Iconic X FPV foldable maiden flight

This is the maiden flight with the frame Iconix X FPV foldable. I have only placed the basics (no FPV equipment yet) to test it.

The camera is placed on the front of the frame, directly over it with no anti-vibration dampeners (only the ones that come with the frame to isolate the top plate). The results, as you can see, are dreadful!! I guess this is because the old motors, whose holders are a bit bended and  produce this horrible vibrations :)

The total weight of this equipment is 1.9kg, and I have had the following flight times:

• 14 minutes with a Turnigy 3S 4000 mAh 
• 17 minutes with a Turnigy 3S 5000 mAh 

There´s something funny about two of the motors. If I attach them with more than 1 screw out of 4, the motors don't work!!! So those two motors are attached to the frame with just one screw each!

Setup:

Frame Iconic X FPV Foldable
BL-2830/11 1000kv motors
20A SK ESC
10x4.5 Plastic HK propellers
KK2 controller board
FrSKY V8FR-II receiver
Turnigy 9XR transmitter

Build of the Iconic X FPV foldable

Yesterday I worked on the Iconic X FPV I bought on September. It took me some hours for this basic setup, as I have reused the motors I had before, same propellers, ESCs, the KK2 and the FrSky receiver with the Turnigy 9XR. Ready to fly!

The objective is having a better setup and probably a gimbal as well. But so far I will just see how it flyes. I need the FPV equipment also!

Setup:

Frame Iconic X FPV Foldable
BL-2830/11 1000kv motors
20A SK ESC
10x4.5 Plastic HK propellers
KK2 controller board
FrSKY V8FR-II receiver
Turnigy 9XR transmitter

Iconic X FPV Power distribution board

Iconic X FPV with KK2 control board

Iconic X FPV with KK2 control board

Iconic X FPV with FrSky receiver

20A ESC

Iconic X FPV with 1000kv motors

Iconic X FPV foldable

Iconic X FPV foldable

Iconic X FPV foldable

Iconic X FPV foldable

Contryside aerial with Tarot Iron Man 650 and Naza M Lite with GPS

V012. Recording date: 03-05-2014

After the last huge crash with the FY450, I decided to start a new project with the Tarot frame Iron Man 650, and lower kv motors, different ESCs and bigger propellers. See here the mayden flight.

In this video I test the gimbal Tarot T-2D with the new firmware (v1.5) and modified gains to try to reduce vibrations and making the tilt movements smoother (see previous post). Tiny yaw movements still pending to be improved...

It was a windy day and I could not risk to get closer to the water or to a different location, as the quad was still doing some funny movements from time to time. And because of the wind I still get some vibrations, specially when the movements are faster, or I´m not quite slow when ascending or descending.  I also reckon that using the GPS mode does not help to get rid of vibrations...

Despite of this I think the results are not bad. By the way, I can´t really make the online video look as smoother as the original one, I still need to play around with the Premiere settings in order to obtain some better footage when I upload it. Actually it looks nicer from a smaller screen :).

Music by Matthew Mullane.

Setup:

Frame Tarot Iron Man 650
Maytech 620kv motors
30A T-Motor 400Hz ESC for multicopter
13x5.5 Carbon fiber propellers
Naza M Lite with GPS
DIY visor for GoPro and ND filter 3 stops
GoPro H3 black, 1080x60, N FOV
5200mAh 3S 35C battery
Futaba R6208SB receiver
Fatshark FPV camera
Fatshark Predator goggles
ImmersionRC 600mw Tx
1000mAh 3S 20C battery for video Tx
Gimbal Tarot T-2D
500mAh 3S 20C battery for gimbal
Futaba 8FG Super Transmitter

Some issues during the flight with the Tarot T-2D gimbal and the Naza controller

It is still a bit confusing to define the origin of some of the issues I have had for this test flight with the Tarot T-2D gimbal.

In one hand I am having vibrations in footage in two different scenarios:

• When I speed up forward
• When I tilt the gimbal up or down

Maybe it was too windy, and because of the GoPro visor and the wind resistance, the tilt suffer and fails. And I guess that speeding up produces more vibrations, but there should be a way of avoiding this. There are a lot of shoots that require high speed, and obviously there are lots of days with some wind, so there should be a way of solving these problems.

Regarding the tilt problem, I have been reading some posts that advise to install the 1.5 version to avoid the vibrations and shaking produced by the gimbal motors. 

Here you can see how to update the latest firmware (download the 1.5 version here), and this video is great to play around with you gain settings and check the behavior after that.

What I have solved for sure is the initial shaking of the gimbal motors when the quad is still on the ground, but there are still some vibrations left when moving the quad forward and backward (tilting the camera) as you can see in this video I have recorded:

I have also seen what it seems to be a general problem with the Naza controller and the barometer when the sun hits directly at the left side of the controller. I don´t know if this is my case, but just for prevention I´m using some black tape for covering its sides. This is one of the videos you will find in YouTube with this issue:

The last issue I have been experiencing, is some stability issues with some of my batteries.

KyPOM Battery 2200mAh 25C 11.1V

 When I charge them they seem to be all right (3.20v per cell). But when I fly, the quad has a high tendency to pitch, roll, or both, and It´s really difficult to control. It normally ends up in a non-soft landing. It seems those batteries are faulty, I´m following this page to try to discover what is going on...