Rock climbing aerial footage

V003. Recording date: 10-08-2013

This recording session has been quite a challenge for me. I didn't have a lot of experience flying yet, it was windy, water underneath, narrow walls, and people watching... 100% under pressure! The spot is really beautiful for hicking, climbing, or just for chilling.

To try to get rid of vibrations and jello I tried this time using moongel inside the GoPro waterproof housing, as some people recomend in forums. It really makes a difference, it's worth a try, but vibrations and jello depends on a lot of factors, so it might work or it won't for you... At the end it´s not worth it to publish this video, because of the quality and all the weird movements due to my lack of experience. Hopefully I can repeat at the same location and make a top one! :)

Setup:

Frame Whirlwind FY450
BL-2830/11 1000kv rotors
20A SK ESC
10x4.5 Plastic HK propellers
KK2 controller board
GoPro Hero 2
3300mAh 3S 20C battery
Turnigy 9XR transmitter
FrSKY V8FR-II receiver

Jello test aerial quad flight

V002. Recording date: 2013-08-02

I recorded this video before I put the wood extension for allowing the camera have different point of views easily. Re-edited video to remove a person that didn't want to show up in the video, but I didn't want to loose the scenes... sorry for the quality. For this video I used the earplugs solution under the camera mount. It doesn't work very well for me though! First flight over water, really scared!

Setup:

Frame Whirlwind FY450
BL-2830/11 1000kv rotors
20A SK ESC
10x4.5 Plastic HK propellers
KK2 controller board
GoPro Hero 2
3300mAh 3S 20C battery
Turnigy 9XR transmitter
FrSKY V8FR-II receiver

Short quadcopter aerial footage

V001. Recording date: 28-07-2013

This is one of my first flights with the quadcopter. I think the original footage is 720x60, and wide FOV. After watching the vibrations, the jello of the video, and the propellers on camera, those problems became my main priority for the following videos.

Setup:

Frame Whirlwind FY450
BL-2830/11 1000kv rotors
20A SK ESC
10x4.5 Plastic HK propellers
KK2 controller board
GoPro Hero 2
3300mAh 3S 20C battery
Turnigy 9XR transmitter
FrSKY V8FR-II receivet

Battery duration, charging and balancing

I've four batteries: 3 x 2600mAh 3S 20C, and 1 x 3300mAh 3S 20C. They last between 7 and 8 minutes, depending on the flying mode, camera on board.

With the charger you can balance the batteries or charge them. Some people charge them and only use the balance option every 5 or so flights, when the difference between the cells is high. I've been doing this for long time, until someone told me the best is to balance them always. There's a lot of discussion as well about this matter, so at the end I guess you do what it works for you! :)

To fully charge/balance the batteries requires about 45 minutes, depending how much you drain the battery :p. I've a voltage alarm that beeps at 3.70 per cell to stop flying and avoid damaging the battery.

Anti-vibration solution with moongel

From the wikipedia, Moongel is a translucent blue, sticky, gel-like substance produced by the drum practice products company RTOM. It has been incorporated into several products and come in packs of four which can applied to a drumhead or cymbal to diminish the higher overtones. It also has become a popular studio technique due to its dampening properties. Therefore, it allows for drummers to get a "punchier" sound of out their toms.

I read people use this as a solution as well for reducing vibrations. So I went to a music store and bought a small box of Moongel. It contains four of five pieces of it.

So the trick here is to put two or three of this pieces inside the GoPro housing, trying to have the Moongel all around the camera so it doesn't touch the housing directly. It's a bit tricky, but play with it! :)

 

 I've also added that wood stick at the front of the quad in order to be able to have different point of views while flying.

I'll see how the whole thing behaves!

Anti-vibration solution with ear plugs

I've experienced lots of vibrations and jello on camera. There's a lot of discussion about this issue on forums. Every part of the multicopter counts for having more or less vibrations or jello. Also the settings of the GoPro have to be taken into account.

I've tried to fly with the camera directly on the quadcopter, but all the motor vibrations are directly transmitted to the camera. I haven't got any video of this part, the result was really bad so I just deleted it :p For this flight, I put a bit of foam around the camera:

So after that I read that ear plugs go well and solve part of this vibrations and jello effect. I've to say that I'm recording in 720 and 30fps, wide FOV, but I've no video of this part neither :(.

I was not happy with the results... still lots of vibrations!!!

But I love that views from the air :)

The real quadcopter arrives!

After surfing the web during a couple of months, reading information about multicopters in forums, I decide to go for a bigger quadcopter and start practicing with the goal of recording video and taking pictures from the air.

I think this field requires a lot of knowledge if you want to build your own quadcopter. At least for me, it seems impossible at this point!!! So I contacted a local store and bought the quad already builded. It is really basic, but I want it for practicing and not worrying too much for the crashes.

This is the setup:

Frame Whirlwind FY450
BL-2830/11 1000kv rotors
20A SK ESC
10x4.5 Plastic HK propellers
KK2 controller board
3 x 2600mAh 3S 20C battery
1 x 3300mAh 3S 20C battery

I have bought the Turnigy 9XR transmitter and the FrSKY V8FR-II receiver from Hobbyking. It is not the most reliable transmitter, of course, but some people told me it is really good to get into RC without spending lot of money at the first place.

The guy at the store configured the transmitter, so I just had to connect everything in order to fly. Easy!

 

I have the V680AC sinchronous balance charger/discharger (specifications here). I really like this one, easy to use and reliable.

Let's fly now!!! :)