It's been awhile since my last post/blog. I haven't been active with quad stuff and have shift my interest to gaming console for a bit. Here's my attempt at creating my first "trinket m0" dongle or RCM payloader. The internal is fairly simple with an Adafruit trinket M0 strip off the micro usb and solder in it's place a USB C for the switch. Underneath it is a 150mah lipo from a toy quad that I had laying around. Original plan was use a CR2032 but thought why not just use something I have laying around that can be recharge. Also printed up a case to hold it all in....

I don't have links with me at this minute but if anyone is interested just hit me up...





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A little late but finished this build over July 4th weekend and decided to go with the theme. It's a simple build and finally got to maiden it properly this weekend. It's fast but lacking a bit of low end. Took it through a few 1300mah 4s pack and no issue at all and super happy.

Part's list:
BeeRoter 195mm frame
RacerStar 4in1 25a ESC
Kombini F3
Cobra 2204 2820kv
Gemfan 5030
FrSky XSR
RGB LED (2 for each arm, inner LED is for strobing feature, outer ones are use as indcator and arm state)


This is my first quad flying with the X-lite and it feel very different from the Taranis. Will post about the X-lite on another blog.

Just a quick blog....completed my latest build with a vertical arm and just want to say I am no longer a virgin...lol. There were some issues with this frame/build and I'll post a build log coming up next.....

Preview:

Completed another build. The frame is from HK and it's a Crusader 130mm. The frame is like a polished carbon fiber which is the first for me. It look like it's very well made with no sharp corners compare to something from BG. For now it's a LOS only but it does come with an aluminum top plate for an AIO camera. Got a chance to maiden it at the golf course for full throttle and it has some issue....with full throttle the quad will do like a "death roll" and wham into the grass field it went. So, there is an issue somewhere but not sure what it was/is.....

Issue:
Full throttle and it does crazy..not sure if it's a "death roll" from a de-syn issue or something else. Tried raising the min throttle, lowering PID, on 3S, all with the same result....time to bring it back home and troubleshoot..

Here are some pics. of the build:

20x20 FC cover plate for the PikoBLX with buzzer and tiny LED..





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Another flight controller plate/cover. The hot blue method I have been using to hold the buzzer was a little messy so something new. I really like how it came out on the BLX4 so this time it's 20x20mm for a Crusader 130mm build (will be in another blog). It's covering a PikoBLX flight controller. After a few revision I've also added a two front/back plate to house an LED. I wish I had gone with a RGB instead but maybe that will be in the next build.







TH is my initial of course lol..the buzzer is 9x5mm

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Got another one completed and this one is strictly for LOS. I've purchased this frame from Armattan awhile back and wanted another 'quick' LOS build. I have 2 other FPV build in similar size so this will use to practice LOS...

1. BLX4 155mm from Armattan Productions. This frame has a weird spacing, 28x28 with 20x20 in the center. A 30x30 PDB was use with a slight modification to fit 28x28.

2. A 16x16 F4 flight controller was use (I have a few of these from the discontinued sale on BG)




3. Outdated LittleBee 20A which I got from HK when they were on sale for $2.99 (I think)...



4. HK/Turnigy 1808 2400KV also got these during the sale. The motor spacing is for a 22xx but I figure that would be too heavy and had a few of these laying around. The performance is not that bad but it's not that great either. It's ok if you have them laying around...

5. FrSky XSR, got these use for $7 and were in excellent condition. It fits nicely between the PDB and 3D printed plate.

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Starting my next build with the stuff I have laying around. I've purchase this BLX4 frame like years ago and decided to throw some budget motors/esc that I have laying around for a los quad. Not knowing it has a 28x28 with 20x20 in the middle. With littlebee and 16x16 fc I drew up a quick plate to house the FC and thought why not add a buzzer hold also. With a PDB and XT60 attached to the rear the buzzer hold sits right on top with a few mm to spare and will give it support if there is a hard landing on the top. This is the 3rd revision and a fourth one might be coming up to see if I can incorporate an antenna holder. The XSR sits right below the plate as of now....





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I've purchased this frame awhile back and finally get to complete it. Luckily I have all the component to complete it without purchasing so it only took a few hours to complete it. The goal was just to get her up in the air and see how she would handle. I was totally surprise at how stable it hover and pretty much thanks to all Betaflight it was so smooth in the air. These are 'old' components so nothing fancy other then a F4 fc.

1. Martian 220mm from BG. The fitment is a bit tight when the 4 arms join together but with a little elbow grease all went together nicely. For the price the frame came with a PDB/XT60 and the aluminum spacers are purple so that's theme I went with.




2. I had some RCX H2205 2633KV and older DYS 30A ESC.





3. Revo F4 flight controller...I need to switch this out later. It's giving me a 'loss of power' glitch intermittently and that's why I remove it from the Fubar 130mm (I think).


4. Gemfan 5040 tri-blade propeller.


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This is review for the SJ-RG01 FPV goggle courtesy of HobbyCool. Initial thought is that it's a really nice goggle and not too heavy. I prefer box goggles over the FatShark type. I've tried FatShark Dom V3 and never could get it to fit just right. The RG01 is kinda in between and so far it has fit my face perfectly. I received the unit through Amazon and got it within a few days...


1. Price is just right at $79.90 from HobbyCool directly or $99.90 from Amazon.




2. Package comes with 2 rubber ducky antenna, charging cable (DC 6-28V), video/audio cable, nose foam and instruction manual.



3. The size of the goggle is between an Eachine VR600 and an Eachine EV800D. This has better fitment on my oblong face then either Eachine except for some very small light leakage in the nose area. This can be fix with the included foam.

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Took a few months off to play rc cars and back getting some much needed maintenance and builds.... I wanted to rebuild my 130mm with the Tornado 1407 after it took a crash and broke one of the arms. I always wanted to add a FPV system this time so I went with the Realacc Blackbird 140mm 4mm from BG. I was hoping the frame would give me enough clearance to run 3.5" props. I was wrong, there is no way to remove the 4 supporting post to another position on the frame. I think these motors are a waste running on 3" props and might be switching them out for 1306 instead...But before I do let's get some photos and flight footage.

1. Realacc Blackbird 140mm

2. Revo F4 w/ FrSky receiver

3. RacerStar 4in1 20A esc

4. Brotherhobby Tornado T1 1407 3600KV

5. Will use AIO with at least 200mw (AKK or TX02/TX03)

6. Tried Gemfan 3052, RotorX 3040, DYS 3030, DYS 3045, HQ 3030, HQ 3030 (4-blade)...


140gr (242gr with 4S 850mah Nano_tech)



Managed to lower frame by a couple of mm. The original is the black.



Zip tied the XT60 this time so we won't repeat what happen with the Fubar where it rip off the pads...
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Still taking a break from quad stuff so here's another micro rc car. Got this on sale for $36 and it's not too bad. Had to adjust the steering a bit to get the most throw I can from left/right. From factory the trim to the too much to the left and still can't get it perfect but now the turning radius is much better. There is also no need to modify the battery space to accept the 520mah as it fits perfectly. So far there has been no diff issue like I had with the K989 and I've ran it pretty much full throttle on asphalt.

The internal is exactly the same but the remote is way different. The only complaint I have is there seems to be a slight "delay" from the remote and the car. You can definitely tell when you're doing a full throttle and try to turn...not good...

So far, the only modification has been to add LED to the body and it's awesome....however hot glue is just too hot on the body and some area has warped. Will take this mistake and be careful with my next install.

Final thoughts:
Great buy for $36, with higher ride height you can use this on asphalt and some rough terrain without any issue. The K989 has better performance but the Q35 doesn't need a smooth surface to...





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Taking a break from quad stuff and just so happen to see this little guy in Youtube. The K989 is currently on sale at HK for $40 shipped from US location so I got one to try. Also wanted to have something small and try FPV on the ground. This little car is fantastic for the price. Yes, it's a brush system but it comes ready to drive. It included a battery (lipo I believe), USB balance charger and remote (look like a clone of the DX3 series).

HK did not send me this product to review, fully purchase from me because it was well cheap..lol. Here are some thoughts on the car.




Plus:
1. Full metal chassis (aluminum)
2. Runtime is pretty good
3. Decent range with remote
4. Receiver seems to be compatible with Lipo, cutoff around 3.4v
5. No steering slop
6. Can adjust to be a 'drifter' with tires and lock diff
7. Great value for the car, parts are cheap...

Con:
1. Be careful with the mesh from factory, received mine so tight that the spur gear was getting chew up a bit
2. Motor are extremely hot!!!! (I do not see it last very long with temp this high, will need some kind of extra heatsink or run in cool weather
3. No camber/toe adjustment (but not needed for the price...)
4. Diff can be a hit or miss, mine rear diff is still working but my front ones needed a little TLC. The plastic planetary gear and rings need to be inspect and remove any plastic. A few drop of diff lube, re-tighten the gears and we're good to go again.

Mods:
1. Extra heatsink to help cooling the motor down. I can actually touch the motor after a run now compare to before, definitely a must..




2. 3D printed larger battery brackets, now I am able to use my 520mah and other larger battery and no more fumbling with tiny clips...









Final thought:
This is a great little car for the value and surprisingly fast for a 1/28 scale. The plan is to add a FPV system somehow without destroying too much of the body so stay tune....

My first attempted on a 3S build with 1104 didn't go so well. It was bad choice using 8500kv as it is to high and the motor would heat up to much to handle 3S. The quad (Flying Egg) handle 2S great so I kept it as is. I've recently purchase the Jumper X86 a few weeks ago but the performance is so weak. So I've decided to gut out the motor (1104 7500kv) and see how it would handle on 3S.

My previous KingKong 110GT had 1103 on them and they were decent and have been flying nicely but it's time for another build...

Components:

1. Racerstar 10A 2-3S Dshot 600 2in1 (16x16m spacing)
2. F3 flight controller (16x16)
3. 1104 7500kv motors from the Jumper X86
4. KingKong 2840 triblades
5. FrSky SBUS micro receiver
6. 450-850mah 3S
7. AKK A2 200mw AIO

My own "stack", the "red" part is a custom plate since the mounting holes is some weird dimension...Also I need to keep the stack very short or it will not fit once the cover is snap in place.




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During the BG 11th sale there were some item that I purchase for pretty cheap (I think). This build is not and advertisement for BG. These are all parts that I have purchased and thought I would throw together a quick low budget build. I had a chance to do a quick maiden last night and surprisingly it's fantastic....

1. Frame - This was purchased through Armattan Production a few months back (~$10)

2. ESC - 4in1 Blheli_s 2-4S purchased through XT-Nite a few months back also ($14)

3. FC - Betaflight 3.1.0 Micro F3 Flight Controller 16x16mm ($6)

4. Motors - DXW DX1306 4000KV ($14)

5. Receiver - Tiny Frsky 8CH Receiver ($6-$7) with SBUS and telemetry

6. Props - Gemfan 3545 ($.01, think I got these when they were HK was having their prop sale)



Total cost so far = $50

To be continued...

I've completed another quad. First impression was very disappointing last week. The intention of this build was to use on 3S but going with 1104 8500KV was a mistake. The motor was hot and had so much vibration that tuning was very difficult. The frame came with 2840 tri and these props are pretty awesome in term of sound. They were super quiet and really wanted to use them. So after stripping it down and added more silicon dampener the vibration was almost gone. It was much easier to tune and decided to lower it to 2S instead. I was really surprise that even on 2S it had a lot of punch...so to finish the build I wanted to add some AKK AIO.

The distance between the aluminum is too small for any of the AKK that I currently have. The only one that would fit is a micro 800TVL cam that I had for a brush quad similar to this.

The transmitter is a 200mw VTX02 from BG. The problem is trying to fit all of this under the aluminum frame and the only place for the vtx is right behind the camera. There are no mounting holes so hot-glue to the rescue....just hoping that the vtx does not get hot enough to melt the glue.

Here it is completed..might change the jst to xt30 later on when new Tattu battery arrive.....





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Back from vacation and currently in the process of building a 3S build with the KingKong 110GT. It's a cool looking frame with the plastic cover that protects most of the electronics.

Part's list:

1. 1103 8000kv (got a few of these when they were on sale and have been discontinued)

2. 4in1 ESC (got these on sale also for $11, highly doubt they are 20A 4S though....)

3. AIO VTX02 ($18)

4. Gens ace 520mAh 11.1V 30C ($7.72)

5. GF 3025 (these have been my favorite and very well balance and produce the least amount of vibration, will need to cut these as a full blade is too heavy on 3S and will cause the motor to get very hot....)

6. FrSky SBUS receiver

7. Revo F4 Micro (these have also been discontinued on BG, got them for $7)



Issue:
Looking over the frame the main issue seems to be the mounting holes for the flight controller. The spacing is Not 20x20 but rather 19x26.5. There is not a lot of frame to drill holes for 20x20 and the only option I see is build a plate on top of that....

Another issue is the 4in1 esc that I have. I got these from GB when they were on sale but the hole spacing is not 3mm, more like 2mm and you cannot use metal screw. Two of them are for the positive rail and the other one for the negative....

Some ideas for the FC plate:




To be continued......................................... ....

My Hellbender 122 back from the dead. The other day during maiden it took a tumble and found out ESC1 was completely destroy and motor. I have no clue as what happened but after a few day of troubleshooting I still could not find the cause. So after a few visit to Dr. "Hakko" found not only the esc/motor was bad but the flight controller as well. Signal pin was shorted to ground for some reason and there was no visible traces of burn component on the flight controller. To be on the safe side, I decided to elevate the ESC off the carbon fiber frame a bit more so that + and - was not touching the carbon fiber. Electrical tape and wrap on those pins and rewrap to the arms. But doing so leave no room for the rear arm to hold the ESC and the motor wires. The wires are now 90 degree from the arm. This is probably one of my uglier build but at this point I just want it to fly lol. I did a quick maiden in the garage and a few punch out and so far so good....


Build parts:
1. Hellbender 122 frame (nice looking frame, different from my X frame with a little more room to work)
2. RacerStar 15A esc (I know why they discontinue these, the throttle range is not the greatest...especially around mid point. Even the older
LittleBee is better then these ESC)
3. Emax 1306 4000kv (these are some of the smoothest 1306 motors I have tried, the bearing and even at max throttle on 4S it has very little
vibration. No wonder they cost an arm and a leg...probably...Continue Reading

Running into some bad luck lately with FPV quads.

My favorite quad, the 100mm, has been down for a few days now due to an 'intermittent' dropout issue. First though it was a "loose" motor wire, apparently not because it is still dropping out of the sky at random. Thought it was a motor issue, nope...flight controller, nope. Looks like the issue is with the ESC but not just one, all 3 decided to die on me at different time. Yank all of the XM10A and threw it in the trash and replace it with LittleBee I had laying around. Seems to fix the issue...now it's flying not as "nice" as it was before and noob me did not copy the PID down before I decided to reflash the Piko BLX. It's flying okay but not the way I like it, not 'tracking' around corners as it was before. Did try to tune it a big yesterday but getting this stupid weird issue when I do a slow/large bank. Like it's 'auto' correcting itself. Come to find out the the XT60 connector might have been flapping and hitting the battery/frame...ran out of time to troubleshoot/fly so for now it sit and wait...



Second FPV quad is a 147 Verdin and after an 'upgrade' with a RunCam swift and vtx it flies like a drift car...it does not like the pod and the extra weight...haven't had time to tune it so it also sit and wait....



Finished a HellBender 122 with RacerStar 15A (discontinued) and it flew great until a small drop and ESC1 die....no clue why. Replace it and test it with 3S and 4S before taking it to the park yesterday. Two minutes into LOS flight to double check and down it goes. Manage to retrieve it and the whole thing is up in smoke. Look like ESC3 burst in flame. What the h***..............can it get worst???

So, my only flyable one are the Eachine 130, HobbyMate 130 and Micro. The Eachine 130 is a little under power and the HobbyMate need to go on a diet (I think) so my Micro is the only one that I fly and actually like at this point. Not a good month...........and getting frustrated with FPV...

It has been a few months now that I have flown the micro but it's back and better now. The issue I had before was then when I bank more then 30 degrees the quad would get this "weird" jerk or pull until I level it out again. Initial guess was that one of the esc had die when I try dshot 600 which took out the flight controller. The flight controller was replace and this new weird issue start popping up. There it sat in the garage for a few months as I had other quads to repair.

So...on Saturday night I decide to dissemble it and swap out the 4in1 esc and also wanted to swap the frame after watching Albert Kim video about a new 3d printed frame that he print out. After the disassembly I notice that one of the motor wire was cinched and it look like it was barely making a connection. Wait....was this the problem...YES!!! Bingo, spent the whole night rewiring all of the motor wires and got it maiden in the morning and I with the 'silicon ring' as dampening for the fc there was no drift at all...

Got to test it the other night and yep, no weird jerk when banking....only downside was the prop had to be cut a little more so it can swing freely without touching the aio vtx....really loving flying this thing on 2S and faster then the Eachine 130 on 3S.....

RIAC105 for 20x20

Here's my review of the HobbyMate X130 Kit thanks to HobbyMate of course. This build went very smooth, no issue with the fitment of the parts and and the carbon fiber is pretty good. There was no "black" residue on the edges however you might want to sand it down a bit to smooth out the edges especially where the battery strap goes through.

Pro:
1. ESC in my opinion is the "star" of this kit, it's very small and support BLHeli_S Dshot 150/300/600 (no need to worry about calibration if you're using Dshot)
2. 4S capable
3. Frame is built for FPV, the addition of a "pod" is great and pretty much the norm now..
4. Frame, good quality and no alignment issue, everything came together like it should.
5. Motors are very smooth so far, no "grinding" noise from the motor and really surprise they can take 4S on triblade (will find out later...)
6. Accessories (plenty of motor mount screws, enough to use for another kit....)
7. Kit came with extra 3030 triblade props

Con:
1. Battery strap, not really liking these battery strap and don't feel they hold the battery in tight enough during a crash
2. The motor wires, they're definitely too small in my opinion. Even my "budget" RacerStar motor has thicker wire then these but will it affect performance, not sure....
3. No flight controller with kit however it really depends on the type of builder you are. Some would prefer to source their own some might want a simple...Continue Reading