Entry #13 - Good Aussie Quadcopter and FPV Retailers

Quick post of quad copter /FPV retailers who I have found to be pretty good - for me that means reasonable to great service, decent range, reasonable (for Australia) prices and fast shipping.


https://www.hott-hobbies.com.au/

https://www.efaw.shop/ - excellent customer service  - they go over and above to deal with any issue with their products and service.

https://www.phaserfpv.com.au/

buzzhobbies.com.au

https://hobbyking.com/ - surprised? Started by an Aussie and have an Aussie warehouse.

https://www.wildquads.com/

https://www.hott-hobbies.com.au/

https://nemosminiquadsupplies.com.au/

https://www.fpvfaster.com.au/

https://www.multirotorshop.com.au/

https://www.nextfpv.com.au

https://boltrc.com.au

http://www.avitus.com.au/

http://impulserc.com/

Entry # 12 - Aide Memoire

An Aide Memoire for quadcopter pilots.

See also my checklists.
SI Labs VCP Drivers 

Lipo Voltages

VTXs

Immersion RC Tramp

Immersion RC Tramp Manual

Immersion RC Tramp Product Page

Team Black Sheep Unify

Team Blacksheep Unify Pro 58G HV Manual
TBS Unify Pro 58G HV Product Page

Betaflight 

Betaflight 3.2 Default PIDs

Buzzer Codes

https://github.com/cleanflight/cleanflight/blob/master/docs/Buzzer.md

0    GYRO_CALIBRATED       20, 10, 20, 10, 20, 10 Gyro is calibrated
1    RX_LOST_LANDING       10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 40, 40, 10, 40, 10, 40, 40, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 70    SOS morse code
2    RX_LOST               50, 50  TX off or signal lost (repeats until TX is okay)
3    DISARMING             15, 5, 15, 5  Disarming the board
4    ARMING                30, 5, 5, 5  Arming the board
5    ARMING_GPS_FIX        5, 5, 15, 5, 5, 5, 15, 30 Arming and GPS has fix
6    BAT_CRIT_LOW          50, 2  Battery is critically low (repeats)
7    BAT_LOW               25, 50  Battery is getting low (repeats) 
8    NULL                  multi beeps  GPS status (sat count)
9    RX_SET                10, 10  RX is set (when aux channel is set for beep or beep sequence how many satellites has found if GPS enabled)
10   ACC_CALIBRATION       5, 5, 5, 5  ACC inflight calibration completed
11   ACC_CALIBRATION_FAIL  20, 15, 35, 5 ACC inflight calibration failed
12   READY_BEEP            4, 5, 4, 5, 8, 5, 15, 5, 8, 5, 4, 5, 4, 5 GPS locked and copter ready   
13   NULL                  multi beeps  Variable # of beeps (confirmation, GPS sat count, etc)
14   DISARM_REPEAT         0, 100, 10  Stick held in disarm position (after pause)
15   ARMED                 0, 245, 10, 5 Board is armed (after pause ; repeats until board is disarmed or throttle is increased)

LED Flashes

https://github.com/cleanflight/cleanflight/blob/master/src/main/drivers/system.h#L46
You need to add one to the values in the enum defined in system.h, which ends up being:

FAILURE_DEVELOPER  1 
FAILURE_MISSING_ACC 2 
FAILURE_ACC_INIT 3 
FAILURE_ACC_INCOMPATIBLE 4
FAILURE_INVALID_EEPROM_CONTENTS 5
FAILURE_FLASH_WRITE_FAILED 6
FAILURE_GYRO_INIT_FAILE 7

Entry #11 - Notes for the Betaflight F3 Flight Controller

This notes are about the FPV Model Betaflight F3 flight controller board.

The best online resource for this flight controller (and most other RC stuff) is the RC Groups thread, though it is too long to sit down and read and not that great to search.

Here are some quick notes:

• Due to the double sided board, it's probably best to solder all the wires to the board before building and then install the board, then solder the far end of the wires. This is especially true for the ESC pads. I've done two builds and a board replacement with this board, and attaching the wires to the board first was way easier.
• The corner mounting holes are connected to ground - I've had boards from two batches and this has been the case with both so be aware. Nylon hardware or other non conducting mounting is probably wise.
• 
  
• There are two solder bridges on the bottom of the board:
  - one controls the voltage of the RAM pin. The ram pin is the pin the camera power should com from if you're not going to power it from your VTX.
  - one controls the voltage on the receiver power pin
  - If you don't bridge these I think you get no power to the RX power and RAM pins.

• It's said the camera and VTX should both be connected to the ground AGND pin. Given the ground plane for the whole board is common, I'm not sure how true this is.

Other references:

• Oscar Liang's BF F3 FC article and wiring diagram
• Phillipp Seidel's BF F3 FC wiring plan

Sorry about the images I can't see an obvious way to customise the image size or do a thumbnail with a pop up in Blogger. I'm hoping you'll prefer the info over the aesthetics. The default X-Large is too small and original size gives us this.

Entry #10 - Checklists

Some things to check while building, before maiden flights and normal pre-flights.
Note this checklists assumes Betaflight and was created using Betaflight 3.17.

This list was compiled after building Betaflight F3 FC and Omnibus F4 Pro builds, but should be broadly applicable to other FCs though there will be some changes.

WARNINGS:
Warning making changes to certain settings while your battery is connected can cause dangerous (and expensive) events to occur.
E.g. changing ESC or serial RX protocol while battery is connected.
I've done this and have the burnt out ESCs from the bench top fire to prove it.
I assume this is because random/unitialised data can be sent down the signal lines and be interpreted as really high values by the ESCs, thus causing motors to spin or even ESCs to overload and catch fire.

ALWAYS TAKE YOUR PROPS OFF WHEN YOU HAVE BOTH A BATTERY AND USB/Bluetooth CONNECTION  TO YOUR QUAD.

Use a smokestopper or inline fuse for your first application of battery power.

Don't let that magic smoke out!

See also my aide memoire.

Build checks 

• Check continuity from battery leads/XT60 before adding any caps
• Slide on shrinkwrap BEFORE soldering motors to ESCs or ESCs to board (depending on which way you build.
• Motor screws do not touch stator - test with edge of paper and visual inspection
• Short prevention measures. Conformal coating, liquid electrical tape, shrinkwrap
• Test all positive joints against ground for continuity.
• Check for solder balls and other stray conductors

Post build check

TAKE YOUR PROPS OFF. SRSLY!!!!!
Use a smokestopper or inline fuse for your first application of battery power.

• Double check wiring/cabling checked against schematic
• Solder bridges for voltage correct
• Solder bridges for Rx inversion correct
• Other solder bridges correct
• Check continuity - may briefly fail if caps/ESCs are present on system but should pass after a second or two.
• Smoke test with smoke stopper/inline fuse.
• Wiring secure and not protruding
• Wiring strain relieved
• Motor screws do not touch stator - test with edge of paper and visual inspection
• Plugs/Pin connectors secure and correct
• Mini headers (e.g. JST ZHs etc) hot glued.
• FC firmware upgraded
• ESC firmware upgraded  - battery must be connected REMOVE YOUR PROPS
• ESC Protocol set DShot 600 or Multishot - REMOVE BATTERY BEFORE SETTING.
• ESCs calibrated (not required for DShot)  - battery must be connected REMOVE YOUR PROPS
• ESCs checked in BLHeli
• Model type correct (Quad X)
• Calibrate Gyro and any other sensors that require calibration
• Board orientation checked. -Easiest way oto is use the 3D model on the setup page
• Receiver port set -  REMOVE BATTERY BEFORE SETTING/CHANGING.
• Receiver type set e.g. PPM, Serial and serial proto e.g SBUS, iBUS -  REMOVE BATTERY BEFORE SETTING/CHANGING.
• Receiver bound
• Receiver responds to sticks
• Receiver channels correct (AEST and direction)
• Sensors turned on gyro, accelerometer, barometer, compass. As appropriate/desired.
• Motor directions checked (REMOVE THE PROPS!!!)
• min_check set and saved default is 1100 - I like around 1033. Do not modify if you are not using switch arming.
• FPV works
• FPV frequency set.  Raceband Channel 5 5806mhz - choose your own freq this is the one I randomly chose.
• Serial (UART) ports set to correct speed.
• Serial (UART) ports set to to appropriate device
• OSD configured
• OSD works
• OSD format set (PAL/NTSC)
• Smart Audio works
• Switches/Modes configured
• Arm switch configured/tested
• Failsafe configured
• Failsafe tested - remove props (they should already be off), power up motors, turn off TX. Motors should stop after a second or two.
• Optional - add Failsafe mode to a switch.
• Current sensor configured and calibrated
• Voltage sensor configured and calibrated
• Buzzer configured and tested
• LEDs programmed
• Screws tight and loctited
• Motor screws do not touch stator - test with edge of paper and visual inspection
• Short prevention measures taken - shrinkwrap, conformal coatings, liquid electrical tape, etc
• Build documented
• FPV Channel set
• Config backed up
• Magic smoke levels OK.

Pre Flight

• Camera lenses clean
• Buzzer works
• Props fitted  correctly
• Props spin freely without hitting anything - flick props with finger - don't use motor power to test this.
• Failsafe works
• Screws present, tight and loctited
• Wiring secure (Can’t be hit by props) and no bad connections
• FPV Channel set
• FPV works
• OSD works
• Battery secure
• Balance lead secure
• Battery main power lead secure

Betaflight

Betaflight config changes I make
The 2 Matke PDB ibata_offest (Current snsor values) are from teh manufactuer, Matek.
The Betaflight F3 FC figure is from Joshua Bardwell.

set ibata_offset=165 (matek F4 AIO)

set ibata_offset=179 (matek FCHUB 6s PDB
set ibata_offset=235 (Matek PDB PDB-XPW)
set ibata_offset=265 (Betaflight F3 FC)

beeper -ON_USB

beeper -RX_LOST

set debug_mode=gyro
set min_check=1033
set small_angle=180
resource camera_control 1 <pin>

feature RX_SERIAL

feature MOTOR_STOP

feature SOFTSERIAL

feature TELEMETRY

feature LED_STRIP

feature OSD

feature ANTI_GRAVITY

feature DYNAMIC_FILTER

Matek OSD Motor 5/6 Resources

resource MOTOR 5 A15

resource MOTOR 6 A08

resource motor <n> none

resource serial_tx 11 <pin>