With the 3DR black friday deals, and the release of their power module, I took the opportunity to get another couple of APM2.5s, the cases that we have been anticipating, and some power modules. I got it all assembled yesterday and I must admit I love the simplicity it adds to the build.
I now just have signal leads coming from the ESCs in to the APM directly.
The 3DR power module sits in line before the distribution board, and that supplies the 5v for the APM to run from, as well as providing voltage+amperage readings from the battery.
With the case, and my QAV500 frame, I decided to use only the top portion of the case and mount through to the risers I already had. I also made a minor mod on the case for the UART pins, but everything else was smooth. I cant wait to take it out for a flight.
The issue I was having with 2.8.1 not reading the amperage from the attopilot sensor is not an issue with the 3DR sensor (glad to see).
More photos can be found here: http://projectable.me/post/37261340554/yesterday-i-received-my-black-friday-specials-from
Comments
Nice. Seems to be twitchy even after a few minutes.
Personally, I am not a video fan.. they are fun but hard to share with friends and family.. so I typically have the gopro set on a timer for some nice aerial shots... plus if I can't fly worth a crap then it isn't so obvious :)
Just took it all out for a spin finally, it was too windy yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDBBDiAGn3w
I am getting to FPV... at some point soon I will have my first flight... lots of details on the ground to work out such as the receiver array and such... definitily will be fun.. as my profile pic shows, I have a TBS discovery designed for night flying where I can turn off each of the sets of lights, and I also have a infrared light bar.
Its a long process but lots of fun... plus I like making the ground stuff a little nicer as I can't crash my base station but I sure can crash the quad. lol
Hmm, interesting, and you are right. I haven't really looked at it too much to be honest. Since FPV isn't important to me just yet, I didn't debug it at the time.
oops I meant Daniel not Joe.
Joe, I am confused.. your video transmitter should be one of the lowest power draws especially compared to your motors. I personally don't notice much of a difference with the video transmitter on or off and I have a 800mW 1.3Ghz. Based on the data logger I am running around 240watts at hover with a 3S 4400 battery.. so a 0.8W (800mW) transmitter is a tiny blip on the radar as far as power draw.
How could a video transmitter make it so it 'barely took off'.. seems like some other major issue is going on.
The nice thing about watts (or mW) is that they include voltage and current... so watts are watts regardless of battery pack you are running... your 5Ah battery has 55,500 watts.. I am probably messing the math up but your 5Ah battery should run that transmitter for over a week (11 days).
feel free to correct me anyone.. as I by no means know much in the area of electronics and ohm's law. I am just shocked as to how a video transmitter could effect your flight time in a very noticeable way.
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.
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.
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.
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