This is my second attempt at building something - project was called "Jupiter".


Weight: 96 grams without battery.
Frame: Eclair 3 inch LITE
Motors: RCX H1304 4000KV
Flight Controller: HGLRC XJB F428
ESC: HGLRC BS28A
Vtx: HGLRC TX20
Camera: RunCam Micro Swift
Receiver: XM+

Battery: Turnigy nano-tech 450mAh 3S 65C   (so far)

Conformal coating -  I have not done the camera yet.


I maidened her with Gemfan 3020 props in ice cold rain and heavy wind. She did fly but I was not overly impressed by the performance. I only ran two batteries because it was freezing.

When I got home I did some hoover tests. I got 4 minutes on 2 blade 3020 and 8 minutes on tri blade 3035BN. I thought the 8 minutes was rather surprising. I think it will be interesting to see what this gives in the real world.

I have some other props to try as well.


I recently got a proper charger but I have not been using it yet, still using the 2 and 3S chargers I got with the DYS ELF.


This time to make maintenance easier I put everything on the tower. I used some thin plastic to make a pouch for the receiver and attached the beeper to a small flap hangning from the tower.
I made an effort to isolate the tower from vibration using o-rings on both sides of the screws the tower to the frame. I prevent screw contact with frame by wrapping screws in foam tape.



I attempted to vibration isolate the camera from the frame using some small pieces of rubber banding.


The uggly rear end (maybe no the best solution):



I have taped cables to arms after taking the pictures. 

This is the first flight controller I have got that has blackbox so I guess I have to read up on that. I have no experience with tuning so I guess I need to get an understanding of that was well.

Do you have any further recommendations for batteries, props?  I have been thinking of getting pagoda antenna, but I have not seen any with IPX connector and I would rather not use an adapter.

Last but not the least I need to upgrade to the latest version of Betaflight. Any considerations beyond taking a backup and a dump of CLI?

Nice looking build!

With the 1304 motors, you're probably pushing the upper end of what a 450mA/h battery can deliver.

I have an Atom 122 powered by RCX 1105 4000kv motors and Maytech carbon fibre 3020 props that I use with the 450mA/h batteries and I get around five minutes flight. Your 1304 motors pull nearly double what the 1105s use, so I'd be looking at a 550 or 650mA/h battery.

If it was really cold when you were out flying, it might just be the cold that was holding back performance. LiPo batteries really don't like being cold.

I'm really surprised you got such long flight times with the triblade props. Bullnose designs aren't exactly known for efficiency, but then again, you probably needed a much lower throttle setting to just hover and this may put the props into the most efficient part of their range. If you fly outside with them and open up the throttle, you'll probably puff your 450mA/h batteries.

The type of coax that's used for the Pagoda antennas is too thick to be mounted directly to an IPX connector. I'd stick with the linear antenna - it's fairly crash proof and keeps the weight down.

If you're going to load the latest Betaflight, save a 'diff' of your current settings to remind you how things were different from the defaults. Set up the new Betaflight from scratch, especially if you're moving from 3.1 to 3.2. The names of various CLI settings can change between major releases, as can the default values of some things. If you try to blindly restore a dump from a previous major version, you can end up creating trouble for yourself.

Yes I noticed that I got voltage drop when using the throttle too much and I did not open up that much.

I think I will order some new batteries - also I suspect that the DYS charger has not been the greatest for longevity of the batteries.

I have considered cutting a Pagoda just below the lower element and making a transition to small coax just for testing, worst case it does not work.

Another thing I noticed when moving up slightly in size is that I can no longer fit the quad easily in my regular backpack (together with googles and taranis). Need to figure that out.

Thanks Unseen.

(26-Nov-2017, 04:39 PM)flightmode0 Wrote: I have considered cutting a Pagoda just below the lower element and making a transition to small coax just for testing, worst case it does not work.

I'd leave that as an idea and nothing else. All that will do is send the SWR of the antenna through the roof and slowly toast the output stage of your VTX. I'm pretty sure that the Pagoda design needs at least one quarter wave of coax under the lower element to work well. Making a gap in the cable that leaves the centre conductor exposed without a properly spaced shield around it will probably also change the tune of the antenna.

The only way you can do it with minimal losses is to use an IPX to SMA pigtail.

I like your vibration isolation/dampening ideas. I too have some o-rings I am going to incorporate in my build. But I am worried about the longevity of them. If they eventually rip and fall off whatever component that was isolated will become loose and subjected to many harsh vibrations defeating the purpose of the o-ring. Has this ever happened? I thought about using rubber cement or something similar to use as a layer between components and frame such as the motors. Put a bit on and as it's tightened it will squish out any excess yet have a very thing layer of rubber to help dampen vibrations.

For vibration isolation I would suggest these instead.

Readymaderc

Are there M2 anti vibration mounts commercially avalible?

Unseen, intent was to splice cables with shield. Might be tricky.

If all else fails there is always this: http://fishpepper.de/2017/04/01/pagoda-a...ishpepper/

Had some time during weekend for testing.

Tried a 500 mah Bolt HV battery charged to normal voltage and a 850 mah nanotech.

The 850 mah is a bit heavy but it does not sag, accelerates rather violently with full throttle.

Have ordered some 650 mah, one 4s for testing.

As I never posted any maiden video this will be the substitute: 

One minute on the beach with 500 mah.



Slid of the bridge during landing.



Yes, missing one screw.

Have noticed vibrations during flight, think I need to shorten spacers so that frame components are held together tighter, maybe reconsider the camera mounting.

very cool! I don't notice much vibration though