Flight Session #16 - Nova flies first Auto Way-Point Mission

The Nova is flying great lately, so I'm trying to catch up with some of you. I also now have an Android tablet that's good for more than just monitoring Telemetry (with DPv1). I tried my first Auto Way-Point Mission, and it went fine. So, now this tops the list of the coolest things I have seen my Nova do since I got it.

It's also the first time I have flown with Droid Planner v3 (Tower).

The simple 6-point mission path is in green. The red path is Alt-Hold flying around as fast as possible (full-stick). I've got the on-board video and my brother also recorded the flight with iPhone. No gimbal yet, and nothing that interesting, so not sure I will upload (but nice to have none-the-less). There were people on the right end of field, so I didn't fly over them.

There was one strange event though ...
I had just cancelled a second Auto-Mission due to LowVoltageAlarm. I then pegged the sticks to bring it back closer for a quick landing. I started to fly fast (so I had some speed) and then the motors stopped and it was gliding through the air (but falling at like a 45-degree angle) with props stopped for a second or so. Pretty much freaked me out. Not sure how I recovered and landed it because I was kinda low.

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ArduCopter 3.1.3 7-Apr-2014
Changes from 3.1.2
1) Stability patch fix which could cause motors to go to min at full throttle and with large roll/pitch inputs
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So it seems that after about 35 flights (on v3.1.2) I've finally experienced the serious "Dead-Stick Throttle Bug" in it. Looks like I might have to re-compile and install a custom v3.1.5 after all.

I flew my Hubsan 107d FPV for few batteries at first. It was the first time I have flown it outside. It flew fine, but it was almost too windy for it. I also took it up pretty high, but it's so small, it's hard to see orientation (once it gets up there). I'll have to make a LCD sun-shield for next time. I also let my brother fly it a bit (he's just learning to fly quads). Another good day.

New Android Tablet for DroidPlanner 3 (Tower)

I got a new Android tablet. I'm all for using what you have laying around, but the old one was barely adequate. I got tired of fighting against my old (circa 2012) budget Android tablet. So now, I have more processing power and memory and can finally run the latest version of DroidPlanner (v3 - Tower). It apparently has higher system requirements than DroidPlanner-v1.

Here is a pic of my new Dragon Touch M8 Android tablet installed on my Taranis.

• It has a better processor (quad core) and more memory (1gb ram) to allow DroidPlanner-3/Tower to even run in the first place. I was limited to DP-1 with the iView-760tpc. The M8 is running Android v4.4.2 (KitKat)
• The M8 has a better 8" IPS-tech screen, while the iView-760tpc had only a TFT-tech LCD. It is brighter and higher-resolution.
• The M8 has GPS, Bluetooth, and FM-Radio ... while the iView-760tpc did not.
• The M8 has a better battery (longer run time).
• The M8 has a fully-functional USB-port with OTG support.
• The M8 charges from the micro-USB port which actually turned out to be a good thing. Now, I can more easily use a standard "power-bank battery" at flying-field if needed.

Lots of new features in Droid Planner-3 (Tower).

• Really, too many to describe. You just have to install it and see for yourself.
• RSSI to measure signal strength between 915mhz Telemetry radios.

DroidPlanner has worked fine since the first time I tried it on the M8. I did NOT need to install or use USB Host Check App from TaurusLabs to get it OTG-support to work. I am still using this mount.

EDIT 12-10-2017

Looks like it's made by TabletExpress. I successfully re-flashed to Android Lollipop v5.0. Seems to run smoother and have better App Compatibility now. All the devices (including the "special devices" like GPS and FM-Radio) still work. USB-OTG still works. For some reason, haptic feedback seems to have changed a bit (but no big deal).

A completely new thing for me to try on it is OTG-UVC , but I could not seem to get it to work. I tried pretty hard and one dev said this tablet's chipset just can't do it for some reason.