This is a bit of a weird video, I’m not going to lie; however, I thought it was interesting to see a 3rd person perspective on me while I fly the drone.
There were a handful of neat moments (1:30-1:40 // 2:25-2:35) where I flew right near the camera as well as my commentary on the grass height making it difficult to find exactly where I landed.
It was also cool to see what I’m doing when I’m concentrated on flying. Notice how my head tilts down, how I sway a little left to right, or how I tilt my head sometimes? I don’t really notice it because I’m concentrated, but it’s cool to see.
There were some people down the road that I assume were checking out the lots available, and they kept getting closer so I decided to leave after this battery.
So I built a new quad with the DJI air unit and I am absolutely loving it! The build is so much better than my analog quad, and the digital video is amazing :)
The build process went smooth but took a while. Had to wait for the first FC to come in for 2.5 weeks, then realized I bought the wrong one, then fried the correct one and had to get another. Took about a month from start to finish to get everything perfect.
I just got hold of some RaceDayQuads batteries (4S 1300mah LiPo) and went to test them out and I crashed. RX loss then impact! Good thing I was close to the ground but the bad thing is it was asphalt… Tempered glass screen protector saved the GoPro’s lens cover though!
On the other hand the batteries are fantastic. Slightly longer flight time than my other ones, and it felt like they had less low end sag. Not much different but them also being $6 cheaper really made it brilliant! Great value for the price.
Hey everyone, haven’t updated this in a while now. Also haven’t flown the drone in a while because of the two hurricanes in August and university has been keeping me busy. It’s been great to go and fly the drone lately. Tons of fun.
Here’s a quick video from a few days ago that I thought was neat. I’m tempted to make a shorter version of just the fly through the trees. I’ll be thinking about it.
Hey everyone, hope you’re doing well today. Just wanted to make a small post to show off this drone footage from earlier today.
The normal spot was having its grass mowed so I decided to fly in this new spot and I got to say I like it a lot better. Also I’m getting a lot better at doing flips and rolls!
Hey everyone, not many of you here I’d imagine but that’s just fine. Blogging into the void is popular nowadays I guess!
Just got a GoPro Hero 5 Black from eBay a few days ago, and a 3D printed mount for it from a friend of mine today. The footage is way better than I thought it would be and that’s only 1080p 30 FPS. Going to stick to that because it’s perfect resolution and such for my use.
All that’s left to do now is try to balance the weight better because it was very front heavy during this first try. Moving the battery to the back end instead of the middle helped a ton, and while it is still heavy in the front it should be better to fly.
Hey everyone, hope you’re doing well. Today I’m going to talk about some interesting but infuriating problems between my radio transmitter and my video transmitter. The video above this shows off the problem in action. Please disregard the audio being a little bit out of sync as I’m not used to recording and syncing audio to a prerecorded video.
Currently I’m using the FrSky Taranis X9D+ 2019 and the Tramp HV 5.8ghz VTX. For some reason I see lines on my goggles screen only when the taranis is turned on, and these lines go away instantly when the taranis is turned off. This can be seen in the video I’ve posted above. We’re fairly certain that the interference is caused by the transmitter putting off noise on frequencies that it should not be. And I’m fairly certain the VTX is picking up the interference, and not the goggles’ built in receiver, because two different goggles have the same issue.
Right now we’re using ACCST D16 but we’re going to change to ACCESS and see if that solves the problem. I’m waiting on a cable to come in so I can flash the ACCESS firmware to my receiver, so I’ll update soon with how it went and if it solves the problem.
Flashing the ACCESS firmware and binding with ACCESS … did it solve the problem? Well at the moment no as I was unable to physically access the receiver on the FC due to the protective case’s screws being clipped. I’ve emailed the FrSky technical support and they’ve been lovely so far about how I should flash the firmware on the FC I have but have no responded about my issue of being unable to remove the protective case… I’ll update if this ever gets resolved.
Solution has been found! So I figured out what the problem was, and it is very simple. The way I have the flight controller setup is such that the receiver antennas come out the front, on opposite sides of the camera. Because of this setup the video wires are picking up noise from the receiver antennas and causing the interference seen on the video. To fix this I just have to flip the flight controller so the receiver antennas are going out the back of the drone.
Back in November of 2019 I convinced my dad to help me build a drone. Finding parts and learning about it all was really straightforward and easy thanks to the help of a friend who has built a few drones before. But man we really hit every single problem there could’ve been when building the drone but it taught us a lot.
First problem we ran into was the fact that our frame didn’t fit a full size camera! That was a silly problem with an easy fix. After that it was a matter of trying to figure out how to wire parts together since the diagrams provided by manufacturers were vague. Ultimately wiring worked well and it’s about as good as it can be, the main problems came from software.
On the topic of software issues, one problem was that the motors had to be corrected in software because all four motors were spinning the same direction. That was really easy to fix but annoying nonetheless. Another issue was getting the transmitter to properly communicate with our FC (flight controller). That one in itself was a real pain but thankfully the RCGroups member for FrSky was able to help us with that. I’ll make a post detailing what was wrong and how we fixed it soon. There were a handful of other problems that we encountered and I will likely post about them eventually.
Honestly there’s actually not much we would’ve done differently looking back. The only thing I would change is a frame with a taller interior, since the Armattan Badger is kind of tight space wise. Besides the frame, black propellers were a stupid idea. I remember thinking “why would you want multi color propellers if you’re flying FPV.” Oh how wrong I was to think that! I’ve picked up light blue and pink propellers to use on the front and back to let me know which direction I’m facing if I’m flying line of sight.
And last before we get to the parts I’d like to say that I’ll probably post a video soon me of flying in the field nearby. I’ve got one full video already but it’s not great because I was flying in 15mph winds! Was quite slow in winds of that speed, so not great.
Drone Parts and Setup
These are the final parts for the drone. Things that were omitted were small, miscellaneous things like connectors, adapters, wires, etc that were needed.
Frame: Armattan Badger 5″
Motors: DYS Samguk Series Wu 2206 2700kv
PDB: Matek FCHub 6s PDB
ESCs: Xilo 40A BLHeli-S 2-4s ESC
FC: FrSky RXSR-FC Omnibus F4 V6
VTX: ImmersionRC Tramp HV 5.8ghz
Camera: Foxeer Falkor 2 Mini
Propellers: HQProp DP 5.1X4.6X3
Antenna: Xilo AXII SMA 5.8ghz Antenna (LHCP) (Omnidirectional)
Radio Transmitter Battery: FrSky Taranis 2600mah Battery (Aloft Hobbies)
Goggles: Skyzone SkyO2C
Goggles Battery: Fatshark 1800mah 7.4V Battery Pack USB Charging
Quick Notes
Two antennas are listed in the Drone Parts and Setup, one of which says “Omnidirectional” on the end and the other says “Directional.”
The Xilo AXII, the onmidirectional one, is a set of 2 so one antenna connects to the VTX and one goes on the goggles. The TrueRC X-Air Crosshair, the directional one, goes on the goggles as well.
The Skyzone SkyO2C goggles have a dual-diversity receiver installed, so I use both the omnidirectional and directional. If the drone is in the range of the TrueRC X-Air, I get much better signal but if I leave the range of it then my Xilo AXII is used instead. This is not necessary but it’s nice to have since my goggles support it.
