Betaflight App Download

Just a link to the Betaflight Application Download page.

https://github.com/betaflight/betaflight-configurator/releases

You're probably aware that the Google Chrome Apps won't be around for ever.  They're being removed in 2018.

Another Lunchtime Flight.

Well I headed out again today.  Once again I had an entourage, with 5 of us in 2 cars venturing out to an oval.  We had 3 drones and 2 spectators.  Monty and Steve were the other pilots, all of us having a Wizard X220.  All of having different levels of modification on them.

Steve went off first as it had been drizzling and Monty went off second.  I grabbed my gear out of the boot and also just burned through one pack myself.  I didn't record any video today but it was great to get out.  4th time this week. :)

3 Cell and 4 Cell Flight today

Once again during my lunch break I shot down to the local oval with 2 mates from work.  Monty had his drone as I'd re-soldered his motor, and resoldered his VTX with a new cable after his last one was mangled.

After getting everything back together for him, we went for a quick drive.  I flew today with my Eachine VRD2 and let Chris watch through the EV-100.  Monty put his drone into the trees within about 2 minutes of us getting there. (Before I'd even unpacked my gear) and he chopped one of his  Receiver wires.  That will be a job for another day.

Another Flight. 2 in 2 days!

Well I went out with 2 work mates again.  Once again I just flew 3 cell.  I recorded with both the VRD2 and the RunCam 3.  I've uploaded a video.

It Flies!

It has been months since I've had a fly, but today I had a go.

I charged my 6 x 3S batteries, and my 2 x 4S batteries last night and packed it all into the boot ready for a lunchtime venture during work.

I headed out with a mate to the local oval in my lunch break.  It had been raining this morning (which my work mates joked always happened when I used to put my RC Car in the boot on Wednesdays and they said it transferred to any remote vehicle I intended to use.) but the sun broke through for a few hours, drying the grass and enabling some flight time.

More parts dribble in.

Last friday my QX-70 arrived, and today I've had 3 packages arrive.

First came the Black Pagoda antennas, then the CX-10 charging cable.

After lunch came one of the products I have been waiting for................

An order arrives!

Well from my order the other week, I've had 4 of the 6 antennas arrive.  2 x red and 2 x white.

Still waiting for my other items. They're teasing me!

Cougratulation!

Well I was notified that I won a prize as part of BangGood's 11th Anniversary giveaway.  

Another set of orders.

Well BangGood are having their 11th anniversary funtimes and today at 12pm the last mission goes live.  There are prizes for the first 200 orders.

I've queued up an order of Infinity 4S batteries, CX-10 Charge cable and a 1080P HDMI -> DVI + Audio convertor. (The intended use of this is to be able to use my NES Mini on an old 4:3 monitor that has a standard 3.5mm Stereo input for the built in speakers).

First flight for a while.

So I went out with Rob for the first time flying in about a month.  He came and picked me up and we headed around the corner to a local oval.  Strike 1 - kids playing footy.  3 or 4 kids were playing in the goals so we picked another local oval.

This was better as no one was using it.  I hadn't charged my packs since the last time I flew so I didn't know how much charge I had in them.  They were all above 11.5V so I just thought I'd fly anyway.

It was my first flight test of the VBAT and Buzzer install I had done earlier.  Both of these seemed to work although I couldn't set them up as the CleanFlight version didn't have that functionality.  I heard the buzzer beep but I don't know what it was set to.

I ended up using 4 packs and breaking 3 props.  One was obviously weak and ejected 2 blades when I gave it some schtick!  The others were bent or had white markings from weakness so I just swapped them out.

It was good fun to get back into it again and I have some more work to do to get both my RunCams installed as well as the telemetry mod on my receiver.

"Drone" Flying Rules

It's a topic that is debated a lot.  Can I fly, can't I fly.  Where, when, how far away can I be.  In FPV i'm not actually LOS so do I need a spotter?  Does that spotter have to be beside me or can I have one over the other side of the field.  Do I need to be able to communicate with the spotters?

I've seen the sheet that Stew from UAVFutures has laminated in his backpack and found it on the RPAS Training site.  I've got that sheet for anyone that needs it or wanted it.

Finally some Modding time.

I managed to get some time with my drone and a soldering iron last night.  I'd ordered a buzzer from Bang Good quite a while ago and decided that I'd take the drone apart and solder up both the VBAT and Buzzer to the Flight Controller.  I also thought I'd run a second cable from the positive battery terminal to use when I mod my receiver so I can get the battery voltage there too.  I still have my Runcam Swift 2 to install so there are a few things I'm hoping to get done tonight.

VTX Frequencies

So I've been a spectator at a few events and people always seem to be calling out VTX frequencies.  "Anyone on 3?".  I've seen charts of numbers and bands and I've seen the numbers on Fatsharks and wasn't actually sure what all this crap was.  You have 40 channel transmitters, 48 channel transmitters, and 48 channel receivers etc. Only 8 can really be used at once otherwise people get washed out.

The FatSharks I've seen have shown the band and frequency, as well as a 4 digit number.

When I was racing my RC Car, I had a list of Pinion and Spur gear sizes taped to the lid of my case, so I could quickly work out gear ratios in between races without getting my calculator out.  I figured I'd print out this list so I don't have to remember this crap.  This is the one I created if anyone is interested.

So there are 5 bands, which are numbered 1 to 5, or A, b, E, F, r.  That's handy isn't it.  There are then 8 channels, numbered 1 to 8.

My goggles, the Eachine VR D2 (no not the new Pro version) uses numbers.  These are displayed on the front of the goggles in clear view of everyone except the wearer.  They use 2 x Seven Segment Displays (digital clock numbers) to show the Channel and Frequency (in that order).

With my new VTX I can select the band and channel (and output power) so if I'm told we're using band F and I'm channel 1 I know that it is 5740. or 14 on my goggles.  Channel 1 and Band 4 which is F depending on which numbering scheme is being used.  The numbering is the same on my VTX.

This grid will come in handy so I know what people are talking about.

Battery Arrival

My batteries have been replenished with the arrival of Monty's battery order.  The weather has been a bit crap so no flying today though.

Wizard Damage

Monty bought a Wizard a few weeks ago.  On it's maiden flight at a local oval in our lunch break it landed inverted and broke the VTX, identical to how mine broke.  I told him to give it to me and I'd solder a new plug on it as I have a few spare. (They come in pairs and I bought 2 pairs).  Today he brought his drone into work and went to power it up.  One of the motors wasn't spinning.  I gave the offending motor a spin manually and it seemed to be jammed.

Yet another Wizard Arrives! That's 3!

Well another workmate, Steve, waltzed in with his Wizard RTF and a big smile.

The arrival of the backpack

A quick check of the tracking information and my backpack arrived in the country a few days ago.  Another vain check after lunch and it had been marked as delivered just after 1pm.

When i got home I ripped open the packaging.  It looks smaller than I was expecting, but it should fit everything in it.

RunCam 3 Pre-order

I've seen some pre-release reviews of the RunCam 3 and decided I'd like to grab one as an alternative to a GoPro Session.

Another Wizard Arrives and I try the USB VTX Receiver

So Monty, a work mate, ordered a Wizard.  He got impatient waiting for the RTF to arrive, so he bought it ARF, bought the same Flysky FS-i6 with the FS-iA6B Receiver and a separate iMAX B6 Battery Charger and batteries.

The Drone Backpack

So a link to this video was posted in our Leet Drone Club chat.  Stew from UAVFutures was quite enthusiastic about the versatility and utility of this bag.  

The one linked in the video doesn't ship to Australia so some of the guys went searching for something similar.