Morning everyone!
So i decided to try the whole Dji thing. It took all of about 20mins to swop the APM2 with the Naza.
The setup is as simple as it gets. That took no more than 10 mins.
After installing the hardware and software I took it outside and attempted the first flight.
All I have to say is wow! A truly awesome piece of engineering! Dont get me wrong, I love my ardupilot!
But the Naza is just amazing! Im not a very experienced pilot so im still a little wobbly flying the APM2.
The real reason behind buying the Naza, is for videography. I cant fly the APM2 stable enough for videography, obviously its perfectly suited for that, Im just not experience enough to fly it well enough. Duran DeV flies all his copters on APM and his videos are mind blowing. So its not the FC, its the pilot!
For a not so fresh noob, the Naza makes the whole experience a dream. I did a direct swop out of the FC on the standard jDrones Arducopter and it worked like a charm, no tuning or anything.
I only flew it in atti mode. Which I think is awesome for videography, the alt hold is accurate to within a few centimeters.
And when I put my gopro on it, which threw out the COG, the flight dynamics remained exactly the same!
I hope the Ardu boys dont get upset with me for posting this, but one has to have an open mind to all new tech :)
G:)
P.S. I bought a ST Discovery high wing foamy trainer for my APM2 for photogrammetry, so Ill post some vids and or crashes of that soon!
Comments
Got my NAZA installed on my 3DR quad
Ok, for the record, the weather and heat finally broke, so I was able to go out to test my newly re-calibrated ESC, and Naza/DJI 550 frame. Definitely, behaving better. So my original issue seems to be caused by uncalibrated ESCs. I had an easier time flying the uncalibrated ESCs in manual mode, than the Naza had in flying it in Attitude mode. I guess I'm a better pilot than the Naza.
Just a question, I noticed my ESCs come with the timing set to low. I'm thinking of programming them all to medium, which what I fly my APM with. for slightly better power. I think the motors can handle it. Any recommedations for that?
@Jason, i wouldnt imagine they would. We are afterall in deepest darkest africa ;)
@John Stuart, I saw a dji on loiter mode this morning. It hold position to within half a meter. Not sure about navigation but I cant see why the it wouldnt work if the loiter works so well...
@ Gareth have you heard of the DJI GPS glitch in the Southern Hemisphere? The guys in Oz have complained that their DJI M kits don't navigate at all (you can find the thread on rcgroups). If I'm not mistaken, the same applies here.
On the other hand, I've got basic Loiter functionality on my APM1 based quads. RTL doesn't work yet, but at least I can 'pause' them in the sky.
My APM quads are both v1.4 running 2.5.3 and are very stable and smooth in the air. However, I only got these results once I ditched my stock APM frame, motors and ESCs. Instead I use an xAircraft 650 frame, with Gaui 18A ESCs and Gaui motors on one. The other is smaller, an AMP1.4 on a Gaui 500 frame with the 10A ESCs and motors from the 330 kit.
One has to look at marketability. I started off with Ardu and learned by trial and error. Lots of trouble but i eventually got it right. I would of had no trouble with the naza if it was my first FC. But it i had started with Dji and then bought an ardupilot, i would of thrown it out the window... This is what most newbie would do. I agree, if you love tinkering and fine tuning then by all means the ardu is great. But if you want something out the box thats flyable, dji is the king. We have to give ardu a break, it is afterall only an 8bit controller. And the developers arent paid to write code, they do it out of the kindness of their hearts! All in all Dji might be better but ardupilot has ALOT more heart!!!
thanks gareth that is still very stable for zero pid config. motor speed sounds rock solid. i think the point is that some people don't want to spend days or hours "dialling in" the correct settings to make apm stable. sounds like the naza is just swich on and go. the question is how stable is apm with 2 mins of config. can it even get off the ground? as far as price is concerned i have 3 generations of ap which dont provide much fun due to the required setup time. price is same as naza if you take all things into account
ok I hear you guys, I think APM is very quickly on it' way. I will stick with it till then. :)
Nobody questions that APM can be a very good performer, but unless you are lucky with the frame you have to tweak PID's and experiment to get there. People are discovering that with the Naza they pretty much just have to install it and it will fly great, and handle wind gusts very well. This is the kind of "performance" I want to see with APM.
Duran, I cant really explain it. It just feels different. You've been flying for a LONG time. 1500+ flight with your octo.
Im still a noob and I can actually fly it. I can actually think about the shot and not flying the copter.
You'll have to get one and see. Also the safety features and ease of setup are wonderful.
From plugging in the battery, 5 seconds to launch.
If you want one, http://www.xtrememulticopters.co.za/ sell them. R2300.00
And theres a GPS upgrade coming soon.
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