Stage 4 lockdowns make for an angry ph2t...  Need time to relax and revisit my favorite quad in my "fleet".  The rooster.

I've had this quad for a while now and it has had quite the life, from smashing some random fella's van window to windy evening flights.

Recently it got caught up in a tree, quite high up and was there for about 7 weeks before a student of mine from work got it down.  He's a smart, great guy that I've helped gotten into the hobby as an extra curricular effort at school.  I host tech meets with a group of students and we muck around with quads, some drone stuff like tellos, 3d printing and IoT stuff.   I tried a whole bunch of things to get it down with no luck and he had this idea from a youtube video using a makeshift glove gun like thing with fishing wire and rope.  It bloody worked and he excitedly called me from the park to tell me he got it down.   Couldn't believe it, well done Leo!!!   Reviewing the footage on the gopro (yes it survived!) you could see my sorry arse throwing sticks and all kinds of crap up at the quad unsuccessfully....

I get the quad back and there is some permanent damage, some my doing (trying to rev the motors to get it out of the tree) and some from the lovely Melbourne winter weather..

One burnt out ethix mr steele motor.
One very dead 4in1 hobbywing esc.   This I was particularly sad about as I've had this stack go through a few quads before it found its home in the rooster.  I really like hobbywing xrotor stacks, really high quality in my opinion.

The FC is still working and I thought to keep it in this quad but after further inspection it requires 5V and 10V from the ESC - a tad pedantic in my opinion and harder to match with another ESC from other brands so I decided to not use it this time.   VTX, camera and crossfire RX are all working and in good condition.

I have now removed all the parts and am working on the rebuild.

Back to basics.



The frame didn't think too much about the elements it was exposed to whilst up in the tree for several weeks.  Hey if it can smash in a van window then some crappy Melbourne weather is a piece of cake!

Turn it upside down and you can see where the rust has settled in on the steel bolts that armattan ships with the frame.



So time to spec this puppy up again with some new parts and go 6S!

Sort of sick of these high end escs now (anyone say holybro? lol).  But seriously - locked down with crappy shipping, parts shortages and a limited budget I decided on the MAMBA F405 stack with 40A 4in1 BL_HeliS stack.   Yeah no BLHELI32 for now. 

The rebuild will feature a mix of repaired, cleaned up used parts and some new shiny parts too.   All spec'd for 6S.

• new titanium bolts as per the parts list on the armattan website
  
• new flight stack MAMBA F405 and 40A 4in1 ESC
  
• CADDX Ratel camera from the original build
  
• Crossfire nano RX from the original build
  
• Unify PRO 5G8 HV race vtx from the original build
  
• new T-MOTOR Pacer 2208 1750kV motors
  
• new URUAV buzzer/lost quad beeper from banggood
  
• TBS triumph SMA RCHP vtx antenna from the original build
  

I hope to achieve this build over the coming weeks.  Take my time with it and learn from some mistakes of the past.   One of those mistakes was installing just a regular buzzer.  There has been a few times where the louder buzzer would of served me better than a standard buzzer.   A bit of wind and my crappy hearing makes for long finding times.

cheers,

ph2t.

The titanium camera cage cleans up pretty well with some auto wax and some light solvent cleaner.

Before:


After:


I'm also trying something different this time with fitting out parts.  Sort of going outside - in.   No TPU mount for the gopro this time.   Straight onto the camera cage.  Also trying out the fit on my 6S rebel 1350mAh packs.   The extra straps really make the battery mount tight as.  The gopro feels really locked into the frame.



I'm trying out a 3d printed part to hold the XT60 connector in place along with the SMA vtx antenna mount.   The stock config comes with a CF mounting plate at the rear for the SMA antenna socket.  I have removed this and put in place the TPU part that combines the XT60 socket holder and SMA socket for the vtx.   This makes for a more tidy layout and connection to the lipo.   Works a treat!



I'll post more in a couple of days as the build continues..

cheers,
ph2t.

Wow you have Mamba stack in there? Very tight fit, i cant do it.. i have to use AIO fc with individual esc.

(14-Aug-2020, 02:19 PM)klnyc Wrote: Wow you have Mamba stack in there?  Very tight fit, i cant do it.. i have to use AIO fc with individual esc.

Yeah you're right it is a tight fit but can be done!  I will show a picture soon in another post where I have to solder the FC cable to the 4in1 ESC directly due to space conflicts with the front arm hardware. 

cheers,
ph2t.

Gotta love those tight builds. You don't have nmuch space for the vtx and receiver do you? Looking good man. Looking forward to the final results.

That's correct mr Lutz!.   There is very little space for the vtx, given the unify vtxs are quite big in comparison to the later models.

But everything can be done with a measure twice cut once approach I reckon. 

I'm going to mount the vtx under the esc.  I've also used some longer than stock bolts on the rear arm assembly to mount the URUAV buzzer system.   Quite lucky that one pair of mounting points on the rear arm setup is 30mm apart.  This enables me to mount the buzzer system in a rock solid way.

Here's a fit out picture.



The power wires were soldered at a right angle on the XT60 socket and fed through the TPU mount.   The URUAV buzzer will be insulated on the base to prevent shorts against the CF frame.  The SMA pigtail routes over the buzzer then under the stack, conveniently taking up any slack to allow the right angled MMCX connector to fit on the vtx in a nice, no stress to the cable layout, winning!

The cap is getting an upgrade as well.

1000uF 35V is what I had originally.   (RIGHT)
470uF 35V is what MAMBA brought to the table, pfft to that!    (CENTRE)
1000uF 35V LOW ESR is what I'm packing now, beefy!  (LEFT)



The new cap will go at the rear of the camera cage.  Wires will be routed.... hmm dunno yet..

ph2t.

Nice man. I'm looking forward to hearing what you think about the T-Motor Pacers.

Thanks mate. They handled 6S on a 7 inch with biblades pretty well. They should scream on 5' ethix props.

So this build is coming along, well not really...

Got my shiny new M3 screws in the mail, so there's that.

Now I get to try out this legendary warranty. 



I've gone through the process as dictated on the armattan website, jumped through all the hoops and included the extra documentation as it has come from an authorised Australian retailer.



I'm pretty sure I know what caused this.

Patience ph2t, patience.....

Lets see what they say.

Interesting to see their response and lead time

The response was in 24 hours which is good.
The shipping to Australia is $25USD/$35AUD, not so good....

It's $10USD worth of parts, two 5" arms.
Have asked for a cheaper shipping option. Not a fan so far.

(26-Aug-2020, 12:36 AM)ph2t Wrote: The response was in 24 hours which is good.
The shipping to Australia is $25USD/$35AUD, not so good....

It's $10USD worth of parts, two 5" arms.
Have asked for a cheaper shipping option. Not a fan so far.

Bummer. Before covid19, there was a US$5 shipping option.

Read your story of the smashed van window.......wow. Good thing you did it right and the story ended well. Still gives me pause about flying 5-6" around the parks in the future.

(26-Aug-2020, 12:36 AM)ph2t Wrote: The response was in 24 hours which is good.
The shipping to Australia is $25USD/$35AUD, not so good....

It's $10USD worth of parts, two 5" arms.
Have asked for a cheaper shipping option. Not a fan so far.

That really doesn't make sense. It used to be $5 shipping. Even then, I usually buy extra arms. And save all my claims for a larger order then put it all in one shipment.

This is their response:

Quote
Hi Matt,

Thank you for reaching out. Unfortunately at this time the local postal service has suspended our normal flat rate shipping option to your country and as such we are only able to offer express shipping. If you can find a local reseller willing to assist you as they are not required, we will be happy to help them get you the replacement part. Please let me know if you need anything else at all!
http://www.armattanquads.com/armattan-of...e-sellers/

best,
Wilson
/quote

I can’t really fault them. I have found the parts actually available at an approved aussie reseller and have let them know the details. I have asked them what is the best way to go about it so all is not lost... yet.

Worst case I buy the arms locally at a cost that is way less than the shipping.

(26-Aug-2020, 01:33 AM)jasperfpv Wrote: Bummer. Before covid19,  there was a US$5 shipping option.  

Read your story of the smashed van window.......wow.  Good thing you did it right and the story ended well. Still gives me pause about flying  5-6" around the parks in the future.

Thanks mate, appreciate the support.  The whole thing happened so quickly, those darn ghost tree branches.