Fast low FPV with 9050 triblades, its a beast

[martcerv]

Here is a test flight with those 9050 triple blade props I have been trying out, the phantom has turned into a beast with these. Was a very light breeze and I was trying to stay nice and low, didnt take on to many tight gaps but had a couple close calls with trees at speed. Ended with a crash that only broke one prop but it wasnt at full speed as Im sure it was going about 70kmh or more a couple times here (I think fastest was just after 2:50) which would have made much more of a mess of it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOopiBu3CCE[/youtube]

Here is an aerial image of the fly site showing distance from me bottom of line to back of second oval at 315m just to give an idea of the size and area. I had no FPV signal issues it was just as good a few hundred meters away in the trees or scraping the grass as it was right next to it.

Here is the crash damage, just a single broken prop and some grass on the others.

 

[Audaciter]

Wow... :shock: That thing blazes along. Where were all the Kangaroos, and Koala's ??

The Dingoes ate my Phantom....

 

[auck]

Where did you order the three bladed props from? Please share.

 

[Sac D]

I'm running 9" tri-blades on my 450 and they are awesome! They are really inexpensive too, although I haven't needed to replace any so far.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251057371012?ss ... 1439.l2649

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251145770238?ss ... 1439.l2649

 

[martcerv]

I got mine here http://www.multiwiicopter.com/products/sku-27 but have also seen what look to be the same props at hobbyking.

Search for GWS 9050 triblade and you should find these quite easily. These are a little bit soft would prefer something stiffer but overall they give so much more lift its impressive, I tried some 8040 props and its a bit unstable with those and I wouldn't fly them plus they dont get the same lift so they are no advantage over the 8045 standard props. I haven't done a full flight with the 8040 props as I don't have lots of confidence in them and bring it back a bit early before it gets out of control.

I may get a set of those 9045's you linked and see how they go slightly different pitch so worth a try. I am surprised these get better battery life then anything else I have flown even when giving it a hiding like here. My phantom is weighing 1175g with 2700mah battery and gets 10 min with 2200 40g lighter but get 8 min. No FPV I get a couple minutes longer yet only 58g less for my tx and antenna so that's obviously more battery drain from tx then weight which would be not a huge deal.

 

[martcerv]

Wow... :shock: That thing blazes along. Where were all the Kangaroos, and Koala's ??

The Dingoes ate my Phantom....

Lol the Kangaroos are all over the place around here, tend to just come out at dawn and dusk mostly. Im amazed I havent had any around when flying yet, will try find some to fly around soon but not quite this low and fast around them lol. Lots of cars hit kangaroos around this area and Ive seen some very big ones at the local golf course.

Koala's are around but very hard to see I hope I dont knock one out of a tree by accident but I dont think there are that many around here. Dingo's we dont get here as there arent enough babies out :mrgreen:

 

[Audaciter]

Dingo's we dont get here as there arent enough babies out :mrgreen:

I quite literally laughed out loud. :lol: Well they have that fence that was built, that is about 3,500 miles long.
Is that effective ? And which side of the fence are you on ? Dingoes/No Dingoes ?

Yes, definitely show us some of the Kangaroos, etc. Not something I'll get to experience here in Silicon Valley.

Here, I have to deal mostly with Canadian geese. Not so much flying into them, but all the crap.... I read somewhere
that they crap up to 2 lbs a day. And you don't want to stand under the flock, as they are taking off, unloading their
unwanted ballast.

 

[martcerv]

Dingoes aren't anywhere near Melbourne really, I haven't even seen one in the wild ever. Not sure exactly where the fence is but I would assume somewhere well north of Melbourne probably trying to keep them in the wild and out of the cities.

Kangaroos we have so many around but they seem camera shy lately, I always see them out on my old local golf course but mostly dawn or dusk which is when they also tend to get hit by cars. Ive hit one at 120kmh and it was a draw, the car and kangaroo both didnt make it.

At least they will be a bit more unique to an Aussie video, I wonder how they will react to a flying Phantom. I wont be hounding them with it and I am sure they would outrun the phantom anyway but would be a cool shot flying well above high speed kangaroos jumping along. The gimbal would be great for that, I even know of a place deep in the residential area where they tend to hang out on a block of land near a friends place close to the forest.

I saw it jumping over some guys 2m high fence like it was nothing, not sure how the flower beds it was landing on handled it but oh well glad it wasnt my house it was jumping all over.

One thing I wouldn't want to be doing around Kangaroos is flying FPV wearing goggles, here is an example of a guy just trying to take a piss in the lake :lol: Imagine the shock that would give you when your zoned in to your SD FPV world.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdign-Doj2A[/youtube]

 

[Driffill]

Hmmmm . . . .

RDO today I might go find some roos
I know a great spot to be able to find some, and its tucked into suburbia!

Are you west, north, east or SE of melb?

 

[martcerv]

Im south east and may go for a roo search this afternoon too.

 

[Driffill]

A ha, I'm up north.

I really should be taking my car to my mechanic (in frankston) and I need to go past rowville and maybe lilydale! Do you think I can be bother doing that round trip lol

There is a nice section or land alongside the start of the Hume fwy, part of it was lalor golf course, there is walking trails (and people get in there with 4x4s and have fun) but during my bike rides thru the area, I've seen plenty of roos.

Tho you do need to be careful if flying around the south side of the market/quarry's! (The north side of the golf course)! Pm me if you want the details (Apart from the obvious freeway, wildlife etc) on why!!!

 

[martcerv]

Here is an earlier full flight as planned with no crash so 10 minute fpv flight with my setup weighing 1179g using a 2700mah battery.

In 1080p60 medium which has an advantage in fpv as it makes it a bit easier to judge gaps and distances I find but has the issue of high speed forward flight pitching so much it ends up pointing down too much. I can aim the camera higher but the when going slowly I cant see objects just below me, so this is a slower more chilled out flight.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu3j0F3XPrI[/youtube]

 

[TickTock]

My GWS 9050 tri-blades came today and I can now attest to them too. Using the same battery I held the Phantom in a hover with my previous favorite carbon fiber props and again with the triblades.

carbon fiber:
start pack volts 12.16V
constant red flash @ 10.65V, 7:45 minutes

triblades:
start pack volts 12.16V
constant red flash @ 10.64V, 8:53 minutes

That's a 15% increase with a cheaper set of blades!

 

[martcerv]

Yes its pretty amazing to get more power and longer run times, going by my tiger motor specs they are well within spec for both motors and 18amp ESC's. 9x5 triblades should be a similar load as 10x4 dual blades. Not sure if stock motors may get a bit warm as they are not meant for 10 inch blades but 920kv should be fine with them much the same as my 900kv motors.

The only explanation I can think of for the longer flight times and performance is that a phantom is under propped using 8 inch dual blades and especially when a little heavy its needing way too high an rpm to sustain lift. I tried some flights with 8045 carbon plastic props and nearly got caught out badly when switching to manual mode as I needed a much higher throttle percentage to hover compared to the 9050 triblades I have got used to. Also lost a minute and half at least in flight time along with very sluggish performance.

The only way I will use other props on my phantom now is if I find some carbons in the same spec as these 9050 triblades.

 

[boat chaser]

Nice, are you flying in atti or manual?

i'm going to do some vertical and horizontal testing of the Tri and twin blade today, ill hopefully come up with some decent results.

 

[Gizmo3000]

Well, I'm no guru when it comes to props.

But from what I've picked up on, theres a certain balance between efficiency and performance.

A prop that has more lifting power doesn't necessarily mean longer flights, but will sacrifice performance for longer hovering.

I"ve been playing with this online calculator, and when i merely change the props to 3 blades instead of 2,. hover time does increate,. but overall flight time diminishes.

check it out
http://www.ecalc.ch/xcoptercalc.htm?ecalc&lang=en

 

[TickTock]

Nice link. Thanks! According to the footnote, "flight time" is " flight time at max throttle" so although the time is reduced, that's because it's moving faster. I would guess if you constrained your flight to the same speed as other blades it may not be shorter.

 

[boat chaser]

Did some tests for speed and vertical lift. Quite draconian methods were used but reasonably accurate. Test was only over 250m. Weight 1156g. I will do a 500m next week. Liking the tri blades! Not liking hibernation mode.

http://youtu.be/mgP8XPOFpQs

 

[martcerv]

Well, I'm no guru when it comes to props.

But from what I've picked up on, theres a certain balance between efficiency and performance.

A prop that has more lifting power doesn't necessarily mean longer flights, but will sacrifice performance for longer hovering.

I"ve been playing with this online calculator, and when i merely change the props to 3 blades instead of 2,. hover time does increate,. but overall flight time diminishes.

check it out
http://www.ecalc.ch/xcoptercalc.htm?ecalc&lang=en

If flying at full throttle it will use more power so high speed manual flying will be expected to shorten overall flight time but if flying gps or atti mode where it has altitude hold then it will rarely be at full rpm, hover speed will be much lower rpm so less power used. More lift will mean more speed on a multi as all the props do is give you lift and speed is generated by pitch angle of the craft. More lift will allow more pitch angle without causing it to lose altitude so this will be more speed. This is especially in the case on the phantom where 8 inch props are really struggling to lift it anywhere above 1kg.

Other props I have tried such as 8x5 carbon graupner clones where complete rubbish, with much less lift then stock giving me 4 minute flight times and barely even lifting my setup at 1160g. Comparing this to the triblades its like flying another quad altogether its so different.

Using the balance vs efficiency will be quite different if you need to use very high rpm just to maintain a basic hover if your setup is struggling for lift as many props I have tried have shown. If the setup has larger props then it really needs then there likely wouldn't be as big a gain if any by going larger props or more props as in 2 to 3 blades.

I think the size of the phantom and its weight really makes it hit a sweet spot at 9050 triblades as it allows a much larger surface area pushing more air then possible with any other prop on its frame size.

This video shows the sort of performance you can get out of these triblades on a phantom in manual mode and I get nothing like this with any other props. This was shot as a filter test but I was giving it a proper thrashing to see what the props can do and Id love to see a phantom get such speeds in a light breeze with any other props. Weather has been crap here ever since so I haven't had a chance to fly in about a week since then.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E34obz9qcTw[/youtube]

 

[martcerv]

Did some tests for speed and vertical lift. Quite draconian methods were used but reasonably accurate. Test was only over 250m. Weight 1156g. I will do a 500m next week. Liking the tri blades! Not liking hibernation mode.

http://youtu.be/mgP8XPOFpQs

That hibernation mode has me avoiding the DJI gimbal as I tend to like to push my phantom a bit and I think the gimbal will just sleep till it gives up and dies lol. Im just waiting on some more info on a couple other gimbals before deciding which to get, the DJI looks great at the slow cinematic stuff but id want one that can also handle some high loads.

I will try and do some tests as soon as the rain stops and winds die down, putting the shots side by side should give a good idea and I will try each with GPS, ATTI and Manual modes also using a camera setup on the ground to show side by side lift rates and speeds, will try and be as scientific as possible so will need calm conditions to keep the flights a fair comparison.

Not sure what mode your using but in GPS mode there will be little speed difference as it almost seems to be speed limited in this mode, even flying down wind in GPS mode stays pretty slow but in ATTI downwind can be pretty quick and in manual I wouldn't even dare go full speed with any wind behind as its pretty darn quick with no wind.

Seeing as GPS mode is the slowest with fairly limited pitch angles it explains how the triblades give me longer flight times and also the same with atti mode though a bit quicker. Using manual its amazing the angles I can get the phantom into and maintain level flight but at fairly high rpm which would explain the high speeds possible but also the high battery drain that gives.