550 Pilot's lounge

[havasuphoto]

Why stop at 3 axis stabilization? Let's get a full 6-dof gimbal next, or even 7 (I've always thought we should have correction for time wobble)

That's a good idea.....you know the Earth wobbles just a bit on it's axis...and, I'll bet the next gen Go Pro will actually film in 8K resolution with 4-4-4 sampling. So, all that needs to be taken into account with stabilization.

Would be cool to have fixed focus-but, have the camera move back and fourth on rails-like an old 4X5 camera....remember those? You moved the front half of the camera to focus. And, you could to the tilt axis as well.
OH, and it has to weigh 300 grams or less :lol:

 

[ElGuano]

Why stop at 3 axis stabilization? Let's get a full 6-dof gimbal next, or even 7 (I've always thought we should have correction for time wobble)

That's a good idea.....you know the Earth wobbles just a bit on it's axis...and, I'll bet the next gen Go Pro will actually film in 8K resolution with 4-4-4 sampling. So, all that needs to be taken into account with stabilization.

Would be cool to have fixed focus-but, have the camera move back and fourth on rails-like an old 4X5 camera....remember those? You moved the front half of the camera to focus. And, you could to the tilt axis as well.
OH, and it has to weigh 300 grams or less :lol:

Were those the ones where you had to duck under a curtain to see the viewfinder, and the shutter release was a handheld pneumatic bulb? I bet we could retrofit a Red Epic heavy lifter to mount that!

 

[ladykate]

Were those the ones where you had to duck under a curtain to see the viewfinder, and the shutter release was a handheld pneumatic bulb? I bet we could retrofit a Red Epic heavy lifter to mount that!

Yeah, but the flash powder holder would lose all its powder in the wind. Some things just aren't meant to be.

 

[havasuphoto]

Why stop at 3 axis stabilization? Let's get a full 6-dof gimbal next, or even 7 (I've always thought we should have correction for time wobble)

That's a good idea.....you know the Earth wobbles just a bit on it's axis...and, I'll bet the next gen Go Pro will actually film in 8K resolution with 4-4-4 sampling. So, all that needs to be taken into account with stabilization.

Would be cool to have fixed focus-but, have the camera move back and fourth on rails-like an old 4X5 camera....remember those? You moved the front half of the camera to focus. And, you could to the tilt axis as well.
OH, and it has to weigh 300 grams or less :lol:

Were those the ones where you had to duck under a curtain to see the viewfinder, and the shutter release was a handheld pneumatic bulb? I bet we could retrofit a Red Epic heavy lifter to mount that!

Yep...used to use one for color and B&W...this old stuff called FILM. Also-the image on the glass was upside down!!! So, focusing and composition was truly an art.
None of this point and click garbage they have now. You needed a Dark Room(oh-sounds scary), and lots of money, to make these things called Prints.

Heck, I remember when the 1st consumer digital camera came out. It was $1000 and I believe it was 1-mega pixel!!!

Now-the Red's are truly Epic...pun intended.

 

[havasuphoto]

Were those the ones where you had to duck under a curtain to see the viewfinder, and the shutter release was a handheld pneumatic bulb? I bet we could retrofit a Red Epic heavy lifter to mount that!

Yeah, but the flash powder holder would lose all its powder in the wind. Some things just aren't meant to be.

Flash!! Never used one. Only daylight. Too scared of the dark....and only had ISO 400 film.
We actually shot a rail road bridge at night for "something", in B&W-left the shutter open, and "painted" the bridge with a flashlight to get the exposure. Took a few hours to do several different shots..but the results were amazing.

 

[Uncle Meat]

Any of you using non-DJI 10" props on the stock 2212 930kv motor's? I'm looking for some advice on replacement props.

U.M.

 

[ladykate]

I'm using the ones from Helipal - which are supposed to be the stock DJI. Since they seem to work well on my rig, I stuck with them and ordered several spares. Would be interested in other's experience - perhaps with CF.

 

[Uncle Meat]

Way back when I first ordered all the parts to build my F550 I ordered a set of these CF props off of Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HEC ... UTF8&psc=1

Needless to say I was not happy with them at all. There are three reviews of these specific CF props on Amazon, can you guess which review is mine? :lol:

U.M.

 

[ladykate]

Yes, CF can be touchy. However, the CF props on my T810 are outstanding. They are also sharper than hell. It is essentially a flying Cuisinart and if you stick your hand into it, you will likely come back with a bloody stub. I am careful to keep spectators away and fly it away from people. I've tipped it over while testing a few times and it tore the hell out of the ground each time. Crap flew everywhere. CF props are much stiffer than the plastic... and sharp.

 

[ElGuano]

I fly a good mix of CF and plastic props. The problem with flight behavior isn't with CF as a material, it's that the cheapo ones tend to have poor manufacturing tolerances, meaning they really need to be balanced carefully. Once done, I really can't tell the difference in flight between them and brand new 9443s. Like most people nowadays, I find that the DJI 9" props are of such high quality and good balance out of the factory that you really don't NEED to use CF unless you're chasing a specific metric (e.g., lower weight).

 

[havasuphoto]

I run the Graupner E-props-11X5. They look like CF, but aren't. Love the props.....they're so smooth.
But-just look at them wrong-and they'll cut ya.

Had another 3 flights Today on the F800. Took the retracts off, went from 6.6lbs to 6.2lbs(sorry-only have a bathroom scale-but it's better than guessing). I run a 3s 8000Mah Zippy, and now I'm only getting maybe about another minute of flight time. Still under 7 ish minutes.....just not where I want to be.

So-the choices are; Run 4S(but how will higher voltage extend my flight times)-my F550 friend says this aircraft with those engines(see a few pages back-Sunny sky something 1400KV), can run the 4S no problem. OH, checked engine temps today, and none were over 100 degrees(outside ambient was 85), so I'm super happy the engines are running 30 degree's cooler.

OR-get a 3S 10,000 Mah battery(my friend can get them from china for $200).
OR, run 2X3S 8000mah.......

also, discovered that the Immersion 600mw RC VTX just plain sucks. Sorry-but I just get no range with those frequencies-running a BP monitor(soon to be for sale-was supposed to play well with those frequencies, and does...but, going back to Boscam/non-airwave band). And-I was testing my new Helical Antenna($90..ya-stupid expensive), and that did increase my range about 100M or so.....even better with the P2; flew it Today too. Just a quick OT on the P2; loves the wind!!! Flags were straight out, and I was in GPS mode, pirouetting around the flag-just stable as hell, even through the gusts....I'm blown away.

The F800 just laughed at the wind.....it's incrementally more stable than the P2-but not as fast or reponsive.

Anyways....need to make some choices to get more flight time.
Getting a new VTX, and going to mount it on the rails on the aft end of the aircraft(has the 2 big rail thingy), and I hear that the camera mount will work just fine back there. I think I can get one from xero something or other?
Immersion RC VTX soon to be for sale too....

 

[ladykate]

It 'might' be that the 8000 zippy is not doing its stuff. They are fairly inexpensive batteries and heavy. The Onyx 8000 gives me great flight times on my 550 - I can depend on 13 minutes and it will go farther than that. It weighs 200 grams less than the zippy for a start (but costs $120).

 

[havasuphoto]

It 'might' be that the 8000 zippy is not doing its stuff. They are fairly inexpensive batteries and heavy. The Onyx 8000 gives me great flight times on my 550 - I can depend on 13 minutes and it will go farther than that. It weighs 200 grams less than the zippy for a start (but costs $120).

Yea-that.
It's putting back in around 5000 or some MAH....and, I'm landing just a bit after the 1st warning. Out voltage around 11.13, and after 5 minutes that's up to 11.30.
So-I'm not getting the Mah out of the battery before the voltage drops......weird, huh?

 

[ElGuano]

Yea-that.
It's putting back in around 5000 or some MAH....and, I'm landing just a bit after the 1st warning. Out voltage around 11.13, and after 5 minutes that's up to 11.30.
So-I'm not getting the Mah out of the battery before the voltage drops......weird, huh?

Voltage drop without depleting the full amps is a trademark of excessive voltage sag. Are your batteries warmer than normal after flight? Do you get better performance out of them on a significantly lighter load?

 

[havasuphoto]

Yea-that.
It's putting back in around 5000 or some MAH....and, I'm landing just a bit after the 1st warning. Out voltage around 11.13, and after 5 minutes that's up to 11.30.
So-I'm not getting the Mah out of the battery before the voltage drops......weird, huh?

Voltage drop without depleting the full amps is a trademark of excessive voltage sag. Are your batteries warmer than normal after flight? Do you get better performance out of them on a significantly lighter load?

Yes, and yes....
Not sure what warmer than normal is-since this is my first time with these big packs. I would say they're no warmer than the maddog 2800 mah I pull out of the P1 after flying it.
Went back through my records of charging, and the most I put back into 1 was 5000 mah.

 

[ElGuano]

Yea-that.
It's putting back in around 5000 or some MAH....and, I'm landing just a bit after the 1st warning. Out voltage around 11.13, and after 5 minutes that's up to 11.30.
So-I'm not getting the Mah out of the battery before the voltage drops......weird, huh?

Voltage drop without depleting the full amps is a trademark of excessive voltage sag. Are your batteries warmer than normal after flight? Do you get better performance out of them on a significantly lighter load?

Yes, and yes....
Not sure what warmer than normal is-since this is my first time with these big packs. I would say they're no warmer than the maddog 2800 mah I pull out of the P1 after flying it.
Went back through my records of charging, and the most I put back into 1 was 5000 mah.

My beef with Zippy batteries isn't news. But definitely some of them aren't up to the task. That said, I'm running some low-C batteries on my Phantom and my hex, and I'm resigned to run them down to 3.47-3.5v because I know they're sagging and that they have the capacity to spare. Not something I'd do in a mission-critical situation, but when I get back from distance I'll putter around on these until I nearly hit auto-descend.

If I had landed them at 3.53v, I'd only have depleted 65-70% of the battery, whereas a "regular" pack would be showing 80-85% discharge.

 

[havasuphoto]

Yea....I'm kinda doing the same thing...I hit 1st level warning, and run into that for about a minute.
Total flight time is around 7:00 now. Before, it was less than 6 minutes-so removing the retracts helped.
Perhaps they're just junk batteries? All 3 are identical, and I can never get more the 5000mah back in.....solution?

 

[ElGuano]

Yea....I'm kinda doing the same thing...I hit 1st level warning, and run into that for about a minute.
Total flight time is around 7:00 now. Before, it was less than 6 minutes-so removing the retracts helped.
Perhaps they're just junk batteries? All 3 are identical, and I can never get more the 5000mah back in.....solution?

I have four zippy compacts, they are the poorest performing in my fleet, consistently. My 2 10C 5200mah packs are also extremely consistent in how they perform. I'd definitely say the packs are major contributors to your issue. Possible solutions: run packs in parallel (decrease the relative load per cell), or get different packs. Other than lightening the weight of the MR or changing motors/props, that's all you can really do.

 

[ladykate]

....solution?

Use them for an FPV ground station and put on a good battery. I haven't used the Zippy but the specs say it isn't special.

 

[havasuphoto]

....solution?

Use them for an FPV ground station and put on a good battery. I haven't used the Zippy but the specs say it isn't special.

The only thing special about them was the price.
Got a friend that has a 4S 5500 pulse-think we'll try that and see how 4S goes. Will set that up in Naza, run it a minute and check engine temps and see how it does.