Diatone Tyrant 180 (DT-180) & FrSky X4R-SB (SBus) - Quick Build & maiden-flight

Nice carbon frame & PDB. Pretty tight in there, and props are close. I easily installed FrSky X4R-SB receiver on top of Diatone DT-180 for now. I used the supplied 10-pin RC-Pig-Tail cable. Carefully apply pressure when inserting the 10-pin header connector because its only soldered to the top of the PCB. The black-DuPont RC-plugs stick-out of X4R-SB a bit and increases its required mounting space.

Must have Velcro-strap on main battery. Now trying another around back wires and antenna. Props are installed in normal CW/CCW Naze32 order. The supplied nyloc prop-nuts are two black/silver colored pairs, they all screw-on in the normal direction. Using wire-ties and heat-shrink for whisker antennas. Only difference with mine is the tubing-middle is tied-down.

• First, I like to Bind receiver (a FrSky X4R-SB with it's own battery) to new Model #05 on Taranis. Don't forget to power-cycle X4R-SB at the end. Look for green-led on successful bind and even currently-bound status.
• With volt-meter, be sure BEC on quad is outputting about 5.0 volts. If so, you can use this for power now.
• First, turn on Taranis. Then, power-up drone (Naze32_FC & X4R-SB_TX) with it's lipo. Always follow this order and vice-versa for power-down.

CleanFlight Configurator v1.2.2

• Set CleanFlight Ports & Config for SBUS. Save and reboot.
• See the bottom of this page for basic CF settings.
• Calibrate accelerometer/gyro (easy ... just let rest and be motionless). 
• Check for radio coms
• Main 4 control channels
• Setup one main Flight-Mode switch (AUX-1) and check Modes
• Backup Settings

• Those settings, radio is responding, easy calibrate gyro, and I am good to fly.

 

Maiden Test-Flight
- Location & weather: Outside backyard in medium winds.
Results: Two successful take-offs, hovers, light-flying, and landings. Flew battery until low-voltage alarm sounded. No damage for today. Will try with a fresh lipo and goggles later.

Radio installs easily in the DT-180 PnF drone. Intermediate pilots and builders with only basic skills should be able to get this quad into the air fast. Now that the DT-180 is a proven flier, I went ahead and partially de-pinned this X4R-SB ... allowing it to fit behind the camera.

Still ToDo:
- Tune PIDs

Blade-185 Drone take-off crash-landing up into tree with no-damage.

It started as a simple take-off under a tree. I got stuck on a vine at first, but the required throttle to break-free catapulted quad up into the lower tree branches. It came-to-rest and perched itself on this large branch ... with no damage.

Tough little quad. Had 5 minor crashes flying thru 2-batteries in my back-yard "obstacle-course" :) No damage to racing-drone, and the new skid-plate/antenna-guard seems to be doing its job.

PixRacer v1.0 Autopilot Xracer Flight Controller Mini-PX4 Wifi for FPV Racing RC Multirotor

I just ordered an inexpensive (asian-clone) PixRacer Flight-Controller to try-out. It says it also comes with the WiFi-module. I will add more to this post once I receive it.

 

It arrived fast and as pictured (with WiFi daughter-board and SD-Memory-Card). It appears to be generally good build quality for a cloned FC from the outside (metal case, etc.).

 

From Windows MissionPlanner, I loaded: APM:Copter v3.4-rc5

On the PixRacer (BG clone) hardware, it's identified as:
APM:Copter v3.4-rc5 (0d9d101f)

Note: Due to a recent IMU hardware issue fix in code, this might be the first firmware version that is working 100% for this particular FC.

 

After firmware upgrade to this version, my PixRacer still Connects to MP and seems to operate normally for a benched FC with only an USB connection. Even in this minimal state, I went ahead and did some minimal Compass and Accelerometer calibrations. The PixRacer continues to operate properly in MissionPlanner's HUD.

 

I will try some more elaborate bench-test configs, and post about those test results later. My initial opinion is favorable.

 

 

Diatone Tyrant 180 5.8g 40ch Naze32- rev6 FPV Racing Drone PnF/ARF

I just ordered a Diatone Tyrant 180 FPV racing drone.

I got the PnF model, that comes with Naze32 FC. I plan to install a FrSky X4R-SB Receiver, and use my existing FrSky Taranis Transmitter.

 Diatone Tyrant 180 (PNF) Notable Features (what caught my attention):

• Simple & sturdy 4mm/3k Carbon-fiber composite frame & PDB
• Naze32 Flight Controller (Rev6 6DoF 32bit processor)
• Runs CleanFlight
• ESCs 20amp OneShot-125 opto (serviceable & replaceable)
• Motors BX2204-2300kv brushless & 4-inch props
• Landing-gear/ motor-protectors

Requires:

• Requires any good (hobby grade) 2.4ghz RC-Radio for control
• Requires 3s-1200mah LiPo battery (or similar) with XT60

Then just pick your goggles or FPV-screen. With EV-800, that's a nice pre-assembled entry-level  racing-drone FPV quadcopter ... for around $350 usd.

UPDATE: It's now built and flies good ... complete PnF Build and maiden flight.

Also, here is my partially de-pinned X4R-SB install.

Eachine Blade 185 - vTX Video-TX Antenna Guard (EB185)

According to forum reports, several pilots have had some minor crashes that broke the 5.8ghz FPV video-Transmitter coax antenna connector off the quad ... sometimes, even damaging the main PCB. This is still pretty rough, but here is a proof-of-concept for a skid-plate idea I had.

 

Plastic is about 3.0-3.5mm thick. I find the existing screws are Metric and need to be longer.

There are 4 nylon spacers between plastic guard and quad ("to clear" gold coax soldered-on antenna connector).

 

Thread: M2.5 Thread (0.45mm pitch)

Length: 15mm  is what I use (depth is limited) 

Head: Usually something like Cap-Head Hex-2.0mm

 

Features:

• Cut clear-plastic (from junk parts box) with Dremel to make more slim-line. Weight with nylon bolt is down to 13.1 grams. Simple and sturdy design of plastic and nylon do not interfere with antenna signals.
• Added pieces of black foam servo-tape for padding between plastic guard plate and actual gold coax connector/PCB. It's easy to check tightness of antenna coax, and antenna still easy to swap out.
• Protects connector and also prevents antenna from getting loose and twisting off into props.
• Flight Test 7-1-2016 : Flies fine.

Cymatics: Science Vs. Music (Nigel Stanford)

Ok, I think any video a multiple Tesla-Coils deserves a post :) . I suppose it also touches on another interest of mine (home theater and htpc). But if I know you blog readers as a group, I think you will like it also.

Try to watch it in HD, Full Screen, and crank it up (or click here).

Eachine Blade 185 Recover Bootload boot Naze32 unbrick EB185

This happened soon after I had my EB185 hooked up to the laptop for the first time. I've been asked by a top forum contributor to document it. I had just installed CleanFlight and was running it for the first time ever. I was very unfamiliar with it (being my first exposure to Naze32 and CF) but quad seemed to be calibrated and working. The 3D model in CF was responding on the laptop screen as I moved the quad on desk.

I thought I needed to change the uart ports to be more like in EB185 manual. Well, you do ... but I mis-interpreted what they were talking about. After I inadvertently changed UART-1 Data away from MSP/115200 (by changing something else on that line) ... I could no longer Connect to quad. Basically, it appeared to be bricked.

As it turns out, the Naze32 is supposedly un-brickable. All you have to do is carefully short test-point Boot/Boot0 to 3.3volts, and plug-in it's power at the same time. The problem is that on the EB185, the Boot signal is not brought out to an easy to access test-point pad. So, in this case, you must use Pin#5 on STM32F chip itself.

Understanding what must be done, it seemed pretty hard to hold a probe on a single STM32F pin without it slipping and shorting to a nearby one ... not to mention holding a short while connecting power. Luckily, I ohmed-out Pin#5 and found it goes directly to the top solder-leg of the resistor right by it on the PCB.

Therefore, I carefully shorted these 2 points (marked in above pic in violet color) with a pair of sharp tweezers, while simultaneously connecting USB cable coming from laptop. Windows laptop detects Naze32 device in "Devices and Printers", but no sound from quad. Carefully lift and remove tweezers shorting the 2 points. At this point you should be done. It should connect now or the next time you reset the power (or re-connect USB).

I started CleanFlight and Flashed to: 1.12.1 NAZE 2016-4-10 (Stable). Recalibrated and reprogrammed. Good as new and back on-track. Note to self : Never do that again! Hope this helps.