(23-Feb-2022, 08:26 PM)Lemonyleprosy Wrote: I haven’t broken anything- yet.

Impressive!   but it is still early    really, all kidding aside, that is good to hear, sounds like you are enjoying it!

Scott

I’ve been having an intermittent issue with this bird lately where one day it will work fine, the next time I plug in I’ll just get a black screen in my goggles, the next day it’ll work fine, etc.

It made it so that I didn’t trust the quad, and that drastically affects how I fly- if I don’t trust a quad I’ll keep it low to the ground and won’t go over any buildings, etc.

Anyhow, I gave it some thought over the weekend. When the screen went black I wasn’t getting osd or video- but I was getting a black screen so it wasn’t the vtx. It had to be a wiring issue or a failing osd chip on the fc. I was really hoping it wasn’t the osd chip failing because a replacement fc is not in my budget. Started checking things with my multimeter- turns out the video out wire from my fc to the video in on my vtx had a poor/intermittent connection that would lose continuity if I wiggled the wire.

It’s been fixed and now I can confidently get this bird back up in the air.

After a number of hard crashes, that half circle carbon fiber canopy/camera mount is starting to fail- not in the way that I thought it would. I thought it would just crack, but instead it’s just worn enough that it has some play/wiggle where it connects to the top plate no matter how much I tighten bolts.
I needed a solution, so…

I finally successfully printed something in TPU!

I don’t really understand why I was struggling with it so much in the past- maybe my settings were just so far off the mark that adjusting the things I thought I should wasn’t enough to make a difference.

Anyhow, I printed a thing in TPU! And, I semi-successfully modified an stl file!
I say semi because it was really a hack and slash job, but successful because it fits and works even though it has a lot of overlap and wonky edges. Also, if you zoom in you can see where my modifications caused the nozzle to completely change direction.

I’ve had a 3d printer for 2+ years and it’s mostly been sitting and collecting dust because the software side of things intimidated me. I think that maybe I’m less afraid of it now.

Original thingiverse thing is the tall canopy- it’s intended to come up from the base and replace the standoffs and top piece.
My modification is the shorter canopy that I’ve installed on the PowerPick. I like the rigidity and strength that the standoffs and thick carbon fiber top plate give the frame, so I wanted something that would sit on top of it.

I’ve got a lot to learn, but I’m not so scared of it anymore.

That orange really clashes with the rest of the build though. And since my antenna is so tall, I really don’t need that shark fin thing in the back. And… I should really just try to design my own canopy.

Hi Lemony,

Well, I think it looks pretty COOL      The orange and green looks like Halloween. 

It’s hard to tell the difference, but this bird got a canopy that is 2mm taller so that it could fit a Caddx baby Ratel instead of an ant nano, and it got a much smaller antenna.

This and my RoninUAV Sohei get the most flight time these days- the Sohei when I want to tear it up, and this PowerPick when I want to cruise and relax for a nice 8 to 10 minute plus flight.

On 3s this thing is just *so* gentle and smooth.

Hi Lemony,

Is that an iFlight Sigma VTX antenna ??  How do you like it ??  
I just got two iFlight Sigma RHCP antennas for my Ashigaru builds.
Yeah, those builds are on hold for now. 

What is the mAh on the 3S batteries that you use with this bird ??

They are Sigma RHCP antennas. I bought a used lot of antennas a while back and it included two of these- I like them. They hold up well in crashes, and I crash a lot.

I’m primarily using 3s 1100mah HV batteries on this bird. I could significantly extend that flight time if I didn’t like to punch the throttle so much.

This bird got a new capacitor tonight, relocated to an arm with some 26g extension wires.

I initially had it connected directly to the FC sticking straight out of the back. Every other flight or so I had to bend it down or up to keep it from getting in the way of a prop or the battery strap- the joint finally broke from all of the manipulation. Not surprising and totally predictable. It shouldn’t get in the way of anything anymore.

I still love this thing. It’s got enough authority in its movement for me to throw it around however I want to, but it’s smooth and gentle if I don’t throw my sticks to full deflection. It’s also quiet on 3s with the low pitch props I run on it- because of all of that its still my first flight of the evening so that I can ease into things before I switch to a 3” and properly send it, and it’s also my last few flights of the night once it gets too late for me to be comfortable sending a high pitch 3” build screaming through the sky.

I still haven’t managed to destroy even one of the nylon open square standoffs that Scott_M designed and printed for me so that I could plug in a usb cable without having to disassemble anything.

This picture is something that I should remember- it should be my motivation in the future to mow my lawn, even though I’m horribly allergic to grass and everything else that grows.

That grass is wet, so it’s also an excellent example of why I choose to apply conformal coating to all of my builds.

You need to apply for the Lawn Mower badge on this forum.

+1 vote from me

(19-Jun-2022, 07:24 AM)kafie1980 Wrote: You need to apply for the Lawn Mower badge on this forum.

+1 vote from me

I wasn’t aware that there was a lawn mower badge. I’m real good at cutting grass with my quads.
Not so much at the actual mowing though.

There isn’t a lawn mower badge but if there was one then …..

(19-Jun-2022, 09:08 AM)kafie1980 Wrote: There isn’t a lawn mower badge but if there was one then …..

…then I would totally rock that badge.

Lol,that pic reminded me mate of trimming the mrs pot plants. Lets just say i dont do that anymore.

I seem to have more issues with those "magnetic" trees that keep sucking
my quads into them.     Yeah, that is one reason why I like high altitude flying.