Entry #8 - Switches on - Contact! (or My Flying Machine Won't Fly)

But no tally ho!

After a 26 or so hour marathon and one dead made from ass cheese soldering iron from JaycCar, and one still working but pretty dangerous (the tip and heating element fell out during use) Bunning soldering iron I finally have what one might (nominally) refer to as "a flying machine".

It's got everything a flying machine should have.
Power source, ESCs motors, props, a flight computer etc etc.
Only problem is, it does not fly.
At least not for more than about 2 secs, then it seems to consistently roll to the left (raise it's right side and drop it's left side) and then end up on it's back or twirl around a bit and then end up n it's back.

It looks sort of like this:



If any one has the slightest clue why I'd appreciate a comment or email. The flight controller is an Emax Skyline32 version 1.1 and I'm running Cleanflight 1.14.2 -see below for config.
Things I've tried:

• recalibarating the accelerometer and magnetmometer
• resoldering the ESC (my soldering is crap and one of the connection on the right hand side was super dodge - I thought maybe not getting enough/too much power)
• being at my wits ends

Thing's I've considered:

• I don't know how to fly.

While I don't dismiss the latter out of hand, I don't think it's the root cause. My gut feel says I should be able to get more than an inch or two off the ground. Please I beg you to correct me if it does look like novice piloting is the issue - at least I'll know and can stop searching for an answer.

Entering CLI Mode, type 'exit' to return, or 'help'

# version
# Cleanflight/NAZE 1.14.2 Dec 31 2016 / 02:12:34 (747971f)
# get
debug_mode = NONE
emf_avoidance = OFF
i2c_highspeed = ON
flashchip_id = 2105365
flashchip_nsect = 32
flashchip_pps = 256
mid_rc = 1500
min_check = 1100
max_check = 1900
rssi_channel = 0
rssi_scale = 30
rssi_ppm_invert = OFF
rc_smoothing = OFF
rx_min_usec = 885
rx_max_usec = 2115
serialrx_provider = SPEK1024
sbus_inversion = ON
spektrum_sat_bind = 0
input_filtering_mode = OFF
min_throttle = 1150
max_throttle = 1850
min_command = 1000
motor_pwm_rate = 400
servo_center_pulse = 1500
servo_pwm_rate = 50
3d_deadband_low = 1406
3d_deadband_high = 1514
3d_neutral = 1460
retarded_arm = OFF
disarm_kill_switch = OFF
auto_disarm_delay = 5
max_arm_angle = 25
fixedwing_althold_dir = 1
reboot_character = 82
gps_provider = NMEA
gps_sbas_mode = AUTO
gps_auto_config = ON
gps_auto_baud = OFF
gps_pos_p = 15
gps_pos_i = 0
gps_pos_d = 0
gps_posr_p = 34
gps_posr_i = 14
gps_posr_d = 53
gps_nav_p = 25
gps_nav_i = 33
gps_nav_d = 83
gps_wp_radius = 200
nav_controls_heading = ON
nav_speed_min = 100
nav_speed_max = 300
nav_slew_rate = 30
telemetry_switch = OFF
telemetry_inversion = OFF
telemetry_send_cells = ON
frsky_default_lattitude =  0.000
frsky_default_longitude =  0.000
frsky_coordinates_format = 0
frsky_unit = IMPERIAL
frsky_vfas_precision = 0
hott_alarm_sound_interval = 5
ibus_report_cell_voltage = OFF
battery_capacity = 0
vbat_scale = 110
vbat_max_cell_voltage = 43
vbat_min_cell_voltage = 33
vbat_warning_cell_voltage = 35
amperage_meter_scale = 0
amperage_meter_offset = 0
multiwii_amperage_meter_output = OFF
amperage_meter_source = VIRTUAL
vbat_hysteresis = 1
align_gyro = DEFAULT
align_acc = DEFAULT
align_mag = CW90
align_board_roll = 0
align_board_pitch = 0
align_board_yaw = 0
small_angle = 25
max_angle_inclination = 500
pid_process_denom = 1
gyro_sync = 1
gyro_sample_hz = 1000
gyro_lpf = OFF
gyro_lowpass_level = NORMAL
gyro_lowpass_hz = 90
gyro_notch_hz = 130
gyro_notch_cutoff_hz = 130
moron_threshold = 32
imu_dcm_kp = 2500
imu_dcm_ki = 0
alt_hold_deadband = 40
alt_hold_fast_change = ON
deadband = 0
yaw_deadband = 0
yaw_control_direction = 1
3d_deadband_throttle = 50
throttle_correction_value = 0
throttle_correction_angle = 800
pid_at_min_throttle = ON
yaw_motor_direction = 1
yaw_jump_prevention_limit = 200
tri_unarmed_servo = ON
servo_lowpass_freq =  400.000
servo_lowpass_enable = OFF
default_rate_profile = 0
rc_rate = 90
rc_expo = 65
rc_yaw_expo = 0
thr_mid = 50
thr_expo = 0
roll_rate = 0
pitch_rate = 0
yaw_rate = 0
tpa_rate = 0
tpa_breakpoint = 1500
failsafe_delay = 10
failsafe_off_delay = 200
failsafe_throttle = 1100
failsafe_kill_switch = OFF
failsafe_throttle_low_delay = 100
failsafe_procedure = 1
gimbal_mode = NORMAL
acc_hardware = 0
acc_cut_hz = 15
accxy_deadband = 40
accz_deadband = 40
accz_lpf_cutoff =  5.000
acc_unarmedcal = ON
acc_trim_pitch = 0
acc_trim_roll = 0
baro_tab_size = 21
baro_noise_lpf =  0.600
baro_cf_vel =  0.985
baro_cf_alt =  0.965
baro_hardware = 0
mag_hardware = 0
mag_declination = 0
pid_controller = LUX
p_pitch = 40
i_pitch = 30
d_pitch = 23
p_roll = 40
i_roll = 30
d_roll = 23
p_yaw = 85
i_yaw = 45
d_yaw = 0
p_alt = 50
i_alt = 0
d_alt = 0
p_level = 20
i_level = 10
d_level = 75
p_vel = 120
i_vel = 45
d_vel = 1
pid_delta_method = MEASUREMENT
yaw_p_limit = 500
yaw_lpf_hz = 0
dterm_lowpass_level = HIGH
dterm_lowpass_hz = 100
horizon_tilt_effect = 75
horizon_tilt_mode = SAFE
gtune_loP_rll = 10
gtune_loP_ptch = 10
gtune_loP_yw = 10
gtune_hiP_rll = 100
gtune_hiP_ptch = 100
gtune_hiP_yw = 100
gtune_pwr = 0
gtune_settle_time = 450
gtune_average_cycles = 16
blackbox_rate_num = 1
blackbox_rate_denom = 1
blackbox_device = SERIAL
magzero_x = -58
magzero_y = -78
magzero_z = 84

Entry #7 - I won't buy goggles until I can fly and I know I'll really get into the hobby

"I won't buy goggles until I can fly and know I'll really get into the hobby. And maybe get a chance to look through some other people's goggles to see the real work difference between 640x480 and 800x600 in a goggle."

That's what I told myself.
But there was (I thought) no harm in doing research.
And indeed look at the Banggood debacle - research is good.
The only real harm in research is...
Well I might not conform with my strict promise to myself not to buy goggles until I know that I can fly and that I will really stay in the hobby.

Preamble out the way, here's my research for YOU to benefit from.
That isn't transparent at all is it?


First off, some bad news.
If you find a bargain e.g. Fatshark HD2s going out $150 cheaper than the HD3s that are replacing them overseas, you may not be able to get them here. Some vendors use shipping services that will not transport the batteries. I just had this experience with HobbyKing. They also will not remove the battery and ship the goggles, which in retrospect is reasonable as it introduces doubt as to where any damage occurred if damage occurred or if a part was missing - did it happen at the factory, when Hobby King removed the battery, or in shipping.
I assume they must use a different shipping company for battery imports to their Au warehouse.
And off course they don't stock Fatsharks at the Au warehouse.
This will presumably apply to a number of over seas shippers for products that contain LiPos.
The wording of the Customer Service rep was "Australian airlines will not carry the battery", which I suspect is true, I think IATA allows the carriage of the batteries.

With that over....

OK - for those who:

• like the status quo
• are not adventurous
• like safe and main stream 
• are brand/marketing susceptible

Well, there are Fat Sharks.
If you meet the above criteria you can choose your model and that's about it.
Your brand is locked in. Fat Sharks are the safe, dominant player in the market.
In the old days in tech there was a saying "No one ever got sacked for buying IBM."
I think Fat Sharks are like that. Despite the fact that everyone who talks about them seems to dislike *something* about them, most people still think Fat Shark is the way to go.

For more open/adventurous people there are also Skyzones to consider.

For the more open minded and a lot wealthier there may also be some Zeiss goggles that can be made to serve. And will undoubtedly have magical optics and coatings.

The Fat Sharks are confusing.

It's taken me about a week to work out how there range is structured.
And this page is mainly aimed at me laying that out for myself to help me decide what goggle I might be interseted if I were to buy a goggle.

With the Fat Sharks, in addition to the model name, there are versions for each model e.g. V2, V3. Each version is an improved version of the previous one, which I think they stop manufacturing when a new version comes out.

And the two higher end models are both called Dominators. The high end are Dominators and the top of the range are Dominator HDs.
And  to make it worse, right now, in Jan 2017, there is  a 6th model  that is either high mid, or low high depending on how you look at it, called the Dominator SEs (Special Editions).

The story behind the SEs is apparently a supplier found a limited supply of large but no longer made 640x480 screens which Fat Shark snapped up and turned into SEs.
They have most of the high end features of the Dominators in a mixed up way but the resolution of the current mid range Attitudes. The also lack HDMI which other current Dominators have.
The way I see them is as Mid range, with high end FOV and screen size, but mid range resolution.

So all that said here are the Fat Shark and Skyzone ranges described generically using the current gen specs.

I'll list specifics below, including some of the variations for prev gen versions.
Feature wise the Fat Sharks and Skyzones range go something like this.

Fat Sharks

Entry level - Teleporters V5

FOV: 25
Aspect ratio 4:3
Resolution 320x240.
No DVR.
No HDMI.
Come with RX, TX, camera, antennas (one for RX, one for TX) and camera and head tracker.
Transceiver and head tracker are fixed.

Mid Range - Attitude V3s

FOV: 32
Aspect Ratio 4:3
Resolution: 640x480
No DVR
No HDMI
Fan
Come with modular RX, antennae and modular head tracker.

High Mid/Low High - Dominator SEs

FOV 50
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Resolution: 640x 480
DVR
HDMI
Fan
Ship with modular TX, head tracker and antennae.

High End -  Dominators V3

FOV: 30
Aspect Ratio 16:9
Resolution: 800 x 480 plain Dominators.
DVR
HDMI.
Fan
They don't ship with head tracker, RX, TX or antennae.

Top End - Dominator HDs V3

FOV: 42 (V2s are widest ever at 50).
Resolution: 800x600
There's two variations based mainly on aspect ratios 16:9 variation and a 4:3 variation.
The HDs are the very top end and have 4:3 aspect ratio and  wider diagonal FOV.
Resolution: 800x600 HDs, 800 x 480 plain Dominators.
DVR
HDMI.
Fan
They don't ship with head tracker, RX, TX or antennae.


One thing re the Fat Sharks as I write this (Jan 2017) it appears that Fat Shark are pretty much in the process of discontinuing the recent generation and replacing them with a relatively new gen.
So at the moment a lot of vendors are listing the different version of the same model so you really need to be careful when comparing to understand exactly which model you're getting AND which version.

Skyzones

With the Skyzones the basic  feature (FOV, Resolution and Aspect Ratio) set is fairly static.
Skyzone also use versioning.
Resolution: 854x480
Aspect ratio: 16:9
Skyzones ship with built in (can't be removed) diversity RX, and head tracking.
HDMI (prev versions may not have)
DVR (prev versions may not have)
No Fan (The AOMWAY variant DOES have a fan).


Skyzones have two really cool features .

1. Since they have diversity they can receive 2 different signals.
   So they have a kit/bundle that includes a 2 lens/sensor camera.
   Using that 2 lens/sensor they can  transmit 2 images per frame, one from each camera and display the different for each images in each sid of the google and give you real 3D.
2. They have a small adequate quality camera built into the front of the goggle that allows you to see out of the goggle while wearing it.

This allows you to walk around to some extent, see things on controller in your hand, etc without removing the goggles.

Skyzone Rebrands

In addition to Skyzones there are some other brands, that have the same resolution, features and general appearance to Skyzones that I believe are just re-packaged Skyzones.
I don't have any hard evidence, but the specs, packaging and feature set all point in that directions.
e.g.

Aomway Commander v1, Hiees and Rafeals(?).
Some of the rebrands have been advertised as having a fan.

If you consider these brands try to establish exactly which generation of Skyzones the brand you are looking at is selling. Some are being advertised as MUCH less expensive than the current gen Skyzones so maybe old parts re-packaged. Then again they may just be brands trying to break into the market at a low price. Chinese brands are very adept at this, and appear to be willing to wear  much lower margins when getting established.


Now to choose a model,  you need to balance it's characteristics.
The characteristics I am looking at are value, function and practicality.
In addition I really want a fan. I live in a very hot region. In summer it hits 45C sometimes for weeks on end and to make it worse I sweat a lot.
So much so that without a fan I suspect any goggles I wore on hot days would end up with moisture damage.
So for me at the moment, that probably means Fat Sharks.

My measure for value is going to be pixels per dollar.
In addition I want 4:3 aspect ratio.
So I'm looking at Attitude V3s Dominator SEs or Dominator HD2 or HD3s.
Right now with the pricing of old stock HD V2s I'm thinking HD V2s if I can get them.

I was really attracted to the idea of the Dominator SEs (and the sexeh orange colour) but now I have created a the pixels per dollar metric I reckon the HD V2s maybe better value.

Then again, you get RX an antenne with the SE's so the value proposition is actually a higher than it appears. If you are going to use the TX and antennae they ship with. I may try and price those components and re-calc the SE value proposition.
Swings and Roundabouts.

And poor impulse control -  part of me just wants to throw caution to the wind and go HD V3s your mine.

I guess I better stew about it more.
Love to hear thoughts from other people throughout Jan/Feb 2017.

Specifics

Here's the specs, features and prices for the current and recent Fat Shark and Skyzone models.
As of Jan 2017 the prices are approximately correct if you shop around.
The specs are intended as a guideline only. It's hard to get the specs for a given model all in one place - even manuals and spec sheets, so sources vary as does the accuracy below.
YMMV - do your own research and confirm or deny my rambling for yourself.

I suggest people use this info as a way to work out where in the range they should spend their time researching.

Model	FOV	Width	Height	Total Pixels	Aspect ratio	HDMI	FAN	DVR	Include Rx	Include head sensor	Price AUD	Pixels per $	Comment	URL
Teleporter V5	25	320	240	76800	4:3	n	n	n	y	y			Include camera and TX
Attitude v3	32	640	480	307200	4:3	n	y	y	y	y	397	774
Dominator SE	50	640	480	307200	4:3	n	y	y	y	y	539	570		link
Dominator v2	32	640	480	307200	16:9	y	y	y	n	n	463	663		link
Dominator V3 1063	30	800	480	384000	16:9	y	y	y	n	n	462	831		link
Dominator HD2	50	800	600	480000	4:3	y	y	y	n	n	596	805	Glass optics	link
Dominator HD3	42	800	600	480000	4:3	y	y	y	n	n	661	726	Can play 16:9	link
Skyzone S02S V3	30	854	480	409920	16:9	y		y	Diversity Fixed	y	521	787	Sharper. build it work/walk camera. 3 D capable.	link
Skyzone V2	30	854	480	409920	16:9	n		n	Diversity Fixed	y	457	897	Sharper. build it work/walk camera. 3 D capable.
Aomway Commander?v1											488			link
FLYKEY RAFALE V1 5.8G											403			link
Hiee											337			link

Update:

Entry #6 - The first parts arrive

Woohoo!

Today my first parts arrived.
And ironically they were the last to be ordered.
Ordered yesterday from https://www.phaserfpv.com.au.

The first to be ordered only "shipped" yesterday. They were ordered at least 3 days ago from Banggood.
What happened there was I ordered the parts, but they came from 2 different warehouses in China. And it was not until I ordered that I noticed that some of the parts were out of stock.
Namely the ESCs in one order and the frame in another.
Hmm one of the reasons I went to Banggood to start with was I could get all the exact parts I wanted in one shop. I hadn't initially realised I'd be paying for 2-3 different lots of shipping....

The out of stock part was annoying because Banggood didn't pop up a dialog box or anything like that.
No. Like good capitalists they take your money and it is not until you check the order status you see there is no stock.
Actually that's not true, I went back and checked and the parts did say no stock in not very big letters.
But my expectation I guess is if the part are not in stock the parts wont be available for sale or the ordering process will draw your attention to that fact before you pay.

So I get online with Banggood's online chat service staff and after about a 30 minute wait in their queue I get a friendly, helpful service rep who lets me cancel the ESCs.

The frame was harder. A lot more of my quad parts were on that order and I really wanted that frame.
The service rep assured me that the parts were actually in stock and my order would ship within 24 hours.
So agreed to keep that order intact.
The parts "shipped" today. 2 days later.
I suspect Banggood have a policy of telling slightly white lies to encourage you to keep your order.
OK it's only a day's extra delay over what the rep told me. But I'm still a bit annoyed about the whole thing.

Another annoyance with Banggod was or forwent the free shipping and paid for their premium shipping.
But the order was not picked (packed at the warehouse) for 2 days.
Not much point in paying for 5-8 business day shipping if the warehouse is not going to put your order together for 2 days. That's really more 7-10 shipping.
I'm a real tight ass. I agonise for days and weeks over purchases like this.
But I'm also really impatient. So once I make my mind up to buy something I tend to pay for the more expensive shipping and service because I really want it straight away.
So I am really annoyed at Banggood, especially since when you do the USD translation, pay the extra shipping it's not significantly cheaper than local, the service is industrial scale at best and the shipping is at least a week away even if you pay the premium.

Especially contrasted to https://www.phaserfpv.com.au.
If I knew about https://www.phaserfpv.com.au and the fact there are two local stores  - http://www.avitus.com.au/ and https://www.hott-hobbies.com.au - I would have bought local.
https://www.hott-hobbies.com.au  especially seem to be highly recommended now that I have found a local Facebook group to loiter in.

Problem with the local (same city) alternatives was they did not come up in my Googling and the local to the country stores that did come up seemed relatively expensive and in a number of cases only had old parts listed or had no stock - i.e. it looked like they weren't sure if they were still in business or were going to stay in business.

Conclusion:
I think you can trust Banggood to do there version of the right thing, but dont expect stellar service and really look into the prices/exchange/rate  especially if you're like me and spring for the "faster ship/service" and do a lot more research for local alternatives.

I have to admit the local city, Adelaide  range is not as good, but it's a lot better than I thought it was. And the service from the local country, Australia https://www.phaserfpv.com.au was great, their range was decent - and they threw in some stickers!

In reality I think I could of got the specific parts I really cared about, and good enough other parts of similar or better quality than Banggood for no more than the $60-70 extra I paid for the Banggood expedited shipping. And the service would have been better.

I think Banggood's place is generic parts, when you're not in a hurry and are content to wait on the free shipping.
Otherwise, less sure.
Another lesson on cost versus value.

Oh well you live and learn.

Maybe for that Tiny Whoop....

Entry #5 - It takes a village...

So far I've done all my research and learning solo. Reading blogs, watching YouTube videos.

Now I know I'm not gonna be able to do this all myself. Actually not true I am pretty sure  I could do this solo, but it will take longer, involve more mistakes and not be as much fun.

So I've joined the first local FPV/Drone Facebook group I could find - https://www.facebook.com/groups/adelaidefpvracing Adelaide FPV racing.

It's sort of interesting, I knew other people in my field (IT/Tech/Communications) were interested in FPV, but I didn't think about the implications of that.
Well it turns out that I apparently went to Uni or worked with a good percentage of the local drone/FPV community.
I guess I should not have been surprised.

With a bit of luck I'll have a drone at a point that a pilot could get it off the ground by the time of the next monthly meet - it's about 2 weeks away.

I think I'll go along even if I don't have a flying flying machine.

The point of this post for other newbies is we live in an age where it is trivially simple for us to find other people who have similar interests as us - go use those tools, find other people who are doing what we're doing and talk to them.

Entry #4 - My (initial) Parts List

Ok so lets literally get down to nuts and bolts.

At the moment I don't really know how this will work out, but in theory the parts should fit together and not damage each other.

I also bought some random other stuff, not in the table,  like double sided foam tape, some extra XT60 connectors, some 2mm bananna connectors and the like.

All up total cost was about $620AUD assuming a rate about 1.37AU Peso to $1USD for the Hobby King stuff.

That includes 5-8 day shipping.
 I still need to buy a soldering iron, solder and probably assorted hardware and expendables, for which I am guessing about another $100.

That's the cost.

What it should deliver is a drone without  a camera FPV or otherwise, with a inexpensive but decent radio (it's been tested to over 2KM in rural New Zealand) and a decent powertrain.

According to the manufacturers published data tables the motors should each give me about 825g of thrust with the 3 bladed 5045 props or about 770g with the 5045 2 blade props. Thats around 3300g and 3080g respectively.

The drone will weight about 442g without tape, wires, zipties and the like, so let's factor in 100gms for those (which I think is  a gross over estimate) aad say it's a 540g drone, it should have a power to rate ratio of somewhere around the 6-6.5 to 1 range.

We can knock 100g off that buy using a smaller battery, so we should be able to get something like 7.5 to 1 power to weight on a really good day.

Now I just need to learn to solder, build a drone and work out how to fly it.

Component	Weight	Number	Cost Ea	CostTotal	Comments
Banggood
LT210 210mm Carbon Fiber FPV Racer Quadcopter Frame QAV210 With 10 Pairs Propeller	105	1	58.46 AUD	58.46 AUD
EMAX RS2205S RaceSpec Motor - Cooling Series EMX-MT-1750	28g	4	$19.99USD	$79.96 USD
DYS XSD 30A 3-5S ESC V2 BLHeli_S Supports Dshot600 Dshot300 For High KV Motors	7.2g	4	$16.24	$64.96	30*15*6mm
Flysky FS-i6X 2.4GHz 10CH AFHDS 2A RC Transmitter With/br>X6B i-BUS Receiver	4.5g (RX only)	1	$74.50	$74.50	36*22*7.5mm RX Size
10 Pairs Kingkong5x4.5x3 5045 5 Inch 3-BladePropeller CW CCWfor FPV Racer	g		$0.93	$9.29	10 pairs in box 5mm mount hole
From Hobby King
Matek PDB-XT60 w/BEC (5V and 12V)	7.5g	1	$7.87	$7.81
Turnigy Nano-Tech 1800mah 3S 65~130C Lipo Pack	180g	1	$28.75AUD	$57.50 AUD	103x35x25mm
Skyline32 Advanced FlightController w/Baseflight & Cleanflight	4.53g	1	$35.20AUD	$35.20AUD
iSDT SC-620 Smart Charger (500W)	289g	1	$106.73AUD	$106.73AUD

Next things on the list:

• GPS module
• FPV Camera
• FPV Transmitter
• Goggles
• OSD chip

Entry #3 - What is a Drone? The Drone as an Abstract Model

A drone is a flying machine. It takes energy and converts that energy into movement and heat and maybe other forms of energy like light and radio waves.
And like all machines a drone has components.

I've grouped the components into assemblies or groups because  when you build a drone, most components work with other components to perform some function that is required for the drone.
Very few components can deliver an entire function by themselves.

And unless you dis-assemble the drone some groups will only ever be used with that drone, but other parts can be used wit a number of drones (not simultaneously) without disassembling the drones.

So here is my grouping component/assembly grouping for now. It may change over time.
This is in effect a simple abstract model of a drone.

Frame 

Something to provide a physical structure to hold all the other components in the correct places in space, relative to each other.
The frame also provides some protection from the elements, humans and other animals handling the drone and the inevitable crashes.

Power train

A power source and a way to deliver power and convert it to torque and RPMs, and thereby into thrust. Drone use thrust for all motion including lift.
In my abstract model for a drone I am going to treat the power source as a separate, distinct assembly from the power train.

Flight Control System aka FC

A system to regulate the attitude, altitude, heading, speed and acceleration of the drone by controlling the power delivered via the power train.
The flight controller is brains of the operation.

Sensors

The flight controller uses sensors to understand it's attitude and optionally it's heading speed, acceleration and location.
Other sensors may be used to sense parameters such as temperature or RPM of components on the drone.

Flight Control Radio

A system to send commands to the flight control system so that the pilot can communicate his desires and intentions to the  Flight Control System

FPV First Person View/Video aka FPV

A system to allow you to take video from a perspective on the drone and transmit that video back to the pilot so he can control the drone as if he were a tiny passenger.
FPV kit includes a camera, a video transmitter to send the signal to the pilot, a receiver  and a screen, visor or goggles to take the video signal from the receiver and turn it into light the pilot can see.

Power Source

Battery, charger, power supply and associated accoutrements.

Parts List

So using that model of  drone we can start to build a list of required components.
To build an average drone I think you need something like the following.
The exact list of parts will vary because there are variations such as 4 in 1 ESCs or PDBs combined with OSDs and the like but generally your gonna need all of these components somewhere.

Frame

• 1 x Frame kit

Power Train

• 1 x Power Distribution Board aka PDB
• 1 x Flight Controller
• 4 X Electronic Speed Controllers  aka ESCs
• 4 x Motors

Flight Control

• 1 x flight control board

Flight Radio

• 1 x Radio Transmitter for flight control
• 1 x Radio Receiver for flight control

Power

• 1 x Battery - but really you're going to want more than one since you only get a few minutes of flight from a battery
• 1 x Charger
• 1 X power supply*

 * Most chargers for LiPo batteries appear to be testing and charge controlling devices - they don't actually supply power , they just regulate it's flow. To me this seems weird, but it has an upside and theat upside is that you can power them at home with a  power brick, but you can also take them to the field and use something like a big battery (e.g. gel cell) or your car charging port/cigarette lighter to recharge your flight battery.

Entry #2 - A Glossary of Drones

One of the biggest obstacles to a newbie like me to the world of drones is the terminology and TLAs that are so freely used.

Before discussing anything else I'm going to start a glossary here.

If I achieve nothing else other than publishing a basic glossary of the vocabulary of drones I think I will have achieved something useful to someone, because I have not yet stumbled accross a good glossary.

If you know of other good glossaries, post a comment and I'll link them in if I think they are any good.

One thing to remember is that the language of drones inherits from other languages, communities and cultures. Radio Control model enthusiasts, Computer Hackers, radio hams, electronics geeks have all contributed to this

If there's an error on this page (in fact on this whole blog) please let me know.

Glossary

• Accoutrements - accoutrements are additional items of uniform, dress or equipment. E.g. cables, tools radio neck straps etc. Every hobby or field of human endeavor has them and they are often a big part of the fun.
• Balance - most LiPo batteries used in quads have two leads, one for delivering power, known as the "Discharge" plug and one used by a charger or battery gauge to monitor the charge level (voltage) of each cell.
  This latter cable is called the Balance cable/lead.
  The balance lead is also used for adding or removing charge to bring all the cells in a battery to the same voltage. This process of equalising the voltage in the cells is known as balancing the battery.
  The balance lead is sometimes used as a secondary power connector to power low draw devices.
  The balance lead normally has a ground wire and a single wire for each cell.
   i.e.  a 4S battery's balance lead will have 5 wires. The balance lead wires are much smaller gauge than the discharge lead.
• Balance Charging - techniques used to enhance battery performance and extend battery life by making sure each cell in the battery is charged optimally.
• Baseflight - an Opensource flight controller distribution. Basically the firmware for a wide range of flight controller.
• BEC - Battery Eliminator Circuit - in FPV this is really a voltage converter it takes higher voltage (e.g. 9-16v)  and converts it to a lower voltage e.g. (3.3-5v) so that you can use a single battery for both powertrain and flight control.
  BECs tend not to be separate components now, but instead are often built into the ESC's, the PDB or the flight controller itself.
• C - 'C' is used as a unit for describing LiPo battery performance. It literally stands for "capacity" but is used to described the safe sustainable draw from the battery in terms of its capacity. You can draw C multiplied by the battery's capacity p from a battery per hour (because the unit of capacity was ma/h - milliamps per hour).
  
  So for a 2000ma/h battery with a C of 20 you can safely draw:
  ( 20 x 2000ma/h) = 40,0000ma/h or   40 Amps from that battery per hour.
  To get the amps per minute we divide by 60 and get 0.666A/h or 666 ma per minute, so you'd get about 3 minutes at max safe draw from that battery.
  
  See http://www.rchelicopterfun.com/rc-lipo-batteries.html for a way better description.
• Cleanflight - a "fork" of Baseflight. I.e. another project that releases firmware for a variety of flight controllers Said by some to be more frequently updated and to have been re-factored to be easier to maintain and add new features and architectures to. I'm not familiar enough with the politics of the fork or the code to know the veracity of either side's claims.
• Configurator - a piece of software for configuring a flight controller's parameters.  E.g. the re is a Cleanflight Cofigurator and a Baseflight Configurator It is not uncommon for modern configurators to be Chrome apps that can be run on any Chrome browser that support Chrome apps. This is awesome as it means Windows, Linux and Mac as well as a number of other devices are all able to configure many flight controllers.
• Discharge plug/Lead - the type of connecter that a battery has to supply power to the device it is powering (e.g. your quad). Typcially in FPV this will be a XT-60, however it is possible to buy some batteries with different discharge plugs (e.g. Dean's connectors) so when you buy batteries you need to check that they have the correct Discharge Plug.
  The discharge lead is the lead that connects the discharge plug to the battery. The discharge lead will usually be around 12-14AWG. It is recommended that the battery lead on the quad be at least the same gauge or larger as the discharge lead of your most powerful battery.
  See also Balance.
• ESC - Electronic Speed Controllers - these control the amount of power that a motor can draw based on commands from the FC
• FC - flight controller - the computer and sensors that control the flight of the drone by varying the power each motor can draw via the ESC.
• FPV - first person video or view - a camera  mounted on a drone and associated systems that allow the pilot to see the camera output and use it to control the drone. To the pilot it appears they are seeing from the drone's perspective.
• GPS - Global Positioning System - a US DOD satellite navigation system that has been made publicly available.
• JST - Japan Solderless Terminal - the little white "plug" pairs that are used to attach some devices. There are many different types of JST, e.g. JST-H. The differences include the "pitch" (distance between pins), the keying and other physical/design characteristics.
  Often in RC a single JST port will provide several functions, e.g. there might be a serial port on 4 of the pins and the hardware debugging pins on the remainder.
• Kv - constant (K) of revolutions per volt (v). The revolutions per volt per minute a motor is rated at.
  E.g. a 2000Kv motor running on a 3S  (11.1V) battery would generate up to 22200RPM (3 x 11000). This is the rated speed of the motor with no load i.e. no prop.
• LiPo - Lithium Polymer - the battery technology used for electric flying machines. LiPo batteries have a good energy density which makes them useful for flying machines. They have downsides too, like than can catch fire and explode easily, so much so that you need to be really careful when taking them on commercial flights and disposing of them. You should research LiPo Battery Safety if you don't know much about them. This site seems to have pretty decent info: http://www.dronethusiast.com/ultimate-drone-battery-care/
• Meaning of life - he who dies with the best toys, wins.
• Molex - a company that manufactures connectors such as power and signal connectors for wires. Used generically Molex usually means a (usually) plastic connector.
• MSP - Multi Wii Serial Protocol - the protocol used to configure many flight controllers running Multii Wii derived/forked code, such as Cleanflight, Betaflight etc. This is how your FC talks to your computer over the USB port. 
• OSD - Onscreen Display - displays an information overlay like a HUD onto the video stream from an FPV rig. In some cases can be used to change or tweak parameters on the FC without a computer.
• PDB - Power Distribution Board
• PWM - Pulse Width Modulation - a relatively simple protocol used to control things. In RC PWMs is used to be on of the protocols used to transmit info from a radio reciever to a flight controller, though that is less common now. The common use of PWM in RC these days seems to be for the flight controller to communicate with the ESC.
  PWM requires exclusive use of a channel for each datastream (or control signal), so you need a wire between each ESC and the flight controller.
• PPM - Pulse Position Modulation - a slightly more complex protocol similar to PWM. PPM's advantage is that multiple signals can be multiplexed onto a single channel, so you can use less wiring (and less channels if your sending over RF) to control a number of datastreams/control signals over a single channel/wire.
  PPM is commonly used to connect flight controllers with radio recievers
• RC - Radio Controlled -
• RX - receive or receiver
• Receiver - normally in RC the receiver refers to the RC radio receiver that your transmiter sends the control signal too. In FPV receiver can also refer to the radio receiver that the VTX sends the video signal to.
• S - 2S, 3s, 4s, etc - 'S' is a the nomenclature system for  the number of cells in LiPo batteries. A battery has the number of cells equivalent to it's S rating. I.e. a 3S battery has 3 cells, a 4S battery has 4 cells.
  Each cell is nominally rated at 3.7volts, so the S rating is also a way to judge voltage, i.e. a 2S battery should supply about 2 x 3.7v, i.e. 7.4v, a 3S battery should supply about 11.1v (3 x 3.7v) etc.
• Satellite - a satellite receiver is a small flight control radio receiver. It is not related to GPS or satellite navigation.
• Signal - a signal is a way of transmitting or transporting some form of information. For the purposes of RC there are two main types of signal, analog or digital.
  A signal is usually sent by modulating - that is changing - the magnitude, duration or frequency of a wave or stream of energy (e.g. light for fibre options, RF for radios, electrical charge for wired communications).
  How the modulation of the energy stream or wave is interpreted defines if it is a digital or analog signal.
  I will not try to explain how signalling works - to be honest I have only  very basic theoretical understanding and that depth of understanding is not required to build and fly a quad. Though it might be really useful to tweak the heck out of one.
  In RC the information that a signal carries is usually a "command" to signify that the flight controller should perform some operation (e.g. increase throttle) or telemetry info that relays the state of the drone back to the pilot.
  The FPV there is also the video signal that carries the image the camera sees to your goggles/screen
• Soft Serial - a method of getting the benefit of extra serial ports without having extra circuitry. The hardware for a soft serial port is emulated in software and an unused pin pair (often an unused PWM pair) is used to connect the device too. Use of speed rates above 19200(?) not recommended.
• TX - transmit or transmitter
• UART - Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter - a UART is basically the same as a computer's serial port (On a computer a serial port is some times referred to as a COM port.).
   A UART can be used to attach and communicate with peripherals to your FC. Not really all that surprised since the FC is just a little computer with some sensors attached. Examples of peripherals include the RC recevier, OSDs, some VTXs to allow them to be controlled via the OSD, data loggers and the like. 
• VTX - Video Transmitter - takes the signal from the on board (FPV) camera and transmits it to the pilot's (and anyone else's) receiver.
• XT-60 a widely used electrical connector rated at 60A. Pretty much the standard discharge connector for batteries in FPV.

Entry #1 WTF - How Do You Build A Drone?

What do you need to build a quad copter drone?

The answer to that question is still an unknown for me.
But I am finding out. And you can find out with me.

A couple of months ago I watched these two videos: Quadcopter Racing with First Person Video!  and How to Build a FPV Racing Quadcopter! on the  Tested Channel on YouTube.

I was intrigued*. I'm a photographer and interested in videography. Drones have taken those communities by storm and I'd picked up some casual knowledge about drones from those communities.

But although I am a photographer I decided against building a drone as photography platform - at least in the first instance.
The reason for that decision is that the affordable camera platform drones are so (relatively) easy to use  that I see drone photography platforms as kinda boring in themselves. The photographic results can be spectacular, but the actual flying involved looks kinda boring and sedate, so I'd never really considered a drone for photographic purposes to be interesting from the drone point of view.

But after seeing those Tested videos I saw a whole lot more detail about the world of FPV racing drones.
That was a world I sort of knew existed but new little about.
It looked fun and exciting and very tech oriented which appeals to the geek in me.
I was surprised from the build video how relatively easy it was to build a drone.

I did a little more investigation and was initially put off by the cost.
At first I figured it would cost $1500-$2000AUD to built a nice FPV kit. At that point I was looking at all the brand name kit.
But I researched a bit more and found out that in reality most drone components are now commodities. You can buy serviceable components from banggood, ebay and other online markets.
If you build them yourself and don't use branded products you can probably get a decent FPV set up for $500AUD.

That settled it.

I decided that like Charpu I too wanted to build and fly an FPV (first person video) racing drone. Even if I never actually race it.
And maybe I'll leave the FPV part out of the first iteration due to cost.

I started proper in-depth research about a month or a bit longer ago into the components of a drone and how they fit and work together.
Since then I went from pretty much no real knowledge about drones to confident I can build one and maybe even order the right parts.

I've decided that I am going to build a racing quad. It will eventually have FPV but for now I am going to forgo the FPV and spend a little more on the drone itself.

So to put it succinctly, I'm a total newbie and don't really know what I am doing, but I am going to learn and this blog is part of my learning process.
I'm a very word/verbal oriented person and I've found for me writing stuff down helps me remember stuff, organise and work through information and eventually understand and solve problems.

I started off just wanting a place I could publish a list of components and links for building a drone but that lead to me wanting to organise the list, which lead to me thinking about all the info I've learned in the last month or so and starting to organise it.

The reason I am publishing it is because I could not find a one stop place that had all the info I wanted in one place so I am going to record everything I've learnt that I am going record here and hope that it is helpful for other people later.

*Addendenum: I forgot to mention Team Blacksheep I saw these guys a few years ago, but although I admired the tech and skill though FPV RC would be totally un-obtainable cost wise.
But really these are the guys who first showed me the possibility of the tech.