well I have never done that before, that is very thin material....

maybe somehow if there was a conductive tape you could find? and tape the crack so that it has continuity?

you know it's not going to make it any worse

Honestly I am just spitballing here.

steve

Originally Posted by Cervanchez

Yes the plastic is cracked too. The center pole has continuity with all but the top left portion of the silver part. Are you saying its worth a try to solder back that portion?

Thx Rth!!.... : Cool:

[swf]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW22l-ocmRU[/swf]

Do not overload your quad...

Later,
Gundy

Overloaded DJI Naza w/GPS quadcopter CRASH, GoPro, FPV, (2 min 7 sec)

I realized that with carbon fiber props my quad don't maintain the altitude like with plastic props,

With 10x4.5 carbon fiber props: 4 meters of variation

With 40x4.5 plastic props: 1 or 2 meters of variation.

Anyone noticed that too??

Originally Posted by Gundy

Do not overload your quad...

Something seriously wrong with your pack(s) - only 25% discharged at the end, but the voltage dropped to 11.3 when you opened the throttle. You had 11.9V on the original climbout ... over 20 watts more power.

BTW, they still get my lipo business

Have you checked out Value Hobbies. They have those Nano batteries probably Turnigy rebranded. They give you choices on connectors. I still use Dean's and hate cutting off and replacing connectors. Shipping is about 4 bucks I think. Prices are pretty competative once you add in HK shipping.

Originally Posted by Gundy

Do not overload your quad...

Later,
Gundy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di-cUEveUiw

Looks like just hovering up there you were at max power. Probably 90% throttle to hover :F

Originally Posted by u2builder

Have you checked out Value Hobbies. They have those Nano batteries probably Turnigy rebranded. They give you choices on connectors. I still use Dean's and hate cutting off and replacing connectors. Shipping is about 4 bucks I think. Prices are pretty competative once you add in HK shipping.

Thanks for posting about Value Hobbies. Prices look good and I use Deans as well and hate having to resolder battery connectors. What has your experience been with the quality of the lipos you get from there? I've been burned a few times on budget-priced lipos that have dead cells right out of the box. Looking to purchase a few large 3S batteries in the near future.

Originally Posted by labcopilot

Thanks for posting about Value Hobbies. Prices look good and I use Deans as well and hate having to resolder battery connectors. What has your experience been with the quality of the lipos you get from there? I've been burned a few times on budget-priced lipos that have dead cells right out of the box. Looking to purchase a few large 3S batteries in the near future.

How does this compare?
I think HK is actually cheaper for more C.
And I'll vouch for HK Nanos... Really good!
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...arehouse_.html
3S 5000mAh 25C-50C for $32.19 seems pretty good to me even if you have to solder Deans connectors on it...
When I've ordered from the HK/USA Whse, I've gotten the batteries in 3 days Priority Mail...

Gundy,

I tried 2X 5000mah 4s packs as well.

I found that it flew horribly, and I only gained under two minutes flight time.

I have been flying 4s 5000mah packs, and when I get finished, the packs are hot, and I have ballooned 4 Hyperion packs.

So, I just purchased 2X Nanotech 4S 2700Mah - 65-130C LiPos.

I gained 400Mah with an 80gram increase, and I am draining from 8 cells, instead of 4.

Just took a test flight, and I have gained a bit of time, but when I landed, the LiPos were barely warm.

I am happy enough with the resuts enough to stock up on this configuration.



I guess, what I found is that double the Mah is not equal to even half as much more time.

Originally Posted by Gundy

Do not overload your quad...

Later,
Gundy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di-cUEveUiw

The max weight DJI recommends for the F450 is 1600g
Two 4S 5000 mAh batteries alone weight ~ 1100 to 1200 g!
To me, this much battery does not make sense.
Can someone explain any sense of reasoning here?
I know you guys want to maximize flight times, but some simple math will at least keep you in the ballpark (and out of jail).
I'm surprised the quad even got off the ground...
And then the pilot was lucky he didn't hurt someone or their property.

I'll bet his motors were cooked...

Originally Posted by T J Gilbert

The max weight DJI recommends for the F450 is 1600g
Two 4S 5000 mAh batteries alone weight ~ 1100 to 1200 g!
To me, this much battery does not make sense.
Can someone explain any sense of reasoning here?
I'm surprised the quad even got off the ground...
And then the pilot was lucky he didn't hurt someone or their property.

The quad should hover at the half of the motor power, for example: if the motor is 185w, it's better to make the quad hover with 92w (a watt meter is a good idea) the motor curve isn't linear, so if you add a second battery that increase the weight and makes the quad hover at 90% of power, won't result in a significant flight time increase, and your motor and escs will be hotter than before, so, only compensate to add a second battery if your are hovering with less than 50% of power!

A good way to test is fly in manual mode, put the throttle in the middle and see if the quad will go up or down!

Sorry for the bad English, hope it helps!

Originally Posted by marcelog

The quad should hover at the half of the motor power, for example: if the motor is 185w, it's better to make the quad hover with 92w (a watt meter is a good idea) the motor curve isn't linear, so if you add a second battery that increase the weight and makes the quad hover at 90% of power, won't result in a significant flight time increase, and your motor and escs will be hotter than before, so, only compensate to add a second battery if your are hovering with less than 50% of power!

A good way to test is fly in manual mode, put the throttle in the middle and see if the quad will go up or down!

Sorry for the bad English, hope it helps!

Your logic and reasoning is exactly what I'm referring to with "simple math". (see edited post above)
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand that loading up with battery weight does not necessarily equal longer flight times...

And your English is fine...

When adding bigger batteries to get more flight times you get diminishing returns very quickly.

To add significant flight time with additional battery capacity you really need to be swapping out motors and props.

I am sure you guys have used the eCalc xcopter Calc website?

http://www.ecalc.ch/xcoptercalc_e.htm?ecalc

Oh and i didnt get to fly at the beach yesterday.
There were far too many people and your not supposed to fly RC aircraft outside the designated areas for RC in this country.
So i decided not to risk getting into trouble.
Pluss it would have only been the 3rd flight on my Naza setup so...

I was very dissapointed as i have to wait another week until i get the opportunity to fly again.

Ben

Preflighting a OSD.
Using the Hobbyking Tiny OSD. It seems they are selling them for Skylark with the HK branded.
It has a barometer, and all the features of the Skylark OSD III hardware wise.
After digging some information this unit can be programmed with firmware V 2.8 from:
http://fpvlab.com/forums/showthread....k-OSD-firmware
The Skylark website download seems to work with this build except for the flight summary option.
I also noticed that the calibration works way better with the 2.8 from skylark.
So if you are using this OSD upgrade to V 2.8 then calibrate according to this URL.
http://www.rcflighttest.com/home/201...urrent-sensor/

Attached is a custom usb to ttl serial cable made from Sparkfun's ft232 using the extra gps cable provided.
Note the + voltage wire is not connected.
It can be used to program these osd's using skylarks pc software.