Comments

• Moderator

  Hai Tran August 11, 2012 at 11:29pm

  We should organize an FPV/UAV camp when the weather gets reliably better. Any suggestions on location ?
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  JB August 11, 2012 at 9:24pm

  ootktk

  Sorry was stuck at work yesterday...where do you want to go to fly? Maybe we can do something next Sunday, if the weather is better than today? It's pouring atm in Mandurah! 
• ootktk August 11, 2012 at 8:15pm

  :(
• Moderator

  Hai Tran August 11, 2012 at 7:25am

  isn't it raining tomorrow?  today was sweet flying conditions
• ootktk August 11, 2012 at 7:08am

  who's flying where tomorrow? would like to meet some of you chaps!
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  JB August 7, 2012 at 9:51pm

  ootktk

  Ouch! Looks nasty. It's a good picture to show my boys though...as a deterrent. They like having their fingers on the throttle without using the motor kill switch on the ground. Maybe your pain will be their gain!

  John

  Which 3dr radios do you have? 433 or 900MHz versions? Do you have any spare? ;) The DIYDrones store has had them on backorder for eons now, so the APM2 I have is currently without comms. Which is a bit boring actually... OSD still works though, but no live mission planner atm.

  BTW how is the Safety Bay location, are there lots of RC/people, or is their enough space for some UAV testing? I went past their last night...but it was a bit dark to see the area (duh!) where exactly do you gain access, through Safety Bay road? thx for any info.

  Good to hear you could salvage your gear at least...maybe a sealed plastic bag for the electronics, with a dab of silicone around the cable penetrations, would be a good idea for your next trans-canning crossing? ;) I wouldn't mind attempting a trans- estuary crossing in Mandurah once, with plastic bag, and dingy for retrieval in case it ditches!
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  John Cousins August 7, 2012 at 9:23pm

  No idea about what caused the motor to stop suddenly... especially as it works fine now. Someone suggested a dodgy motor connector which is definitely possible. Or perhaps a battery fault? Guess I'll never know as the battery is in the bin... gees your hand looks bad. Two people in 3 weeks ive seen with injuries due to props! I have a set of 3Dr radios that I am yet to use... have u used xbees? How do they compare?
• ootktk August 7, 2012 at 5:00pm

  This is one of my post on the arducopter site from last week that I would like to share with you guys especially the ones that are playing with APM and telemetry.

  I'm using a 3DR 900mhz radio and it always worked flawlessly ever since I got it 3 weeks ago. Yesterday, the green status led on the ground module kept blinking (indicating that it hasn't established a connection with the air module) even though the air module is wired up and powered up correctly. I walked over and checked the cables (which looked fine) and disconnected the serial cable from APM2.0 to the 3DR module and my quad suddenly started spinning out of control giving me some pretty nasty cuts.

  Can someone please tell me what is going on and why did it spin up in the first place? (I know I realy should've disconnected the lipo/removed blades first, but lets leave that for another day, I'm really curious if this is a software bug?)

  
• ootktk August 7, 2012 at 4:54pm

  hi John, the touchdown looked so slow and gentle! did you managed to find out what went wrong causing the motor to stop spinning?
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  John Cousins August 7, 2012 at 2:25am

  It was waist deep... and I nearly lost both shoes in the silt. Yuk! Strange thing is... Everything works even though it was submerged for 10 minutes. Washed it all with contact cleaner and air dried and everything works fine! I will not be trusting that gear for anything other than fun flights around the salt lake. By the way, the lake is closed until ssummer I think.