Bergen Foldable Hexacopter

[Cletus]

Skiddz, now you peaked my interest ....will do some testing tomorrow with the GPS on and introducing the GoPro at various distances from the GPS antenna. Should be interesting to try and correlate at what positions and distances any interference starts.

[Skiddz]

There are some no problems, some (like me) who start getting satellites dropping out at about a foot.

It doesn't seem to matter on my setup where the GP is located in relation to the puck, but the distance is fairly consistent. I can replicate the problem at will on my setup. No issues at all if the GP isn't powered up, but then that kind of defeats the purpose of mounting one up.

[Cletus]

Very good news to report this morning:
1) My GPS is not at all affected by the GoPro. I even put the GoPro right next to the GPS antenna and it maintained full GPS lock
.......and I was dreaming-up all sorts of Faraday shields last night.

2) Since it was already sitting on my driveway, all powered-up, I could not resist spooling-up. Well, I am happy to report this thing is awesome powerful even on 3S and it had no problem whatsoever attaining liftoff and becoming perfectly stable in a hover over my driveway .....so I guess this could be counted as the maiden? (got the wife to snap the following photo):

Oh, that's our other dog Speck, had to lock her out for fear she may have challenged the rotating props

This bird is SWEET! .......yee-hah

[cbergen]

NICE!!

I do not have a go-pro camera, so cannot comment on any interference issues. As I have iterated in many forum discussions, I think that other factors may be causing or at least contributing to these types of interference.

For instance (and this is based on our experience flying Gassers on 72 Mhz), if a machine has certain characteristics that are causing a small amount of interference, not enough to be a real issue, but then you add in ANOTHER component that puts it over the top as far as how much interference it can deal with, and it gets locked out.

With our G10 frames, we've always been very low on the scale of interference (vs carbon fibre framed heli's for instance), so a squeaky bearing in a gasser heli doesn't cause a lock out. I believe there's a similar situation with our Multirotors, having very little, if any, causes of interference, that adding a component that increases interference doesn't put it into the lockout threshold.

Send me your Go-Pro, I'll do some testing with it on my Hexa to see if it does the same thing as on your bird.


Cletus, I purchased some 3mm acorn nuts, will send them to your Miami address...

[Cletus]

Now, to fabricate a mount for the Kriss Vector
Just Joking, Just Joking!!!

[Cletus]

"Cletus, I purchased some 3mm acorn nuts, will send them to your Miami address... "

Cool! ..... thanks Chris!

[Skiddz]

I may take you up on that Chris. Since I "discovered" the issue, I've seen dozens of videos depicting the same problem. I'm wondering what the serial number range of the "suspect" cameras is. Mine is one of the first Hero HDs to have come out - I bought it just a few weeks after it was released. I'm curious as to whether later versions were changed somehow, but I *have* seen reports of the Hero 2 and 3 models exhibiting the same interference issues.

For now it's a non-issue as I put the camera inside my 1/4 scale Cub.

[Cletus]

FWIW my Hero2 Serial no. H214A0412259744 I don't see a mfg. date, but it was purchased around January last year.

[cbergen]

I have 2 "devices" that we'll be mounting on Octocopters over the next few weeks.....Pics will accompany our progress....

[Cletus]

Originally Posted by cbergen

I have 2 "devices" that we'll be mounting on Octocopters over the next few weeks.....Pics will accompany our progress....

Now, that's a "teaser" if I ever heard one

[Skiddz]

Knowing Chris's flying skills, probably ballistic parachutes.

[Cletus]

Been trying to find out how to upgrade Wookong-M to Waypoints and it seems a bit confusing. From what I glean, there is an upgrade path from Wookong-M to 1-Waypoint. Then 1-Waypoint to 5-waypoints and finally 5-waypoints to 50-waypoints?
Can anyone throw any light on this?
What does this cost?
And there's something about having to use DJI's 2.4 or 900mhz TX?

[cbergen]

In order to upgrade to waypoint, you must have the Datalink. You can get it in either 2.4 or 900 Mhz.

If you are flying with a 2.4 radio, then I suggest the 900 mhz datalink.... $520.

Probably YOUR current Wookong M has single waypoint already, only needing the datalink to talk to your laptop/ground station.

Once you have the Datalink, then you simply pay your money to your DJI Dealer, they contact DJI with your current Serial number, they then issue you a new serial number that you input in the assistant program, turning ON the waypoint system.

[Cletus]

Ok, Cool! ......let's see if my family leaves me with any money after the wedding next weekend. If they do, I think I will go for it

[Cletus]

Just a short maiden (don't have the correct battery packs yet), up about 75-feet and taking a look around our new field. Still a couple tweaks regarding camera-mount stability (I think it's as simple as moving the mass of the video battery to the camera mount to dampen the movements), but she's a good stable aerial platform right off the bat!

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5nLWb3SNpo&feature=share&list=UUw2fWOo8-iEjkzmUknfia7w[/ame]

[cbergen]

Couple of things to try;

Soft mount the camera, add weigh to the camera mount, add weight to the Hexa.

Going to the 4s packs will automatically add weight to the Hexa, and you already mentioned adding weight to the mount. Soft mount the camera using some thing like a Mouse Pad may help eliminate some of the up and down jitters.

[Cletus]

Roger that! .....yeh it looks like a simple fix, will get to it next week when i get back from the wedding in Tobago ............the party actually started last night, and knowing this family (and extensions thereto), it's going to go on for two weeks steady!

[TomKnight]

Cletus
Does your club runway have GeoTex on it?\
If so how do you and your club members like it.
Tom

[Cletus]

Yes Tom, we have a 360ft Geotextile runway and we really like it so far. we only installed it a couple of months now and it seems to be holding-up well.
Pretty easy to patch too, from those prop mishaps.
The jury is still out on weather fixed-wing jet turbines can takeoff from it, as we fear exhaust burns on rotation. So far, we've been holding off on jet ops until we can get some data from other clubs using it.

[Cletus]

Just got the 4S battery-packs today, rubber-mounted the GoPro and moved the video battery to the camera-mount. Should be all set. Unfortunately, time does not permit flying for at least another week.