Hey Everyone,

I just finished up five flights on the new firmware flying my Hexa#2 with 12" props in 10-15 mph winds. Like the title says it was EPIC! I am blown away by the stability of the new firmware on my copter. Will give details and upload video tonight. Recharging batteries now for more flights this evening!

Shawn

Hurry up and get the video online dammit.......

Awesome! Looking forward to the video.

Originally Posted by Mactadpole

Hey Everyone,

I just finished up five flights on the new firmware flying my Hexa#2 with 12" props in 10-15 mph winds. Like the title says it was EPIC! I am blown away by the stability of the new firmware on my copter. Will give details and upload video tonight. Recharging batteries now for more flights this evening!

Shawn

Ok guys (gals?), this video was the second flight of the day. The winds were 5-15 mph. I had the GoPro on two pieces of mouse pad I cut up and velcro'd to my MK HiSight III camera gimbal. There is a fair amount of jello but I think I solved that later in the day, there will be a pic in another post. There is also a good bit of vibration which I thought was mostly the wind but when I got back home I now think it is the POS $20 roll servo I used to replace the $60 one. I had no idea that when I damaged that servo during firmware testing and it decided to park my hexa in a tree that it would cost me $80 for a servo (the $20 one and the new $60 one I need to buy). Does anyone have a good suggestion for a really good 9g servo for roll compensation? The one I bought was the Hitec HS-45HB and it just jitters away even when sitting still (most of the time). Upon inspection of my video I could clearly see it was this servo. In several of my videos I even noticed it causing vibration and blurriness while sitting on the ground before takeoff. I am so bummed because I think I would have had some really good video today instead of just ok. Experiencing the incredible new stability of the copter made up for it and I will get it fixed soon.

The new firmware is incredible on both my hexa's. Yep, I even threw the board onto hexa#1 to take it for a spin. It truly is an epic difference to me.

Altitude hold worked incredibly well except for two instances where the copter had been holding for about a minute and then just began falling and didn't stop so I had to switch it off and recover. My guess is that the pressure just happened to change because of the wind. I do have my pressure sensor covered with open cell foam. The rest of the time it was spot on.

I also did two flights in front of my house strictly looking for the jutter/jitter/hiccup behavior and I did not notice it at all. I hovered from about 5'-15' above ground and no problem. I am so happy it is gone!

I started trying to dial in auto-leveling but it was just too windy.

Flight parameters for today:

Gain

3s 4400mAh battery = 122
3s 4500-5000mAh = 110
3s 6000mAh = 90

Altitude hold gain = 36 (I think I can crank it up some more but will wait for no winds)

EXPO: AILE & ELEV = 40%
RUDD = 30%

I'm still using my throttle curve. Tried it without and still a little too sensitive around the center for me.

Flight times

4400 = 7 min
4500's = 6:20 - 7:40 min
5000 = ~ 7 min
6000 = ~ 12 min

I think all but my 3s 6000mAh nano-tech are just getting tired from so many flights. Plus, I bought the 4500's used.

Here' the first video.

San Marcos River City Park (7 min 45 sec)

Shawn

I can see why you are so happy Shawn, way to go George.

You are going to be so sick of my questions when i get one of these boards...

Video #2

San Marcos River City Park p.II (6 min 52 sec)

Kinda long, I need to improve my editing skills. Finally getting at least viewable video has me pretty excited.

Shanw

Originally Posted by Mactadpole

Does anyone have a good suggestion for a really good 9g servo for roll compensation? The one I bought was the Hitec HS-45HB and it just jitters away even when sitting still (most of the time).

I'm using Hitec HS5065 MG servos on both roll and tilt on a HiSight II mount on the Hoverfly Quad and getting great results, see the video I posted previously in one of the other threads here.

Haven't had a chance to try video with the new firmware, it's been way too windy here all weekend, the good news is the wind is bringing warm air and the snow is almost completely gone...

Originally Posted by Mactadpole

Video #2

http://vimeo.com/20733780

Kinda long, I need to improve my editing skills. Finally getting at least viewable video has me pretty excited.

Shanw

Wow! Welcome to San Marcos. I would have liked to have seen the other end of that train. Were you flying FPV? Those downward pan shots were cool. Beyond the great stability, you demonstrate some impressive stick control - those slow pans are hard to do in the wind. Can you imagine the possibilities with the GPS board? I'm convinced, we are on the verge of being able to produce some truly breathtaking AP. Those of us who have been photographing since we were kids are kids once again thanks to George and his team.

Great footage. Its awesome when you get stuff working the way you want it. I'll get the new firmware loaded tonight super excited.

Originally Posted by RTRyder

I'm using Hitec HS5065 MG servos on both roll and tilt on a HiSight II mount on the Hoverfly Quad and getting great results, see the video I posted previously in one of the other threads here.

Haven't had a chance to try video with the new firmware, it's been way too windy here all weekend, the good news is the wind is bringing warm air and the snow is almost completely gone...

Thanks for the servo recommendation. I got antsy yesterday evening and decided to try the Spektrum A3040 Sub-Micro Digital High-Torque Aircraft MG SX. I like the specs and got it fairly cheap:

Torque: 23 oz-in (1.7 kg-cm) @ 4.8V / 28 oz-in (2 kg-cm) @ 6V
Speed: .12 sec/60° @ 4.8 / .10 sec/60° @ 6V

If I goofed again I will for sure be ordering your recommendation.

Shawn

Originally Posted by Earl E Adobtr

Wow! Welcome to San Marcos. I would have liked to have seen the other end of that train. Were you flying FPV? Those downward pan shots were cool. Beyond the great stability, you demonstrate some impressive stick control - those slow pans are hard to do in the wind. Can you imagine the possibilities with the GPS board? I'm convinced, we are on the verge of being able to produce some truly breathtaking AP. Those of us who have been photographing since we were kids are kids once again thanks to George and his team.

Hey Earl,

Thanks for the kind comments, sorry about the train. I did record it all but I was trying to shorten the video.

No FPV - yet! The X8 will have a pan/tilt fpv camera. I might consider getting a cheap camera and video rx/tx system for the hexa. It sure would make lining up shots so much easier, and little less scary for me when the copter gets far away and I can no longer decipher orientation and just have to assume it is still facing the same way it went. I really need to stop doing that because it may cause an issue someday. A couple of occasions yesterday I had it really far out and started to bring it back but it was so far out I could not calculate the proper stick input. When I was finally able to decipher that it was indeed coming back at me I realized I had it coming back really fast and she was in a sharp arm down trajectory. Recovering from this was a little scary over the river and certainly dangerous. Now that I just typed the word 'dangerous' I must get an FPV system for the hexa. It will have to wait a little bit since I am already overdrawn on the X8 account! Secured a bit more grant funding for this project that will be available in June so it will have to wait until then.

I am sooo excited to get the GPS because I can actually start doing some real research testing.

Very happy I have stuck with George through QP and on to HFP.

Shawn

Shawn are you going back to South America for more work again?

Originally Posted by Stacky

Shawn are you going back to South America for more work again?

Man, I was supposed to be headed to Cambodia in a month (for a month) and planned on taking my old hexa#1 with me but that appears to be falling thru because the biodiversity assessment team leader has come down ill with some funky parasite. They are talking about rescheduling for November. Way bummed.

I am hoping to back to SA in the summer sometime but gotta find some more money between now and then. I am hoping to work something out with Finding Species to get down south for an aerial photo shoot and then I can go visit a couple of my research sites to take care of some long-term work going on plus some aerial photo work.

We'll see.

Shawn

As promised, here is a pic of my current method to reduce jello on the GoPro. It is made up of an old mouse pad and double-stick foam tape. I haven't posted any video with this mounting method yet but I did shoot a bunch in the afternoon and the jello was gone. Of course the vibs from roll servo were still there. When I get a chance I may post some of that video. One problem with it too was that it was so late in the afternoon that I could tell the GoPro was having a hard time handling the contrasting lighting situation where I was flying.

Shawn

Shawn my last camera mounting was similar but everything was sitting on top of a metal plate with grommets mounting it to the bracket. The strap went around the camera and plate but not the main bracket. I had crummy resolution but no jello. Plan to use the same setup again but with a lighter HD camera and hopefully get the same results just in 720p/60fps.