Monday, January 6, 2014

My new Du-bro prop balancer

After a long waiting, finally my Du-bro prop balancer turned out.
I could have bought some cheap chinese clones but since I read many negative reviews, I decided to take "probably the best" prop balancer available.
I can only confirm the quality is great so far, and the fact that bigger props like 10, 11, 12 inch can make a full turn for me it makes a big difference compare to the other "magnetic" or whatever balancers...
I made a small "unboxing" basically showing all the bits and pieces that must be put together easily, and also showing the good manual showing you some tips for an effective balancing process.

Highly reccommended !

The new Fatshark Attitude V2 FPV goggles kit

After trying to fly FPV using my 7” lcd monitor from Bangood, it’s time to step up and become more “immersed”
to my quad by using some FPV goggles. I got some Attitude V2 kits, with camera, cables and polarized antennas, which are really
plug and play, all you need is a 2S or 3S li-po to power it up, really nice and simple.
Check out below the first time unboxing video and the package contents…



Since I was used to fly with an LCD attached on my Devo 10 with a bracket, I often took my eyes off the screen to look at my quad…
bad and distracting habit but sometimes necessary. At the first moment I put the goggles on I was pleasantly impressed with the image quality
they display from the small Fatshark CMOS camera bundled in the kit. Just a very small blue-ish colour around the lcd’s but barely noticeable
and due to the optics getting the wider FOV.
The Dominator goggles are supposed to have just a bit clearer picture (never tried myself) but the FOV is smaller and the IPD’s are not adjustable.
Fortunately the goggles suit me just fine on the largest IPD position, so definitely the Domi’s would have been no good on my bigger head…
Below you can see the individual detailed pictures with all the items that came in the kit.

The box's contents

Front view of the goggles

Left view

bask view looking in the goggles-you can see the green edge due to the adjustable IPD's

Right side

Top view

Underneath the goggles

The 600 TVL Cmos FPV camera bundled in the V2 kit(missing in the V1 Attitudes)

Backside of the 600 TVL


The bundled 250mW VTX for 5.8ghz



Filtering element allowing 2, 3 or 4S power


Stock antennas

Cloth for cleaning the goggles

Cables

more cables

still more cables :)

and the last of it...

Nice fatshark stickers

manual in good english

the kit's content detailed

the top of the box

a nice feature, actually someone checked that all is working, which was true

the polarized spironet antenna box

the polarized antenna set



These are the full specs of the kit:
·         New Trinity head tracker with 3 axis : pan / tilt / roll;
·         35 degrees field of view with backlit polarized technology
·         640x480 dots with 922k pizels VGA NTSC/PAL auto select
·         New generation Nexware receiver (AWEX682)
·         Adjustable PID (59-69mm)
·         Optional diopter lens inserts of -2, -4, -6 dp
·         Usable frequencies: CH1: 5740 MHz CH2: 5760 MHz CH3: 5780 MHz CH4: 5800 Mhz
CH5: 5820 MHz CH6: 5840 Mhz CH7: 5860 MHz
·         Comes with bundled Attitude V2 goggles,  600 TVL CMOS camera(with 2.8mm IR coated lens and 100 degrees FOV), 250mw VTX(5.8Ghz), filtered balance lead adaptor, 2 off 3dBi antennas, 3.5mm  JR cable, Futaba 6P cable, ezUHF cable, zipper case, leans cleaner cloth, AV cable and clear English manual.
A nice feature is that you can power the camera and VTX from any li-po varying from 2S to 3S or 4S, since it has already in the kit a filtered balance powered harness connector, so no more need for additional battery…
Also, since I want the best range for this setup I suggest the spironet polarized antennas, but I will test for range later and update the info here…
Hoped you find the info usefull and enjoy your version of the Attitudes V2 same as I did J

Fly safe and take care !

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Affordable hexacopter frame?

Just finished shortly my new Flip FPV Pro build and I am already looking at the next build.
Since quads are fun to fly in calm wind, I sometimes wish for a more stable platform that can handle stronger wind , fly smoother and be able to carry a brushless gimbal underneath withouth too much fuss.

After a lot of searching I think I found just the hexacopter to fit the bill on the thanksbuyer website, the link is here

"Opened" and ready to operate hexa

Hexacopter in "folded state"
 
It costs 56.9 usd and looks nice for the price, it has folding arms, and better it comes with vibration dampening landing skid included in the kit(190mm tall).
At the beginning I didn't know much about thanksbuyer, but after exchanging some mails with them they are nice guys and they answer all my questions within 24 hours in good english, and that is a good thing for a chinese based website...
The motor to motor diameter is of 650 mm and according to their specs, you can fit propellers of  12, 13 or even 14 inches, of course using some lower KV motors from the 2212, 2216 and 2814 series.
I personally "booked" some 850 kv motors running 1045 propellers, 30 A ESC's and the multiwii 2.5 standard edition flight controller...
I already have a gimbal from my flip fpv pro gimbal version that I will fit to the hexa and the Flip I will use just for fun flying...Also I will fit on this hexa my Sony 600 TVL camera bundled with my 5.8 Ghz VTX to be able to get a bit more far away than just LOS flying.
I hope I will make a good choice and the quality of this affordable hexacopter frame will be as good as it looks :)
I will come back later with the build progress and a more detailed review of this hexacopter frame.
Take care and fly safe...
Update: 30.06.2014
After other build projects and family projects also, finally the hexa is completed...Please check my youtube movies below, and also the build log from the rcgroups forum.

Thanks



And now the pictures  :

















Quite heavy. I could swap it for the lighter (~50 gr) DJI F series skid






Quite light - now it has only 4 arms fitted and no brushless gimbal.

My Flip FPV Pro on the scale :)












Original motors prop fixation system. I updated to the multirotor prop mount similar to the Sunnysky x2212 and similar















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