I managed to drill holes in my existing camera and get it mounted:
I ended up direct soldering the camera to the PDB and soldering the headers for the VTX:
See the manual for details on how the wiring is. The manual is a good guide for the wiring setup. I would recommend that you upgrade the firmware before installing into your multirotor.
HD Camera Mount
This did not work very well for me. On the first crash it popped off and I lost one of the rubber mounts. I switched to the 3D printed mobius mount and that has worked well:
Overall this has been a good frame. I can't complain to much.
I finally got my FPV gear on. I don't have much detail about this. I bought a Mobius and am really happy with the results. I moved the battery to the top. I was to large to put on the bottom and my landing gear standoff didn't last very long. I would like to come up with a way to have a permanent Mobius mount.
Failed OSD
I tried to install the Micro MinimOSD but this was not a success. The solder pads ended up coming off and I was never able to get it to work. I was finally able to flash it but it was to late. Maybe I will buy another one later and try again. It really isn't necessary at this point.
Tips for New FPV Pilots
Keep a low camera angle. This will allow you to fly slower and land easier. Once confidence is gained the angle can increase
Start in a big open area. You can fly in small places when you get better
Stay away from people and animals. This rule should be followed by novice to excellent pilots. If you were flying over someone and had a hardware failure, this could put them in danger
Stay away from property like Cars, Houses and Building etc...
Goggles
Here is my Quantum V1's
This works pretty good. I shortened the cables to reduce weight and clutter. Maybe I will get some Fat Sharks some day.
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
180 Quad Build
This is a build log for my 180 quad.
Main Parts:
Armattan Morphite 180
Armattan F1 FC
Oso Mini PDB (I would buy the Armattan PDB if I had to do it again. A 5v step-down is not needed with the F1 FC)
Armattan 1306 3500kv Motors x4
5mm Locking Prop Nuts (1306 3500kv motors are all CW)
Littlebee 20amp ESC x4
Pololu 12v Step-down
Piezo Buzzer
Lemon RX Satellite Receiver (I already have a Spektrum transmitter). I bought the DSM2. Apparently that is the old one. Buy the DSMX version.
Turnigy nano-tech 1300mAh 4S 45~90C (choose how many you want. You could also do 3S)
Extra standoff's and bolts for landing gear
Miscellaneous Parts:
Battery Strap
Heat Shrink (assorted sizes. I used 1 inch to go around arms to hold ESC's)
Learn to solder if you do not know how. I did not know how so I watched youtube video's to learn. Then do some practice.
Build
This video helped me a lot:
The parts that came with my frame do not match the ones in the video. I used the 12mm nylon bolts to hold the PDB. Put them through the bottom and hold them on with the M3 nylon nuts:
The PDB will slide on top of this. Here is a picture of the bottom:
Now you can follow the video to:
Install the Motors and trim the wire
Install the ESC's
Solder to the PDB
Install the Pololu
Make and install the battery cable
Here is mine as I was getting started:
The soldering of my Pololu's did not go well. I am assuming this is because my lack of experience. I fried the 5v and could not get rid of a short so I pulled them both off. I connected the battery with the 12v still connected and I saw smoke. I am lucky I didn't break anything else.
I installed the motors the same way as in the video. The only difference is all my motors are CW.
I stacked the 6mm standoff's to mount the F1 FC on top of the PDB:
I'm not sure if this is how you are supposed to do it but it worked. I used the M3 nylon nuts to hold the F1 FC.
Be sure to check your connections as you go. I thought checking with an Ohm's tester was the same as a continuity test. It is not. Once you connect an ESC, Pololu, Controller etc..., the Ohm's test will show a reading when connected to negative and positive. I did find that the the Ohm's test did show a lower reading when connected to negative and positive vs positive and positive or negative and negative. My multimeter does not have a continuity tester.
Install the F1 FC
There is not a lot online about this. It seems everyone is using the Mullet. I installed the right angle header pins for Power, ESC's, Vbat, Buzzer and Telemetry:
Here is how to wire the Lemon RX Satellite to the F1 FC:
I got confused with the wiring because my satellite came with all black wires. It is the same as the ones with colored wires. From left to right: Power (Red), Ground (Black) and Signal (Yellow).
The will reboot the device. Now all you need to do is unplug the F1 FC and plug it back in. You should see the Lemon RX led flashing. Now you can bind with your transmitter.
Adjustments
PID
I needed to change these a little. I had some bouncing when I hit the throttle:
Rudder and Throttle
I needed to reverse my Rudder and Ailerons. On the DX6 this is done in Server Setup>Reverse. This can be verified in the Receiver section.
Minimum Throttle
Make sure your Minimum Throttle is equal to or less than you minimum throttle in the receiver section. If it is not, you won't be able to arm. This can be modified on the DX6 in Servo Setup>Travel. I had to change my to 127.
Modes
Angle and Horizon mode on Aux 2 which is D on my DX6 (0 is manual):
NOTE: I had trouble with pecl_http on a 8.04 server. I had to complile it manually
Create a file (http.ini): /etc/php5/conf.d/http.ini
Add this text to the http.ini file:
extension=http.so
Restart Apache /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
Create the PHP file:
Create this file (I used this for a test): /var/www/rt_test.php
Add this to the rt_test.php file:
<?php
//RT Settings. Edit these values to suit your needs
$username = "username"; //RT User Login (User login for RT web interface)
$password = "password"; //RT User Password (User Password for RT web interface)
$requester_email = "user-email@example.com"; //RT User email
$ticket_queue = "General"; //The Queue name
$ticket_subject = "Ticket Subject"; //Subject on Ticket
$ticket_message = "Ticket Message"; //Message on Ticket
$rt_server = "rt-install.com"; //RT domain name
//Add a space after line breaks
$ticket_message = str_replace("\n", "\n ", $ticket_message);
//Complete URL
$url = "http://$rt_server/REST/1.0/ticket/new?user=$username&pass=$password";
//Create the Request
$request = new HttpRequest($url, HTTP_METH_POST);
//Create the POST Message
$message = "id: new\n";
$message .= "Queue: $ticket_queue\n";
$message .= "Requestor: $requester_email\n";
$message .= "Subject: $ticket_subject\n";
$message .= "Text: $ticket_message\n";
//Create an Array from the POST message
$post_data=array("content"=>$message);
//Add the POST Fields
$request->addPostFields($post_data);
try {
$response = $request->send()->getBody(); //Create the Ticket
echo $response; //Print the Response
} catch (HttpException $ex) {
echo $ex; //Print the Error
}
?>
Edit the configuration values to suit your needs. Run the PHP script a see if the ticket gets created.
I decided to make the move from Bugzilla to Trac. Despite the articles I read, I seem to like the Trac UI. We have a small software development environment and Bugzilla was not a fit for us.
Why I Chose Bugzilla?
I was first drawn to Bugzilla because a lot of Free Software Projects use it. Red Hat Bugzilla is one, and they have integrated nicely with there color scheme.
Bugzilla Pro's
It integrates nicely with external Authentication (In my case AD)
Always adding new features
Edit Multiple Bugs at Once
Bugzilla Con's
Must abide by the way Bugzilla works
Can't edit Description or comments
No integration for Customizable Reports (The search is very extensive though)
Overall I like Bugzilla. I would recommend it to large software projects. Especially if they were open to the public.
Tried Redmine
I did make an attempt with Redmine. It seems a little bloated. I just don't need certain things (Forum, News). It doesn't have multi-branch support. You have to create a project for each branch. That really doesn't work for me. It was able to setup AD Authentication in about five minutes though.
The Trac Advantage
What I like most about Trac is everything is integrated. Run a search and you will find everything (Wiki, Tickets, Milestones and Changesets). I just seems to make sense to me. I really like being able to make links to changesets in a Ticket or linking to Source in the Wiki for documentation. There doesn't seem to be much confusion when creating a ticket because there isn't many options (I see it as a good thing). I can edit ticket descriptions and comments if I make a mistake (I know you don't make mistakes), plus view the difference.
Timeline to Keep "Trac" of Changes "I could almost turn email OFF"
Custom Query and Reports. Ability to save and a simple syntax
Good documentation that is built in
Trac Con's
Had trouble with the Bazaar plugin. If I was more than one directory deep in a branch and did a log view, my server would crash. Completely run out of memory. I did find help on Launchpad Bzr Answer. I did add memory but I do think it would still crash.
Not much change to the core. This seems to come up in a lot of searches. I had trouble with an LDAP/AD plugin. This should be in the core.
Overall I do think Trac is about simplicity. Keep it simple, stable and get out of the way.
