Wanted to do something with the Betafpv pavo pico frame I had lying around for ages.  I bought the (v1) frame kit during hype train time last year and then just left it in the draw, as I do.   Once I decided to do something with it I soaked up all the threads posted up here, notably mstc's thread was very interesting and I learnt a lot about the challenges with jello on this rig.

I have all my 1S vtxs in use on my other micros so I decided to use a naked V2 vtx (single antenna version).   I had bought some leds off aliexpress, of the angel eyes variety, you know the ones shaped like a circle with separate led elements in them.   I found one that fit around the HD pro camera so I got an idea. 


And it works well, very well. 


The power in this led is higher then my previous attempts at illuminated night flying.  It is powered from a 12V buck boost DCDC convertor.  The heatsink on the led gets very hot, but doesn't seem to affect anything.  The DCDC convertor gets (quite) hot but nowhere near the led cob heatsink.   The LED is rated for 3W and the whole circuit (DCDC + LED) pulls approx 800mA from the battery.  This is on top of the actual flying, lol.

The led cob sits on a tpu part I made, a simple backing set depth.   Double sided tape holds the led cob in place with a small air gap to the tpu.   This prevents the tpu from melting, lol.


A bt2.0 connector connects the led circuit to power, so I can disconnect easily whilst on the bench or day flying.   Ignore the screw holding the vtx antenna in place, I will get to that.

The HD Pro camera has the following settings applied.

• Day scene (yes day!)
  
• 3DNR set to max (smearing appears in the googles a tiny bit at times but not the DVR funnily enough)
  
• 700mW
  
• 1080P
  
• Std bitrate, Std latency
  

The Pro cam makes it very easy to see everything, I don't need such a focused beam of light like I did with the regular nano camera.   In my V2 night flyer I had to use a mixture of narrow and wide lenses on the leds to build a picture for flying.   That doesn't even come close to the HD pro camera performance I'm experiencing with this setup.


I'm using Gemfan Hurricane 2023 Props that are cut to size.  The only 45mm props I had on me were biblades and they couldn't cut it for thrust.    The gemfans work really well.  Hover sits around 28% throttle on 2S 450mAh.


I have one big issue though, this frame is brutally fragile.  I have broken both the front ducts several times and the brace between the front ducts once.  All onto grass or a mild crash onto concrete.  This is the first version of the frame, I believe there is a v2 so I'm hoping they strengthened the darn thing.

Motors are hglrc aeolus 1102 18000kV, motor scaled to 90%.   Flight times are 3 mins on cruise.

When you fly around at night you notice the cats.  Bloody cats.

Very nice, looks like that ring LED was designed for your setup. Is that stabilized or raw footage? Did you get a chance to fly in the sun, wonder if there was any jello?

Not sure they revised much on the V2 frame, I don't notice any difference. I think they just swapped the AIO. Maybe its the blue color?

Nice!

You have the most interesting builds -- If that frame doesn't seem durable enough, you could always try the Mobula8 frame, it's quiet durable, bounces well and has very little Jello issues, although it's a completely plastic frame.

Thanks guys, yeah having fun with this build.  My goal is to be able to do some tree flying at night. 

I want to pull off something like this, but at night.  

I ordered a few different ring lights off aliexpress. 

Ring LED: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005078696413.html
You need the 30mm size for the HD Pro camera.   The 25mm version fits the nano camera.

LED driver: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001636527608.html
Needs to have the 12V jumper shorted to drive the LED at 12V.

I've ordered another 12V led driver that has an enable pin, I will do the PINIO thing to turn it on/off via a TX switch.  This will save a couple of grams, getting rid of the M/F bt2.0 connectors and a bit of wire.

The night footage posted is stabilised.  Having said that, it is an incredibly jello prone frame.

I found the biblades to be useless.  The cut down gemfan 2023s work better and reduce jello.  You have to get the tension on the four dampening mounts just right.  Ultimately I think the design of the camera mount is where the problems are.  Just one screw hole for each side at the end of triangular arms - both design decisions that are not helpfull.

Still get a bit a jello in the footage, even stabilised.  You have to look off into the distance to see it on far away objects.

Thank you for that info about the second frame version.  I think I'm going to try a duct style like other pushers with the ducts mounted onto the CF frame.

I had a 85mm whoop frame, with the 3 hole motor mount style, so I chopped it up.


You can get 2inch props onto the pico.  There is room.

Here are the ducts installed, notice the space is perfect.


I moved the power cables around.  faced them inwards to unblock the usb port.  bt2.0 connector for the led now goes up through the side.

I've also installed better gummies for the vtx mount.   These came from the tmotor AIOs I use.


I also got this tip from the walksnail FB group.  I drilled out the camera mounts with a 3mm bit and put in some of those low profile 2mm gummies you get in other betafpv kits.


Hopefully will get it all together soon to fly again.

The original ducts are now so broken and re-glued that they are introducing their own vibrations.   Hopefully this more rigid setup for the ducts will help.  Also hope they last longer as they feel considerably stronger.

Very neat build Love the LED ring idea!

Finally got it all together.  The new ducts made the quad louder.  I cut out two sets of supports in each duct to reduce the noise.  It is still a LOT stronger that the stock ducts.   The props are still the trimmed 2023 gemfan props.  I can use them full size but they are too much for 1102 motors and the weight of the quad.   With the new gummies on the mounts and the extra gummies around the camera mount it is a lot smoother now.


I installed the custom tpu battery plate I made, works a treat.


I took it out on a field test, through some large trees at the local park.  Time was 11:50pm.

Absolutely love this.

So I went to a area in the park that is (almost) pitch black.   There were street lights but the didn't illuminate the area I was in.  I was also standing in complete darkness.

I went to push it a bit to see what reaction times were like and how feasible it was to flight a bit faster and closer to trees.   The pavo pico isn't really suited for freestyle, the video is a bit janky.


I think I need to do what I had going with my V2 of the night flyer, using a combination of wide and narrow beam leds.  Maybe I can get something going.

Nice, so is there a layer of bugs on the quad that need to be scraped off?

lol, nah, well not yet!

Surprisingly there is a lot of dust in the air, it gets lit up by the camera's sensitivity and the 3W led More pronounced when nothing else is reflecting.

If you see in the video, the dead band is in the middle FOV at approx 10m depth. I think some more leds with a 15 deg lense should help punch through the darkness a bit further.

It sure looks like you are flying by the seat of your pants. Flying that fast while not being able to see that far definitely requires some skills. Probably beyond my level by a ways.

This is such a cool project, thanks for the neat videos too. Wow

Nice, even bigger rotordiameter :-) didnt thought there is enough space for that. I might try 85mm ducts too

Why not use 2inch rotors on it? It will make it less loud and should bring benefits gerally?

I would twist lipo in xt30 cable to hide noise

(17-Apr-2024, 02:38 AM)hugnosed_bat Wrote: Nice, even bigger rotordiameter :-) didnt thought there is enough space for that. I might try 85mm ducts too

Why not use 2inch rotors on it? It will make it less loud and should bring benefits gerally?

I would twist lipo in xt30 cable to hide noise

too much drain on the 1102 motors, these motors are 19000kV scaled down to 80% i think. Still don't perform as good as a motor properly spec'd which would in turn prolly have more torque at the same rpm than the hotter motor that is scaled down. That's what I'm finding anyway, especially with micro motors.