austntexan's blog View Details
Posted by austntexan | Nov 16, 2016 @ 10:46 AM | 18,606 Views
The Crashtesthobby Assassin is normally 37" in wingspan. This one has been modified to 30" by cutting 3.5" from each wingtip. The plane flies amazingly well and makes for a very tough and even more compact FPV platform.

This video is uncut, so it's a little long. The plane flies great on both 3S and 4S. It seems to do well at about mid-80% throttle. Flown WOT the waggle comes back and it's like riding a bronc.

I've enlarged the battery bay to accept a Nanotech 65C 1800mAh 3S. The added nose weight will definitely help. I've been flying with a few ounces of lead to hit CG. Details of the build are in the YouTube notes.

Looking forward to flying a Lumenier 35C 2200mAh 3S today as well(it's the same size as the Nanotech 1800Ah).

Crashtesthobby 30" Assassin - Last One of the Day (9 min 55 sec)

Posted by austntexan | Sep 26, 2016 @ 02:11 AM | 22,568 Views
Bought a 3 pack of Assassins from Crashtesthobby.com last year. So far I've built 2. The first was built as a Piņata and the 2nd was originally built to spec from Lee's videos.

A couple weeks back I thought it might be interesting to see if the Assassin would work as a 30" wing. I've been pleasantly surprised with it's flying characteristics. It's not lost much of the forgiving nature of the 37" wingspan.

Here's a recent evening flight. It's just a bunch of figure 8s, but I attempted to fly them low and straight to approximate what it might look like in FPV. Proper FPV flight will be soon hopefully.

CTH Assassin 30" LOS Sunset (5 min 49 sec)


I'm flying symmetrical fins, essentially a mirror image of the fins that come with the kit. I'm not experiencing much of the typical waggle you see in other wings. My plan is to continue reducing the size of the fins to find the optimal size for speed and stability.

The power section of the wing is the 3530 1700KV motor, recommended by Lee on the CTH website. I'm running it on 4S and it's performance is really nice. I'm getting a solid 6 minutes of aggressive flying on only a 1300mA 4S pack. I'd imagine double that with a conservative throttle, even on 4S. Prop is a HK 760 Bone.


Posted by austntexan | Aug 03, 2015 @ 02:37 PM | 20,245 Views
Testing some new arms that allow 5" props. This rig is so much fun. You can just fit a 1300mAh 4S on top, along with a GoPro4. Very nimble.

BullTerrier180 - MC5 (2 min 52 sec)

Posted by austntexan | Jul 25, 2015 @ 05:14 PM | 20,560 Views
Fantastic little quad. Here's the maiden from yesterday.

Details:
2204/2300KV
1300mAh/4S/65C
2.4 control
5.8 video
GoPro4 Black

http://www.detroitmultirotor.com

DMR Bullterrier 180 (4 min 6 sec)

Posted by austntexan | Jul 04, 2015 @ 09:29 PM | 20,528 Views
Works pretty well. Not everything lines up perfectly, but it's close enough. Just fast runs. . . no acro.

RD290 with Motor Tilsts Speed Run (3 min 32 sec)

Posted by austntexan | Jul 03, 2015 @ 12:55 AM | 21,035 Views
Really nice stout racer. Have a few mid-throttle oscillations that need to be tuned out but over all it's a very solid flyer.

Minion 220 Flight No 3 (3 min 13 sec)

Posted by austntexan | Jun 23, 2015 @ 11:28 PM | 21,043 Views
Here're a few pics from my initial plate and configuration back in early May.

For jello free video I used an additional plate and set it up as a clean section. Although it worked ok, I think it's a little ungainly in fff.

I've since moved back to the original iteration, single plate hard mounted. Here are some pics from the first iteration. I've got a second frame and was considering a lightweight 3S setup. The 4S is pretty fun, so I may opt for a second over powered setup on 1806 motors again.

There's a cool pic of a GoPro camera mount, fixed to the top plate. The GoPro camera plate is from fpv-reconn (Trinco's design). It actually works really well. Flying like this literally looks like a flying camera.

The last 2 pics are the current flying config, LiPo on top, just in back of the Mobius/RunCam mount.

Armattan Morphite 180 - Tuning (3 min 18 sec)
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Posted by austntexan | Jun 08, 2015 @ 11:09 AM | 20,504 Views
Flying around Mid-County Park in Williamsburg, VA. I ended up using a few seconds from this flight in a compilation video. The RunCamHD seems to really do well in full sunlight.

Mid county Park_Raw (3 min 30 sec)

Posted by austntexan | May 29, 2015 @ 10:03 PM | 20,649 Views
Looking around YouTube for some videos of RC AirTractors. . . I came across this amazing video.

Low, Fast and Furious - Saretta Crop Dusting (5 min 2 sec)

Posted by austntexan | May 25, 2015 @ 05:35 PM | 20,307 Views
Morphite 180 GS (4 min 4 sec)


Armattan 180 4S Setup
DYS 1806/2300KV
DYS SN20A
Acro Naze
1300 mAh 4S 65C-135C
FrSky D4R
PZ0420M
Posted by austntexan | May 19, 2015 @ 11:54 AM | 21,135 Views
Day 2 with the Morphite. PIDs are getting closer.

Each DYS 1806/2300 motor ($14) produces about 480g of thrust with the HQ 445 Bullnose props. Motors come down slightly above room temp.

Morphite Acro 1 (3 min 28 sec)

Posted by austntexan | May 16, 2015 @ 03:23 PM | 22,457 Views
Very fun quad and tough as nails. Working on dialing the PIDs in.

Armattan Morphite 180 - Tuning (3 min 18 sec)

Posted by austntexan | Apr 08, 2015 @ 10:24 PM | 21,682 Views
Power:
2206/2000KV motors + Nanotech 2250/130C

FPV:
Vtx: IRC 2.4 700mw
GS: TBS 2.4+VAS PB

Nearly 11 minutes putt-putting around. Ignore the first 1:30 minutes of flying. . . my Gyro was off. I recalibrate @ 1:30.

Anyone who's interested in the penetration of 2.4, watch the whole thing. I fly well below my LOS and to the extreme part of the field.

I am impressed. I only just moved over from 1.3. I'm totally sold on 2.4. . . for the antenna size alone but the reception was really good. There were also a couple guys flying rigs on 2.4 during this sortie and I didn't have any issues on video.

It was snowy in the corner of the field but I could still make out what was what enough to still fly safely.

I think the unofficial time was 10:40.

Range and Endurance Test (10 min 55 sec)

Posted by austntexan | Apr 04, 2015 @ 10:56 PM | 21,903 Views
Of course I always get out to fly with only 30 min to spare. Really liking this quad.

Xhover 300: Green Field (3 min 7 sec)

Posted by austntexan | Mar 30, 2015 @ 10:19 PM | 27,029 Views
It was fun until I lost my video signal, thanks to a loose SMA connector. Landed safely.

XHover 300 WOT Punch Out (0 min 47 sec)

Posted by austntexan | Feb 10, 2015 @ 11:41 AM | 22,177 Views
Shot this right before a failsafe crash this weekend. I'm all over the place but it was sure fun. Needs a little tuning, you can see some bumps on the WOT punch outs.

RD270 Cobra 2204 1960KV (3 min 17 sec)

Posted by austntexan | Feb 08, 2015 @ 09:02 PM | 22,377 Views
I used a some aluminum from an old motorcycle license plate holder. It's basically a square. Cut it with aircraft sheers, then file the sharp edges down with a mill file.

I used the bottom plate as a drill template. Mark the first hole with a punch, then drill it and attach it to the plate with a screw and bolt. Then line it up with the bottom plate and use the plate as a drill guide and drill out the second hole. This way the plate will line up perfectly.

Choose your color, wire them up and go. I'm using a 12V out from my step-down. They're super bright on 4S when coming right off the LiPo. They're rated for only 12V, so not sure how long they'd last on 14.8s. They're cheap enough to experiment with. Connect everything up with some JST plugs. I get these from getfpv, readymade or wherever(10 pairs to a bag). Very handy.

Hope this helps any other fellow racers!





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Posted by austntexan | Jan 28, 2015 @ 08:51 PM | 23,003 Views
Rushing to get a flight in as the sun was setting and the temp was dropping!



CLI Dump attached.

RD270 Evening Run (4 min 14 sec)

Posted by austntexan | Jan 18, 2015 @ 06:39 PM | 21,101 Views
This little Diatone has been to Thunderdome and back many times. Moving her guts over to an RD230.

Specs:
DYS 1806/2300KV (tough as hell motors, runs even on 4S)
Hobbywing 10A unflashed ESC(Simon who?)
RMRC 200mW 1.3Ghz vTX (great for prox bashing)
PCB 1.3 Antenna. Not the greatest vTX antenna but it's takes a beating and is out of the way. Great antenna if you want to not care about crashing.
GemFan 530





One of the splints . . .
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Posted by austntexan | Jan 17, 2015 @ 02:52 PM | 24,671 Views
www.fpv-reconn.com
Building a spec racer for my local group here in Raleigh.

To be allowed to race, the quad must run no more than 3S, spinning 5" props.

Hoping to get the maiden in this evening.
RD230 FPV Maiden* (1 min 37 sec)


Here's the evolution of this frame. I've upgraded to a dirty/clean version, flying only 4S with HQ545. It's a screamer. It's nearly as fast as a lot of 300mm 645 rigs, and a lot more maneuverable in close prox stuff.

Wrestle with Jimmy (3 min 47 sec)
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