Mark Stringer Posted March 18, 2016 Share Posted March 18, 2016 As i have been discussing my Nova on another thread i thought it may help to show a few pics and give a few words about its evolution I do have videos on my YT channel if you want a look - i am modellermark2 on there. I had it 2 years ago as my first quad and have had great fun with it -learning most from a thread on RC Groups about it and the CX-20 which is pretty much the same thing. The new version has improved ESC's and a flight controller that has plugs for telemetry and the like but mine had none of this so was a great challenge .. and yes, i know i have got carried away but have loved learning all of the technology and just how much you can do with it....the primary thing being that it has an APM flight controller and that is what really makes the BIG difference. So it started off all stock with a Wingcam HD strapped to the camera mount Now - while i was waiting fo rit to arrive i read the 200 pages of the forum to learn about it .. so was fairly prepared when it arrived and before it went into the air it was plugged into a laptop and via the Mission Planner software it was calibrated fully including the radio ( but not using the wizard as it can mess it up - reversing the compass etc... and not upgrading the firmware as the Nova and CX-20 do not use stock APM firmware so you can lose you telemetry - custom firmware links are on RC Groups that do work with it) This was a good start for playing in the back garden but when i went out to a large flying field on an evening when there was some breeze it tried to escape - see my "Quanum Nova won't come home video" So it was pluggd back into mission planner and i changed the angle_max from 2200 to 3500 (this changes the maximum angle it will go to from 22 to 35 degrees) and the next night tried again .... what a difference!! It was great!! - see the video "just having fun" to see just how much faster it went with no affect by the wind. more soon....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted March 18, 2016 Author Share Posted March 18, 2016 So next i wanted to do some FPV so i got a set of Skyzone goggles (as they have variable lenses - eye distance apart - so they would fit perfectly) and a Walkera iLook camera. The camera is really nice .. does video or photo (selectable before takeoff), records to a micro SD card and has the FPV transmitter built in so nice and neat. It also has a switch available so that you can start / stop recording or take photos via a transmitter switch. It is not GoPro quality but OK for me ... they do a Plus version which is supposed to be better quality. So now i could play FPV - awesome! On an early FPV flight i went out of range of the stock transmitter - fortunately, having it well setup, and always giving it lots of time to get a really good GPS fix, it came home all on its own and landed/ disarmed with 2 feet of where it took off. But this dd make me nervous as i realised that the TX did not reconnect when something went wrong (this may have been fixed in newer versions) and if it didn't have a good fix it could have done a "Return To China" instead! When analysing the logs i also found that it showed changing flight modes during the flight .. which i hadn't done. A check showed it happily doing it all on its own .. see my short video on YT showing this. So the radio had to go .. i had a short spell with my DX8 but then Christmas came along and Santa bought me a Taranis .. life hasn't been the same since more soon .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted March 18, 2016 Author Share Posted March 18, 2016 I also really wanted to be able to use the telemetry that is possible with APM controllers. Several reasons here: 1. To be able to assess GPS quality .. this is measured in hdop .. the lower the hdop value the better your satellite fix 2. To have the option of planning autonomous missions via my phone or tablet or laptop by adding a 3DR radio link 3. To be able to use "Follow Me" - again via the 3DR radio link 4. To have a decent On Screen Display with lots of information when doing FPV On my controller there were no plugs or sockets so the magnifying glass and soderering iron come out. Resistors in a 10:1 ratio across the power connectors and then off to one leg of the chip on the flight controller gives battery output to the telemetry. The main TX / RX for telemetry is via 2 small resistors on the FC .... lots of fun doing this without scrapping the whole thing! These now allowed me to plug in a 3DR radio or Minim OSD and also passed the battery voltage through to the telemetry part of the APM controller. To ensure the flight controller always had a stable power supply i decided to add an extra BEC to power it. The receiver and 3DR radio would be powered via the built in board but the FC always would get full power via the BEC While it was all open i decided to move the GPS to the top of the shell and cover it in copper tape to isolate it from interference .. especially as i was adding extra electronics to it I also added a brushless gimbal for better quality video but soon realised that FPV via a gimbal is not safe as the video is very stable and you dont know what the quad is doing .. so more extras would be needed! I was getting annoyed with the so called puck that holds the compass - it cracks and moves easily .. which is not good when you compass it in it .. so it had to go. Chopped off . ...add one shampoo bottle and some hot glue and yo have the speed racing cycle helmet ... it is the same height as the top of the shell so you can lay it on its back nicely now more soon ..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted March 18, 2016 Author Share Posted March 18, 2016 As i was now powering the Flight controller, X8R, 3DR, iLook and Gimbal from the flight battery i was concerned about drain and effect on the performance .. in early discussions it seemed that as you drain power you could lose the quality of the compass and GPS .. so i decided to add an small battery to the rear door .. just to power the camera and gimbal but good for 2 or 3 flights .. so load was removed from the flight battery As i now had telemetry available i hacked into the iLook camera and fed the minim OSD. In this way it doesn't record the OSD, it only overlays it on the signal back to the goggles Minim OSD initially on rear of the camera ... it is now housed inside the shell An idea of what you get on screen The 3DR radio was built inside too and i added a switch so that it could be powered off. As you can only have one input at a time you cannot use this and the USB port at the same time. Switch is handy on the outside .. i will cover the retracts later .... The aerial is fairly neat at the rear .. note the extra wire at the back - this goes into the balance lead of the battery pack and reports everything back via telemetry .. so i no longer use that trickly little wire on the chip! retracts next ..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted March 18, 2016 Author Share Posted March 18, 2016 Enjoying the gadgets .. and finding the stocks skids more fragile that a microscope slide ... i decided to add retracts I got some ultra lightweight units from HobbyKing for just a few pounds. First i had to trim some plastic off the inside near the centre A square of ply into this area allowed me to simply screw the retracts onto the body So pretty simple... I made the legs myself from Piano wire .. lots of testing to get the angles just right to miss the camera but stay well under the props when they came up .. this worked out quite nicely So piano wire bent and turned to fit the retracts Welded together And fitted into the retracts Maybe not the prettiest but she sits high, is stable and strong as an OX! Painted white and with self adhesive rubber around them to keep it steady on hard surfaces more technical stuff coming next..... Edited By Mark Stringer on 18/03/2016 14:35:13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted March 18, 2016 Author Share Posted March 18, 2016 As i had the Taranis and X8R i was able to connect to the flight controller in PPM mode .. this uses just one socket set from the RX to the flight controller and allows full use of the 16 channels on this receiver as the other outputs are all free ... just as well as i needed most of them Again as i had the Taranis i was able to make use of the telemetry from the APM. Some clever guys over on RC Groups have the know how .. but in short terms you take one Teensy board .. wire it up so it connects to the telemetry and receiver and it passes all information to the Taranis via LUA scripts which run on the TX. The Teensy is inside the shell (along with the minim osd and other goodies) Once configured you gets lots of information on you Taranis screen .. even the direction of the quad from you!! The important bit being the hdop .. dont arm and fly until this is nice and low You also get the Flight controller boot and logging information and LOTS more if you want to see it A note of interest here .. if you are plugged into you quad or connected via 3DR and have mission planner open you can right click the screen and add in more columns, including the gps hdop value Now .. as i didn't want to do FPV via the gimbal mounted camera i wanted to add a simple fixed camera to the front ... but wanted to have the option to see either via FPV to make sure any video was framed correctly. So i added a video switch ... and by wiring everything up correctly i used the FPV transmitter to send the signal from either camera and also to always keep the OSD overlaid on my goggles. I wasn't happy with the voltage readings coming from my dodgy soldering so i deactivated that and added a telemetry voltage monitor .. which has a rather nice display! This also goes inside and plugs into the balance lead of the battery pack and the telemetry socket of the X8R. As it has telemetry pass through the Teensy now goes into this so that all telemetry gets passed through to the X8R Another view inside .. getting busy in there ... the small black cable at the bottom left is a video switch to start / stop recording on the iLook, video switch on the left When powered up it is very pretty A view around the other side - minim osd, video switch, video start /stop Video start stop and fixed front FPV camera (seen to the left) More in a minutes..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted March 18, 2016 Author Share Posted March 18, 2016 Seemed a shame to hit the voltage monitor so i hacked (not very neat - sorry) a hole in the top I will tidy this up one day - but still looks pretty cool So that was about it .. even managed to get the top on I use QR X350 Pro props from Banggood which seem to help with the weight .. anything too much causes too high a drain and end in the "wobble of death" I have adjusted the mid throttle to match the trim throttle after doing a couple of minutes of steady flying as the APM tends to work it out quite well and this really helps transition between flight modes to be really smooth So what do i need all of those channels for? We, off the top of my head they do the following .. each with a voice prompt to remind me of what i just did: Channels 1 to 4 - The 4 basic channels to fly Channel 5 - 2 switches combine to do the 6 flight modes Channel 7 - 1 switch for Return to home Channel 8 - 1 switch for Auto Tune Channel 6 - 1 switch for start / stop video recording Channel 9 - 1 switch to change between FPV cameras. Sure there is something i have missed ... oh yes ... one switch for relaxing background music If i think of anything else i will add it but that is the evolution of my Nova It is a good bit of kit but it is actually under powered once you add a camera and really needs better ESC's and motors plus probably a better distribution board .. but a great into. I will be building a new quad from scratch using decent parts soon ... with an APM controller and using a QR X350 Pro body shell as that holds a nice big battery! Hop this has given a few ideas as to what you can do with an APM quad .. as at just over £150 these days it is a real bargain! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete B Posted March 18, 2016 Share Posted March 18, 2016 That's really impressive having squeezed all that in there, Mark. You've left me behind on a lot of the electronics, I'm afraid and it will take a while to absorb it all. It's given me the incentive to sort out the minor issues on mine, though, as the Nova is quite capable of carrying a fair payload. I must say the Teensy is an amazing bit of kit..... Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted March 18, 2016 Author Share Posted March 18, 2016 It isn't really so good with a payload .. it really needs better motors and ESC's to carry the weight .. my throttle trim shows over 700 and it should be 500 .., that means it is well overweight and straining everything all of the time. But is is fun and i have learnt so much along the way. You need to work through at least three threads on RC groups to crack everything .... my radio setup for the Taranis is shown across there (though i may have added the odd switch in since then) .. the Teensy is all described and the guy doing the LUA scripts adapted it so that my voltage monitor worked and displayed .. showing the total as well as the voltage of the cell with the lowest voltage. Just about everything else fitted came from Banggood .. goggles, camera, minim osd, teensy, video switch and iLook switch .. the smaller parts costing less than a fiver each in most cases. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted March 18, 2016 Author Share Posted March 18, 2016 I knew i would have missed at least one. ... Channel 10 - Slide control on the side to tilt the camera on the gimbal up and down You can see that function in the "Green park" video on YT... way too windy between 2 buildings acting as a venturi .... i was flying by sight ... a colleague wearing the goggles and hence the confusion about the camera needing to move up or down. ...another colleague watching on my archos fed via the AV out on the goggles. It fought the wind really well but you wouldn't really know looking at the stabilised video ... which i why i don't believe you can FPV using a camera on a gimbal, unless you really fly by looking at the OSD and not the picture of course Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christopher small Posted March 18, 2016 Share Posted March 18, 2016 Wow Mark ,that's brilliant,I have learnt a lot just reading that and the clear photos realy help,and theres me worrying about fitting my new ESC which arrived today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stringer Posted March 18, 2016 Author Share Posted March 18, 2016 There is actually quite a bit to doing each bit .. this is 2 years condensed into one page. . Lots of head scratching and a huge amount if research ... but very satisfying when things actually work .. and I do love the Taranis and use it for just about everything now including as a master for training with my sons DX6i with his Bixler2 Working in a decent arduino based head tracker for my goggles too ... never too old to learn! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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