AP from a Trex

[jahunter]

How much mass can a Trex lift, and with what motor, blades and pinion. I want to use a Canon SD 450 and a GWS pico nano, which will weigh about 6 ounces total with battery.
Also, I don't have any servo slots left on my Futaba R146iP. Can I use a Y on the power input to the receiver for the camera shutter servo??
I have used this camera under a kite with good success, but the wind is kinda inconsistent here in Fallbrook :;
Thanks in advance
hunter

[Nate Dogg]

my optio s6 weighs .1k. I have an askman mount sans oil shocks. I use the gyro gain channel on my hitec Tx and switch from idle(N) to udle(1) to take a picture. I also have an infared switch hooked up to trigger the camera. The T-rex flys like the mount isnt even there. I run a cc35, align 430l motor with 325 pro woodies, park bec, 13t pinion and 3s 2100 tp lipo. The mount id great! Self leveling and you can add a tilt servo if you want to. www.askmanap.com

[Efliernz]

I have flown my Trex (with only a 420LF motor) with 325 Problades and a 3S 2200 pack with 200grams (7oz) of video camera/sender and while it felt heavy, it still flew well.

I am looking at doing what you two are doing as well. I have just been concentrating on nose-in flying and hovering at altitude before putting a digital cam on it. The askman setup looks great and is getting some good reviews in a number of forums...

[catfight]

I have trex with askman mount with oil dampeners- using Pentax Optio A10 cam. Total weight is 1 kg. Also using Maverikk 320 CF blades, Quark 33A ESC, JR g400t gyro, and JGF 450TH motor with 13 t, 3S Apex 2200. Using continuous shutter holding down trigger- no servos. Flies great (seems a little heavy but nice and stable as I like it for photos and videos :0)

[skeletor]

I'm runnnig just unger 1kg AUW, 335 syms, JGF-450th (10t) around 2100RPM etc, askman mount.. the foam dampning was hard to get right so I hacked on some oil shocks. I use the RC-flysoft switch for the shutter and it rocks, program the switch for one shot every 4 seconds, trigger it from a shared channel if you like.. once triggered it just continues to shoot every 4 seconds. I just worry about flying and pointing the camera..

rich.

[Tonystott]

I switched in a GY240 to free up channel 5 for the shutter servo. AUW with Askman mount is 1050g. While I haven't flown it in anger yet, it hovers at about 3/4 throttle (JGF 450TH motor with 11T pinion and 335 PRO woodies or Like90 313 flat-bottom blades). My camera is a bit on the heavy side, so I use a 300mAh 2S LiPo to power the downlink camera, with a voltage regulator splitting out 3v to power the main camera.

[catfight]

Tonystott,

I haven't tried reduced headspeed (I am a photo noobie) - what are the advantages/disadvantages? When you go to 11 T do you alter the pitch settings in the radio or just switch pinion- or anything else? What downlink are you using- sounds interesting!

My 8 MP photos are turning out about 3.5 MB in size- does this sound correct?

Thanks

[Tonystott]

Tonystott,

I haven't tried reduced headspeed (I am a photo noobie) - what are the advantages/disadvantages? When you go to 11 T do you alter the pitch settings in the radio or just switch pinion- or anything else? What downlink are you using- sounds interesting!

My 8 MP photos are turning out about 3.5 MB in size- does this sound correct?

Thanks
Askman has some great info on his website about this. When I reduced pinion size I also changed the motor, but there is no reason to change any curves.. I was advised to aim for about 2000 headspeed, as you don't want the heli in maniac mode :). AP type flying is my sort of speed, so hanging a camera on the heli gives me an excuse for Driving Miss Daisy flight :)

The downlink cost me $US34.16 from www.chinavasion.com and is OK for a cheapie. I am planning to build the goof proof patch antenna (www.rc-cam.com) which should give more range than my eyes can cope with.

8MP files are around that size, yep.. :)