next up, speed demon

[CyprusDave]

If it feels right when you hold it, but it flips over on take off, probably the P gains are too high. 250 size need quite low gain, about 20% to 30% of what a 450 would use. I have the same problem with my 250, which has now gone to a 330 frame to try and fix it. Powerful motors and efficient props make it even worse. I had to lower the gains so much to stop it flipping over that it was barely flyable, just wallowed around when you move the sticks. Before I upgraded the motors and put on 6"x3" carbon fibre props, it was fine. Going to the 330 frame and back to cheap plastic 5"x3" props , still keeping the more powerful motors allowed me to double the P gain setting so it is flyable again. But still needs some work.

[Tomstoy2]

Good to hear that, Dave. That's what I was expecting. Vector doesn't let you do much with independent gains, it's in their, and you can get what you want, but not directly.

Pulled the Vector, and now am working on the cc3d installation.

[CyprusDave]

I'm interested in how you get on with the CC3D, as I was looking at those as a more capable alternative to the KK2.1, without going to the expense or complexity of the APM.

[Tomstoy2]

Going to disappoint you, Dave.

Was sitting here, sipping on a beer after work, when it dawned on me!
First off,,, I'm the pretty one in the family. Just to get that out there.

The Vector is back in. The Fury board is designed for the qav250, which is designed around the cc3d board.
With cc3d, the #1 motor is front left. Vector is front right. I didn't consider that when I added the Fury.

All I have left to do is go back into the Vector, recalibrate everything, balance some props and throw them on.
Too damn tired now to do it, so we'll see what happens tonight.
Besides, we got snow on the ground.

Don't fret though, Dave. The cc3d is going to go on the f330. Maybe this winter, if it will ever stop snowing first.

[Tomstoy2]

it fly's!

Fought me all night long. But she's all together and the test flight was done in my living room!
Flew damn good, no issues at all.

Battery's on the charger now.

[sutty]

Looking forward to more detailed flight reports and a video or two. Hope the real maiden goes well.

Cheers

Sutty

[Tomstoy2]

Yeah, me too.
Can't believe I did that. Call it a Nyquil moment.
Once I got that figured out I had issues getting the esc's to arm. Got one motor to arm, made some wire routing changes, armed each motor individually, recalibrated and was good to go.

Heading to bed now. Weather should be nice this afternoon so will get some flights in.

[Tomstoy2]

Proof of flight. Now to tune her.

qav250 maiden 4 3 15 (0 min 38 sec)

[Tomstoy2]

Gains are close now. Little sucker gets small in a hurry.

GOPR0016 (1 min 25 sec)

[sutty]

Looked good Tom. Not always easy to see on video, but it looked stable to me. I don't suppose it matters too much how quickly it gets small, you'll be looking through it, not at it.

[Tomstoy2]

Thanks, Sutty.
The wind was blowing around 13 mph at the time.
The first flight, with the gains down low, was sluggish as hell.
After a few flights, tightening gains all the time, I now have her pretty damn close.
What I need now is a calm day, make sure I didn't go too far.
May need to play with the pid settings, and the braking force. She feels sluggish still when releasing the sticks. This little bugger needs to snap to a stop.

Under the goggles is about the only way to fly this. It's barely bigger than a 6s battery! At just 60 feet away I'm relying heavily on the led's to keep orientation.

[copterboy]

Feel I can say know how you feel trying to fly the mQX outside. Not much bigger than a butterfly! Sometimes I just hit the rudder till I see blue lights, then full elevator forwards and fly it nose in LOS back towards base.

Looks like the mQX is gonna need another new motor or two, but I still got 3 in stock. Think it's just because of the frequency of Jack crashing it, but I have to say he's getting much better at hovering and if anything a little over confident flying. He was flying it inbetween rooms through a doorway at one point, but banging the elevator back and forth having loads of fun. Can't wait for a nice summers day when we can sit in the back room and send it out into the garden. I'm sure he's gonna love it, and then I'll throw him an FPV upgrade and...boom!! Anyway sorry to digress on the thread as usual, but I better get on with the repairs.

I suppose my point was, your building this for your family to try, so I can't wait to hear how that part goes, once the build and tweaks are complete! Looks great so far

[Tomstoy2]

Still tuning.

Had tilt a little too aggressive, still bringing the gain down slowly until the bouncing stops. It's almost out, this last change might do it.

Not too pleased yet with position hold. Still need to look into that a little bit more, or perhaps I'm spoiled by my WKM which has perfect hold, but the Vector is spongy at best.
It gets to hold reasonably well once you stabilize it a bit manually, so it's a pid thing. Once I get the gains all sorted I'll have to play with that, see if I can get her tightened up.

I certainly flys good enough. Enough so that I'm itching to go under the goggles, but resisting until I can get her to brake better and not loose altitude in loiter mode advancing from hover into forward flight. That I can live with but it shouldn't happen.

Flight time is getting better. Had the last flight up for 6 minutes and only put back 1600 mah's, but the results I think are fubar.
After about 3 minutes, the low battery auto land kicked in. I over rode it with 90% throttle and continued to fly for another 3 minutes.
I went onto the programming and disarmed auto land, so next time I'll get a better test.
Still, I've had auto land on since the beginning, and I have definitely seen an improvement in efficiency as I tighten things up.
This was the first time I had the GoPro on her, too, so it's definitely gotten a lot better!

Not bothering with the GP footage, as I was just pushing her around, but the footage has no jello.

So, got the changes entered for the next flight, but this time I'll be taking the ground station along to record the osd, see what it looks like.

[Tomstoy2]

Test flight went well. Still need to take the pitch gain down more.

First part of the vid, you can see the speed of the response when I pump each axis. She's pretty responsive. Shortly after that I open her up for a few seconds. She eats up some distance pretty quick.

Flying a quad is different than flying a hex. Perhaps I'm just spoiled. So damn happy with my Hexa. Just got to remember, it took close to 4 years to get it there.

test 1 (1 min 19 sec)

[Heli Yea!]

I cant watch the vid till I hit a wifi. Does the Vector have an auto tune or in-flight tuning? if so a pack or two out back/front LOS should get you dialed in. Im sure a250 quad feels squerly comaired to a!550 hex. You can get it rock like in posH but wind will cause a 6' bubble style hold especially on altitude.

[Heli Yea!]

Looked pretty good Tom! I love the way those props buzz!

[Tomstoy2]

[ame]https://youtu.be/0b1XW-Dad2c[/ame]