550 Pilot's lounge
- Thread starter OI Photography
- Start date
When I was testing a bunch of lighting options on/for my 550, I tinkered with shining a few LED's upwards towards the outer half of each rotor, mainly to make it easier to see the true radius when flying at night. I abandoned that after a bit but still would like to find a solution for it.
jimandsue, I use this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00972LOUM/
jimandsue, I use this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00972LOUM/
ElGuano said:
That's about the same conclusion I'd arrived (and stopped) at, dark blades just don't work well for that.
I noticed T-motor is now pushing a new line of (self-tightening!) beechwood props painted white, I might try a set and they're a good bit cheaper than the CF 12" I was about to order.
I've never seen any folding ones like that, but I ignore that type of design in general.
If you don't mind the time it takes to balance them, Maytech and Tarot both make less-expensive versions of the profile T-motor uses in their 10"+ CF blades.
If you don't mind the time it takes to balance them, Maytech and Tarot both make less-expensive versions of the profile T-motor uses in their 10"+ CF blades.
ElGuano said:
rangevideo.com has the Tarot versions, the maytech's I've seen several places I can't recall offhand. I got one set of what I think were the maytech's (rebadged as rangevideo's house brand)...the problem with them was that the shaft holes were drilled a little off the centerline (towards the edge, not towards the blades), and definitely off the CG, so all the time was spent balancing the hubs.
I saw those the other day too. Looked nice.OI Photography said:
BUT-I have to get mine up and flying with 12's and 4S first, and check the temps. Still waiting for mine to come out of the "shop".
If it flies good with the APC MR 12X4.5's, then I'll certainly go with the wood props.....that would look cool on an all black aircraft.
OH, and I have the T-motor CCW prop mounts too!! Just took them off for now, because the threads start at 10mm, not 8mm like every other prop mount. Wonder if that's why T-motor started there threads at 10mm?
FYI, if you don't already know-I would avoid Gemfans in the 12" size. I went through 6 CCW blades, 3 were completely unable to be hub balanced. The 3 replacements, I gave up on. They're closer to balance than the one's they replaced-but I'll probably fly the APC MR's, as those balanced quite nicely.
Well, I have the aircraft back with the new ESC's installed. Everything has bullet connectors-so I'm free to move things around a little bit. As you can see from the orientation, I place them 180 degree's from the original picture I posted.
The plan now is to leave them hanging while I put on the props, plug into Naza, and do a motor test. Will do that on 3S because that's what I left it at before I disassembled.
I also copied Ol voltage settings for 4S-but, I think I'm going a bit higher on the 1st and 2nd levels, by about .30 higher on each...just so I can measure voltage to see what I end up with and how much goes back in.
I'm worried that the big orange batteries will "volt out" before they amp out. I know Ol has these same 8000mah batteries, but I have to do my own testing.
My other plan, once I switch over in Naza to 4S and calibrate, is to "mount" the ESC with some sticky tape to the "hat". I'm going to run the 3 wires that go to the engine through a slot in the top plate, then go around with some small zip ties to clean things up.
At this point-I'm more worried about function and heat, than I am about making all the wires look nice and pretty.
I have some heat-shrink, so if the weather gods allow me to test Tomorrow, and everything works well, I can go back and heat shrink some wires, and do so more zip tying to tidy stuff up.
I ended up mounting the PMU2 to the main battery terminals-but the PMU2 "box" is still near arm M1, stuck to the main board with tape. On top of that, I stuck the iOSD mini(with the usb plug easily accessible from the side), and then I stuck the GCU on top of the mini-again oriented so I could get to the usb port, and also the GCU cable to plug that back in. It does fit easily where it's mounted.
So now the fun begins.....push "test motor", and see if things spin right. That's all I'm doing Today.
OH-and I have 2 switches that I can throw to enter Fail-Safe on the remote. I'm going to change that; the one that goes GPS, Atti, Fail-safe, is going to change from Fail Safe, to Manual. I want Manual on there, just so I can see if the throttle is linear, and also if the stuff hits the fan, I have that option.
My friend has an identical set-up..but, with 700KV motors, running 12X4.5 props. So, we're going to weigh each aircraft, and compare hover/flight-times and temps. I'll be doing my 1st test with 11X5 E-graups to dial in gains and check temps.
He also has a 4S 10,000 mah battery!!! I think it's 25S. So-I'm going to weigh that too. As that may be an option for me-it does fit easily on the aircraft and is about the same size at the big orange 8000 Mah battery.
The plan now is to leave them hanging while I put on the props, plug into Naza, and do a motor test. Will do that on 3S because that's what I left it at before I disassembled.
I also copied Ol voltage settings for 4S-but, I think I'm going a bit higher on the 1st and 2nd levels, by about .30 higher on each...just so I can measure voltage to see what I end up with and how much goes back in.
I'm worried that the big orange batteries will "volt out" before they amp out. I know Ol has these same 8000mah batteries, but I have to do my own testing.
My other plan, once I switch over in Naza to 4S and calibrate, is to "mount" the ESC with some sticky tape to the "hat". I'm going to run the 3 wires that go to the engine through a slot in the top plate, then go around with some small zip ties to clean things up.
At this point-I'm more worried about function and heat, than I am about making all the wires look nice and pretty.
I have some heat-shrink, so if the weather gods allow me to test Tomorrow, and everything works well, I can go back and heat shrink some wires, and do so more zip tying to tidy stuff up.
I ended up mounting the PMU2 to the main battery terminals-but the PMU2 "box" is still near arm M1, stuck to the main board with tape. On top of that, I stuck the iOSD mini(with the usb plug easily accessible from the side), and then I stuck the GCU on top of the mini-again oriented so I could get to the usb port, and also the GCU cable to plug that back in. It does fit easily where it's mounted.
So now the fun begins.....push "test motor", and see if things spin right. That's all I'm doing Today.
OH-and I have 2 switches that I can throw to enter Fail-Safe on the remote. I'm going to change that; the one that goes GPS, Atti, Fail-safe, is going to change from Fail Safe, to Manual. I want Manual on there, just so I can see if the throttle is linear, and also if the stuff hits the fan, I have that option.
My friend has an identical set-up..but, with 700KV motors, running 12X4.5 props. So, we're going to weigh each aircraft, and compare hover/flight-times and temps. I'll be doing my 1st test with 11X5 E-graups to dial in gains and check temps.
He also has a 4S 10,000 mah battery!!! I think it's 25S. So-I'm going to weigh that too. As that may be an option for me-it does fit easily on the aircraft and is about the same size at the big orange 8000 Mah battery.
Attachments
Well, bad news. I double checked all the connectors before putting the top on, and everything appeared correct. I hooked up my 3S 8000 battery to it, and saw "magic smoke" coming from the left rear main PCB. Un-plugged battery and double checked that the polarity to the ESC was correct. Plugged back in again-no smoke(no surprise), but motor M4 will not spin.
So-back to the shop we go. I'm thinking that something on the main PCB at where M4 main is soldered shorted. I hope it didn't hurt the ESC.
Also-not that it matters now, but the new weight, empty(no battery, gimbal/camera/FPV) is 2290 grams. That's up about 200 grams from before.
Oh well....kinda bummed.
So-back to the shop we go. I'm thinking that something on the main PCB at where M4 main is soldered shorted. I hope it didn't hurt the ESC.
Also-not that it matters now, but the new weight, empty(no battery, gimbal/camera/FPV) is 2290 grams. That's up about 200 grams from before.
Oh well....kinda bummed.
The smell is coming from the PCB, and from the black ground wire on the ESC...ElGuano said:
I can tell it was NOT smoke coming from the ESC-as it was on top and I was looking at it. I've looked at the pos/neg leads on the PCB and they look pristine-no charring or anything.
BUT, when I checked the bullet connector-main power leads into the ESC, the bullet for the positive lead just fell off. So it was not soldered in very well, and the negative was also loose.
Going to take it back to my "mechanic" and let him do further testing. I don't believe the ESC was harmed, and I'm hoping the magic smoke was just a short between the bullet connector and the wire-not making contact or something like that.
It's lucky that I found that positive bullet loose. I'm re-thinking the bullet idea for the mains, and may just go the direct route-meshing the two wires together, wrap with another wire, solder and heat shrink. That's a lot more solid connection.
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2013
- Messages
- 2,219
- Reaction score
- 7
That is the #1 issue with bullets. More solder joints, higher resistance, more points of failure. The added weight doesn't help either, though at 800mm it's not going to end the world.
I mentioned I'm not a fan of bullets, but I will admit I have not removed a single one from the dozen+ e300s I've installed. Maybe I should put my money where my mouth is....
I mentioned I'm not a fan of bullets, but I will admit I have not removed a single one from the dozen+ e300s I've installed. Maybe I should put my money where my mouth is....
Yea-bullets and soldering all add points of failure. I originally thought we were not going to do the mains with bullets-because we didn't have enough.ElGuano said:
I think the mains need to be re-done, w/o bullets-just mesh the 2 wires together(need the extra length), wrap and solder. That will make a much more solid connector.
I'm hoping it was just a "failure" of the bullet connector and that is where the smoke came from.......
But-like I said, I'd rather catch these things early on in my office, than to be 100 feet up and have an issue.
Problem found; it was a small piece of solder on the positive main lead bullet connector on M4 that came into contact with the top plate-this created the smoke. It ended up that connection and a few others we checked, were cold soldered and needed to be re-done.
It's good that this happened and we were able to check all the bullet connector-pulling on them hard to make sure the rest were correctly soldered and made good connection.
So now, my new favorite saying is; "when in doubt-get the heat shrink out". I've got about 6 feet of 3/16" 3M black heat shrink, and I'm a master of heat shrink(got a gun and everything).
I'm going to go through all the connections and heat shrink everything together....that's my Saturday project.
Then-going to re-do the motor check, and if that check out, figure out how I want to mount the ESC's.
I'm pretty confident that the ESC that was connected did not short out or have any other issues. IF, it did-it's a pretty simple job to replace it, and lesson learned.
For those like me that don't know about soldering-it's very difficult to solder on a bullet connector or 2 wires together, by yourself. You really need to get those alligator clip "extra-hands" to hold the wires for you.
It went much quicker as I held the wire when someone else soldered, and I'm confident in the job.
As for my aircraft weight going up-it did. But, I think my scale is off a bit. I weighed the same 10,000 mah battery, and each time got a different number. I think it ended up being 890 grams. But, the first couple of times it was over 900, then back down....so, it may be off by as much as 50 grams.
And the reason I think it's off is; you pick up a bag of 60 bullet connectors-it doesn't weigh that much. Solder? well, yea that starts to add up. But I think the biggest increase is the ESC's. Even if they're only 10 grams more, that's still 60 grams-so it all adds up. I had to keep picking up my aircraft, and I kept getting a different, lower reading........
Planning on a Sunday flight now...my back is shot to hell, so I'm done fiddling for the day. And, tomorrow looks to be windy in the morning, and stupid hot!! We're in that time of year, where our overnight low temp is above 95 deg's!!!! So, even at sunrise, it's still close to 100 deg's, and it's humid here(30+% this time of year). I think yesterday we hit a record of 116 deg's. I know the 120's are right around the corner....good time to fiddle with my aircraft
It's good that this happened and we were able to check all the bullet connector-pulling on them hard to make sure the rest were correctly soldered and made good connection.
So now, my new favorite saying is; "when in doubt-get the heat shrink out". I've got about 6 feet of 3/16" 3M black heat shrink, and I'm a master of heat shrink(got a gun and everything).
I'm going to go through all the connections and heat shrink everything together....that's my Saturday project.
Then-going to re-do the motor check, and if that check out, figure out how I want to mount the ESC's.
I'm pretty confident that the ESC that was connected did not short out or have any other issues. IF, it did-it's a pretty simple job to replace it, and lesson learned.
For those like me that don't know about soldering-it's very difficult to solder on a bullet connector or 2 wires together, by yourself. You really need to get those alligator clip "extra-hands" to hold the wires for you.
It went much quicker as I held the wire when someone else soldered, and I'm confident in the job.
As for my aircraft weight going up-it did. But, I think my scale is off a bit. I weighed the same 10,000 mah battery, and each time got a different number. I think it ended up being 890 grams. But, the first couple of times it was over 900, then back down....so, it may be off by as much as 50 grams.
And the reason I think it's off is; you pick up a bag of 60 bullet connectors-it doesn't weigh that much. Solder? well, yea that starts to add up. But I think the biggest increase is the ESC's. Even if they're only 10 grams more, that's still 60 grams-so it all adds up. I had to keep picking up my aircraft, and I kept getting a different, lower reading........
Planning on a Sunday flight now...my back is shot to hell, so I'm done fiddling for the day. And, tomorrow looks to be windy in the morning, and stupid hot!! We're in that time of year, where our overnight low temp is above 95 deg's!!!! So, even at sunrise, it's still close to 100 deg's, and it's humid here(30+% this time of year). I think yesterday we hit a record of 116 deg's. I know the 120's are right around the corner....good time to fiddle with my aircraft
Well Today, things went from Bad to Worse.
I went around and put heat shrink on the ESC main connectors...but before I put the top back on, I wanted to check that all the engines were working.
Plugged into Naza-got 1 beep, followed by 1,2,3,4.......OK-I know I still have a problem. Test all motors in Motor Test, and M4 is still dead-no power.
So, I checked the PCB mains at M4-no power. I then checked the rest of the mains to make sure my volt meter light was working correctly-and everyone of those lit up.
So-now I know I have a bad power pad at M4-which means I need a new lower PCB.....just great-that's all I needed.
But wait-there's more. To make sure I had 6 good ESC's, I removed M5 ESC(already tested good), and put the M4 ESC into it's place....plugged into Naza M5 slot, M5 main power, and M5 engine wires. Plug in battery, push M5 motor test-nothing, dead!!
So, to eliminate the PCB from the equation, I took El Guapo's suggestion and plugged the mains of M4 ESC directly into a Lipo.....pushed motor test again-nothing.
So, now I need a new DJI 30A ESC, and a lower PCB. THEN-everything needs to come apart, and be re-attached and re soldered. So, basically the aircraft needs to be almost completely rebuilt. I'm am NOT happy!!
I went around and put heat shrink on the ESC main connectors...but before I put the top back on, I wanted to check that all the engines were working.
Plugged into Naza-got 1 beep, followed by 1,2,3,4.......OK-I know I still have a problem. Test all motors in Motor Test, and M4 is still dead-no power.
So, I checked the PCB mains at M4-no power. I then checked the rest of the mains to make sure my volt meter light was working correctly-and everyone of those lit up.
So-now I know I have a bad power pad at M4-which means I need a new lower PCB.....just great-that's all I needed.
But wait-there's more. To make sure I had 6 good ESC's, I removed M5 ESC(already tested good), and put the M4 ESC into it's place....plugged into Naza M5 slot, M5 main power, and M5 engine wires. Plug in battery, push M5 motor test-nothing, dead!!
So, to eliminate the PCB from the equation, I took El Guapo's suggestion and plugged the mains of M4 ESC directly into a Lipo.....pushed motor test again-nothing.
So, now I need a new DJI 30A ESC, and a lower PCB. THEN-everything needs to come apart, and be re-attached and re soldered. So, basically the aircraft needs to be almost completely rebuilt. I'm am NOT happy!!
