X550 resurrected

Done a few test flights with the X550 after replacing broken parts and it seem to fly as it should. Haven't tried anything GPS related yet but it spins like a cat and flies like a bird.

This is a short video from one of the first trial flights. The camera vibrates like crazy but you can still make something out after using the stabilizing enhancements thanks to YouTube. Guess I'll need to do something about this in the future.

The X550 has returned!

Today I found the phone with the number set up for people whom might have found my quad with a new message :). A local farmer had found it in the woods to the west of the high way where I was flying eastwards of. In other words, it flew over 300 meters away from where I have been looking for it.

 

I still haven't had the time to assess any damages but from what I can see, the frame is slightly bent in a couple of places and propellers are broken. Other than that will be in my next post.  

Still missing.. and continuation

 

Yesterday I was out with a few relatives again to try and find the X550. No luck but must my posters are still hanging on the trees. My strongest guess is still that it's stuck in one of the trees at 15+ meters. However, due to the thick leafs it's quite hard to see anything. I'll have to wait for the leafs to fall off this fall and have a return trip to see if it's possible to spot it.

In the meanwhile if I get no word from any by-passers in a few weeks and as I still have a lot of parts and utilities, I think I'm going to start building a new quad. Almost half of what I've so far invested into this hobby are things such as battery chargers, spare parts, spare propellers and so on. This means I can probably put one together with not too much money.

What I'm missing are electronics and motors, which at most add up to a little more than $150. What I will further invest into and which would have saved my X550 that's done MIA is a radio linked telemetry system. It would have broadcasted it's position and I'd been able to find it easy. Now there are a few ways of solving the telemetry.

3DR $86

One way is the all expensive 3DR Radio Telemetry Kit seen to the right. It costs $86 and would probably do it's job in excellence. But as I'm still aiming for a shoestring budget, I'm sure there are alternatives.

Below are two low cost alternatives. They cost less than half of the original 3DR but should do the job. I've read a blog post regarding the APC220 about how to connect it properly. The third option I found yesterday browsing the web. I have no idea if it works but its branded as the 3DR with a different price so I guess it's a copy. But might still work as well as as the original.

3DR copy(?) $36

APC220 $33

In short, the X550 is still MIA

 

As the topic says, my X550 is still MIA. The day before today, I went to a library and produced these posters and have put a bunch of them up on trees in the area where it disappeared. Today I also filed a report to the local police department regarding my loss hoping that if someone turns it in, the report will be recognized. My hopes now stay with possible by-passers that happens to spot my quad and hopefully makes a phone call. 

And no, it's not my real phone number. It's juts prepaid number I acquired for the poster that I'll terminate once it's no longer required.

Stay tuned! All hopes aren't gone yet.

The new propellers was a success

Last night I tried out the new 8 inch propellers along with a fresh motor to replace the last faulty one. The x550 now spins like a cat and flies like a bird. I trimmed the flight controller for the new propellers, which wasn't all that much to change and it's very stable.

After the basic trimming I started working on navigation and RTL (return to launch). These also has a set of P, I and D parameters for navigation. There is a good guide over at the ArduCopter wiki. However, I didn't have much success in trimming the RTL and the x550 always overshot or navigated wrong. Once both batteries were drained, I figured out that I'd trimmed using wrong parameters, dooh! I had been trimming the HLD_LAT/LON instead of LOITER_LAT/LON. Will have to do this at some other point where I can find a good field to try it out at.

Link to the guide: https://code.google.com/p/arducopter/wiki/AC2_loiter_PID

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.