(29-Nov-2019, 09:45 AM)SnowLeopardFPV Wrote: Is there any reason you didn't add the negative signal wire for the ESCs? While it's not strictly needed in all cases, it is generally good practice to add it for twisted pair and rudimentary signal shielding reasons. In fact, with bi-directional DSHOT now implemented in Betaflight 4.1, you could even argue if there is any point connecting up the telemetry (blue) wire anymore.

I am using Oscar`s wiring diagram, I myself don't yet make any decisions on wiring. 
According to Oscar tutorial it says :

Quote:I am not soldering the signal ground wires on the ESC, because there isn’t a signal ground pad on the FC. But if you really want, you can solder it to the power ground pad on the FC. In my opinion, it shouldn’t be much a problem without it, because the signal wires are going to be very short.

I have also checked now documentation by Vendor, and they also suggest to not use them.
Holybro :

Quote:Some ESCs have a signal ground wire and some ESCs don’t. If your ESC has a thin black wire that is twisted with the signal wire, that is the signal ground. Since the Kakute does not have signal ground pads, we suggest cutting the ground wire off your ESCs or desoldering it. Alternatively, you can solder the ESC signal ground wire (the thin black wire) to the same location as the ESC power ground wire (the thicker black wire) on the PDB.

Thanks for question Snow this educated me a bit more, haha.
But this time I feel like I will give it a go without these wires.

BTW some more steps closer - got myself rapidfire, TrueRC directional antenna and ummagrip for bateries!
Waiting for delivery tho 

OK, fair enough. I'm not going to argue then I will just add however that in the EE world it is generally considered good practice to always include the ground wire twisted together with the signal wire. Without it your signal wire is susceptible to possible interference from outside sources (and vice versa - a signal wire can induce interference on other wiring/circuits nearby so a ground wire twisted around with it helps to mitigate that risk). On a multirotor the electronics as a whole are generally quite noisy, so everything you can do to minimise that noise on other circuits the better. It's another reason that I will always use a cap across the power feed wires. But some people never do.

The reality is that you will probably be fine, but for me personally, I generally try to go with a belt and braces approach on day 1 if I can to eliminate any possible future issues or unnecessary troubleshooting headaches. At the end of the day, it's the prerogative of each individual what they actually do

(29-Nov-2019, 11:52 AM)SnowLeopardFPV Wrote: OK, fair enough. I'm not going to argue then I will just add however that in the EE world it is generally considered good practice to always include the ground wire twisted together with the signal wire. Without it your signal wire is susceptible to possible interference from outside sources (and vice versa - a signal wire can induce interference on other wiring/circuits nearby so a ground wire twisted around with it helps to mitigate that risk). On a multirotor the electronics as a whole are generally quite noisy, so everything you can do to minimise that noise on other circuits the better. It's another reason that I will always use a cap across the power feed wires. But some people never do.

The reality is that you will probably be fine, but for me personally, I generally try to go with a belt and braces approach on day 1 if I can to eliminate any possible future issues or unnecessary troubleshooting headaches. At the end of the day, it's the prerogative of each individual what they actually do

This is really interesting. To be honest If I knew this before, I would definitely twist them and solder them as well.
But at this point I really don't want to touch them anymore. 
I also would like to do everything in most efficient / safest way but I feel like it will be a bit too much for the first build.

So decision is to do this on next build! 

Okay guys, this is it! I finally finished my build.
I am super stoked, and can't wait for my LiPo's to arrive..






The feeling once you finish something like this is indescribable, I guess most of you know it.
Thanks to everyone who has helped me in this forum, it means a lot.

Have a happy holidays!!!

Congratulations on the completion. It is an awesome feeling of accomplishment every time, but especially the first time. Welcome to the addiction.

No for the smoke test followed by the maiden....

Deal

(29-Nov-2019, 11:52 AM)SnowLeopardFPV Wrote: I will just add however that in the EE world it is generally considered good practice to always include the ground wire twisted together with the signal wire. Without it your signal wire is susceptible to possible interference from outside sources (and vice versa - a signal wire can induce interference on other wiring/circuits nearby so a ground wire twisted around with it helps to mitigate that risk).

I'm an EE and I agree with all of that.  I had a business (recently retired) for 12 years repairing audio gear -- primarily, vacuum tube guitar amps.  The rule in audio electronics is that you run a shield wire (i.e., the signal ground wire you're talking about), but you only connect it to ground at the source of the signal.  The shield is wrapped around the signal wire, but the "far" end of it is left unconnected.  The idea is to eliminate the possibility of ground loops.  Ground loops occur whenever there are two separate wires connecting a component to ground.  Circulating currents can appear when there are ground loops, and they can introduce electrical noise.

For quadcopter electronics, I'd be tempted to leave the ESC end of the signal ground wire unconnected.  But I'm not really sure.  With bidirectional DSHOT, either end of the wire can be the source of the signal.  It's not clear to me what the best practice would be in that case.

(29-Nov-2019, 11:31 PM)notafraid_fpv Wrote: The feeling once you finish something like this is indescribable, I guess most of you know it.
Thanks to everyone who has helped me in this forum, it means a lot.

Have a happy holidays!!!

Looks amazing! Congrats on the finish cant wait to hear all about the first flights. I just ordered my first round of parts. hoping to get started over winter break.

As I said before, I make every mistake building this quad even though I consider myself being super careful - it's not enough. 

Been configuring my drone for the last few days, turning on and off adjusting and adding things to be able to successfully go for a maiden..

When It seemed already finished, I wanted to finally put some more throttle to see if I get any unwanted vibrations coming from motors.

And this happened.



https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_5enogh...sp=sharing

Turns out there was a solder ball dropped on my FC, that I didn't notice.
Even checking everything with multi meter I never heard any continuity.

It seems that the problem only appeared when I added more throttle, perhaps the vibrations or heat made a solid connection for it to short out.
In the end, it was looking like this.





With help of my friend (who instructed me over WhatsApp ) and with so small hopes I managed to clean it and remove what ever is causing a short circuit.
He said that it might be a currect sensor and I might be lucky to be able to use this FC after all. So I did everything as he said, and the FC just works.
We tested a lot afterwards, gyro, motors, vtx, OSD. No problems. Even my video in goggles became much better looking 

I tried to add battery current on OSD, and when I powered my drone no matter what I do it was staying on 0.5A. So I believe it is not working anymore.

From this I have learned that while you are still configuring your quad, keep checking for continuity not just once at start, but more often.
Get definitely a smoke stopper, that I didn't get because I didn't want to go and get 3S that I don't need. 
Double check your boards, If I would just take another look at my FC before plugging it in, I would easily seen that solder ball. At least I think so.
Don't put LiPo on top plate If you are still testing your quad on bench. God dammit the fire was right below it! 

After cleaning



Testing (this time on balcony )

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1B42Suk...KE40_qGM0B

Tough luck man, but if your FC is still working, then you got lucky out of it. And you have quite epic video from the event

Today took it for test.
It was super dark, windy, but I just couldn't wait any longer to check out if it hovers OK and If my drone is configured correctly.

Well, I was super impressed with results. I hovered in air for 10 seconds, everything was so smooth.
I looked into goggles and it seemed so bright I immediately told my friend - OK, there is no way I am leaving without trying to fly a bit.

So there was my maiden. Lasted 10 seconds. First turn I had to take, wind kicked it, I got super disoriented and went down, but kind of smoothly as I managed to gain control right before hitting the ground.

Srsly cant remember last time having so much fun, I did give it like 3 more attempts, they were better, but it was getting super cold, so I called it a day.

UNFORUNATELY, no video.. I was thinking that pressing record button for 1 sek starts recording, turns out I had to press it again so red light flashes.
Sorry guys, you won't be able to laugh of my 30 sec flight. Haha.

Awesome experience, definately going to fly again soon!

Hi guys,

Today went to some country side and got a real maiden in much better weather 

So the drone flies very good, I am happy with it. Also the physics in Lift Off were super close to what I just felt flying it.

Some side notes tho, that I would like to really fix.. Please watch video and let me know you ideas.

1) Too much white lines on video, at first It seemed to be only on one side, I guess I wasn't pointing my antennas right,
but then in DVR I see that any extra throttle gives a lot of noise... if you take a look on my build, I think my capacitor has way too long wire?
Should I resolder xt60 with much less leading wire? Or do I really need to think of adding cap on esc? Or is there something else I am missing?
I am running a lollipop v3 on quad, also on fatsharks and one patch antenna which is TrueRC 5.8GHz X-AIR Directional Antenna RHCP. All are SMA's.

2) I think i did get twice some small power loss.. (****) symbols on OSD.
Does it just happen when you get lower than 14V while hitting the throttle? It lasted about 1sek or so, and I had the power back on..
Anything to worry about here?

# First flight
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1360NFP...uksl5Dq5YU

# Second flight (personally like this more already haha)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DinwOV...LncM05PWtf

Lots of noise. I think we talked about capacitor leads length. If you solder a good wire as close to the base of the capacitor, you can run it a few inches. You can consider caps on esc or add filtering in betaflight.

(14-Dec-2019, 06:49 PM)voodoo614 Wrote: Lots of noise. I think we talked about capacitor leads length. If you solder a good wire as close to the base of the capacitor, you can run it a few inches. You can consider caps on esc or add filtering in betaflight.

OK. I resoldered XT60, my capacitor is much much more closer to pads now.
Also resoldered fpv camera just in case and changed vtx  (the one that had a bit of fire) to a spare one.

So I think I should be good on noise now, will test it whenever I can.
However, tested on bench and I seem to have the strange motor spool after hitting the throttle over 1.5K,
Didnt notice such issue before.

I understand that its most likely just gyro trying to correct quad but due to no props the motors just spools up.
Is there something that I should double check before going to fly? Dont want my quad to go to the moon. 

Will try to go out of Air mode and hit over 1.5k, see what happens. That rly is scary when you see quad not responding to your input. Only disarm works.

Thnx

Zero noise after remake. Very enjoyable.

Very good result.