Originally Posted by 4n1m4l

Speaking of canopy's it looks like mine came pre-drilled for the canopy, but that puts it on with the battery and such at the front instead of back. Anyone else have to drill custom holes for the canopy?

No need to drill holes. Just turn the flight controller 180 degrees and turn the back into the front...

Originally Posted by 4n1m4l

Speaking of canopy's it looks like mine came pre-drilled for the canopy, but that puts it on with the battery and such at the front instead of back. Anyone else have to drill custom holes for the canopy?

If you are using 680 PRO remember, before you start drilling holes, that the top plate is a circuit board with power running through it.

Originally Posted by mike_kelly

If you are using 680 PRO remember, before you start drilling holes, that the top plate is a circuit board with power running through it.

ya, i was looking at that, just hoping if someone had experience with it.

Originally Posted by Oldgazer

No need to drill holes. Just turn the flight controller 180 degrees and turn the back into the front...

Ya, but that still leaves me with the battery at the nose. I think I'll drill holes for the front 2, since its bare fiberglass up there, and then just epoxy the other one on so i don't have to drill right next to the battery tie in of my PDB.

Originally Posted by 4n1m4l

ya, i was looking at that, just hoping if someone had experience with it.



Ya, but that still leaves me with the battery at the nose. I think I'll drill holes for the front 2, since its bare fiberglass up there, and then just epoxy the other one on so i don't have to drill right next to the battery tie in of my PDB.

You are about to make a HUGE mistake. You do not want to drill ANY holes in that top plate.

What you need to do is get some gimbal hooks and use them to mount a battery plate to the 10mm rails. The hooks will hold the battery and let you move it fore and aft to get the aircraft into balance. The hooks suck for mounting a gimbal.

If you are using Tarot Damper Rings to mount the battery tray, put them on a plate of some form and use that to mount your gimbal.

This way you can fine tune the aircraft balance and you have three layers of vibration damping between the frame and the gimbal.

hey guys, just an fyi on a site with a bunch of Tarot stuff in UK with express USA shipping
was just tipped off to them, maybe others have not heard of them either

https://www.flyingtech.co.uk/product...lltext=tarot&f[0]=field_brand%3A121

they have what looks like a nice quick release battery/gimbal mount plate on page 4

Originally Posted by Oldgazer

You are about to make a HUGE mistake. You do not want to drill ANY holes in that top plate.

What you need to do is get some gimbal hooks and use them to mount a battery plate to the 10mm rails. The hooks will hold the battery and let you move it fore and aft to get the aircraft into balance. The hooks suck for mounting a gimbal.

If you are using Tarot Damper Rings to mount the battery tray, put them on a plate of some form and use that to mount your gimbal.

This way you can fine tune the aircraft balance and you have three layers of vibration damping between the frame and the gimbal.

I am using the battery tray that came with the kit. What i'm trying to say, is there is a set of solder pads on the PDB that isn't next to a motor, and is obviously where the battery leads land. There are also pre-drilled holes on the pdb that fit the canopy well, but if you use those, the nose of the canopy is pointing the same direction as the battery leads, not away from the battery leads. I'd like the nose of the canopy pointed at the gimbal, that I've already bought the tarot rail mounts for.

Originally Posted by 4n1m4l

I am using the battery tray that came with the kit. What i'm trying to say, is there is a set of solder pads on the PDB that isn't next to a motor, and is obviously where the battery leads land. There are also pre-drilled holes on the pdb that fit the canopy well, but if you use those, the nose of the canopy is pointing the same direction as the battery leads, not away from the battery leads. I'd like the nose of the canopy pointed at the gimbal, that I've already bought the tarot rail mounts for.

To turn things around I just soldered a long set of battery leads to the pads and then I routed the leads aft over the battery tray.

FWIW, the 680 is a nice frame, but for some strange reason the designer did some things ass backwards

If any one want a good canopy for the tarot fy 680, you can use the canopy ST800 from the bumblebee. It will fit very well. I use one. And if you want you can use this in the tarot 650 it will fit good to. I buy the mine her https://synosystems.de/de/ersatzteil...800&results=24

Originally Posted by Oldgazer

To turn things around I just soldered a long set of battery leads to the pads and then I routed the leads aft over the battery tray.

FWIW, the 680 is a nice frame, but for some strange reason the designer did some things ass backwards

After being indecisive for while (and not having the best of luck with my own holes) I think this is what I'll do. Puts the current sensor in the middle, and gives the bec room to hide.

Thanks.

So I had a successful maiden today.

My budget tarot 680 pro

frame (139)
6s graphene 8.0 ah (59)
Quanum 4012/340 (19.99 x 7 = 140)
Multistar blheli_s 30a(15.28 x 7 = 106)
Multistar timber 13 x 4.4 (17.16 x 5 = 85)
Pixhawk1 with 3d printed mount (30)
neom8n (20)
Mauch power system single battery kit (42)
Craft n Theory telemetry cable and flightdeck (34)
Frsky x8r with 3d printed antenna holder (30)
frksy flvss (19)
usb/light extender & i2c splitter (20)

$724 us dollars + shipping + some incidental wire

529 without my fancy telemetry

I'm sure you can find the frame cheaper.

(Edit forgot weights; vehicle 2140grams, battery 1100grams, gimbal 300 grams)

For the maiden i flew the 6s battery down to 23 volts over the course of 16 minutes (maybe 25% ish)

Power to weight felt alright. When in stabilize hover was almost exactly 50%. Tune feels like crap. I think I got autotune figured out but I need to get away from suburbia to feel comfortable using it.

Bought the retracts and a second bec for the retracts and backup power, but still haven't installed it yet.

Over all i'm happy with it. I have a gimbal, vtx, and xiaomi yi that is already set up, but wanna get tuned and more comfortable flying LOS first.

Thanks to everyone in this thread, it made it a lot easier.

Cheers.

Anybody out there care to share a close up pic of how they mounted their retracts? I'm scratching my head a bit.

Originally Posted by 4n1m4l

Anybody out there care to share a close up pic of how they mounted their retracts? I'm scratching my head a bit.

If you are using Tarot's they are designed to use the same holes as the fixed landing gear.

Originally Posted by mike_kelly

If you are using Tarot's they are designed to use the same holes as the fixed landing gear.

Yep, pretty straight forward. My problem is the Tarot ones keep failing. I've had two fail now....one just quit working, the second will retract, but not extend until I lift the leg (while it's hovering over my head) and then hit the switch to extend. I've got one more 'spare' leg to install. Any more failures then I'll probably just give up on the Tarot retract junk.

Originally Posted by Vantasstic

Yep, pretty straight forward. My problem is the Tarot ones keep failing. I've had two fail now....one just quit working, the second will retract, but not extend until I lift the leg (while it's hovering over my head) and then hit the switch to extend. I've got one more 'spare' leg to install. Any more failures then I'll probably just give up on the Tarot retract junk.

Ya I agree the little screw drive especially on the 650 retracts is really low quality and marginally reliable.

Originally Posted by Vantasstic

Yep, pretty straight forward. My problem is the Tarot ones keep failing. I've had two fail now....one just quit working, the second will retract, but not extend until I lift the leg (while it's hovering over my head) and then hit the switch to extend. I've got one more 'spare' leg to install. Any more failures then I'll probably just give up on the Tarot retract junk.

I broke one in a crash, well, it was a hard landing actually, but I've never had one fail.