Quadrino FPV Flight (6 min 49 sec)

I have completed the transition over to flying in ACRO (gyro only) mode. I have made many adjustments to PID settings as well as Rate/Expo to achieve the desired feel. I am still getting used to flying tilted down!

what kinda flight times do you get and what is your total flying weight?

In an effort to improve the flight handling for fast forward flight and wind as well as added endurance, I have decided to make some big changes for this quad. I also have noticed lines in my video as well as the goggles getting very hot.

First things first, I revamped my ground station to help my goggles and vRx to run cooler and cleanup any noise. I now run both my goggles and the vRx off a Castle Creations 10amp BEC set at 7.4 volts. I can use a 2 or 3s pack interchangeably. When my Rx needs 12volts, I have a feed cable right after the battery connection that will give whatever the battery out is. Torrid wraps on all power inputs. I also put torrid wraps on the camera to tx connection. My video is nice and crisp with no more wavy lines or fuzziness.

For the quad, I have decided to reduce as much weight as possible and move to a smaller, tighter frame with less flex. So I am going to swap out the 550mm arms for the 450mm ones. Since I only use one motor on each arm, I don't need the X8 motor mounts taking up weight. I suspect some of my problems with more aggressive flight has to do with the fact the 550 arms flex and bent allot. This change drops the weight about 45-50 grams alone.
I will use the same electronics, but will likely cut out excess wiring and the extra plates and move some gear out onto the arms. I am starting over with the setup too. Redo radio calibration, ESC calibration and change motor timing to high. I hope to drop at least 150 grams, maybe more. Time will tell if this was worth it.

Edit: I completed the rebuild and my final weight comparisons are:

Before: 1058g No Lipo
Now: 910g No Lipo

My AUW before with 3s 3000 lipo was 1295g
My AUW now with 3s 3000 lipo is 1145g

So I got close to my goal. If I can come up with lighter landing gear then that will put me closer to 200g lighter than before. Flight tests this weekend.

Originally Posted by spectre6573

what kinda flight times do you get and what is your total flying weight?

Total weight without lipo is 1057grams. That is with dome cover on and no noodle feet. I can fly about 6 mins on a 3S 3000mah pack landing with a resting voltage of 11.2v. These packs are old and at the end of their useful life.

After switching over to the smaller frame and dropping some weight I am still having some oscillations or wobble in forward flight with the Quadrino. I attempted to adjust the PID values to compensate, but I did not see a marketable difference. I suspect the gyro in the Quadrino is more sensitive to vibration or some other intolerance with my setup. I swapped out the flight controller for my old warthox 1.2v board with WMP that is attached with 4 layers of foam tape. Immediate improvement on 3.7 .30 18 PID's. I tested LOS doing a few fast flights away from me tilited down and I had ZERO wobble. I then did an FPV flight with it and it handled nice and smooth in forward flight. I need to get to an area with more space so I can test fast forward flight and in some wind. It was dead calm when I tested this morning. I have to say the Quadrino hovers easier than my warthox board.

Good to hear. I cant wait to get my radio back from service so I can start messing around again. I am really curious where the break even point is for lipo pack size to control ability. Obviously the more motors the more lift and the more control.

I will say that I have been using a control copter and it hovers nicely and no wobble in forward flight and I have it mounted directly to the plate with not vibration dampening.

what kinda range do you get with your 5.8 setup and antenna and in what kinda areas do you flying most often. I have seen you CO meets movies and some people (like me) dont get that luxury. Im just curious how the CL does with LOS flying like thru trees.

Originally Posted by spectre6573

Good to hear. I cant wait to get my radio back from service so I can start messing around again. I am really curious where the break even point is for lipo pack size to control ability. Obviously the more motors the more lift and the more control.

I will say that I have been using a control copter and it hovers nicely and no wobble in forward flight and I have it mounted directly to the plate with not vibration dampening.

what kinda range do you get with your 5.8 setup and antenna and in what kinda areas do you flying most often. I have seen you CO meets movies and some people (like me) dont get that luxury. Im just curious how the CL does with LOS flying like thru trees.

I am working on efficiency with this setup to. Trying to find that sweet spot for flight time and handling. I don't thinking adding a larger mah pack is always the right answer to longer flight times on quads. I do plan to fly FPV with my lighter 3s 2200 Spyder pack and see what the difference is. With the changes I have made so far I have noticed more punch from the power system, especially when I am coming down and I want to quickly arrest a fall.

The 5.8 setup has thus far been very nice for my application. Since I do not fly long range radio control, I am staying within 1/2 mile of my ground station. I have a very sharp and clear picture now. Even better than the movies you saw. Filters, voltage regulators and torrid wraps have cleaned it up a bit since then. I think the range of my video will easily outdo my control link. 5.8 is more sensitive to multipath around object and buildings. You cannot go behind large trees or over hills with 5.8. As long as you maintain good LOS you can go really low several hundred meters away like I did at the CO meet. I like to fly low and fast, but I don't go very far away.

Yeah the lighter the setup the motor time you can get. Its all a trade off with size vs weight. I had a 13 inch mtm and could get 7 mins on 2200mah with fpv setup on 8 inch props and 1200kv motors but it was very fragile. But then built a bigger heavier quad that was a tank and got crap for flight time. Now that i have a 30 inch mtm that is 1025g ish before flight pack with 11 4.7 apc props and DT700s i can get 7:30 to 8min with a 2200mah and 11min on 4000mah and it handles the same with either pack.

Then my radio went down and in for service so now I have to wait to mess around more.

I saved some weight. Got rid of the legs, OSD. Hand launch and land gently on the Go Pro case, or catch it. Then you won't have to worry of the legs getting in the way of camera view.

I set my talking timer for 10 minutes and fly. Go High for the first 6 minutes hang low afterward. Flying with just the Go Pro, 5.8 600mW with CL and SPW last weekend.

Waiting for my Hobby King OSD (votage/time) to arrive.
Hope to test out again for more distance this weekend. 5.8 not so good last weekend.

Cactus more vids

I know. Just need to remember to bring the old dv recorder and get some footage.

I flew two FPV flights at lunch in the field near me. Some wind gusts, but not bad conditions. The wathox board stays stable in fast forward flight, but gets knocked around a little in gusts. It is allot harder to fly than the Quadrinio and is point and shoot flying, more like an airplane. The extra stability of the Quadrino is not really needed as much as when I was starting. There is now way I could have started flying the warthox board FPV without major "accidents."

I also need to play with the PID settings to try and dampen it more. Might try increasing D and bump P up a bit after that.

Some Street FPV with a passenger watching the DVR screen. Had some fun trying to fly a little faster than before. I was getting more multipath tonight than in previous flights and my OSD has been flaky as of late.

Street FPV (5 min 17 sec)

Well my rebuild quad is flying very nice with the wm+ board and I am now on DragonLink LRS. I am planning on testing 900mhz video next to see how it does down low and around trees.