[Beerwiser]

Damm, mine is in Edmonton. One hour drive away, see how long it takes to make it out here lol. How do you think a copilot II would work for stabilization or is it worth getting a flymentor too?

[Chrisfly]

Originally Posted by Beerwiser

Damm, mine is in Edmonton. One hour drive away, see how long it takes to make it out here lol. How do you think a copilot II would work for stabilization or is it worth getting a flymentor too?

Hey Ted

Hope Canada Post don't send it by mule for that last 100k's! I can not comment on the spefically on opilot, but I can so no reason why not. Basically the only 2 channels are used on the flymentor and so if the copilot allows that the should be fine. Of course programming it is another story altogether, but there are pretty smart guys out there on the web.

So... Hope it arrives today!

Regards
Chris

[gi1mo2]

I built a Gaui 330X and like it. I think this will be my next toy. Let me know how it goes. I would like FPV. I have DX7, a GoPro Hero, and will need to know what other elements I will need to make this compatible.

[buffythesaint]

Chris. I was able to do a test flight today with my FPV gear installed. The on-board video has some jello but not too bad. It won't be as noticeable with faster forward flight, I hope. I was rocking it with the sticks to check the gain of the flymentor. The roll axix need the gain reduced a bit. When I centre the sticks, it rocks a bit before coming to a stop. The pitch axis is pretty good. The FC gyros are good and I don't think they need adjusting. I'm also getting a lot of interference on my video when I throttle up, just a few lines at rest. I suspect the esc's/motors causing this. I had this exact same FPV setup/harness in my quad with no problems. I've since added a ferrite ring around the esc control leads. Hope this is of some help. It's raining out again so a test flight will have to wait. Chris, have your brother watch the video and perhaps he can help trouble shoot my video.

I also swapped out the 9" props with some APC 1047's.

I too have a Co-pilot(with the light sensors) but the mentor will still work in the dark. Just un-plug the flymentor camera for night flying.

+ YouTube Video

[eyeinsky]

Originally Posted by buffythesaint

Chris. I was able to do a test flight today with my FPV gear installed. The on-board video has some jello but not too bad. It won't be as noticeable with faster forward flight, I hope. I was rocking it with the sticks to check the gain of the flymentor. The roll axix need the gain reduced a bit. When I centre the sticks, it rocks a bit before coming to a stop. The pitch axis is pretty good. The FC gyros are good and I don't think they need adjusting. I'm also getting a lot of interference on my video when I throttle up, just a few lines at rest. I suspect the esc's/motors causing this. I had this exact same FPV setup/harness in my quad with no problems. I've since added a ferrite ring around the esc control leads. Hope this is of some help. It's raining out again so a test flight will have to wait. Chris, have your brother watch the video and perhaps he can help trouble shoot my video.

I also swapped out the 9" props with some APC 1047's.

I too have a Co-pilot(with the light sensors) but the mentor will still work in the dark. Just un-plug the flymentor camera for night flying.

Hi Buff

Looks good lots of gear there on this bad boy

I use the multiWii system with NK, no need for a fly mentor, I've not installed my FPV gear vet so I don't know how it's going to affect my video. Keep us posted on what you find. The only suggestion I can give is move thing around. Try keeping the video feed away from ESC. Video TX can amp ESC noise if they are to close.

Good luck
Jerry

[buffythesaint]

I did some testing tonight with better results, I think. I had my Mrs. hold the tri above her head and then I powered up to about 20a's. The first test was with the choke installed and video googles on. The video was bad. I removed the choke and tried again. The video was OK(soso flyable) but I had three horizontal stationary lines in my googles. They were small lines and I probably could fly. I also held it and moved my wires around, while my wife looked in the googles. No difference in video quality. Next test will be with the flymentor disconnected.

Chris, do I just pull out the pitch and roll leads out of the top of the flymentor to disable it or just unplug everything from the mentor control box?

[Chrisfly]

Hi Brian

Let me comment on both your posts..

Interesting and brave!.. (Getting the Mrs to hold the tri over her head!) I have 5 nice cuts on my arm from a similar experiment - be aware if it flips on you it does so with a huge amount of force and is close to impossible to hang on to as it does it instantly!

Removing the Flymentor... Removing the top 2 plugs will simple disable the tri as there will be no input to the board. You can just unplug the gyro and CCD or better still simply remove it from the circuit. Do this by taking the two leads off the top and swapping them out with the mentor connections on the RX. (I do that with two 10cm servo extensions to save me removing all the cable ties.)

re your earlier post..

I shared with Craig and he sent me this back to post.. PM me your email and I will send you the Flymentor files he references as I can not attach them.. (be aware that some channels may be reversed in these files relative to each other!)

Cheers

Chris

-------------------------------------------------

"Hi Brian and thanks..

A few thoughts as it is really late and cold here on the opposite side of the planet!

The original flymentor settings are very ‘rigid’ and cause over correction in levelling. (Fly mentor's gyros are slow to react, if their gain is high then they come in late and overshoot level.) By reducing flymentors gyro control, but maintaining other controls – much smoother flying is possible. Hence the rocking motion. It does go away in forward flight. I have all but eliminated it in my 2nd flymentor file by modifying the gyro gains. The only problem with that is newbies tend to crash more easily as it continues to free-wheel for longer while correcting. So if you are at a very steep angle and you do not give the mentor enough height to correct, you will crash. The upside is flight is much smoother. That said, I don't think this will affect you!

The Jello footage can usually be dealt with by prop balancing, but better still some "no-more-nails" double sided polymer tape (clear), the new one is white and not as good – 2-3 layers on top of each other works well. I usually have a separate anchor rope to just in case the camera comes loose. Slightly unbalanced props & of course prop savers are a video killer.

The FPV video looks like it’s losing the vertical sync in noise. This will almost certainly be leaking into the bare video wires, from adjacent wiring. The current sensor if located along side the GOPRO’s video feed? I moved my current sensor & wires below the frame, keeping the video above. It is also highly likely that the 500Mw TX is also inducing noise into the video lines which makes things worse – lowers the trouble threshold. I put my GPS & OSD in foam directly behind the camera. I also used a separate 800mAH lipo for the OSD+Video tx. I had no interference on my video. If you check out my 2 lousy Youtube FPV vids (recorded at ground station) and you step frame by fame you can see the image jumping back and forth, vibration. (Well the pre-youtube footage cleary shows this.) My footage had no lines even with the OSD.

I do not have a pic of my setup before I pulled it all off, but I will illustrate, see attached file.

Okay so.. main objective is to put all video & gps to front, separate power source. Move controls back. Exception is the Video TX.

Also need to check earth (black) wiring layout.

10x4.7 are good extra power for FPV and yes, Fly mentors are way better than optical levelers.

So Brian, have fun and adjust your Flymentor as it makes the tri more graceful and please share your config files as you get the result you want.

Regards

Craig

[buffythesaint]

Thanks Chris, PM sent. I'll re-mount everything and give it a try again.

[buffythesaint]

Chris, I made up a ground chart for Craig to look at. I did not include the flight contoller and mentor. I'm guessing Craig knows the rest of the grounds. I may have too many grounds and may need to remove some. I'll hold off installation until I hear back from you or Craig. Craig should join RCCanada and then he can post.

[Chrisfly]

Originally Posted by buffythesaint

Chris, I made up a ground chart for Craig to look at. I did not include the flight contoller and mentor. I'm guessing Craig knows the rest of the grounds. I may have too many grounds and may need to remove some. I'll hold off installation until I hear back from you or Craig. Craig should join RCCanada and then he can post.

Hey Brian

Sent on.. and yes I have been trying to get him to join .. but with bandwidth etc they struggle out there!

Cheers

CP