Building F550 - Any words of advice

[mnuser]

I have a Phantom now and it is a fun quad. It is actually used at work to do aerials of the various fields and such.

I'm making the jump and building my own F550. Here is what I'm putting on it.

F550 Kit with landing gear and the speed controllers and such
NAZA M
DJi Ground Station
Zenmuse 3D Gimbal
Receiver for Live Video Feed
GoPro 4

Any words of advice before I make the call? I looked at the Phantom Vision2 + but think in the long run this will be a better fit. Going to add some LED lights to the arms.

Can I control the Zenmuse from the remote control? Want to be able to point it straight down at times.

I know I will have to get a smaller screen for the video feedback. Was hoping to use the DJi App but I have learned that that is a function of the camera that the VisionPlus is carrying around.

Thanks for any help you can give.

 

[OI Photography]

mnuser, we have a section just for non-Phantom airframes like the 550. I'll move this thread there now so you can get more feedback, and there's lots of info there from others who own one

 

[CallMeAlan]

mnuser, I have almost finished building my F550. I've flown it twice now with just the basic flying parts in place - no FPV or OSD yet, though those are coming along, and I have to thank OI Photography for some invaluable help he's given me regarding that side of the build and an FPV Hub, which I just couldn't work out for myself. You will be able to control the vertical tilt of the camera from the remote.

My first two very short test flights - well at least it took off and didn't fly away, but was all over the place and very difficult to control. Turns out that the gains were WAAAY out, and I had the Z figure for the GPS puck positioning at +13 when it should have been -13, so it was 26cm out. Whoops.

Like you, I have the F550, NAZA M V2, DJI transmitter and receiver, together with iOSD Mini, H3-3D gimbal with GoPro 3, FPV Hub, plus Black Pearl, which the DJI tx talks to happily. Ground Station also came with the kit, but I have no intention of using that until I'm well down the line.

A real fun build, and a lovely craft. Enjoy!

Alan