A lot of work went into building this plane, adding redundancies and safeties, as well as fitting 3 cameras, and the result was well worth it. Big thanks to the ardupilot team, nightghost for his OSD firmware, and all the other folks who wrote some of the software the 5 computer/microcontrollers that were in the plane (not counting those on the camera or VTX):

Day Video (4K): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-8X1Y_1fW0

Night Video (2.7K): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E94CXMC3gm8

Details on the plane and more still pictures:

http://marc.merlins.org/perso/rc/post_2016-08-29_RC-Flights-over-Burning-Man_-2016-edition.html
http://marc.merlins.org/perso/rc/post_2016-08-05_120kph-Capable-HK-Sky-Eye-FPV-build-with-Pixhawk-Ardupilot-3_5.html

Andrew recommended that I look at pixfalcon as a smaller pixhawk for some of my RC planes, so I got one for a bixler 2 build (he did recommend pixracer too, but that one has 6 PWM outputs instead of 8).

Here's my blog post on a bixler2 rebuild with a pixfalcon and Brotronics PowerTowerRX with backup lipo and buzzer:

http://marc.merlins.org/perso/rc/post_2016-07-11_Bixler2-conversion-to-Pixfalcon-with-Micro-HKPilot-Telemetry-Radio-_-OSD-and-Brotronics-PowerTowerRX.html

I have mixed feelings about the pixfalcon: It looks like good hardware in a small form factor, and I can live with the few limitations like missing I/O ports, but the choice of yet another set of incompatible plugs is just silly, not even using the same ordering for the 3 wires in I2C is beyond silly, and not providing ground and VCC on 7 of the 8 servo cables, is not a good idea if you expect people to use it in planes.

Sadly, those shortcomings combined (not counting some other ones detailed in the blog post, like wires so thin for the analog video on the OSD board that no enough current could reach my camera), make this board quite a pain in the rear to use to be honest (I spent probably 2 days finding and working all those issues, most were unnecessary and none of which are an issue with a real pixhawk). Then, if you add that the board does not get powered from the servo rail and seems to only rely on power from the power module which itself has a cheap and inaccurate current sensor, it's not all rosy.
Virtually all these problems are easily fixable, so I'm hopeful a pixfalcon v2 would fix this, but for my next plane build, I'll likely buy a different small pixhawk clone, that said the pixracer probably won't be an improvement there as far as cables are concerned, so are there others I could/should look at?

Power module:

Combined OSD + short range telemetry radio due to lack of external antenna (also it may be responsible for some OSD code freezes in flight):

I had to hack on the code to fix rotation switching, and added instructions for others who want to build themselves since it took me a little bit to figure it out.

If you are using Plane, can you test this build to make sure I didn't break anything while removing dead code and cleaning all compilation warnings?

https://github.com/marcmerlin/MinimOSD-Extra/blob/remove_ms_rot/Released/FW%20%26%20Char/MinimOSD_Extra_Plane_R808.hex

If that one doesn't work, or you are really attached to the original APM mode switch, try release 807 instead, but 808's switch rotation support ought to work on the mode switch too, so no reason to have 2 sets of code, which I why I deleted the mode switch rotation code:

https://github.com/marcmerlin/MinimOSD-Extra/blob/remove_ms_rot/Released/FW%20%26%20Char/MinimOSD_Extra_Plane_R807.hex

Blog post:

http://marc.merlins.org/perso/rc/post_2015-12-20_Hacking-MinimOSD-Extras-to-do-what-I-needed-thanks-to-OSS_-Mode-Rotation-with-Channel-Toggle.html

Changelog:

R808 - 2015/12/20 - Marc MERLIN <marc_soft@merlins.org>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Mode switch rotate code removed. Please use toggle switch rotate and assign to mode
switch channel (this saves space without removing functionality).
No new functionality, cleanups and removed all compiler warnings (not flight tested):
- chan_raw changed to an array to save program space
- all %f variables sent to printf are cast to double
- glide != 'inf' not valid C, likely a bug. Changed to glide != INFINITY
- TODO: remove this? if(rssiraw_on == 9) rssi = chan_raw[8];
- removed warnings on missing {} in if if else.
- All "string" cast to (char *)"string"
- Removed unused variables in OSD_Vars.h

Binary sketch size: 30,532 bytes (of a 30,720 byte maximum)


R807 - 2015/12/19 - Marc MERLIN <marc_soft@merlins.org>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Previous rotation switch didn't quite work as well as I was hoping. This new
one will rotate OSD if you flip to any other position more than 200ms away from
the current one, and come back within less than 1 second.
This should work with all switches and positions and allows you to use
another switch and activate a function you don't want, but only for
a fraction for a second, come back, and generate an OSD flip in the
process.

Binary sketch size: 30,718 bytes (of a 30,720 byte maximum) (pfew :) ) 


R806 - 2015/12/13 - Marc MERLIN <marc_soft@merlins.org>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rotation switching only rotates when switch changes states between low/mid/high.
This allows reusing a switch that has another function for OSD rotation.
You can rotate the OSD by flipping the switch to any other state and leaving it
there or coming back to the original location within 2 seconds.

Binary sketch size: 30,656 bytes (of a 30,720 byte maximum)

I got to try the skyzone 3d fpv goggles after making my own wide 3D camera for my plane, and get to see 3D at a longer distance than normal. It's kind of cool :)
Too bad the skyzone goggles can only record 2D :-/ (so I have no cool 3D video to share).

Anyway, this is my review of the Skyzone SKY02 V3 AIO 3D FPV Goggles, which I got to supplement my Skyzone Dual Antenna FPV Goggle V2 on my blog: http://marc.merlins.org/perso/rc/post_2015-12-01_Flying-3D-FPV-with-Skyzone-3D-FPV-Goggles.html

If you're doing long range, and you're using ardupilot, you probably are using or want to be using the open source OpenLRSng.

The most interesting OpenLRSng receiver I found was the "Brotronics Broversity RX", but its documentation was minimal, so I wrote some and made a demo video:

http://marc.merlins.org/perso/rc/post_2015-11-14_Brotronics-Broversity-RX_-the-Missing-Manual.html

I had quite a hard time configuring APM::Plane to only have an altitude deck so that if I fly too low, AP takes over and goes back to a safe altitude.

I think I also hit at least one small bug in the code in the process (you cannot set a minimum altitude without setting a maximum altitude too).

Either way, I documented it all here:

http://marc.merlins.org/perso/rc/post_2015-11-06_Using-Ardupilot-Geofencing-As-An-Altitude-Deck.html

After lots of work (too much to detail here, but it was months of building and testing planes and autopilots, as well as FPV gear), I have 2 summary videos (day and night), some screenshots, and the longer raw videos if you'd like to see them:

http://marc.merlins.org/perso/rc/post_2015-09-01_Flights-over-Burning-Man_-and-the-current-unfortunate-BMorg-and-FAA-policies.html

I had a hard time finding a replacement for my Multiplex Cularis, and thanks to suggestion from many (thanks) I settled for the Diamond 2500 which was out of stock, but replaced by the BFG2600 available from Hobbyking:

Build and pictures here:
http://marc.merlins.org/perso/rc/post_2015-08-15_BFG2600-FPV-build-with-Pixhawk-Ardupilot-3_3-_Diamond-2500-remake-from-Hobbyking_.html

This was actually pretty non trivial.

I've just written up full documentation here: http://marc.merlins.org/perso/rc/post_2015-08-04_Using-Flaperons-With-Ardupilot.html

My X-UAV Talon should now be easier to land :)

After spending quite a while building a pixhawk based Multiplex Cularis with FPV, and lots of foam cutting to fit everything (including 3 cameras), here is the result:

http://marc.merlins.org/perso/rc/post_2015-04-23_FPV-with-Multiplex-Cularis_-v2.html

Fitting all the APM and FPV gear in there is kind of tight, but it's doable.

Specs:

• 80Amp Castle Phoenix ESC
• Neumotor 1905 2.5Y 600-1200W motor 865kV (too heavy and powerful but I inherited it with my old Cularis)
• 4S 3300mAh lipo
• 14x8 folding prop, 60A, 960W power at full power takeoff (same power with 12x8 prop)
• 5V BEC to power servos and backup power to pixhawk
• Pixhawk with ardupilot 3.2.3
• 433Mhz telemetry radio
• MinimOSD with minimosd-extra R800
• 12V uBEC for Vtx
• 900Mhz 500mW video TX with 5V output used to power 2 mobius cameras and FPV camera
• Narrow angle Mobius for forward bottom view
• Wide angle Mobius for rear bottom view
• Fatshark TVL 600 FPV cam on top
• RC controlled onboard video switcher for the 3 analog video sources
• Lost model finder plugged into an RC channel
• Separate loud Keyringer with independent battery, sound activated

Total weight is a bit heavy, around 2.1kg, but with the huge wings, it's not a big problem. The wing area is 55dm^2, and wing loading of about 40g per dm^2 (the pure glider version is only 25g per dm^2).

Here is my pixhawk run Cularis Motor Glider with a very custom Taranis Setup.

Complex Taranis configuration can be time consuming, so I'm sharing my config so that others can re-use it.

Mine allows you to setup your flaps asymmetrically where they go down more than up, or only down. You decide how you want to set yours up and you only need to change the subtrim in channels 6 and 7, something that was very non obvious to me when I was learning how to program my Taranis.

My setup is also different from Sean’s by having the throttle stick control crow flaps from 0 to 45%, nothing from 45 and 55%, and then throttle from 55% to 100%. This allows you to use a single power lever to slow down from gliding, or add power to gliding, middle being neutral. No switches to flip to switch from crow flaps to motor power, which is very handy if you have to cancel your landing as the last second.


Blog post here: http://marc.merlins.org/perso/rc/post_2015-05-17_Cularis-7-Channel-Glider-With-Crow-Flaps-and-Washout-Taranis-Config-EEPE.html
Full doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bGKjyvOksHBhD8gT3Q20ZmDu1TUsDn15BvGPHw-doVg/edit



Cheers,
Marc