Current and voltage meter in the mail today!

 

This is what I got in the mail today. I ordered it from GoodLuckBuy and it was shipped out 10 days ago. This still means that the average time to delivery from China is about 9-10 days depending on holidays I suppose.

The little device in the middle gets hooked up and man-in-the-middles the power coming from the battery and tells the flight controller how much juice it has left. There is an excellent integration instruction at ArduCopters wiki but this is roughly how its meant to work shown in the picture to the right. There are some settings in Mission Planner that allows the flight controller to conduct an emergency landing if the voltage falls too low. Remember that I previously written that I've set my ESC's to cut power at 3V in order to spare the batterys health. This means that I should make an emergency landing prior to that. Other than an emergency landing is also to order the flight controller to RTL. However, we all know how that ended last time..

Talking about failing RTL's, I yesterday think I've got a clue why the GPS has been acting strange lately. By accident, I looked at the quad's heading according to the flight controller and it was 90 degrees wrong. This means that I've mounted the GPS 90 degrees wrong which makes the flight controller do things the wrong way.

Another update is that I received an e-mail this morning from the author of MegaPirateNG with a link to MPNG-3.0.1-R2 :). I still haven't downloaded the code but I sure will within the next few days.

I've also got another package in the mail about a week ago, which I still haven't written about. I will do so in a separate blog post due to its large content. I also have a few surprise upgrades so stay tuned ;)

 

Packages packages, more packages and washers

 

This came in the mail today. It's the order for new motors and 8 inch propellers. Having smaller propellers also eases the torch on the motors, which should lessen the overheat.

Now I might have come to a conclusion why my motors are failing. Due to the nature of aluminum, its quite weak. Now as the screws that hold the motor in place slightly bends the aluminum inwards, the top of the screw seem to get scewed too far into the motor and may cause a short circuit.

To counter this condition, I've bought some washers. These washers are used both to protect the aluminum from bending too far and also to put some distance between the top of the screw to the motor. I also bought some locking washers to keep the screws in place keeping them from coming loose due to vibrations.

This is the end result, now only time can tell if it works or not. Will try this out tonight along with the 8 inch propellers.

Spare parts has arrived!

 

A spare HobbyKing X550 frame, which I'm going to do some DIY'ing to use to add another level/layer of stuff to my current frame. You'll see how it works out soonish.

Battery for the Turnigy transmitter and a li-po low voltage alarm. I must have misplaced my other alarm I ordered a while ago because I can't find it. This alarm does both show the level of charge and also sound an alarm when the charge drops below 3.3V. My ESC's are currently programmed to cut-off at 3V to not harm the battery. This will hopefully prevent any fatal crashes that could happen if the motors are cut in mid-air. Luckily, this hasn't happened yet. The only times I've encountered cut-offs are just after takeoff which resulted in a one meter free fall.

It's alive again!

 

I found some replacement screws for the one I lost in a local DIY store :). This afternoon I've also done some test flying to see that everything is OK and it seems so.

Regarding the package of replacement stuff and battery I ordered, it arrived in Sweden this morning but haven't got any updates from package trackers since 4.53 this AM. Hopefully I'll get it tomorrow but my hopes aren't that high for that to happened. Tuesday would however be a more realistic time of arrival.

Next I'll do some more trimming on the AltHold and will also try the AutoLand function soonish :).

Stay tuned!

Six weeks later

 

Six weeks ago, I ordered these items from Deal Extreme. Two weeks ago, I reported the package as lost and wanted an investigation into the possibility to get another package sent. However, the support department asked me to wait another week and here it is, the post office has done it's magic. Just wondering why some packages from China / Hong Kong arrive after nine days and some after six weeks. 

Anyway, to the right, a bluetooth to attach to the flight controller, which enables configuration and remote command both from a computer or smartphone. The Android app SteadiDrone enables remote control and the regular APM Mission Planner also allows for connection over bluetooth. The other thing is a USBISP thing that soldered to the Turnigy transmitter allows for firmware update. More on that in another post.

Long time, no post, another package

 

As there hasn't been a lot of progress since last post, I've waited with posting more. However now, I've got another package in the mail containing:

• 9x4.7 propellers
• Another 5000mAh battery
• Spare 3.5mm and 5.5mm gold connectors
• 85dB lost signal alarm
• 3.5v uBEC

I ordered the propellers to have some slightly weaker than the 10x5.0 propellers I ordered previously. I've kind of come to the conclusion that the motors and propellers I ordered are slightly over powered to what the quad will weigh. These propellers will slightly reduce the thrust.

Another battery will gain 5000mAh more and 450g weight. This will counter the thrust and also give more flight time if used in parallel with the old battery.

The lost signal alarm is activated if the signal is lost for more than one minute and will sound at 85dB. This is a cheap insurance policy to find a quad that might lay wrecked in a bush somewhere it'd otherwise not be found.

I ordered the 3.5v uBEC before I understood that the OrangeRX radio receiver I have wants 5v. I blame that on my dyslexia ;).

Another plus is that I've got advance notice of that my package with the replacement motor will be available for pickup Monday. Stay tuned until then!

Ladybird key chain camera construction

I just remembered that I hadn't documented the way that I attached the key chain camera to my Ladybird. As I described in an earlier post, I'm using Velcro to attach the camera upside down to the bottom of the Ladybird. I'm also using a soft and sticky padding to angle the camera in the right position slightly pointed downwards.

The first post was however with the camera pointed slightly upwards, which in general is a bad idea when recording things below the camera ;).

An update regarding the package containing new motors is that I've received a tracking number and that the package should be on it's way. Hopefully I'll receive the package before my vacation is over.

Packages!

This is what I fetched from the post office just now. As far as I know this should be more or less it and I don't miss any vital parts.

 

About the transmitter which I thought to be less than complete, actually is complete. I've been in contract with HobbyKing and got it all cleared out. 

Now it's just to start putting things together. The first task will be soldering connectors to the electronic speed controllers (ESC). Will be back with progress..

Lost or stolen package content?

So I received another package in the mail today. This was all about the radio. Now it was pretty obvious right away that something had happened to the package. Someone have obviously broken into the Turnigy radio transmitter package. It's been ripped open and somewhat closed up and most of it's content is missing as you can see here on the picture.

The other things I was all intact and according to the package manifest. From left to right; back lights for the non-lit LCD display on the transmitter, OrangeRX radio receiver for the quad side and radio transmitter module to fit on the Turnigy radio transmitter.

I've just filed a complain to Hobby King's customer service and I guess we'll take it from there. This is a bad setback that I didn't expect and I hope that it can be solved. The transmitter was not that pricy but still $49.

Package in the mail

Writing today's post from my balcony after having stuffed two grilled burgers into the opening in the middle of my face.

A package arrived today with mounts for my motors. This is the package that I wrote about that was in Malmö two days ago. It's the only urns I had to order from Germany as they weren't in stock in any other warehouse.

Another fail

Got another package in the mail today. However I seem to have missed the fact that I need four propellers for my quad. I only ordered two :(.

So, I need to make another complementary order. This order took nine days to arrive, so I should be fine.

I also got a replacement body for my first quad which had an accident.

Package tracking

I am tracking four packages at the moment containing most of the ordered items. This is the current status:

1. Package dispatched from Germany is currently inbound Malmö, Sweden, which means that it should be expected early this week.
2. Package #1 dispatched from Hong Kong has today, the 26th left Singapore for Sweden. That should take a couple of days.
3. Package #2 dispatched from Hong Kong has today, the 26th left Hong Kong by airmail to Sweden.
4. Package #3 dispatched from Hong Kong is unknown. I can't find it using any package tracking service. This is common for packages that has not yet left the first sorting stage.

My favorite packing tracking page is packagetrackr.com, it can usually find packages carried by any carrier in the world.