Auto CAD to design the parts but any CAD will do.  Since I don't have a C&C milling machine, I avoid outside radius parts like Forrest makes instead sticking to inside radius designed parts especially for those smaller parts like…"
Dec 11, 2014
Jim Frantz replied to Forrest Frantz's discussion Building Copters with Round Tubes - Stronger, Lighter, Easier to Mount Motors than Square Tubes in ArduCopter User Group
"An issue using round tubes (my preferred choice) is mounting the motors securely at the end of the tubes.  Typically the BLDC motor's shaft sticks below the thin firewall plate mount and the obvious tempting solution is to drill a hole through the…"
Dec 11, 2014
Jim Frantz replied to Forrest Frantz's discussion World Record for Duration of Flight
"Using nylon screws works great attaching the motor to the motor firewall on the boom.  The prop however must be attached with AL screws or better and thread locked or you will have a prop motor separation.  
With a prop separation, the quad will…"
Sep 19, 2014
Jim Frantz replied to Drone-University.com's discussion APM 2.5 - Height keep on increasing ? in ArduCopter User Group
"You do have the baro sensor covered with no light shining on it - right?  Even bright room lighting can do it.  
Try powering up the APM with a battery and see if the baro altitude keeps rising or stabilizes.   If it is rising you may want to see…"
May 18, 2014
Jim Frantz replied to Drone-University.com's discussion APM 2.5 - Height keep on increasing ? in ArduCopter User Group
"Check for:

excessive vibrations
eliminate any chance of sun getting to the APM's baro sensor
check that the stick position is exactly centered during stabilized flight hovering
and that the natural barometric pressure is not changing.  


You can…"
May 18, 2014
Jim Frantz replied to Dave Hicks's discussion APM 2.5+ No dataflash inserted
"I also got the dreaded "no data flash inserted" on my APM V2.5.2.  I checked the regulator for 3.3V and it was fine.
You may want to try the following if your problem is the same as mine.

Remove the APM board from its case
Firmly squeeze the bare…"
May 17, 2014
Jim Frantz replied to Andre K.'s discussion APM2 - fails to detect/use Micro-SD "no dataflash inserted"
"I have same problem "no data flash inserted" and my 3.3V regulator is good.  My APM is a V2.5.2.
Any link for how to replace the flash data?
Thanks
Jim"
May 17, 2014
Jim Frantz replied to Chuck O's discussion 3DR Quad APM 2.5 takes off but then lands in ArduCopter User Group
"The problem may have to do with just one motor failing to put out the power called for.  Since the autopilot priority is to maintain stabalized flight the one motor causes all the others to put out less power too and eventually a landing.  
To…"
May 10, 2014
Jim Frantz replied to John Leach's discussion throttle failsafe calibration
"Wow - a great explanation.  Thanks
Now I have failsafe working in theory.  But I want to test it using Mission Planner before trying it out.  I have a copter using the latest firmware 3.1.3 and MP 1.3.0.  Here is the problem:
I power the copter and…"
Apr 23, 2014
Jim Frantz replied to Forrest Frantz's discussion World Record for Duration of Flight
"Hi Gary,
I flew today for 1 hour 33 minutes and 14 seconds (93.23 minutes) after two previous failed tries. Today I covered some distance and altitudes of well over 100 feet with a rechargeable battery powered multi-rotor in the "Multirotor Flight…"
Mar 20, 2014
Jim Frantz commented on Forrest Frantz's blog post World Record Duration Flight Using APM 2.5 (Nov 2013)
"DIYDrones Record Duration Flight Using APM 2.5 at 93 minutes 
A new DIYDrones record for a rechargeable battery multi-rotor flight was set at 93 minutes and 14 seconds by Jim Frantz.  His custom built quad flew over the Sonoran desert in Scottsdale,…"
Mar 20, 2014
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