550 Pilot's lounge

[FangsCPO]

That's awesome if the charger will put out 12A without a converter (i.e. just plugged straight in to the wall).

I'm not using that 8000mAh battery yet, but I will be as soon as they get back in stock. It's only 220g heavier than the 5000mAh 4S batt I'm using now, and I think I can easily do that on my current set up with 11" blades.

Show off
but you've got the longer arms.....I think I browsed your build thread somewhere. did you also use the bigger motors-or are they the same phantom motors everyone else is using?
Are your props CF?? Curious what the difference in flight times are between the Vision props, 10" DJI props, and the 11" props your using.......

I cannot keep up with all these upgrades. :lol: Am I the only one using E300 on 3S?

 

[PJA]

Be very careful when screwing in the motors somebody had bought some aluminum arms a while back and they were thinner than the stock arms and ruined their motor because the screws needed to be shorter.

The right sized screws are included with the arms...

 

[havasuphoto]

That's awesome if the charger will put out 12A without a converter (i.e. just plugged straight in to the wall).

I'm not using that 8000mAh battery yet, but I will be as soon as they get back in stock. It's only 220g heavier than the 5000mAh 4S batt I'm using now, and I think I can easily do that on my current set up with 11" blades.

Show off
but you've got the longer arms.....I think I browsed your build thread somewhere. did you also use the bigger motors-or are they the same phantom motors everyone else is using?
Are your props CF?? Curious what the difference in flight times are between the Vision props, 10" DJI props, and the 11" props your using.......

I cannot keep up with all these upgrades. :lol: Am I the only one using E300 on 3S?

You got my attention in the give away thread with your F550 crash into the pond-but didn't see that posted here. Almost looks like you lost an engine or prop, started to recover-lost it, got it back, sort of, and then the pond was just in the wrong place.
Any idea's?? I have a great big lake here-so can't afford something like that. need to be able to lose an engine/prop, and get it back to shore to land....otherwise??? maybe I need to look at bigger platforms with the parachutes

 

[ladykate]

You got my attention in the give away thread with your F550 crash into the pond-but didn't see that posted here. Almost looks like you lost an engine or prop, started to recover-lost it, got it back, sort of, and then the pond was just in the wrong place.
Any idea's?? I have a great big lake here-so can't afford something like that. need to be able to lose an engine/prop, and get it back to shore to land....otherwise??? maybe I need to look at bigger platforms with the parachutes

A 550 will still fly with one motor busted. My 810 lost one and all it did was do a quick spin and stabilized (sort of) - very controllable. Not sure what happened to FangsCPO's hex but I suspect it was something more fundamental.

 

[havasuphoto]

You got my attention in the give away thread with your F550 crash into the pond-but didn't see that posted here. Almost looks like you lost an engine or prop, started to recover-lost it, got it back, sort of, and then the pond was just in the wrong place.
Any idea's?? I have a great big lake here-so can't afford something like that. need to be able to lose an engine/prop, and get it back to shore to land....otherwise??? maybe I need to look at bigger platforms with the parachutes

A 550 will still fly with one motor busted. My 810 lost one and all it did was do a quick spin and stabilized (sort of) - very controllable. Not sure what happened to FangsCPO's hex but I suspect it was something more fundamental.

More fundamental as in; let's see how fast I can go in manual mode???
it's hard to see what happened.....but, it hurts to watch.

 

[OI Photography]

That's awesome if the charger will put out 12A without a converter (i.e. just plugged straight in to the wall).

I'm not using that 8000mAh battery yet, but I will be as soon as they get back in stock. It's only 220g heavier than the 5000mAh 4S batt I'm using now, and I think I can easily do that on my current set up with 11" blades.

Show off
but you've got the longer arms.....I think I browsed your build thread somewhere. did you also use the bigger motors-or are they the same phantom motors everyone else is using?
Are your props CF?? Curious what the difference in flight times are between the Vision props, 10" DJI props, and the 11" props your using.......

I've been using these SunnySky 3508 700kv motors since I first built my 550:

The props on there are 11x5 Gemfans that are a carbon-nylon blend...it's a nice middle ground between CF and the soft blades DJI uses. I haven't really compared them to anything else yet, but I do have a couple of sets of 12" blades I want to try if I can ever get the **** things balanced

 

[ElGuano]

Just curious, how many of you have actually run your 550s without a motor/prop as a test? Very different situation from losing one in-flight for sure, but it might be useful just to find out how it behaves and whether it can sustain your current load (maybe run it with a weight instead of gimbal, etc.)?

 

[havasuphoto]

....

 

[ladykate]

Just curious, how many of you have actually run your 550s without a motor/prop as a test? Very different situation from losing one in-flight for sure, but it might be useful just to find out how it behaves and whether it can sustain your current load (maybe run it with a weight instead of gimbal, etc.)?

I hadn't considered it but upon thinking about it - taking off might be interesting. That is usually a fragile time for stability. Have you tried it? When it happened in-flight, it was a bit of an adrenaline rush until I realized it was going to survive (810 not 550).

 

[FangsCPO]

You got my attention in the give away thread with your F550 crash into the pond-but didn't see that posted here. Almost looks like you lost an engine or prop, started to recover-lost it, got it back, sort of, and then the pond was just in the wrong place.
Any idea's?? I have a great big lake here-so can't afford something like that. need to be able to lose an engine/prop, and get it back to shore to land....otherwise??? maybe I need to look at bigger platforms with the parachutes

A 550 will still fly with one motor busted. My 810 lost one and all it did was do a quick spin and stabilized (sort of) - very controllable. Not sure what happened to FangsCPO's hex but I suspect it was something more fundamental.

Interesting concept......something more fundemental....I feel asleep at the controls? LOL!!! Here's how it went, "Nice take off, video feed looks somewhat clearer with this new transmitter, what the f****, I've lost control, Oh s*** it's going to crash, **** I've lost sight of it, oh crap....it must have crashed in someone's backyard.

I'm still at a loss on how that happened. I was flying GPS...and then bam it went full speed. I didn't even know it could fly that fast. Pretty cool if you ask me but it did scare the crap out of me. She's flying good now...so I was **** lucky.

 

[ElGuano]

Just curious, how many of you have actually run your 550s without a motor/prop as a test? Very different situation from losing one in-flight for sure, but it might be useful just to find out how it behaves and whether it can sustain your current load (maybe run it with a weight instead of gimbal, etc.)?

I hadn't considered it but upon thinking about it - taking off might be interesting. That is usually a fragile time for stability. Have you tried it? When it happened in-flight, it was a bit of an adrenaline rush until I realized it was going to survive (810 not 550).

I have, but mine is a coax hex, and it's also unladen (and in a case like this, payload matters a LOT). Still, I figured it was better to test it now and see if it actually works. I may load it up with weights to simulate final loadout and try again. But I would find a larger, similarly grassy area to test in

Video (was it a good idea to be holding a phone while trying it out for the first time? Probably not :shock: ):
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktyi8s1MOxE[/youtube]

 

[ladykate]

Interesting concept......something more fundemental....I feel asleep at the controls? LOL!!!

Ooops. Didn't mean human failure. Meant fundamental failure of the system. Something went wrong quickly. The video shows that... it would be hard to duplicate that with human input.

 

[havasuphoto]

seller went "south" on me-wouldn't answer anymore questions-so I'm moving on-probably not getting an F550

 

[FangsCPO]

Full throttle......don't know... once it dropped behind the house I had no idea it flew for a little longer. I only had to dump the gimbal.....luckily I had a spare. I also upgraded to the E300 system.

 

[Uncle Meat]

Okay I just came in from testing that new 8000mAh Onxy LiPo. I was also able to test the range on my new BluBeam Ultras and Helical Axial combination.

So first off it's windy right now. Weather station shows winds at 10MPH so take that into consideration.

I took off and headed out over the neighborhood and was able to fly into a headwind all the way out to 1382 meters (@ 120 meters high) before RTH finally kicked in. Had full color flawless picture the whole time as long as the Helical was pointed at the hex. I'm pleased as punch with the performance of the Boscam TS353 400mW Tx. Now.... having the flexible goose neck antennae mount for the helical was CRITICAL in making the tripod mounted Boscam monitor easy to view by allowing me to aim the helical antenna to any angle required. Big thanks to Ladykate for sending me the link on that flexible mount! Ref: http://www.dpcav.com/xcart/SMA-to-SMA-E ... nsion.html

As for the battery, I pushed it to 13 minutes before landing and after a 10 minute rest it had 11.10 volts. I actually think this is very good considering how hard I pushed it and the extra 75 grams of weight the bigger battery adds. Had a headwind for the full 1300m+ run out in GPS mode, then I switched to ATTI and ran it full throttle almost the whole way back. Once I got back I flew it around the house a few times until I got the warning and then landed. So 2275 grams is my total weight with the Onyx 8000 mAh and I'll bet I could get almost 15 minutes out of this LiPo on a more gentle flight.

U.M.

 

[havasuphoto]

...

 

[ladykate]

Okay I just came in from testing that new 8000mAh Onxy LiPo. I was also able to test the range on my new BluBeam Ultras and Helical Axial combination.

So first off it's windy right now. Weather station shows winds at 10MPH so take that into consideration.

I took off and headed out over the neighborhood and was able to fly into a headwind all the way out to 1382 meters (@ 120 meters high) before RTH finally kicked in. Had full color flawless picture the whole time as long as the Helical was pointed at the hex. I'm pleased as punch with the performance of the Boscam TS353 400mW Tx. Now.... having the flexible goose neck antennae mount for the helical was CRITICAL in making the tripod mounted Boscam monitor easy to view by allowing me to aim the helical antenna to any angle required. Big thanks to Ladykate for sending me the link on that flexible mount! Ref: http://www.dpcav.com/xcart/SMA-to-SMA-E ... nsion.html

As for the battery, I pushed it to 13 minutes before landing and after a 10 minute rest it had 11.10 volts. I actually think this is very good considering how hard I pushed it and the extra 75 grams of weight the bigger battery adds. Had a headwind for the full 1300m+ run out in GPS mode, then I switched to ATTI and ran it full throttle almost the whole way back. Once I got back I flew it around the house a few times until I got the warning and then landed. So 2275 grams is my total weight with the Onyx 8000 mAh and I'll bet I could get almost 15 minutes out of this LiPo on a more gentle flight.

U.M.

Sounds like that battery is the nuts.

That is a lot farther than I have sent mine. 600 meters was it and I felt antsy sending it that far. The P2 is one thing but the 550 doesn't have those legs. Next time, send it my way... maybe I'll get another 550... ;-}

 

[ladykate]

I have, but mine is a coax hex, and it's also unladen (and in a case like this, payload matters a LOT). Still, I figured it was better to test it now and see if it actually works. I may load it up with weights to simulate final loadout and try again. But I would find a larger, similarly grassy area to test in

Video (was it a good idea to be holding a phone while trying it out for the first time? Probably not :shock: ):

That was impressive. I noticed how it leaned into the dead engine each time - which is what I would have expected. However, it didn't seem severe at all. Did you have to use any correcting yaw to compensate?

 

[FangsCPO]

Is there a link to the battery? How long does it take to re-charge and what charger are you using(I'm looking at the hyperion right now).

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXCZKR&P=7

I would guess with the Hyperion Charger at 2C = 16amps and down to 30% it would take about 45-50 minutes. This is my best guess because I have the 6400 and that one takes me from 30% to 100% anywhere between 25-35 minutes.

 

[havasuphoto]

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