Another flight and I did it again. I keep accidently landing on or near the launch pad.

I am beginning to think that this may be a bit more than an accident.

One thing that was no accident. I flew the quad back home and put it down right alongside the farmyard gate.

Tomorrow I am going to fly the quad from the farm gate to the launch pad. That is if the wind allows. It came in at 7:45am this morning just after I landed. How lucky was that. Still two flights a day is not enough to get what I want done.

Anyway despite all that, I think I may be starting to get the hang of this.stuff.  

KK

Next day............sunup.

Tooooo windy!!!    

Home tonight with only three 4 minute flights to show for it.

Frustrating!! Still progress is being made.

KK

Friday........... Sunrise.

Still blowing a gale.  

I decided to stay an extra day in the hope that the wind would drop. Some hope.

So off home with very little to show for this trip except the feeling that at long last I am finally making some progress.    

KK

Typical, as soon as you start feeling like progress is being made things conspire to make that progress frustratingly slow!

Howdy Boys,

While these winds are howling around my workshop I have decided to do some repair and update work on poor old Wooden It.

So how about another in the "The R/C Adventures of the Keyboard Kid" series to keep you lads entertained in the meantime?

This one is a little different in that it involves radio controlled gates at the Warrangamba Lion Park.

Many years ago I was given the job of radio controlling the gate between the Lion paddock and the Cheetah paddock at a local Lion Park.

This involved fitting R/C to the gate controller so that the gate could be closed or opened from the Park control center by remote control. This gate was  on the tourist drive and it was there to stop the lions and Cheetahs mingling.

Before we left I had asked the Park manager what would I do if the Lions came near us? He just shrugged and said close the gate and move into the Cheetah paddock. Fair enough was my casual reply. (I was trying to look casual but believe me I was far from it.)

What I forgot to ask was what if the Lions and Cheetahs BOTH came close at the very same time.


I was given a guide (a young boy) with a B.B. rifle as an escort and so off we went. We were dropped off at the gate and I watched that car drive off with a sinking heart. Just me and and boy and a BB rifle out in the open with no shelter.

Shortly after a Pride of Lions strolled up and sat down by the gate to entertain us while I worked.There were probably 10 or more Lions in all, all just casually lounging around about 50 meters away watching me work. That was interesting enough but shortly after the Cheetahs strolled up and joined the party on the other side of the fence.

Now I am not sure if any of you  lads have ever stood in a paddock with nothing between you and a pride of Lions, then let me tell you it is an unnerving experience. However the young kid with me seemed to be completely unconcerned. perhaps he knew something that i did not.

Anyway we had to lock the gate to stop the Cheetahs coming into the Lion enclosure so there was no escape to be had there. I just had to hope that young kid knew what he was doing. All the while I was pondering on what earthly use a BB gun was going to be against 10 or more Lions. Or even one Lion.

To say that I worked on that gate installation at the speed of light would be a classic understatement.

Anyway came the time to pack my gear and I tumbled into the relative safety of the company car with an almiighty sigh of relief. That was the most uncomfortable experience I have ever had (except perhaps for two or three others). But they are stories for another day.

As a sad postscript to that story I took my family up to the park some weeks later for a look see and the Cheetaahs were missing. When I asked the manager about what happened to them he replied that someone had poisoned  them "Because they could not stand to see them penned up". We really do share this Planet with some stupid people.

Those animals were well fed and looked after well. Had they been angry, frustrated or hungry or otherwise I would not have been allowed into those paddocks. It was all so stupid and so sad. Why do something like that?

I have never forgotten that experience, or those Lions and Cheetahs. They looked so cute ........ from inside my car!

KK

I have finished most of the repair and update work and have test flown "IT" in my backyard.

I am starting to get happy with the settings on roll, pitch and yaw however I am now becoming conscious of the throttle varying in flight which makes it difficult for me to hold a constant altitude of 50cm.

With each change in throttle there is a slight shift in horizontal position which means I am constantly touching the controls to stay over the spot.

Can any of you lads offer a hint on how to rectify this problem?

There is a throttle recommended setting in the configurator and I have it set to "Recommended".

Will changing this setting help?

Regards,


KK

At home with no wind to speak of.

Started playing around with fine tuning the Naza M and lo and behold I found the throttle gain.

So at the moment I am flying with;

Gain settings; Roll = 140%; Pitch = 140%; Yaw = 70%; Vertical 70%. Atti 50%

I am definitely getting on top of the Naza and old Wooden IT is starting to perform well.

Let us see what tomorrow brings. I just hope that the wind stays away.

Great day. Light to moderate wind.

Work on "IT" procedes apace.

Upgrading, test flying, fine tuning. All quite successful and carried out in my tiny backyard.

I finally feel as if I am starting to get the feel for what parameters to tune and in which direction to tune them in.

"IT" is starting to perform nicely and I feel that I am within a bull's roar of hovering out the tank over the spot at 50 cm altitude.

Gain settings at the moment;

Pitch = 160; Roll = 170; Yaw = 60; Vertical = 150; Atti = 90%.

One thing I cannot seem to come to grips with is what can I expect from a quad with no GPS?

Should I expect it stay in one spot holding reasonable altitude?

Or is it normal to have to constantly touch the controls to hold the quad over the spot as I need to do at the moment?

If I can get "IT" into a good hover it will stay put for a while until the next gust of wind comes along and moves it out of position.

Anybody care to comment on this problem? I really could use some help.  

KK

(18-Sep-2017, 01:32 PM)Keyboard Kid Wrote: Should I expect it stay in one spot holding reasonable altitude?

Or is it normal to have to constantly touch the controls to hold the quad over the spot as I need to do at the moment?


KK

I believe as long as you are outside, that is perfectly normal.   If you fly it in a gymnasium (for example),  you might be able to hold over a spot without touching it for awhile.  But even then, if the air-conditioning is cycling on and off, you are going to have some currents in the air that can move your quad.  Your quad doesn't know that it's over a spot - it's just riding in the "river of air".

If the ultimate goal is to stay over a spot at very low altitude, you might be able to wire up some sensors of some sort  (used to do this with robotics),  but you would need a controller that could decipher those signals, plus you would need something to zero in on.

As an example of how currents of air can easily be created indoors, see the video below.  There are even competitions for these type of gliders.

(18-Sep-2017, 03:21 PM)sloscotty Wrote: As an example of how currents of air can easily be created indoors, see the video below.  There are even competitions for these type of gliders.

Thanks Slo,

So it looks as if I am getting fairly close to a satisfactory result.

I am now looking forward to hitting the farm again for a real session. Hopefully this time with no wind.

In case any of you are wondering why I just simply do not wander around to a local park here is the reason.

Our local council has imposed a ban on model aircraft with a fine of $2,000 and confiscation of the model.

Not to mention the probable loss of my CASA UAV licence.

So the farm it is.  

   
Further to my question on what to expect here is an illuminating little tid-bit.

Two years ago when I first concieved the Quadraptor idea I purchased a commercial quad from a local electronics store.

I needed to test the concept of taking off and landing on stilts.

Having successfully conducted that test series I put that quad up in the attic and forgot about it.

This morning I took the stilts off and took it out into the backyard for a test fly.

Now I had never flown this thing out in the open, only in my lounge room on stilts. (I have a very understanding wife). And never without the stilts, so I was interested to see how it would perform out in the open.

It is very light and the main problem being that it is controlled by a mode 2 TX where I fly Mode 1 on aircraft and helicopters.

Now, I can fly Mode 2 quite safely but I find swapping modes leads to thinking before controlling (you need to be constantly reminding yourself which mode) whereas flying should be instinctive so I do not want to get into bad habits.

Anyway the difference between this little baby and "IT" is staggering. This one purrs along, is as smooth as silk and is relatively sluggish in its response to control inputs where Wooden It makes a ton of noise and it lightening fast in response.

Which tends to make me believe that I still have the gains set too low.

Would you agree?

So this little exercise has been quite educational and I will continue to fly the commercial quad just to get the feel of what to expect from "IT" if and when I get it properly tuned.

PS Photo of the Little quad on stilts. Took off and landed very nicely with no tendency to fall over.

Hm, i don't really know how the naza works, but you'll have to make a difference between the gains that "hold" the attitude and the rates you're commanding it to rotate at. The simplest way to make it (resp. "It") behave more "sluggish" would probably be to reduce radio rates and increase expo. This shouldn't be a problem unless you use stick commands to arm?

(19-Sep-2017, 02:06 AM)fftunes Wrote: Hm, i don't really know how the naza works, but you'll have to make a difference between the gains that "hold" the attitude and the rates you're commanding it to rotate at. The simplest way to make it (resp. "It") behave more "sluggish" would probably be to reduce radio rates and increase expo. This shouldn't be a problem unless you use stick commands to arm?

Thanks FF. Sadly the Naza does use stick arming and I have tried reducing the stick throws but it does play up with the arming.

I will give expo another try. I do not normally use expo but I think in this case it is necessary.

The wind is back again today so I have been flying "Donuts" (the little commercial quad) in my lounge room just to get some comparison.

Donuts does hold a position but does drift off even inside the house.

The control sticks are very soft.

Donuts does hold altitude well, something that I am having trouble with on Wooden It.


But the big difference is just how smooth Donuts flies compared to "IT". "IT" is a noisy beast just waiting (even straining) to break the leash and go off on a rampage all of its own.

Frightening!!  

I still can't help but be curious about the purpose of this craft. I did a bit of "googling" this morning, and found out that there is a competition underway in your part of the world: The Medical Express UAV Challenge https://uavchallenge.org/medical-express/

I know you probably can't say, and I'm not sure how "IT" would fit in, but since the initial deadline for entry just passed, maybe you can say now (if that is it)?