I just finished building my Cinestar 8 and I am about to do my first initial test flights this coming week when the weather improves. One thing that Andy's DVD didn't cover was how to get telemetry settings from the cinestar back to the MX20. I would like to make sure I monitor battery level and altitude on the MX20 display when the cinestar is in flight. Can anyone also recommend fail safe settings? thanks in advance Dave King Pittsburgh PA
The telemetry features "just work" with the mx20 if you followed Andy's DVD. I did quite recently, too. I don't think I did anything specific to enable telemetry. If you want to get the voice stuff working, it's a little trickier. You have to update everything to the very latest firmwares (mx20, MK boards, and your KopterTool software). This video by the QC guys is very helpful. If you do all this, then you download the voices into your mx20, you can get the voice status messages, too. But, (and this cost me a whole day) the messages only work if you have headphones or a speaker plugged into your mx20. Although the mx20 has a speaker, the voice prompts do not come out of it. WRT failsafe, I've not implemented that, as I'm more concerned about my failures at this point than the copter's. But my understanding is that folks aren't using the mx20's failsafe settings; they're using the MK boards' failsafe features.
Thanks for the reply. I don't see telemetry on my radio when my cinestar 8 is powered up and I followed everything according to the DVD. I really need battery voltage at least before I feel comfortable flying. As far as failsafe settings I was referring to the MK board settings.
Hi Dave: Yeah, there were some things I just had to leave out for lack of space on the DVDs, I'm afraid. I just went from page 208 of the manual. You have to have the MX-20 and the receiver powered on before you can set up the telemetry. Page 220 shows you how to select the various modules -- I think (going from memory) I just have the Receiver module selected. @Steve: is that what you have? My bird's in pieces right now as I'm video taping.... The Voice Trigger is on page 222. I set it up so that Switch 9 toggles through the various voice output values, and switch 7 puts it into repeat. So on power up, I toggle Switch 9 until I hear Jeff's Girl Friend (as he calls her), say "Input voltage..." then I flip switch 7 up and she goes into Auto Nag Mode (repeating it every 15 seconds). Hope this helps Andy.
My bird's at my shop, and I'm headed over there in a bit. If I have some time I'll double check my settings. I typically use it in nag mode with either voltage or altitude...but I've not fully commissioned her as a working vessel yet for commercial gigs, so that may change.
Andy, Might I suggest that you consider moving away from Portland? I mean, if you are so fearful of trees (and how do you feel about shrubbery?) you're living in the wrong place. Read up here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hylophobia "Hylophobia, also known as Xylophobia, Ylophobia, and Dendrophobia, is a psychological disorder defined by an irrational fear of wood, forest or trees."
I'm not afraid of them, Steve. It's just that they exert a lateral gravitational pull on copters. Haven't you noticed that too? Actually, in my copious spare time, I'm a wood turner, so I have a good 24" bar chainsaw, wood shop with a couple of lathes, bandsaw, etc. Yeah...that's the way I can deal with them: they pull in my copter, they lie flat on the ground.....heh, heh..... Andy.
As a hot air balloon pilot I can attest that balloons are attracted to high tension power lines. Can't tell you the number of times I have been drifting along only to turn and parallel a set of wires for miles. Saw a lab experiment out of Japan a few years ago where they tested a toy hot air balloon in a lab environment with simulated power lines. Sucked the balloon right into them. Very similar to the golf ball on a water hole phenomenon.