Other hobbies and money-pit obsessions...

[Lazerjock]

that is TOO cool, Chris!

Thank you

All I did was strap a frikin laser to a frikin quadcopter. MooWaaHaaHaa! My evil plan is coming together.

What length are the LED strips you're using, and where did you get them?

I found some at the LHS to use on my 350 QX, but at 1 meter each, I would be tossing more than half of the length once I cut them to fit my quad ...

I found them on Amazon. They run on 12vdc. I think they were $10 for 30ft. You just cut the length you want and stick them on. Sure you'll have left over for your new quadcopters.

Also, what gimbal are you using?

Thanks -
Randy

The gimbal came from ebay. I is a generic brushless gimbal designed for the DJI Phantom. I modified the mount to fit my machine. There are tons of brushless gimbals on the market now. They usually start at $100 including the controller board. If you are shopping around make sure it comes with the board and motors. Some are sold without. The software to calibrate it can be challenging too. Mine came with the Martinez controller. I believe to be one of the better controllers on the market.
Let me know if you need any more info. Always happy to help.
Chris

[Stuka]

...Well..... duh! Thanksgiving is NO excuse for giving up SELEM. It happens every year and has been for well over 200 years! This is only the 8th SELEM to have occurred in that same time period. It's a very rare, not to be missed, event. One to tell stories to your grand children about.

Yeah, you're right.
Why don't YOU guys call and explain that to Household 6, and if she 's cool with it, I'm in!!
Of course, she might be a little upset if she finds out I have grandkids...

@Laserjock -
Appreciate the info!
I'll admit, now that I've got my 350 QX flying, I'm really starting to think about the gimbal & FPV possibilities!
I found this video of some serious 350 QX FPV flying to be quite inspirational:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4ol1QcbHVU

[Bradfo69]

Yeah, you're right.
Why don't YOU guys call and explain that to Household 6, and if she 's cool with it, I'm in!!
Of course, she might be a little upset if she finds out I have grandkids...

Minor technicality.... Neighborhood kids work too. They're impressionable.

[Lazerjock]

I found this video of some serious 350 QX FPV flying to be quite inspirational:

Randy,
Note that in that video he's not using a gimbal. The reason is that it is impossible to fly FPV with one. The camera is always level thus no way to know which way the quadcopter is leaning.

I have seen guys use two cameras, one fixed to fly by and the other on a gimbal to record the flight.
Just an FYI.
Chris

[Stuka]

Randy,
Note that in that video he's not using a gimbal. The reason is that it is impossible to fly FPV with one. The camera is always level thus no way to know which way the quadcopter is leaning.

I have seen guys use two cameras, one fixed to fly by and the other on a gimbal to record the flight.
Just an FYI.
Chris

Yeah, roger that...
I was actually thinking more of an either / or; don't think my little quad could carry both without straining the guts out of the propulsion system, along with extremely limited flight times.

Although, I did read where somebody was experimenting using a FPV camera on a gimbal setup for pitch axis correction only, which I could see might come in handy if setup correctly. Kind of like the real copters in that respect - nose pitches down initially in high-speed forward flight, and the head instinctively pitches up to compensate.

Dang, I'm going to wind up with a bigger quad before this is all over, and I already have two helicopters I need to get out the door...

[Stuka]

Anyone here still flying RC "planks"?

Here's my latest heavily-armed flying foam beer cooler :

[Lazerjock]

Randy,
Those are some great pics. I love the black & white. It takes a trained eye to see that it's a model. Well done!

Chris

[Lazerjock]

How does she fly with that 4 bladed prop? There is a noticeable difference between 2 & 4 bladed props on my C-130.
Chris

[Stuka]

How does she fly with that 4 bladed prop? There is a noticeable difference between 2 & 4 bladed props on my C-130.
Chris

I have to thank one of my coworkers / RC'er-in-training for the photos ~
He did an awesome job!!

I have been pleasantly surpised to find my P-51 has PLENTY of power with the stock propulsion system and scale prop.
All-up flying weight is a little less tha 5 1/2 pounds, and the 4s3600 LiPos easily get me 5 minutes(+) per charge.

Gets airborne with maybe a 30' rollout at half-throttle, with plenty of scale-like power left for maneuvers and the obligatory high-speed low-level passes.
Sequncing retracts & flaps look - and work - awesome!!
My only modification has been adding a very realistic - and very loud! - synchronized sound system for the engine, dive whistle, and guns.


$299 delivered for the receiver-ready PnP version that can be ready to fly in a couple of hours.
Probably couldn't build one that size with all the same features for that price...

[buffo]

Got my latest RC Heli in the mail yesterday. It's a chinese clone of the T-rex 450. Holy crap, this thing is big!

Here's the link: http://www.banggood.com/Hausler-450-...-p-930808.html

The cowling on mine looks different from the link above. I didn't get the shark-teeth one. Mine looks more like a standard T-rex cowl. But no biggie.

I charged the battery and hooked it up to test out the servos and so on. FIRST MISTAKE! Should have read the manual first. The damned Throttle Hold (Ground Safety) and Idle-up (max power) switches were REVERSED on this radio! So when I switched what I thought was the throttle hold switch off (so I would have the ability to "bump" the main rotor later to check rotation), instead the damned thing tried to spool up to maximum RPM. FUCK!

Bear in mind this was while it was being held in my hand at just under arm's length. Not nearly far enough to keep my chest or my forearm out of the blade path. And despite the fact that the blades only had about 60 degrees of rotation available before they hit me the first time, that was enough to cause significant impact. It took me a split second (less than a 10th, probably) to realize what had happened and flip the switch back to the other position. In that short span of time I was struck 3 times in the chest and twice on the arm.

It felt like I'd been punched in the chest by someone my size. I have several red marks on my arms and chest, and one hell of a bruise on my chest where the hardest impact was, near my right armpit. This was through a shirt, mind you! Lesson learned: A 10 volt, 2200 MaH battery can deliver a TON of energy in a very short span!

Anyway, once I figured out that the damned switches were screwed up, I took it outside to perform a spool-up test. And while the rotor reaches AMAZING rpm in less than a second, it appears that I have some other problem with the servos, as they aren't working correctly to pitch the swash plate like they should, and when the rotor isn't turning the servos just sit there and chatter back and fourth. So something is amiss. Guess I'll contact Bang-Good later today and see what they say.

But for sure I've learned to respect these larger birds. Hell, the 250 series bird I got last week was pretty damned scary in it's own right, but this beast is terrifying. I don't even want to think about what might have happened if the rotor had gotten up to speed before it hit me!

SELEM should be interesting though. I now have a total of 8 RC birds. 3 quads, 2 fixed-pitch heli's (both with 45 degree flybars), two flybarless collective-pitch heli's, and one big honkin' collective pitch heli with a 90-degree flybar (that's the one that hit me last night!).

Adam