Has anyone protected their electronics by installing a crash cage or dome to C8? I'm just wondering is there a suitable dome or cage available..
I have a friend who has a CS8 and had an accident. His equipment felt from around 60-80m upside down. The Lipo was trashed but didn't explode, the battery tray broke on the borders and all the propeller adapters bent, but the electronics were fine, only one BL-CTRL had to be changed because he installed the video TX under the Battery tray and it hit the BL on the crash. FC, Navi, GPS and Power Dist. all fine. On raining days I use a tip I learned from Jeff and install a shower cap over the Lipo and Electronics. Never had a problem with this setup.
Any data on what caused the C8 to fall from 60-80m up? I'm interested in the failure modes of the C8, the better to be able to reduce the probability that it happens to my C8's! Thanks Andy
After we investigate it, we found some kind of white flour over the Flight-CTRL, we suspected it was marine salt from some previous flights on the beach, this could have caused a short circuit on the gyro to the CS understood it was upside down. We couldn't confirm this, but after a good cleaning and a repair, it is flying again.
Good to know Arthur. I think anybody flying near the salt water should look into a good conformal coating to protect the electronics.
Here is a great product to prevent that we have been using for the past year: http://www.all-spec.com/products/2106-12S.html Don't forget to mask off your pins and connectors Greetings Adam
Hi Adam: Do you find that it's best to apply several light coats? I seem to recall reading somewhere else, that four light coats is the "correct" amount? Regards Andy
Hi Guys, for the dome - just replace the lipo plate with another top CS center plate (6 or 8), it fits the best and the strongest + space for additional lipos and more shade on the BLs... Let me know what u think, cheers, Ziv. http://www.zminteractive.com
Thats actually not a bad idea ziv... wonder if you could add some active cooling fans to that as well to help keep the BL temps down? I live in Phoenix and when flying in 110-115* weather my BL's are around the 90-100*C range! If I hover I hit 105-110* within 10 seconds! Josh
Hi Josh, im in Scotsdale sometime, and i know how hot it gets there! crazy!! (next time im there, ill let you know we will fly together) i never had 110 on my BLs.. wow! use a lighter camera!! have you tried these: http://www.quadrocopter.com/Aluminum-ESC-Cooler-for-MK_p_324.html ? that, and the wind from the props, should do the job, dont think cooling fan will add anything.. the only thing is water coolers... the other thing, you might wonna try to replace the BLs with something else... cheers, Ziv
I am already using the Heatsinks. 110* has only happened once. If it's hot outside I very very rarely stay in a hover. I try to keep the copter moving. I am thinking about upgrading the BLs to something else... not sure what though. I am flying a 5DMKII. Thinking maybe of looking for an alt. such as NEX7.
cool, try the NEX7, i love it and its really light, a specially with the 16mm lens (AND 60fps and 24megaPixel)
I have installed a fan, which stays away from navi board. When the copter moves in the air, I suspect it works. But when hovering I could see the difference. Here are the details I posted before: http://www.multirotorforums.com/showthread.php?4192-Fan-solution-for-BL-Ctrl-2.0
Would you guys recommend this coating even if you're not near the ocean? Would it protect from dust, and/or a bit of moisture...etc?
Absolutely, definitely, yes. I had a shoot in August, alongside a river. It was early morning. Dew was condensing on everything. One motor on the C8 failed to start because of dew on the PDB or some other board. When I got back to the shop everything was fine. if I ruled the world, I'd have asked Adam's team to have sprayed the boards for me on the RTF. It's a bit fiddly as you have to mask off all the connectors and stuff you don't want coated (like the pressure sensor). But applying the conformal acrylic coating only takes a few minutes. Andy.
Hey Andy, thanks for the tip, i came across the other thread where you talked about this. I had that 'bL limitation' errror the other day during flight but nothing seemed to happen, other than slight panic I am not a tech guy, but eager to learn, could you point me in the direction of somewhere I could learn to properly mask the components on the board that need to be masked, while coating the parts that need to be coated? If only Tabb or the good people at QC had a tutorial since this seems to be such a vital step!
Hi Andrew: I'm not aware of any tutorials, I'm afraid. But don't be alarmed -- it really is just a case of getting some 3/4" wide 3M blue masking tape and masking off all of the connectors that stick out around the edges of the boards, as well as the small Molex connector sockets that connect wires between the Flight Control Board and Power Distribution Board and the Molex connectors sockets that connect the GPS board to the Flight Controller. Disconnect the Molex plugs and wires from those connectors -- you don't need to spray those. For the ribbon cable/servo connectors, just take a length of blue masking tape and wrap it around the top and bottom surface of the connectors that stick out over the edge of the boards, and pinch the tape on the top of bottom so that it forms a seal around those connector pins. Given you're not a Tech Guy, you may have some difficulty identifying the MOSFET (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors) on the Power Distribution Board (PDB), so this image may help -- the MOSFETS are the gray squares pointed to by the arrowheads. Cut a thin strip of masking tape to span the three gray squares -- don't make it wider than the squares because you really do want the MOSFET leads to be sprayed -- they're the three little silver legs on the left hand side of the squares opposite the arrowheads. The goal is to leave just the three gray squares unsprayed so that they can radiate heat more efficiently than if they were sprayed. I made sure the little strip of masking tape was as exactly the same width as the gray squares and laid it down with tweezers, and then burnished it down with a finger tip. You'll need to cut tiny little strips of masking tape and use tweezers to position them around the micro-SD card connector on the Navigation Control Board -- I ran strips around the outside of the SD connector, then folded over the excess onto the top of the connector and cut a small square to hold the hold thing down -- it doesn't have to look pretty -- it just has to protect the micro-SD card and its internal connectors from the spray. (Same basic technique for the small white Molex connectors too.) You'll need those tweezers again once you've done the spraying -- to remove the masking tape! Hope this helps. Andy.
Also check out this thread: http://forum.freeflysystems.com/index.php?threads/spraying-the-mikrokopter-boards.222/#post-2001 Remember to cover the pressure sensor on the flight control board -- I forgot to mention that. (Big round thing on the underside -- may have some Velcro stuck on it and has about nine leads connecting it to the flight control board.) Andy.