Eh no worries man. Blackbox is a nice to have but you can certainly tune by feel. I'd say the majority of pilots do that. Like everyone else, I'm just super curious to see how the build flies.

Phantom-X Mod-01:

At the back of the Micro Alien arms, the zip ties were removed and 12mm x 12mm x 2mm carbon fiber brace plates were added and secured with 2m bolts and lock nuts. 

Although not planned, it is interesting that the motor connectors provided a necessary spacing element...and...the braces securely hold the motor connectors; and sort of "hides" them; who knew   .

I did a "hover" test (yes, inside the house) and this thing is rock solid.  From what I can tell visually, it is steady with no wabbles and no weird vibrations. In fact, I can hoover the Phantom-X better than any craft that I own. If it flies as good as it hovers, I will be really excited. If the fly times are pretty good, I will be ecstatic ! Can't wait to fly it. 

What might be kinda kooky if you got another set of motors lying around and jerry rig that guy to be an octo. It can be the Phantom-XX lol

(25-May-2020, 07:42 PM)the.ronin Wrote: What might be kinda kooky if you got another set of motors lying around and jerry rig that guy to be an octo.  It can be the Phantom-XX  lol

Yeah that would be spooky. I have thought about an octocopter, but that would be a new build. I don't think the 12A ESCs in the stack would handle that much power  .  Yeah, the frame might not either.  Wonder if a sub 250 g octo could even be built  .

Man, wish I could take her out for spin  .  I'll be glad when the coronavirus is past.

What do think of my carbon fiber plates at the back of the arms ?

MUCH better than just the zip ties. Even with the 2 up front there was a lot of material in the back where now you have those plates. You should call this the FrankenX lol.

(25-May-2020, 02:16 PM)iFly4rotors Wrote: In Joshua Bardwell's video, he mentions Serial Port logging and having to buy a recording device, wire it in, configure it, etc... AND... he does not suggest using it as it is too slow. 

Propwashed also mentioned something called "OpenLog" that can be wired onto some flight controllers, but he glossed over that as something he doesn't do. 

UPDATE:  I just checked that "OpenLog" thing and don't think that it will be an option for me. 

Just so you know I recently found out that the OpenLog can work fine at 1k logging speeds. See my comment at https://github.com/bw1129/PIDtoolbox/iss...-595885282

The OpenLager is technically a better option and doesn't require low-latency SD cards, but it's also much more expensive and hard to find. An OpenLog device can be found dirt cheap on AliExpress.

(26-May-2020, 04:19 PM)L0stB1t Wrote: Just so you know I recently found out that the OpenLog can work fine at 1k logging speeds. See my comment at https://github.com/bw1129/PIDtoolbox/iss...-595885282

The OpenLager is technically a better option and doesn't require low-latency SD cards, but it's also much more expensive and hard to find. An OpenLog device can be found dirt cheap on AliExpress.

Thanks L0stB1t, 

I will take a look and do more research.  

Well, they finally opened up my "fly fields". The maiden and the second flight had video issues so I don't have flight footage on those. This is actually the third flight.

Overall, I am please with this build. Given that it is a "Phantomstein" build specifically for experimentation and testing, it is a little heavy at 97 grams w/o battery. ALL the PID settings on the GEPRC Stable F411 stack are just as they came from the factory. Currently running Gemfan 3018 bi-blade props. 

For me, Phantom-X performed pretty much as expected, however, I am still working on calibrating the battery settings. 
I will run more packs through it to get a general baseline performance for this configuration.

Yeah, check out that bounce on the ground; not planned, I just got a little too close; that's just me , not the quad. 

Thats awesome man! Glad to see you flying. I get that bounce sometimes as well lol. Looked like you had a bit of a death roll there at the end. Was that from the battery dying? How did it take the crash? Nice video man and I like that field. Nice and big and open.   

(20-Jun-2020, 01:13 AM)wllmlutz Wrote: Thats awesome man! Glad to see you flying. I get that bounce sometimes as well lol. Looked like you had a bit of a death roll there at the end. Was that from the battery dying? How did it take the crash? Nice video man and I like that field. Nice and big and open.   

Yeah, that's a normal landing for me     Until I get the Betaflight Battery Tab calibrated, I will fly-till-I-die. But even after calibration and purposeful landing, I still manage to flip it over most of the time. For me a good landing is one where nothing gets broken and I don't have to walk too far to retrieve the quad     

The Phantom-X sustained no damage. The thing feels like a little tank; pretty strong. The arm extensions are also solidly attached. Plus, it really wasn't that far off the ground. 

Interestingly, my quads rarely get damaged; mostly a prop here and there or landing gear, but nothing serious. I figure part of it is due to the light weight of these things and their comparative strength. Also, I have yet to run straight into a brick wall or other solid structure. 

My second build is in the "Tiny Whoop & Micro Quad" section. Nothing really fancy about it expect an almost 9 minute fly time.

I've been thinking about building a tiny whoop or something small like that. I like the fact that you can crash pretty hard an not break anything and I also like the long flight times. I have a new bee drone hummingbird that I chase my dog around the house with and he's chomped on it a few times but the little thing just keeps trucking.  I had started a 3" build but when I lost my long range a new long range took precedents over anything else. Now I'm taking the camera and motors from my 3" to build a 4" long range quad. So many builds in my brain I don't know which ones to do first lol.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I actually have another 3 inch build that I have not posted yet...we will see. It is a REAL custom build as I have fabricated a top plate and an additional "underside" bottom plate from 1mm carbon fiber and I made a camera mount out of copper sheet metal. Yeah, AKA Phantomstein or FrankenPhantom since it looks really rough and clunky. On the other hand, it flies pretty good.

After I get some baseline flights with the Phantom-X, I will be trying 4 inch props; will see how that works.

Who cares what they look like if they fly great! I can be fairly vane..., but quads are function above form in my book!

(22-Jun-2020, 08:36 PM)kaitylynn Wrote: Who cares what they look like if they fly great! I can be fairly vane..., but quads are function above form in my book!

Hi Kaity,

So...maybe I will post a Build thread for the Phantom-3A. Yeah, not pretty, but it flies good and my last flight had a fly time of 9 minutes and 15 seconds. I am actually quite pleased with it and the testing has only just begun. With this kind of time, I could almost do Long Range ...swap out the XM+ for the R9 MM and see how far we get before the video gives out; fly out about 3 1/2 minutes then get back. Oh, yeah, I will need to add the GPS unit first. Also, I will need to find some place that has the space (distance). 

Harry

Hey Harry,

With a 9+ minute flight time, you could make 5km out and back.  If you have GPS and a tested RTH setup, you could fly till the video failed and then just initiate a Return To Home command.  You can just wait till the video returns to assume control again.  GPS offers some cool features.