With heavy weights I tested 550 booms and it is much stabler with heavier weights than with the 450 booms. More maneuverability but less stability too. I prefer the second...
Technically, a designer could go into the flight controller and redesign the control gains with the shorter booms to recover the stability you speak of, while maintaining an overall increase in maneuverability. (Disclaimer: I don't advocate this unless you know what you are doing and understand control theory). If you are using the same mathematical "control laws" for both short and long booms, you will definitely notice that the stability has decreased as you shorten the booms. The flight controller still thinks you are a wider, harder-to-rotate craft and so it applies forces bigger than what you actually need, which is why the stability is decreased. In practice, when you are looking to get a suitable drone in the air for your job without modifying the controller, you are correct in that wider booms will give more stability at the cost of maneuverability.
Hi all you X lifters, I have bin reading trough all 21 pages - with great interest. Thanks for sharing! I think I'll start the conversion straight away I do think you need a proper battery tray. I went to the local workshop with a 2,5 mm carbon plate and the attached PDF file and made them CNC cut, two trays. It fits on the Cinestar 8 frame. Feel free to download. My plan is to fly a RED camera - next month... Gotta go´
I like it! Could you post a photo of what they look like on the copter with and without a battery when you get them installed, please? Thanks!
Hi, It´s a life jacket. I do jobs for shipping companies and while on sea, sailing, fail-safe is a no go. Home position will be miles away. Only option is to get it out the water if something goes wrong... I do not hope I'll ever need it
Thanks Steve By the way - how about redundancy? Will your X8 fly with only 7 props? To get it approved in my country, they will test it to see if it's coming back in fail-safe mode and all that, but also unscrew one prop to see it can fly with only 7 props.
In theory it will, but to tell you the truth, I haven't tested it in that manner. I know others have experienced the loss of an ESC or a motor in flight. I have not with this one. I did lose an ESC in flight with my flat 8 machine. Flew fine and landed easily.
Always happy when all the lights come back on the correct color after putting everything back together!
Yes, the MK power distribution board has 12V taps, both switched and unswitched. The switched ones work along with the flight controller to flash the LEDs in case of an error. Super useful. Might cut a few seconds off my flight times but I don't really care. I get 12-15 minutes off 2 10000mAh batteries.
Back in the air! After extensive testing, re-wiring, upgrades, KDE motor recall work, I finally got the big bird back in the air. See below for a very boring, mostly uneventful ground station DVR recording of the first 2 flights. I did have to rencaibate my compass, as I was getting "magnet error" when trying to start up. Once I did that, it was fine. I didn't have any extra weight on her, so I think she was a bit top-heavy. Altitude hold was very steady and seems to be working perfectly. The only issue I had was that I switched into Position Hold at a couple places in the video (0:40 and 2:30 or so), and experienced a pretty noticeable front-to-back rocking. The GPX file doesn't seem to have anything anomalous in it, so I'm guessing that it could be a CoG issue. But I'm also curious about the new 1.3gHz FPV antenna I installed. I usually only run with a 1.3 on the MōVI, and haven't run a flight camera on the copter itself. After my recent issue with losing orientation, I decided I should really have a flight cam. The big mushroom antenna could very well be interfering with the GPS antenna. So I have a couple of thoughts. Obviously I will fly her again with the vTX powered off. I will try installing the notch filter I have. I will try inverting the antenna, although that's not going to work once the gimbal's back on I will try a small 'V' antenna I have. Of note is that this is only a 300mW vTX, so it's not super powerful. Here's the current configuration. I remember I had a similar issue with GPS on my NAZA-M V2-equipped quad and I solved it my moving my vTX much farther away than I have it on this copter. And here's the flight cam video. BTW, I use this little $50 DVR from HobbyKing to record my downlink. It's a no-brainer, but can be a lifesaver when it comes to diagnostics. http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...tal_Video_Recorder_for_FPV_US_Warehouse_.html
I seem to remember some earlier close-ups of those eucalyptus trees, Steve.... Extreme close-ups. Andy.