17-Apr-2017, 10:42 PM
Heya guys,
it's time for some reports from the noob front again
I was intending to get some OUTDOOR stick-time this easter, but the weather wouldn't agree. My visiting parents neither.
There were a couple of nights though, were I was acting out my still continuing wait for non-cloned FCs, and I was uncoordinatedly productive, I fear..
My Kraken3, I'll provide the spoiler at the start, still does not fly.
I've managed to BEAUTIFULLY set it up with a xracer v3.1 FC (..now, is there any original, or is it a clone sporting an own name? It was expensive, so I figured some cash went to the devs, but.. usual doubts on that. Cloners learned that asking higher prices works, too! )
Hooowwevverrr, I shorted it upon putting it together. Cracked wire insulation from the first crash sent some true lipo-juice up the non-BEC-FC's-wazoo. *twuz a nice little white cloud escaping from the board, at least. So now I'm member of the fryer's club, too! (*shame..)
Right afterwards I installed a KISS-FC clone (30 bucks! - *bohooo, I really thought it was the real deal, but the usual sloppy silk screen print made me suspicious, and indeed.. )
Geehh, the KISS sports a quite antigue processor, didn't know that! With all the hype about it..
I won't bother to look for the original, to be honest.
But first things first:
My taranis looks like this now:
I know it's a pubertary choice of colors, indeed I was appeasing myself by calling it "Jackson-Pollock-style" and "beetlejuice-blue-spaghetto-taranis", but honestly? I don't care. It's fun. I love it
Well, after that I ventured upon the Dquad Obsession build.
Resuming, I must say that it's a quite tight build, and that I don't recommend it for beginners like me. The allocation question keeps popping up, and if you don't get it right from the start, it's very, no, VERY time-consuming to take the whole construct apart for corrective measures.
I wouldn't rate it the service- or repair-friendliest miniquad either.
If you're looking for a beat-em-up-quad, this might not be it. At least from the repair aspect point of view..
It looks really great, though, and the result of your efforts will undoubtedly reward you. It's a blast to fly, and the construction appears to be sturdy and quite light.
I had to solve the usual problems popping up along the way, like Vtx placement:
..and, fellas, this didn't work.
I had to bend in the fins from the heatsink, as there was no way I could position it without applying heavy pressure upon the FC..
The Vtx was another topic that stimulated some spontaneous creativity:
Since - at least to me - it seemed impossible to just fix it in the delivered antenna mount, I decided to attach just the plug to the mount and wire some coax to the Vtx. While at it, I took a closer look at the Antenna connection, and the length and volume of the inner wire connection really started to worry me, like: "Wait a second, that's a radiating element! - Aren't we supposed to keep this as short & small as possible?" (I admit it, the inspiration came from the Taranis-mod..)
Hooowever, I ground away the plug connector from the Vtx and sucked dry all the solder I found on it. (Decent quantity, I have to admit..) Afterwards, I shortened the solder pad for the central wire and applied some itsy-bitsy-teeny solder connection to it. Just in order to make sure, I wrapped the whole thing in hot glue and an improvised Faraday-cage, heatshrink over the whole mess..:
The little cutout is for the membrane over the mic. I'd like to listen to more than just Venturi-tube-sounds, so I figured protecting the mic a bit wouldn't harm..
This is the famous heatsink. It's from a Raspberry Pi, and you can find them pretty much everywhere, I got mine on - *tah-dahh - banggood..
As I mentioned, the fins were too high for this build, had to fold them over incrementally in order to fit them into the whole construct..
Otherwise, it's a really enjoyable build. Gnaws gently away at your noob-nerves, but, once done, you'll be rewarded.
As I am a perfect detector for Murphy-circumstances, I noticed at first that my motors weren't spinning homogeneously. Especially when catching the quad from a little drop (*in the living room, that is ), it developed some preoccupying yaw-momentum, and I didn't like that at all. I want to thrash this thing around without having to compensate come dyscoordinated torque momenta, soooo...
...
Where was the problem?
Well at first, I checked the DYS racing edition 2205 I got for it, and one of them seemed to have an unstable shaft. That wuz an easy spot, so I - unluckily - didn't look further, but transplanted the F40s I had on my Shuriken. Bad idea..
Of course, as you know me, the quad was showing the same behaviour, but this time with those 2600KV-monsters. My yoga-mat looks correspondingly
What was confusing me was the fact that the Shuriken had shown similar tendencies (stutter, funny noises in hover..) in the past, so I was pondering having won the lottery of the unlucky, and having ended up with 2 faulty motors.
Of course it was the ESC, but - hey!, I'm a noob!!
So it took me some further trying the Brotherhobby Returners (..and now I know why they call them that way - I'd return them indeed..) on the Obsession in order to put my finger on the ESCs (Racerstar 25A, specs say Dshot, but I found them clearly overchallenged with it. Maybe I should try again with 4 flawless ones.. )
These here:
I must say that I've got their 35A-brothers mounted right now, and they may not really handle D-shot, but they're doing smooth and fun so far. Thumbs up!
So that's a pic along the way, while I was copying my Helix (..oh Helix, my love..)-PID's onto the Obsession. Again, from the actual point of view, the Obsession carries the right name and has potential for becoming a contestor of the Helix. *becoming*..
Ah, yes, word of advice:
Screwing down the backhand part of the aluminum cage requires quite a bit of force, and my unlucky choice of steel screws with "those pretty colorful aluminum nuts" turned out to be fatal,
as one nut commited thread suicide upon the fifth removal, and there was nooo way that I would get it back out.
So the cage would have stayed on, if it had been for that nut.
I had to grind the cage, *sniff - after spending innumerable attempts at tricking the steel screw to get out.
I tried first drilling out the head of the screw - with the only result of creating sort of a steel washer inside the 3D printed polymer that would-not-want-to-get-out. Of course it was freely turning in its seat from the previously generated heat, so there was no way to enlarge the inner diameter either, *groan..
Messymessymessy...
Ah, yes: Upon trying to take the quad apart, I obviously had to further complicate things by crushing one of the XM+'s antennas.. *haaa-heee-hhoooohhh...
So now I know that UFL-connector spares come in different sizes..
temporarily fixed it with a cable-tie in order to continue my repair while the epoxy was setting..
By the way, you can reuse the antenna-cable-tie-heat-shrink-protection by inserting a really small inbus key with one of those rounded heads as a guide. The angulated end greatly facilitates pulling it back out..
Cable ties are soo universal, I use em too in order to avoid using tons of fresh heatshrink every time I have to change/solder something underneath, at least at its border..
This is the screw-head-washer I had to surgically remove from the 3D-plastic..:
Well, in the end the obsession is sporting the mentioned 35A ESCs and Racerstar 2403-motors, which may not be as powerful as expected (..still have to test them really full throttle, though, as it was very windy today and I spent most of the flying time in my usual subterranean parking lot..
I never would have set it up this way, but in the end I have to admit that it works beautifully! Light, smooth, nimble and tons of fun!!
Let's finish this with the unlucky cadaver of the Kraken3:
..which is going to be rewarded for being so brave with an ORIGINAL, brand-new Rotorgeeks-FC straight from Canada. *tah-daahh..!!
I just hope Swiss custom official's hands find their way out of their butts, some glorious day..
So how was your easter?
Cheers, fellas, I'm onto whiskey now - I've deserved it, I reckon..
it's time for some reports from the noob front again
I was intending to get some OUTDOOR stick-time this easter, but the weather wouldn't agree. My visiting parents neither.
There were a couple of nights though, were I was acting out my still continuing wait for non-cloned FCs, and I was uncoordinatedly productive, I fear..
My Kraken3, I'll provide the spoiler at the start, still does not fly.
I've managed to BEAUTIFULLY set it up with a xracer v3.1 FC (..now, is there any original, or is it a clone sporting an own name? It was expensive, so I figured some cash went to the devs, but.. usual doubts on that. Cloners learned that asking higher prices works, too! )
Hooowwevverrr, I shorted it upon putting it together. Cracked wire insulation from the first crash sent some true lipo-juice up the non-BEC-FC's-wazoo. *twuz a nice little white cloud escaping from the board, at least. So now I'm member of the fryer's club, too! (*shame..)
Right afterwards I installed a KISS-FC clone (30 bucks! - *bohooo, I really thought it was the real deal, but the usual sloppy silk screen print made me suspicious, and indeed.. )
Geehh, the KISS sports a quite antigue processor, didn't know that! With all the hype about it..
I won't bother to look for the original, to be honest.
But first things first:
My taranis looks like this now:
I know it's a pubertary choice of colors, indeed I was appeasing myself by calling it "Jackson-Pollock-style" and "beetlejuice-blue-spaghetto-taranis", but honestly? I don't care. It's fun. I love it
Well, after that I ventured upon the Dquad Obsession build.
Resuming, I must say that it's a quite tight build, and that I don't recommend it for beginners like me. The allocation question keeps popping up, and if you don't get it right from the start, it's very, no, VERY time-consuming to take the whole construct apart for corrective measures.
I wouldn't rate it the service- or repair-friendliest miniquad either.
If you're looking for a beat-em-up-quad, this might not be it. At least from the repair aspect point of view..
It looks really great, though, and the result of your efforts will undoubtedly reward you. It's a blast to fly, and the construction appears to be sturdy and quite light.
I had to solve the usual problems popping up along the way, like Vtx placement:
..and, fellas, this didn't work.
I had to bend in the fins from the heatsink, as there was no way I could position it without applying heavy pressure upon the FC..
The Vtx was another topic that stimulated some spontaneous creativity:
Since - at least to me - it seemed impossible to just fix it in the delivered antenna mount, I decided to attach just the plug to the mount and wire some coax to the Vtx. While at it, I took a closer look at the Antenna connection, and the length and volume of the inner wire connection really started to worry me, like: "Wait a second, that's a radiating element! - Aren't we supposed to keep this as short & small as possible?" (I admit it, the inspiration came from the Taranis-mod..)
Hooowever, I ground away the plug connector from the Vtx and sucked dry all the solder I found on it. (Decent quantity, I have to admit..) Afterwards, I shortened the solder pad for the central wire and applied some itsy-bitsy-teeny solder connection to it. Just in order to make sure, I wrapped the whole thing in hot glue and an improvised Faraday-cage, heatshrink over the whole mess..:
The little cutout is for the membrane over the mic. I'd like to listen to more than just Venturi-tube-sounds, so I figured protecting the mic a bit wouldn't harm..
This is the famous heatsink. It's from a Raspberry Pi, and you can find them pretty much everywhere, I got mine on - *tah-dahh - banggood..
As I mentioned, the fins were too high for this build, had to fold them over incrementally in order to fit them into the whole construct..
Otherwise, it's a really enjoyable build. Gnaws gently away at your noob-nerves, but, once done, you'll be rewarded.
As I am a perfect detector for Murphy-circumstances, I noticed at first that my motors weren't spinning homogeneously. Especially when catching the quad from a little drop (*in the living room, that is ), it developed some preoccupying yaw-momentum, and I didn't like that at all. I want to thrash this thing around without having to compensate come dyscoordinated torque momenta, soooo...
...
Where was the problem?
Well at first, I checked the DYS racing edition 2205 I got for it, and one of them seemed to have an unstable shaft. That wuz an easy spot, so I - unluckily - didn't look further, but transplanted the F40s I had on my Shuriken. Bad idea..
Of course, as you know me, the quad was showing the same behaviour, but this time with those 2600KV-monsters. My yoga-mat looks correspondingly
What was confusing me was the fact that the Shuriken had shown similar tendencies (stutter, funny noises in hover..) in the past, so I was pondering having won the lottery of the unlucky, and having ended up with 2 faulty motors.
Of course it was the ESC, but - hey!, I'm a noob!!
So it took me some further trying the Brotherhobby Returners (..and now I know why they call them that way - I'd return them indeed..) on the Obsession in order to put my finger on the ESCs (Racerstar 25A, specs say Dshot, but I found them clearly overchallenged with it. Maybe I should try again with 4 flawless ones.. )
These here:
I must say that I've got their 35A-brothers mounted right now, and they may not really handle D-shot, but they're doing smooth and fun so far. Thumbs up!
So that's a pic along the way, while I was copying my Helix (..oh Helix, my love..)-PID's onto the Obsession. Again, from the actual point of view, the Obsession carries the right name and has potential for becoming a contestor of the Helix. *becoming*..
Ah, yes, word of advice:
Screwing down the backhand part of the aluminum cage requires quite a bit of force, and my unlucky choice of steel screws with "those pretty colorful aluminum nuts" turned out to be fatal,
as one nut commited thread suicide upon the fifth removal, and there was nooo way that I would get it back out.
So the cage would have stayed on, if it had been for that nut.
I had to grind the cage, *sniff - after spending innumerable attempts at tricking the steel screw to get out.
I tried first drilling out the head of the screw - with the only result of creating sort of a steel washer inside the 3D printed polymer that would-not-want-to-get-out. Of course it was freely turning in its seat from the previously generated heat, so there was no way to enlarge the inner diameter either, *groan..
Messymessymessy...
Ah, yes: Upon trying to take the quad apart, I obviously had to further complicate things by crushing one of the XM+'s antennas.. *haaa-heee-hhoooohhh...
So now I know that UFL-connector spares come in different sizes..
temporarily fixed it with a cable-tie in order to continue my repair while the epoxy was setting..
By the way, you can reuse the antenna-cable-tie-heat-shrink-protection by inserting a really small inbus key with one of those rounded heads as a guide. The angulated end greatly facilitates pulling it back out..
Cable ties are soo universal, I use em too in order to avoid using tons of fresh heatshrink every time I have to change/solder something underneath, at least at its border..
This is the screw-head-washer I had to surgically remove from the 3D-plastic..:
Well, in the end the obsession is sporting the mentioned 35A ESCs and Racerstar 2403-motors, which may not be as powerful as expected (..still have to test them really full throttle, though, as it was very windy today and I spent most of the flying time in my usual subterranean parking lot..
I never would have set it up this way, but in the end I have to admit that it works beautifully! Light, smooth, nimble and tons of fun!!
Let's finish this with the unlucky cadaver of the Kraken3:
..which is going to be rewarded for being so brave with an ORIGINAL, brand-new Rotorgeeks-FC straight from Canada. *tah-daahh..!!
I just hope Swiss custom official's hands find their way out of their butts, some glorious day..
So how was your easter?
Cheers, fellas, I'm onto whiskey now - I've deserved it, I reckon..