I replaced the camera cable and started to get a bit of a signal- on channels/bands that I wasn’t trying to broadcast on. On the channel that I was trying to use my vrx was showing a strong signal on both antennas but no video or osd.

I pulled the vtx and completely rewired it- cut fresh wire, rerouted. I decided to try running the vtx positive wire to a different pad- it was on a pad labeled 4.5v that the manufacturer’s wiring diagram showed going to the 5v on an rx. I ran it to a proper 5v pad next to the pads for led/buzzer.

…and I’ve got video. Side note- even though this Flywoo Goku vtx625 is a v2 like my other one, it’s different. It doesn’t have the 4 leds or the ridiculously tiny pad to connect them. It has the same 4 nubs on the board, but no leds live there.

Scott’s standoff arrived- yup, that’s a usb cable plugged in with the quad fully assembled. I think that’s my favorite part of this build.

I’m at 160g with everything except for a battery. Saturday evening will be a hover test to figure out where to set my throttle mid/expo and test failsafe, then a short maiden flight to check motor temp- then I’ll slap a new battery in it and see what it can do.

I would consider posting some lofi flight video, but I don’t have a YouTube account, don’t want one, and I don’t know how to attach video to a post.

I still think the top end of this thing where the camera mounts is hideous, but it’s not like I can see it when I’m flying.

Thrust to weight, I think this thing is going to have significantly more power than my previous builds. Wasn’t what I was initially planning on, but I’m totally cool with that.

Very Cool. It looks good! Glad the standoff worked, after seeing it on the quad I have a few ideas for V2, if it comes to that. It was a fun project to do with a new friend .
We will see if it makes it through the maidens. I still can't believe how tuff that Nylon is.
I am pretty sure the 4.5 pads are 5v pads that will power up with usb. They are intended for the rx and are kind of low power in general. It is good you moved it.
It really looks like a screamer. What voltage will you fly it with 3-4-6S ? Those motors look really big on it

Scott

Hi Lemonyleprosy,

First, you can NOT imbed or attach videos directly to this forum.

You have to host your video some where else then embed the web link URL.

You might try AirVuz for hosting your videos. 

============

Hi Scott,  Nice work on the stand off.  

Scott- I think I’m going to destroy the carbon fiber holding the camera in place long before I destroy the standoff. Nylon seems to have an ideal mix of strength/flex/weight. Thanks again, I’ve also enjoyed trying to figure out what will work best.

Yeah, the motors look massive- especially compared to my other builds. I think it’s a combination of the motor diameter and the skinny arms that make them look so big. It’ll be a 4s when I want power and a 3s when I want to just cruise.

Harry- I haven’t decided if I want to share my poor piloting skills with the world, but if I do, that seems like an easy way to do it. Thanks for the link.

This bird had its first few flights tonight.

There was some serious panic when I did my hover and failsafe tests. When I first plugged in it started beeping like crazy- I didn't see any warnings in my osd so I was like, okay, probably need to change a setting in betaflight. Beeping stopped once I'd given it a little bit of throttle after arming. Failsafe test worked fine, hover test worked fine, all stick commands worked as they should- and then I started to smell magic smoke.

I was like what the hell, I checked *everything* with my multimeter, what did I kill? Immediately shut everything down.

Eventually I realized that the smell was coming from the xt60 to barrel connector on my goggles. There wasn't a short, but the connection on the positive cable on the xt60 connector failed. I had my goggles plugged in, but on my forehead so that I could watch the quads movement with my actual eyeballs. The positive cable lost it's connection just enough so that it was arcing.

That could have gone horribly in flight- I could have completely lost video and destroyed or lost my quad, or caught my head on fire and destroyed my goggles. That cable is in the trash and I've made my own that I trust not to fail.

I then spent a good 45 minutes trying to figure out why the hell it kept beeping like crazy until I finally realized that I had my values reversed on my momentary switch to trigger my buzzer.

This probably could have gone a lot smoother if I had had 2 or 3 drinks instead of 4 prior to starting.

Anyhow, I finally sorted everything out. 

This looks super powerful, but it actually has about as much power as my other builds- hovers at around 20% throttle and if i punch the throttle it gains altitude at about the same rate. However, it is *much* more nimble. If I throw my sticks it whips around much quicker than my other quads even though they're all set with the same rates. I can dive down and get much lower to the ground before I need to pitch up and hit the throttle. It has much more... authority in its movements. Basically, while it doesn't have more all out power if I blast the throttle, it's like riding a 600cc sports bike on a winding mountain road vs a 1000cc+ cruiser. I'm not too good at this descriptive stuff. You should hear some of my reviews on audio gear- "It sound good. Loud. Clear. Bass goes thump thump and highs twinkle."

I ended up having to slap my FAA registration number on it. With a CNHL 4s 650mah, I'm at 265g. With a Liperior 4s 850mah I'm at 263g. With an RDQ 3s HV 1100mah, I'm at 232g.

The link below is some super low fidelity video of my second test flight with a CNHL 4s 650mah battery. If you decide to watch it, turn your sound off or down unless you want to hear a bunch of static and wind at various frequencies. I'm a bad pilot and I'm trying to get used to how this bird flies, so try not to judge me on the jerky movements. Or judge me, but give me some constructive criticism. 

I've put 6 batteries through it tonight. On 3s HV 1100mah batteries, it's a super gentle cruiser. Kinda like a brushless 75mm whoop- forgiving and accurate, and I'm able to circle around my vehicles and whatnot comfortably.

It's had 3 decently hard impacts so far, and I haven't broken anything.

Well, that looks like a success !
Those Toka's seem to pull a bit more power than that battery wants to give up, showing a bit of sag. But it recovers quick.
I would say your "flyinskillz" are about on par with mine. If I did not break anything, it was a good flight. You are a bit braver in the dark then I am. I won't judge. You are having fun, right? That is why we do it.

I'm glad you did not catch your head on fire.

(13-Feb-2022, 07:28 AM)Lemonyleprosy Wrote: This probably could have gone a lot smoother if I had had 2 or 3 drinks instead of 4 prior to starting.

HaHaHa  LOL  How many times have I said that ?   


Nicely done.

Scott

nice lemonyleprosy!
"It has much authority in its movements" that sounds how i like it :-)

i have no critic :-) looks nice! flies good, thanks for share
my personal tip to improve flight skills on that build: push it (better in daylight)
i would suggest to lower the motoridle speed on it, to get better ability for slow flyight/low throttle situations. a throttle limit will allow more easy precision, better stickrange, to get used to the performance its always benefical to get used to power.
other than that, its an nimble ultralight, they act like higher rates and does need accuracy. they are awesome presice and fast, but its difficult to get the performance out of it. to increase accuracy, throttle makes as much as the stearing input, throttle corrections are needed all the time to get accuracy out of it. therefor "lowering the throttle to fast or to much" cost control, cost the locked in feel. my suggestion is try to not go above 35% throttle while cornering, it will help to get accuracy out of it, to get a feeling for lipo performance. (if you would do a throttle limit, the min throttle value for cornering should be higher) the "nimble beasts" are like a supercharger, the provide performance like a spring. draining the lipo a littlebit does flatout the performance difference from sagging battery and provide a better feel for throttlehandling. to be not shy with the throttle on an ultralight does increase the handling somehow.
let me know how it works if you try it

Scott- I’m most definitely having fun. The view through my goggles isn’t quite as dark as the video- there’s enough light for me to comfortably/safely see what’s in front of me. And I know where all of the trees are.

I’m also glad I didn’t catch my head on fire, but honestly, I’d probably be more upset about destroying my quad or goggles.

Hug- thanks for the tips! My motor idle speed is currently at whatever bf default is (maybe 5.5?)- what would you suggest lowering it to?

This thing definitely flies different than my other builds. Not in a worse or better way, just different. I was surprised that it seems quieter to me than my 3”- although that might have more to do with the low pitch props than anything else.

Hi Lemonyleprosy,

Nice flight. Flying a night like that would SERIOUSLY Freak Me Out. You got more b*lls than I do.

This build really turned out NICE.  SWEET   GOOD JOB 

i would suggest to try 3,5% for your build. a desync on a throttlecut would be a sign that it is to low in worst case. 3,5% is what i use on my 4inch 150g 2004 3150kv on 650-1050mah 4s batteries with biblades and tribblades..

your 4inch has longer blades and might have much lower rpm to provide the same torq. blade length, rpm and torq in comparison to the weight of the build does determinate the noise alot.

I managed to put a few batteries through this guy before/as the sun was setting tonight.

I’m tempted to lower my rates or add a tiny bit of expo on pitch/yaw/roll, but I think I’ll get used to it with a bit more stick time. I think I’d rather get used to how it flies than adjust settings to make it fly like my other quads. My logic there is that I don’t want to limit myself to only being able to fly a quad if its rates/feel/etc is the same as everything else- but that might be flawed. I dunno.

I’ve probably plugged this thing in 20+ times to fiddle with settings since I finished the build- and I’m super thankful that I didn’t have to completely remove the top end and a standoff each time.

Hug- I was going to try lowering my motor idle min, but you scared me with your “if it desyncs” comment. I’ve destroyed more things having my quads tumble out of the sky from a desync than any other type of crash. While googling motor idle min I came across a YouTube video from “quad 66” about dynamic idle- that seems like something super awesome but I don’t really fully understand it yet. Keeping my throttle below 35% on turns definitely helps with accuracy, as well as being significantly more active on the throttle than I usually am. Throttle definitely has more of an effect on all other movements than I’m used to.

I had my Covid booster today (it was actually my 4th shot- I’m immunocompromised and in the USA for people like me they suggest 3 full doses and a booster- I’ve had 3 full doses of Moderna previously, had a Pfizer booster today) so I feel like crap- so this thing is going back in the hanger for tonight. The rest of my night will be spent repairing my micro alien and throwing together a 75mm brushless whoop.

I’ll get some flights in on this guy Wednesday night when I can focus on what I’m doing rather than how crappy I feel.

I think next time there’s a good sale and I stock up on batteries, I need to buy some higher c rated batteries. Most of my batteries are rated for 60c to 80c. I didn’t notice any battery sag impacts on flight on previous builds, but I can feel it on this guy.

Sorry to hear about the booster blues. My wife is also IC (Transplant recipient) and just had her 2nd booster and it also hit her hard. Arm really hurt for 3 days and felt bad for 2.
I'm also glad to hear that you are getting some use out of the standoffs.  

I think it is good to expand your horizons on different quads but at the end if they don't fly the way you want, tune it. Maybe a blend of the old way and this way

75mm brushless whoop ?, well I just so happen to have been working on the same thing. And of course, with the prototype wood frame. Meet "Woody"

Scott

Build thread coming soon
       

(15-Feb-2022, 04:52 AM)Scott_M Wrote: 75mm brushless whoop ?, well I just so happen to have been working on the same thing. And of course, with the prototype wood frame. Meet "Woody”

I am looking forward to that build thread. 

I had a large pile of whoops, but I gave away my brushed whoops because they just didn’t have enough power, and I destroyed all of my brushless.
My 75mm whoop build tonight is a total hack job- I just dug through my parts bins to see what I could slap together without too much thought to distract myself from how crappy I feel.

I ended up using a NBD cockroach 75mm frame that already some NBD 20,000kv motors mounted in it (it used to sort of be a moblite 7 before I repurposed the fc and cam for a primo 080x build), an Eachine beecore f3 fc (maybe from an old bl Inductrix?), and whatever cam and vtx it already had wired on it (as well as an FrSky xm rx that was already wired to it- and bound to my tx. Winning.)

So basically I just had to screw in some stuff and replace a broken cloverleaf antenna with a dipole- and that’s about all I’m capable of tonight. It also got a hacked up canopy that has seen better days. It’s also props in because I just can’t be bothered to flash escs tonight.

But! It flies. Not well, and not for long (most of my 1s batteries are toast). It also reminded me how much fun whoops are. I used them to learn how to fly and then started building bigger. I forgot how awesome it is to be able to fly inside my shop when it’s foggy or late at night. I’m thinking I should dig through my parts bin and put some proper thought into a couple whoop builds.

I have more than a dozen brushed motor tiny whoops in frame sizes from 65mm to 85mm.
Plus, I have 2 brushless whoops the BetaFPV Meteor65s and my Tiny-Black-85 build.

I’ve put close to 40 batteries through this thing, and it quickly became my favorite quad to fly. I was really concerned that it would be too big to fly on my property (I don’t fly my 5” Source One for that same reason), but it’s not too big (it also doesn’t have the weight of the source one so I’m not scared of it).

I haven’t broken anything- yet.

I’ve gotten used to it’s stick feel and it feels properly “locked in” now. I can push it just ti the edge of my control abilities on 4s, and near the end of the night I can toss a 3s in it and it’s a nice gentle cruiser.

I’m getting between 5 and 7 minute flights with 4s, and 8 to 10+ minutes on 3s.