Originally Posted by tkeeg

Hi Guys,

I wanted to get some opinions on the screen shot that I have displayed in this post along with two other interesting anomalies.

In one of my MK's I am currently using the newest version of the Spektrum Diversity Board that just came out a few weeks ago with 4 Spektrum Satellites plugged into it. I seem to be getting excellent reception from my Spektrum DX7 radio transmitter, and am getting the full 7 channels that my radio offers. My question is why does the Channels LED screen in MKTool say -1 for number of channels.

On my other MK, I use a Quatro PPM converter plugged into a Spektrum AR700 receiver and in this same screen says +7 channels in that instance. I don't understand why it says -1 channel when using the Spektrum Diversity Board with 4 Spektrum Satellites. Does anyone else have this happening or have an explanation for it?

In addition, there is one other weird thing happening. I assumed that I would need to select Spektrum Satellite (Low Res) in the Channels Setup Page of MKTool, since I am using a low resolution Spektrum radio transmitter, however this is not the case. If I select either the Spektrum Satellite (Low Res) or the Spektrum Satellite (Hi Res), the graph showing the channels, (on the channels page in MKTool), changes significantly and the value of all of my sticks changes so much that they cannot be compensated for with the settings in my radio transmitter. As soon as I select the plain Spektrum Satellite setting all of the graphs showing the channels return to normal and my control stick are set perfectly again. Does anyone else have this happening or have an explanation for it?

I recently upgraded both of my Mikrokopter Quad's to the latest's firmware. As I was tweaking some settings I noticed on my EPI-OSD, 7" LED display, that I was having my normal, nice solid signal being received by the MK from my radio transmitter. This signal intensity was hovering right around 196 to 200. When I activated my Altitude Hold switch this signal number instantly dropped down to 2 and started flashing at me on the EPI-OSD display. This exact occurrence is happening on BOTH of my Quads, however if I conduct the same experiment with my MK's hooked up to MKTool, page 8 of the LED screen shows that there is NO change in the strength of the received signal when I switch on the Altitude Hold. It only shows up on the output of the EPI-OSD display.
I don't remember noticing this strange behavior prior to upgrading the firmware, but maybe I just never noticed it before? There is no indication that I am loosing the signal connection to my MK's and even on test flights at 5 to 6 hundred feet away, the signal seems to be rock solid even though it instantly switches from nearly 200 signal strength to 2 when I flip the Altitude Hold switch.
Does anyone else have this happening or have an explanation for it?

Thanks,
Tom

Hi

I also use the spectrum diversity board and mine also shows -1 channels. Since everything is working I am assuming it is just some anomoly with how MK tools or the MK reports channel numbers.

regarding your other 2 question - I have seen posts similar to yours that have related it to the new firmware. I am sticking with the older firmware for now.

Al

Originally Posted by alros_100

Hi

I also use the spectrum diversity board and mine also shows -1 channels. Since everything is working I am assuming it is just some anomoly with how MK tools or the MK reports channel numbers.

regarding your other 2 question - I have seen posts similar to yours that have related it to the new firmware. I am sticking with the older firmware for now.

Al

Hi Al,
Thanks a lot for your response. I'm glad that someone fianlly answered my question and has the same reading.
I appreciate your comments!
Tom

couple of minutes from my look at the world, no jello though.. )
http://vimeo.com/22583161

cheers
Dimitri

I just thought I would post a little warning for those of you flying heavy lift machines... today I noticed a slight yawing back and forth, almost like my quad was shaking "no". I thought it may be my compass calibration since I just reinstalled my navi stack.

Luckily, I took it back to the bench and to my surprise found only 5 of my 8 capacitors present on my BL 2's. Upon closer inspection, 3 of these remaining caps had cracks in the legs. Apparently, I did not crash because there was one cap per esc still present, even know they had cracks in the legs they were making contact. Of course this was my first flight with a brand new t2i, so I consider myself extremely lucky.

I just rebuilt the stack and verified that the caps were fine the previous flight. All of this happened in one flight! This seems to be a common problem with the heavy lift machines, I am definitely hot gluing the new caps when they arrive, and possibly installing them tall without a bend if space allows.

FYI- This is on a droidworx HL quad frame with pulsos and 12" CF props. I have not balanced props, as they are sold "balanced", but I will sure take a second look.

Originally Posted by skycraft media

I just thought I would post a little warning for those of you flying heavy lift machines... today I noticed a slight yawing back and forth, almost like my quad was shaking "no". I thought it may be my compass calibration since I just reinstalled my navi stack.

Luckily, I took it back to the bench and to my surprise found only 5 of my 8 capacitors present on my BL 2's. Upon closer inspection, 3 of these remaining caps had cracks in the legs. Apparently, I did not crash because there was one cap per esc still present, even know they had cracks in the legs they were making contact. Of course this was my first flight with a brand new t2i, so I consider myself extremely lucky.

I just rebuilt the stack and verified that the caps were fine the previous flight. All of this happened in one flight! This seems to be a common problem with the heavy lift machines, I am definitely hot gluing the new caps when they arrive, and possibly installing them tall without a bend if space allows.

FYI- This is on a droidworx HL quad frame with pulsos and 12" CF props. I have not balanced props, as they are sold "balanced", but I will sure take a second look.

Well, my caps are hot glued and I still have similar yaw issue with my heavy hexa. It happens during descent and it is more pronounced toward the end of the flight. I think something else is going on here, perhaps the battery can't keep up. I've just received a batch of new batteries with higher C rating and I will be testing them at first chance.

[QUOTE=skycraft media;

FYI- This is on a droidworx HL quad frame with pulsos and 12" CF props. I have not balanced props, as they are sold "balanced", but I will sure take a second look.[/QUOTE]

Hey are those our CF Props? If so can you let me know if they do not balance, out of a batch of 300, only 7 of them were not balanced. Yes i know i check them all
Let me know if they are out and i will send you some more

Simon

Since we have been talking jello for a few posts, it might be time to pass along the "secret" for reducing jello. Since no one in this thread has yet to mention it, perhaps it has been a well guarded secret. The answer:

Less Light REDUCES the jello effect! I know this is counter intuitive since most of us strive for more, not less, light during video. At least this is the claim from some of the GoPro users. I can't help but notice that Simon's video with jello was in bright sunlight while the two videos with almost no jello were in cloudy skies with much lower light.

Perhaps this calls for a few experiments to validate the claim and if true, identify the "sweet" spot for best performance. Certainly you can go too far with lower light levels such that blurring becomes a problem. One suggestion for video under sunny skies is to add a Neutral Density filter to reduce the light (this will also enhance the color and contrast).

OMM

Originally Posted by Old Man Mike

Since we have been talking jello for a few posts, it might be time to pass along the "secret" for reducing jello. Since no one in this thread has yet to mention it, perhaps it has been a well guarded secret. The answer:

Less Light REDUCES the jello effect! I know this is counter intuitive since most of us strive for more, not less, light during video. At least this is the claim from some of the GoPro users. I can't help but notice that Simon's video with jello was in bright sunlight while the two videos with almost no jello were in cloudy skies with much lower light.

Perhaps this calls for a few experiments to validate the claim and if true, identify the "sweet" spot for best performance. Certainly you can go too far with lower light levels such that blurring becomes a problem. One suggestion for video under sunny skies is to add a Neutral Density filter to reduce the light (this will also enhance the color and contrast).

OMM

this is very true, I tried a mount that I made on a cloudy day in the afternoon. Viewing the video there was no jello effect on the video at all.

I picked my MK for a travel trusting to get a jello free video, that was not the case with sunny days I had lots of rolling shutter.

Originally Posted by nikivan

Well, my caps are hot glued and I still have similar yaw issue with my heavy hexa. It happens during descent and it is more pronounced toward the end of the flight. I think something else is going on here, perhaps the battery can't keep up. I've just received a batch of new batteries with higher C rating and I will be testing them at first chance.

I had this issue and a few flights later one of my roxxy's gave up, stopped in mid air with my 550D, I was able to land on the remaning 7 motors, but I am sure it was that motor causing the my yaw errors

On the Jello Go-Pro thing.
You might find by dropping the exposure it increases the scan rate of the chip, so the go-pro might not be adjusting the aperture of the lense but the scan rate of the chip to adjust exposure. This would be interesting if confimed by go-pro users.

I am assuming we are rulling out shutter speed as this just changes the amount of blur per frame, so makes the jello less noticable but then introduces blur instead...

Originally Posted by Ryan Thomas

I had this issue and a few flights later one of my roxxy's gave up, stopped in mid air with my 550D, I was able to land on the remaning 7 motors, but I am sure it was that motor causing the my yaw errors

On the Jello Go-Pro thing.
You might find by dropping the exposure it increases the scan rate of the chip, so the go-pro might not be adjusting the aperture of the lense but the scan rate of the chip to adjust exposure. This would be interesting if confimed by go-pro users.

I am assuming we are rulling out shutter speed as this just changes the amount of blur per frame, so makes the jello less noticable but then introduces blur instead...

Ryan, you can't change exposure within the GoPro settings...
@OMM
Modes that i use on the GoPro.
R3 (720p)60fps / R5 (1080p)30fps.
With a standard unmodified GoPro you can shoot on R3 and be pretty sure not to see no jello, even with unbalanced props. On R5 it a different story, It's Jello city

It's gets worse.
The Sydney Video that i just posted was on R3 and using a Sunex lens, it has to be on R3 because if it's on R5 it's too Zoomed in.
I was hoping that because i was on R3 i would see NO Jello,
(i thought ) That 'maybe' 60fps was somehow the key..

I like the idea of a filter, i will test this tomorrow morning and see how it works... I have dark polarised filter.
Simon

Originally Posted by Old Man Mike

Less Light REDUCES the jello effect! I know this is counter intuitive since most of us strive for more, not less, light during video. At least this is the claim from some of the GoPro users. I can't help but notice that Simon's video with jello was in bright sunlight while the two videos with almost no jello were in cloudy skies with much lower light.

My video was overcasted, full sun, but i lowered that in post. Anyway, i still agree - no sun, less jello for gopro.

Has anyone figured out the cause of the recent GPS failures that I've been reading about?

I have four units. Two that I bought a few years ago are still working, but two that I bought a few months ago aren't. One of those worked for a few days and the other one never worked. They aren't completely dead, though, as they still communicate with U-center. In fact, the one that worked for a while is still sending out the last fix it had (in Anatarctica!) It appears that the receivers are dead.

I haven't had time to troubleshoot them and am hoping someone else has already found the reason.

Thanks,
Don

Originally Posted by dleroi

Has anyone figured out the cause of the recent GPS failures that I've been reading about?

I have four units. Two that I bought a few years ago are still working, but two that I bought a few months ago aren't. One of those worked for a few days and the other one never worked. They aren't completely dead, though, as they still communicate with U-center. In fact, the one that worked for a while is still sending out the last fix it had (in Anatarctica!) It appears that the receivers are dead.

I haven't had time to troubleshoot them and am hoping someone else has already found the reason.

Thanks,
Don

I don't think the firmware is to blame.. All the problems I have had, have been directly or indirectly my own fault.

+1 for low light = less jello.... less light = crap grainy video however.

steve

hello all,

may i get some help on my navi please

i tried to up firmware on my navi board and yes i connected everything correctly, i used to up firmware for navi before but this time it give me time out error. i also tried power up when connect message show up and did not work, so from my reading, it look like bad bootloader and i will need to install boot loader

my reading tell me that i have to get
1 jtag----> please show me the link to buy one that will work
2 navi----> bootloader, do not know where to get it, can not find in mk website, please give me link or send file to noppita@hotmail.com
3 st caps2.40 ---> no longer exist in st.com, which one to get that will work with jtag noppita@hotmail.com


thanknyou for helping