Phantom 2's Big Sister!

[RoryG]

I was going to pull the plug on a DJI S900 when a great deal came up on a Vulcan Mantis 900 Hex frame with two Z arms, motors and ESCs. Pretty much finished the build and spent four hours balancing six 12 x 4.5 carbon props today! Wind up here is severe gales so not much chance of test flying for a few days yet! I've fitted her with a Naza M V2, H3-3D, iOSD mini, 2.4GHz datalink, Futaba R6303SB Rx and Boscam 200mW VTx, it's been a very enjoyable build although I have the joys of gain tuning to look forward to...

Cheers,

Rory

 

[CallMeAlan]

Looks good! I really enjoyed building my F550 and it flies very well, and now I've put a GoPro 4 Black on it I'm getting wonderful smooth 4K video.
But gains! Arghh! Getting gains right was the hardest thing of all, and I'm still not happy with them after maybe 8 flights. At the weekend it was showing a tendency to descend rapidly, suddenly, and for no apparent reason. It was controllable and I didn't crash but it's scary. I think I have to reduce the vertical figure.
Good luck!

 

[discv]

Love that Vulcan!
Alan- been following your build with interest- but I think you need to have a think about your weight. I've wondered from the start if you might face issues.

 

[CallMeAlan]

Discv, pleased that somebody is looking at my site and my build. Makes it all worthwhile to know that somebody is seeing it. Thank you.

I've been very weight-conscious throughout. Right now, in its current final build, complete with a 5000 battery and everything mentioned on my site, including Lillie, I'm at 2325, which is a hair below the recommended UAW. Prior to Saturday all seemed well, and I thought I'd nailed gains, but on Saturday suddenly, about 2 mins into the flight, it showed a tendency to suddenly descend. Hardly any wind. Apart from a brief light touchdown I was able to get it back up again. Luckily I was close and low, just testing the GoPro 4. My gains were:
180 180 140 120 140 140
I went home and dropped the vertical to 100 and went back to try again. Not quite so bad but still dipping, even in ATTI. I thought I might try 90 for vertical next.
But I would be grateful to know what you think? I'm really clueless with gains. I have just the vanilla DJI TX/RX so I can't do the dynamic in-flight gaining.
(Sorry to butt in on your thread Rory.)

 

[RoryG]

Really enjoyed looking at your website Alan, that's a nice looking 550 you've got there. I was considering one earlier this year then the S900 came out at a great price point, so I ended up with a Vulcan! There's logic there somewhere!

As for weight the Vulcan is a heavy lump, 4Kg without the gimbal and 4.5Kg with camera / gimbal. That's with 2 x 5000mAh 4S LiPos, according to eCalc I should get around 10 minutes mixed flying with the 12x4.5 props. I may go up to 2 x 6000mAh but want to se her in the air before I buy any more batteries!

Cheers,

Rory