At this point, we are waiting for more items for review to show up so this may be a good time to discuss some general items.
Several people on the message forums have been asking about what they should get or build as their second quad. That really is two subjects.
First, you have to determine what you plan to do with the craft.
Some just want a larger general purpose flier for fun.
Some want a fast 250mm racer.
Some want a large stable film or photography platform.
and some want something that is a 'jack of all trades', a mid sized quad that can do all of the above, even if it is a compromise. None can be truly excellent at all, but they can do a fair job.
Endurance is also something you have to have realistic expectations of. I read just this morning that someone wants a funfly quad what has a 45 minute or more flight time. Most of us have more realistic understanding that a 10-15 minute flight is fine for most of the time. It's a nice break in the intense concentration to swap batteries out.
Once you know what you want to have the craft do, you have to select the components. Typically you need to establish a few things, Purpose, Size, and Budget.
Purpose will determine size. Budget will limit it.
Secondly how knowledgeable and skilled are you at building?
There are several skill sets involved.
*** How good at following directions are you? Some units require assembly in a specific order or using specific materials or methods. Many times the directions are poorly translated or are strictly pictograms. Sometimes there are no directions at all. You are forced to do a bunch of research to find ANY guide at all. Sometimes you have to find directions to a similar part or assembly and figure out what to do when there are differences.
*** How are your soldering skills. There is some parts that ideally require a soldering gun.
most parts are finer soldering where a fine soldering iron are ideal. I use both a heavy duty soldering gun and a temperature controlled soldering iron. This may seem like an extravagance but a failure in any soldering connection in flight can mean disaster.
*** How are your mechanical skills? matching the correct screws, where and when (and how) to use LocTite. Avoiding cross threading. Where to deviate from the stock design for changes you desire/optional equipment.
*** How good are you at electrical troubleshooting? With all the connections that are of critical importance, a missing or wrong connection can lead to all sorts of confusing reactions from the quad.
*** How capable are you of working with the software? There are some wonderful flight controllers that you can easily sort out the software to make the whole thing work, there are others where you can adjust parameters to make the craft work better (or not at all). You can enable special abilities.
Then there is the mods.....seldom are we ever satisfied with how the factory put the craft out. Sometimes you need a different landing gear setup, the ability to carry larger or more batteries. the addition of telemtry, an FPV camera system a ground station setup. a high end filming camera setup. Special equipment such as dropping a hook to recover another quad stuck in a tree or on top of a building. there are all sorts of mods and extra abilities that they are capable of. Just remember that the more you add to it, the shorter the flight time and the worse it will fly.
Regular readers of this Blog may recall that we added the one gimbal to a CX20 that added so much weight that the flight time was less than half, the handling was terrible. The next gimbal was 60% of the weight of the first one and the CX20 was almost like it had no gimbal. There is a threshold where the performance and handling drop off rapidly.
Different props can change things for the better to some extent, and that is something else. If you fly with a camera, you know about the 'jello' effect that sometimes happens. There are several tricks there. One is to change the density of the shock mount. It can change how the camera handles the vibrates. another is the location and in particular, the props. Every motor can run a range of props. there will be several diameters and pitches that will work and changing to the right ones can radically change how things work. Our friends at Rotorporn brought us that tip.
Fingers corssed, we will have something more visible to show and tell next entry.
