550 Pilot's lounge

FangsCPO said:
Looks like a **** spider or a crab....not sure but looks cool. LOL!! Where does your battery sit?

Updated_hex2.jpg
 
Curious as to the compass dance and how it affects the gimbal assembly? I've noticed that when I'm doing the 2nd part of the compass dance and I have my 550 pointed nose down this causes my gimbal to go a bit wonky because it can't physically maintain a horizontal azimuth. Once I'm done dancing and set the 550 back down the gimbal usually will right itself after a second or two. Just doesn't seem like this is good for it you know? I know how delicate these Zenmuse units are with all the broken ones you read about out there. Wish there was an easy way to disable it temporarily while performing the dance.

U.M.
 
Just got in from my first fly. First off... looks like I got a bad transmitter cable. You have to jiggle the plug on the transmitter to get it working. If I push the connector all the way on until it locks the video doesn't work at all. I am able to push the connector in about half way and that seems to be working for now. New cable on order.

Well I really thought getting the GoPro that far forward was going to prevent me from getting the props or landing legs in frame. Alas tis not the case... when the camera is tilted straight down you can still see the bottom 1.5 inches of the left landing leg and when the camera is horizontal the props are in frame more than the old Neewer FPV skid. The simple solution is a 1, or 1.25 inch spacer between the Zenmuse mounting bracket and the Bat Wing. I could also move the Bat Wing to under the arms versus on top, that would drop the camera about a quarter inch or so. Going to have to play around with it and see what I can come u with. I was shooting in 1080 wide, but not super wide.

BTW I got 12:30 of flying in before the battery said it had had enough. 10 minutes after landing the battery had 11.13v left in it. I was able to go out about 450m with just the rubber ducky antennas before things started getting fuzzy. Can't wait to put better antennas on.

U.M.
 
Uncle Meat said:
Just got in from my first fly. First off... looks like I got a bad transmitter cable. You have to jiggle the plug on the transmitter to get it working. If I push the connector all the way on until it locks the video doesn't work at all. I am able to push the connector in about half way and that seems to be working for now. New cable on order.

Well I really thought getting the GoPro that far forward was going to prevent me from getting the props or landing legs in frame. Alas tis not the case... when the camera is tilted straight down you can still see the bottom 1.5 inches of the left landing leg and when the camera is horizontal the props are in frame more than the old Neewer FPV skid. The simple solution is a 1, or 1.25 inch spacer between the Zenmuse mounting bracket and the Bat Wing. I could also move the Bat Wing to under the arms versus on top, that would drop the camera about a quarter inch or so. Going to have to play around with it and see what I can come u with. I was shooting in 1080 wide, but not super wide.

BTW I got 12:30 of flying in before the battery said it had had enough. 10 minutes after landing the battery had 11.13v left in it. I was able to go out about 450m with just the rubber ducky antennas before things started getting fuzzy. Can't wait to put better antennas on.

U.M.

Wow! Awesome flying time but I was rather doubtful about your batwing mount keeping the props out of view. It's a shame that we can't combine the GoPro positioning of the Neewer FPV skid and the flying time this batwing mount provides. It would be the best of both worlds. I really like the Newer FPV skid. For me I have no props in view and unless I'm flying full speed, I don't see the landing skids when looking straight down. My only complaint is the weight. I wonder how much more I can cut off from these skids to lessen the weight without ruining it?

I took up my F550 for the first time since she drowned and with the E300 upgrade installed. I didn't see any improvement in flight times. I flew it twice and I'm still flying 8:30 minutes before the first red light blinks. I re-set my timer to 8:00 minutes, once I got it back on the ground my lipo was at 34%. So what exactly is the improvement advertised by DJI regarding the E300 upgrade??
 
Here are some pictures of my f550 with QuadFrame 200 Landing Gear...

I thought I'd get it up in the air today, but I had no time...

With my GLB Gimbal and GoPro (not shown) it weighs in at 2350 grams with 6400mAh Turnigy Battery (I also have an ONYX 6400mAh Battery)... I would think that's a little high... Hopefully I can squeeze 10 minutes out of a flight...

13977936737_880be6c5a6_o.jpg
 
PJA if you get 10 minutes out of that bird with that landing skid......I'm switching to those. They seem heavier that what I currently have on mine and I'm only getting 8:30 minutes. When I throw my battery on the charger it only has 24% remaining. I'm using a ONYX Lipo 3S 6400 mAh 35C.

F550V2_3_zps05020d7f.jpg


F550V2_1_zps5f7c1e25.jpg
 
Okay....for you mathematicians out there. Here's what I've got.

If a lipo that is 3S 6400 mAh and weighs at 505g - provides 8:30 minutes flight time
What would a lipo that is 3S 8000 mAh and weighs at 580g flight time be???
 
FangsCPO said:
PJA if you get 10 minutes out of that bird with that landing skid......I'm switching to those.
I said: "Hopefully I can squeeze 10 minutes out of a flight..." Hopefully being the key word... I do think my f550 is too heavy at this point. What does your f550 weigh, FangsCPO?

My QuadFrame weighs in at 260grams alone... I did add retracts to them which adds another 110 grams...
All my excess weight is under my f550, I guess...
 
FangsCPO said:
Wow! Awesome flying time but I was rather doubtful about your batwing mount keeping the props out of view. It's a shame that we can't combine the GoPro positioning of the Neewer FPV skid and the flying time this batwing mount provides. It would be the best of both worlds. I really like the Newer FPV skid. For me I have no props in view and unless I'm flying full speed, I don't see the landing skids when looking straight down. My only complaint is the weight. I wonder how much more I can cut off from these skids to lessen the weight without ruining it?

I went back and looked at the tape (GoPro Vid) and I was off by a bit. :oops: I must not have reset the timer on my radio as I had initially thought because the video shows 10:30 total time of flight... and that was mostly hovering! So my bad on the erroneous flight time.

FangsCPO said:
I took up my F550 for the first time since she drowned and with the E300 upgrade installed. I didn't see any improvement in flight times. I flew it twice and I'm still flying 8:30 minutes before the first red light blinks. I re-set my timer to 8:00 minutes, once I got it back on the ground my lipo was at 34%. So what exactly is the improvement advertised by DJI regarding the E300 upgrade??

Wow... not enthused to hear this bit of news. I too was looking potentially at an E300 upgrade in the future. I really want to stay with 3S compatible motors since I have everything wired accordingly. Maybe there are some better options available.

PJA said:
Here are some pictures of my f550 with QuadFrame 200 Landing Gear...

I thought I'd get it up in the air today, but I had no time...

With my GLB Gimbal and GoPro (not shown) it weighs in at 2350 grams with 6400mAh Turnigy Battery (I also have an ONYX 6400mAh Battery)... I would think that's a little high... Hopefully I can squeeze 10 minutes out of a flight...

Great looking rig! Landing gear looks cool as hell... curious as to its weight though.

FangsCPO said:
PJA if you get 10 minutes out of that bird with that landing skid......I'm switching to those.

I'll go in halves on one with you and you can test it out okay? :lol:

FangsCPO said:
Okay....for you mathematicians out there. Here's what I've got.

If a lipo that is 3S 6400 mAh and weighs at 505g - provides 8:30 minutes flight time
What would a lipo that is 3S 8000 mAh and weighs at 580g flight time be???

You read my mind this morning... I was just looking at those 8000mAh Onyx LiPo's at Tower Hobbies and was thinking along the same lines. The 6400mAh battery has a power density rating of 12.67 and the 8000mAh battery comes in at 13.79 so...I ordered one!

PJA said:
My QuadFrame weighs in at 260grams alone... I did add retracts to them which adds another 110 grams...
All my excess weight is under my f550, I guess...

I'm currently at 2200 grams fully loaded and that's with the recently added iOSD & 400mW Tx. Previously without the FPV stuff and while running the Neewer FPV skid I was at 2340 grams. I want to try that 8000mAh LiPo since the additional 75 grams will still keep me under the 2400 limit.

I moved the Bat Wing below the front arms and will do some more testing today weather permitting. I'm still going to see about fashioning some type of extension which will lower the camera even further.

U.M.

Updated_hex3.jpg
 
Yikes...with your GoPro that far forward you may have to tie your battery to your rear arms. :lol:
 
FangsCPO said:
Yikes...with your GoPro that far forward you may have to tie your battery to your rear arms. :lol:

Well I did just order that 8000mAh Onyx battery so maybe they'll cancel each other out! :lol:

U.M.

***EDIT***

Just got in from a quick run around the neighborhood. Using all rubber ducky antenna's I was able to go out about 400m before it started breaking up. I was able to push it out to 500m if I fiddled with the antennas. I have some better ones on order so we'll see if my reception gets any better.

I got a genuine 12:30 second flight this afternoon. Nothing extreme mind you... The battery read 11.17v 10 minutes after landing.

Couple action shots from today...

F550UM.jpg


F550UM2.jpg
 
badawgie71 said:
That is a very impressive F550. What FPV transmitter and antenna are you using?

New to this site, here is a video of my latest FPV flight with my F550.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1mMTPEQ6h4

Nice video.....song very appropriate for location.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk
 
badawgie71 said:
That is a very impressive F550. What FPV transmitter and antenna are you using?

New to this site, here is a video of my latest FPV flight with my F550.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1mMTPEQ6h4

Nice video.....song very appropriate for The location.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk
 
Oh yeah!!!! I'm back in the air after a few days of being grounded.

My F550 spent 2 days under water until it was pulled out by the diver. I had to replace the H3-D2 Gimbal and FPV transmitter. I also upgraded the motors and ESCs with the E300 system. Everything else, I was able to dry out and get it to work again.

The two big surprises were the NAZA Ver. 2, GPS and HERO3 coming back to life after everything dried out.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqDDk7WYTCU[/youtube]
 
Curious to how tight you should be tightening the prop nuts. First time I'v removed the props of my F550 to balance them and the majority were pretty hard to un-tighten so when I put them back on I made them just as tight.

Btw congrats to Fangs for getting his F550 back up in the air, if you don't like your E300 system I'm more than happy to take if off your hands ;)
 
badawgie71 said:
That is a very impressive F550. What FPV transmitter and antenna are you using?

New to this site, here is a video of my latest FPV flight with my F550.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1mMTPEQ6h4

Nice video. As far as my FPV setup it consists of a Boscam TS353 400mW transmitter and a Boscam RX-LCD5802 monitor/diversity receiver. Still using the stock rubber ducky antennas though.

FangsCPO said:
Oh yeah!!!! I'm back in the air after a few days of being grounded.

Sweet! Glad to hear and see you're back in the air!

SammyB said:
Curious to how tight you should be tightening the prop nuts. First time I'v removed the props of my F550 to balance them and the majority were pretty hard to un-tighten so when I put them back on I made them just as tight.
I tightened my prop nuts down pretty **** snug personally. I guess there is a fine line between tightening them down so hard it cracks the prop hub or not tight enough so that it comes loose. I use the German torque spec of goodentight.

U.M.
 
Oh yeah!!!! I'm back in the air after a few days of being grounded.

Nice. Great time of day (early morning I suspect) to fly that area. Shadows were good. I noticed you didn't try the golf course. :p So... with one flight under your belt, what are your thoughts on the e300 compared to the 2214s?

SammyB said:
Curious to how tight you should be tightening the prop nuts. First time I'v removed the props of my F550 to balance them and the majority were pretty hard to un-tighten so when I put them back on I made them just as tight.

If your prop nuts all screw the same way then I would snug them down. I do on my 550. I hold the motor and, after making them finger tight, turn another 1/2 turn or so. You can feel the nut tightening and binding. Don't want to go too tight because you will want to take them off someday and they do tend to lock in. With the self-tightening props, I just go hand tight and they end up tightening themselves.
 

Recent Posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
143,118
Messages
1,467,753
Members
105,006
Latest member
Helen Y West