Hi Lemonyleprosy,

WOW. Another really good looking build.    

I like the colors and the effect of that hydro dipping 

Yes, I am also interested in those 5 inch ducts. I have seen them, but this is the first
build where they have actually been used. Looking forward to your evaluation of them.

I’d been hoping to maiden this guy multiple times over the last few days, but I keep running into problems.

Apparently I wired the esc upside down, so I had to learn how to remap motors.

Then I spent multiple hours trying to figure out why I wasn’t getting video- I’m getting my osd info but just a black screen.

After about two hours I finally realized that I had a lense cap on. Unfortunately, removing it didn’t change anything.

I’ve tried two different cameras, tried plugging in and hardwiring. I don’t think it’s the vtx because I’m getting osd info and strong signal strength?

I pulled this stack from a Tyro119, and they’re known for crappy electronics.

I’m about ready to put this thing aside until I can afford a more reliable 30x30 40amp stack. I don’t really want it to just sit and collect dust though. I have a spare vtx I could try wiring up, and/or I can try wiring the camera directly to the vtx and bypassing the FC osd- but when I’ve had to do that in the past with tiny whoops, I can’t get all of the info that I need displayed.

Once I figure out the video issue, this will definitely be an interesting bugger to fly. It’s heavy as hell- 797g with a 1550mah hard pack battery. A significant amount of that weight is the ducts- they weigh 47g each- that’s 188g not including the minimal additional weight of the longer bolts and motor spacers. There’s also an additional 14g from an xt60 extension because I need to lengthen the xt60 connector but haven’t yet because I’ve been busy trying to get video.

Ima take a break from this and go fly my micro alien and Sector25CR.

Wire your camera directly to the VTX to see if you get video. If not then check the camera connector and pay attention to the pin order.

The fact that you see OSD info and getting a strong signal means your VTX is receiving the video signal from the OSD chip and the vtx is working.

Those ducts sure are heavy.

Why do you need a hard case lipo for a top mount quad?

(19-Oct-2021, 05:25 AM)kafie1980 Wrote: Wire your camera directly to the VTX to see if you get video. If not then check the camera connector and pay attention to the pin order.

The fact that you see OSD info and getting a strong signal means your VTX is receiving the video signal from the OSD chip and the vtx is working.

Those ducts sure are heavy.

Why do you need a hard case lipo for a top mount quad?

I’ll try wiring it directly on Wednesday. I was struggling to see how the vtx could be bad when it was showing me a strong signal and osd info in my goggles, thank you for verifying that what I’m seeing means my vtx is working.

I don’t need hard case lipos, other than that I crash a lot. I have 1550mah tattu hard case lipos because someone was selling 5x used ones on rcgroups for $10/each, and their IR was around 10mΩ which means I should still be able to get quite a few flights out of them, and prior to that purchase my highest capacity 4s battery was 850mah.

These ducts are ridiculously heavy. I’m trying hard to not judge them before I fly with them, but for almost 200g, they better be awesome.

Get rid of the ducts. They look out of place on 5" freestyle / racing quads and you don't need them. You shouldn't be flying a powerful 5" quad like that anywhere near people, yourself, or property anyway, so if the ducts are for "safety" then they won't be serving any purpose if you are sensible with the way you fly it. When you come into land just make sure you land at least 5-10 metres from yourself.

(19-Oct-2021, 08:03 AM)SnowLeopardFPV Wrote: Get rid of the ducts. They look out of place on 5" freestyle / racing quads and you don't need them. You shouldn't be flying a powerful 5" quad like that anywhere near people, yourself, or property anyway, so if the ducts are for "safety" then they won't be serving any purpose if you are sensible with the way you fly it. When you come into land just make sure you land at least 5-10 metres from yourself.

I’ll most likely get rid of them, but I’ve gotta give them a try first, they’ll get at least a couple batteries through them before I remove them and compare it to 5” open props.

I fly only on my own property, which is about an acre. I’ve got a few acres of open fields behind me, a church next door, multiple acres of field/brush behind that, then a two lane highway, and across that is multiple square miles of brush and forest owned by a natural gas company.

I’m in in an ideal place to fly, but, FAA is dumb and I follow their rules and regulations. And I only fly on my own property because around here, people will shoot first and answer questions later.

The point in all of this is that I fly in close proximity to myself, my vehicles, my house, my shop, and my boathouse. (I don’t actually own a boat- currently what lives in the boathouse is an old tire, an old sink, and an old toilet, but it’s got a carport attached to it that is super fun to fly through and loop around)

The close proximity and a few unfortunate events when I first started flying is why I was only comfortable flying with ducts/prop guards for the last half a year. But, I’ve been flying one of my quads (2.5”) open prop for multiple weeks without issues, so I’m less concerned about cutting my head open or breaking a window.

I’m still a total newb.

It's not clear if you have flown a 5" quad before but they are totally different beasts compared to a 1.6" Diatone Roma F1 or a 2.5" HGLRC Sector25CR. I guess what I'm trying to highlight is that the momentum of an 800g quad travelling at 30+mph isn't going to end well if it hits someone or something at those speeds regardless of whether it has prop guards on it or not. It's not recommended that you fly a quad that large anywhere near a person (including yourself) and certainly not close to anyone's head. I'm not trying to lecture anyone, but there are certainly plenty of stories of nasty injuries from 5" quads and at least one on this forum where a member managed to crash his into a third party's car window which ended up completely obliterating the glass.

Yeah, fly a few packs (at least) with the ducts since they are already installed...and...
let us know how the quad performs and your thoughts on it.

Those 2207.5 motors are pretty strong, likely pull more than you think even with the
prop guards and 4 inch props as it is currently configured.

Even though those guards are heavy, they are not as heavy as some of the GoPro cameras.

Might work better than one would expect even though it is only spinning 4 inch props.
It all depends on how you fly and your expectations.

         I have built one 5 inch quad so far, but it didn't fly much different than
         my other quads, however, I am NOT an ACRO flying stunt pilot so I 
         just cruise around and enjoy the flight. Since I am NOT super aggressive,
         there just isn't much difference for me. The thing that I noticed is that
         my 5 inch was very smooth and handled like a dream. 

         This build, the Katana-LR5x, was running 2203 3450kv motors.

 Sometimes it is more about the ride than the sheer, gut wrenching, power.

Anyway, my vote goes for giving them a good try before pulling them off.

(19-Oct-2021, 12:44 PM)SnowLeopardFPV Wrote: It's not clear if you have flown a 5" quad before but they are totally different beasts compared to a 1.6" Diatone Roma F1 or a 2.5" HGLRC Sector25CR. I guess what I'm trying to highlight is that the momentum of an 800g quad travelling at 30+mph isn't going to end well if it hits someone or something at those speeds regardless of whether it has prop guards on it or not. It's not recommended that you fly a quad that large anywhere near a person (including yourself) and certainly not close to anyone's head. I'm not trying to lecture anyone, but there are certainly plenty of stories of nasty injuries from 5" quads and at least one on this forum where a member managed to crash his into a third party's car window which ended up completely obliterating the glass.

I appreciate the warning. I haven’t flown a 5”- I started with a 6” open prop, crashed 3 times and decided I had no business flying something that large until I knew I could control it. Worked my way up slowly from 65mm whoops. My largest currently built and flying quad is a micro alien 4”, with 3” props and prop guards, which only weighs about a 1/3 of what this thing does.

I might actually take this thing out to an open field to fly it, but I’ll figure that out once it’s fully functional.

iFly, that they’re about the same weight of some GoPros is what is giving me hope that it won’t fly like a winged pig with the prop guards. I’m eager to find out.

Whelp, I tried wiring the camera to the vtx, still didn’t have video.

I was about to say screw it and put this thing on a shelf to collect dust until I could afford a dirt cheap new to me used stack, but, it didn’t make sense to me that I was seeing osd info, vtx was working, and two different cameras weren’t showing video- so, I pulled out my multimeter and checked the only common bit, which is the FC to cam or cam to vtx plug/harness.

Negative wire on the harness didn’t have continuity. Cut off the plug, wired the camera directly to the FC- and I have video! Yay!

It’s too late to try to maiden this thing tonight. I do my best to not fly anything above 2.5” after 9pm, and don’t fly anything after 10pm cause I don’t want to bother neighbors- and I’ve had a few drinks so I’m not about to drive an empty field or a park.

But! Saturday, it’s on, and this thing is gonna fly. I’m super stoked.

(21-Oct-2021, 07:05 AM)Lemonyleprosy Wrote: I’ve had a few drinks so I’m not about to drive an empty field or a park.

The FAA has not specified a legal BAC

(21-Oct-2021, 07:28 AM)kafie1980 Wrote: The FAA has not specified a legal BAC

Hah! Yeah, but the state patrol has for the driving bit.

(21-Oct-2021, 09:45 AM)Lemonyleprosy Wrote: Hah! Yeah, but the state patrol has for the driving bit.

Hahaha, you sound sober to me

Kidding, stay home and stay safe. 

The weekend is around the corner.

We’re currently experiencing a bomb cyclone and atmospheric river (lots of rain and gusty wind).

I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to fly last night, but by the time my batteries were charged the wind had died down enough.

Did a hover and failsafe check, and realized that the props were rubbing on the inside edges of the ducts. Reoriented ducts, and swapped out bolts while I was at it- my “stainless steel” bolts were stripping.

Only got three flights in before the wind kicked up again.

It’s got some issues- the camera on it *sucks* and is no good for night flying. As soon as I leave a light source it goes almost completely black and stays that way. I do my flying in the evening/dusk/dark so that’s not gonna work.

Couldn’t really get a good feel for the quad or the ducts. I’m only getting about 2 minutes of flight time. In fairness, that could be the batteries- I bought them used and while their ir is acceptable, I know they’re a couple years old. For the last flight I strapped an 850mah 4s on it that’s around 70g lighter, still got about 2 minutes of flight time.

I’m going to give it another week or two with the ducts to give it a fair evaluation, and pull a better camera off another build and slap it in.

Safety isn’t an issue, so the only point of the ducts now is noise reduction. The noise it makes with the ducts is obnoxious- it sounds like a shopvac. But, once it gets a few meters away from me it is significantly quieter, until I tip in a way that points the top or bottom of the ducts in my direction.

I really don’t think they’re gonna be worth the 200g of extra weight. I’m thinking the motors should be able to handle 5” props with a more aggressive pitch with no problem, and that its flight characteristics will be much more to my liking. We’ll see. That short flight time is not going to work for me though.