FPV Flying, Where gamers go to die, reality.

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
More Matt with a review on the ZOHD nono drift
ZOHD Drift Maiden + Post Maiden Tips & Suggestions

Another video from Matt
"Rip the Sky a New One" - Meet the Phat Drak

EDIT screwed up the post FIFY
 
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DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
An ad from ZOHD. They embed LEDs into the wings of this model, but you can do the same with any plane. Not too much use if you are FPVing at night with a good low light FPV camera, but it sure does look cool, a great way to show off and generate UFO reports! They can also make locating a crashed model more easy at night sometimes, than during the day.
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ZOHD Orbit NEON: Presentation video
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
More on DIY seaplanes. This looks nice for a first build, the problem is getting 5 mm depron foam where I live for a reasonable price, but I'm thinking I might be able to use dollar store foam board with spray on waterproofing, but I fear it might add too much weight. A twin is good for a seaplane, you have a backup motor and an unobstructed forward view. It's also small enough not to attract too much attention or appear as a threat, the larger the plane the more attention it receives, that's ok if you want it.

One good thing about this plane is you can use small quad motors, escs and props, both clockwise and counterclockwise for real cheap, like $25 to $30, for motors, props, escs and even servos cheap. Except for the receiver, you wouldn't shed too many tears over losing this thing LOS, something to take chances with and a practice target for the rescue boat. One more thing about this plane, it should take off and land in the snow too and that happens a bit where I live!
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How to make Grumman Flying Boat RC water plane DIY

How to make Grumman Flying Boat RC twin-engine seaplane DIY build video step by step tutorial
Wingspan: 1,5m (59")
Flying Weight: 480g (17 oz)
Flight Time: 15-20 min
Materials: XPS foam 5mm / Depron
Electric brushless motors: AEO MF1905 2400KV (18g) x2 Propellers:
GWS 7035 Receiver: FlySky FS-iA6 (7g)
ESC: VGood 12A (13g) x2
Servos: 5g x6
LiPo battery: 1500 mah 2S 7.4V (77g)
Download Grumman Goose/Albatross free plans: https://drive.google.com/drive/folder... Homemade Water slow flyer RC airplane out of foam for beginners.
 
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DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
I was thinking and might have come up with a solution, some experimentation is required with some scraps of foam in the bathtub, playtime! Actually a plastic dishpan which I will use to soak the sections of foam board and use a plastic scrub brush to remove the paper from the foam. I heard that fabric softener is good for removing wall paper and a detergent should help too. I could easily double or triple the foam layers with adhesive and form curves before gluing layers more easily. Also I would leave the paper on until all the parts were laid out and cut, then soak and scrub it off, once the plane was assembled or even during, I could laminate it inside and out, for extra strength and durability with less of a weight penalty. I guess I need to try some experiments with some scraps and see what happens, answers are data driven and that involves getting my hands wet.

A google search wouldn't hurt either!
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
D'oh! :D
Image result for removing paper from foam board
Image result for removing paper from foam board
Image result for removing paper from foam board
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Start by running the foam board under water. Make sure that it has enough time and water to soak through entirely, and cover every bit of paper that you want to peel off. After the paper has been thoroughly soaked through, start to gently peel off the paper. Keep the foam under the flow of water as you do so.May 17, 2015
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
Or... I guess the experiment has taken a new turn as new information is acquired! Best method wins with my particular board.
Remove The Paper From Any Foam Board - 4 Ways
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
This looks exactly like the foam board I'm using from the dollar store, looks like I have a date with the bathtub and shower after all. This fellow appears to be from Canada, a quick and dirty solution is at hand, he appears to have experience driven expertise, the best kind. It looks like this material might be just what I'm looking for, I might have to double it, but that is not an issue. Heat forming it is also possible to a degree.
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How to strip paper from Foam Board EASY

This is my method of stripping the paper off the foam board found at most hobby stores and dollar stores in Canada and the USA. This is the best solution to mega cheap super light builds I have found, and contrary to common belief, its quite easy.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
An example of innovation from Matt, since the current draw is so low on a drift, you might even get away with using cell phone batteries! Do some research and testing though, or she might catch fire mid flight and ya'd burn screaming all the way to the ground, ending up in a flaming heap of foam!

RagTheNutsOff
RagTheNutsOff
2 hours ago
These are how I'm going to get 3S into the drift a D a load of flight time too. 26350 2000mAh li-on cells! PS. On 4 more on the way from AliExpress, next week, , fingers crossed.
 
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DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
Where's the wings? Looks "seaplaneable" from the fuse design and motor prop mounting, the nose could be problematic, but I'm thinking of using gorilla glass, thin glass similar to the double surface tensioned brand name stuff and used for cell phone screen protectors (dollar store), I should be able to cut this stuff easily and it flexes for simple curves. It is also very transparent and can be laminated into thicker sheets if required. Perfect for filling in the camera bay in the nose, better than foaming it over. I'm also thinking of using it on the simple sea plane foam build I'm gonna try, make the cockpit windows from it and FPV from inside, perhaps with a panning mount (camera mounted on a 9 gram servo), captains side if I can!

Guess I'll keep an eye out for this thing and look at the reviews, expert opinions, etc, no rush, just something on the radar.
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Paweł Spychalski
Paweł Spychalski
4 hours ago
Something new... And I hope it will be better than Nano Talon...
 
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DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
Most people would like to shoot good video of their FPV adventures and some even post it on youtube. Nurk is into this area of the RC hobby and is a professional "gun" for hire and has a company in the business of getting unique aerial shots. He races, does freestyle videos, educational and entertainment youtube videos. Here he teaches quad pilots how to do cinematic stuff well with a small sized drone, these are often called Whoops and get into places nothing else can.
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Cinewhoop Masterclass - 6 Tips to make Amazing Cinewhoop Videos
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
This guy is an expert on all things quadcopter and FPV, he was in the above video along with others who post youtube videos. If you want to know more about ciniquads and what to buy, have a look. With photography gone to cell phones, this is where the challenges are and the fresh ground to till is, the sky.
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Best Cinewhoop FINAL JUDGMENT Taycan Bumblebee Squirt Kopis

Which is the best Cinewhoop? The original Shendrones Squirt? The Holybro Kopis? The Diatone Taycan? The iFlight Bumblbebee? That's what we're going to figure out this week.
 
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DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
Well flying might be out of the picture for a spell! Spilled hot grease from a frying pan on my foot, ouch! Did the dance and rapid first aid, then spayed it down with and antiseptic topical analgesic and slathered it in moisturizing medicated hand cream and hope for the best, it's not a big burn, but big enough to perhaps keep a sandal or shoe off and me fucking housebound, shit happens and I need groceries! It's throbbing merrily away, it hurts, but I need not suffer, learn and move on.

Perhaps that foam plane might get built sooner than I thought, at least a first crack at the airframe and the bench projects are piling up too. Guess I might as well go through the Lipos and discharge them to storage levels. If you are not gonna fly for a spell, keep your Lipos at a storage voltage of around 3.75 volts per cell and your charger should have this function, Lipos last longer when treated well. I can hobble around the house and I won't starve for a long time, too long.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
For those who race and build quads and aren't engineers, or math whizzes, here is a useful resource. Probably many lazy engineer hobbyist use it too, no need to reinvent the wheel. This is but an example of the online resources and calculators used by professionals and amateurs in this hobby.
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Drone Motor Calculator
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
How long will it be before yer able to ride a housefly like a horse (virtually of course)? The fucking thing can even pan!

The FPV cockroach!
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Miniature robotic camera backpack shows how beetles see the world
It has a robotic arm that simulates how insects turn their heads.

Caption: Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a tiny camera that can ride aboard an insect. Here a Pinacate beetle explores the UW campus with the camera on its back. Credit: Mark Stone/University of Washington


Mark Stone/University of Washington
After creating tiny sensor backpacks for bees, researchers from the University of Washington have built a more advanced model for beetles. Dubbed “a GoPro for beetles,” the robotic backpacks carry a tiny steerable camera that can stream video at 1 to 5 fps and pivot up to 60 degrees. On top of getting an interesting bugs-eye view of the world, the devices could power future biological studies and allow us to “explore novel environments,” according to the team.

The backpack was designed to be carried by two species: A “death-feigning” beetle and Pinacate beetle. Both of those have been observed carrying up to half a gram at a time. As such, the camera rig they created weighs just a quarter gram.

To hit that goal, the team took a lesson from the insect world they’re trying to explore. “Flies are using 10 to 20 percent of their resting energy just to power their brains, most of which is devoted to visual processing,” said the study’s co-author Sawyer Fuller. “To help cut the cost, some flies have a small, high-resolution region of their compound eyes. They turn their heads to steer where they want to see with extra clarity, such as for chasing prey or a mate. This saves power over having high resolution over their entire visual field.”

Don't believe it? watch the video.
more...
 
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DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
I got a bunch of cheap 9 gm servos yesterday and a new servo tester, it has three channels so I hooked up the pan tilt I bought to 2 of them. I also put a cross horn on another servo and mounted another camera with double sided gel tape on it for some testing. I wanted to get an idea of how much space they required inside a model and the range of motion (90 degrees total, 45 deg to either side). The pan camera doesn't take up too much space and all you'd need for a cockpit camera for many planes. You just need to mount the camera on the server horn with hot glue, tape or a wire tie etc and hook it up to a spare receiver channel configured to a nob or slider on your transmitter.

This time I just used a 1S battery to test with, no need for a BEC, servo testers run at 5 volts, usually no more or you'll fry them. If you are gonna fly planes and build them, then buy a couple, they only cost a couple of bucks each and can produce an variable PWM signal that can drive escs to test motors as well as servos.

A bit bigger than the cockroach cam above, but I'm flying a plane not a bug, yet!
20200715_230553.jpg
 
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DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
Here are servos similar to the ones I bought, they are cheap low quality, but good enough for experimenting with foam board builds, but you can get get better quality metal gear servos by the lot for not much more. In this case they sell 10 pcs for $14 US, a buck forty a sevo, less than 3 bucks for a flying wing which needs two, an example of affordability.

10PCS SG90 Mini Analog Gear Micro Servo 9g for RC Airplane Helicopter Car Boat Models

Similar to these
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DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
Here is something else I have on the way, they come in different combinations of motors, escs, props and with or without servos. This could be the propulsion and control system components for a flying wing, swinging an 8" diameter prop, though you might need to buy a reverse pitch prop for a pusher configuration. The motor is a 3 phase brushless type that runs on PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) current from the ESC (Electronic Speed Controller) and is controlled via a signal wire to the receiver (or FC) for throttle. You can reverse the direction of the motor by switching any of the three wires to the esc. The esc also has a built in BEC (Battery Eliminator Circuit) for powering receivers and servos. This particular combo cost just $19, US affordable for many.

XXD 2217 KV1250 Brushless Motor+8060 Propeller Blade*2++9g Servo*2+40A ESC RC Power System Combo For RC Airplane Racing Drone
 
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DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
FPV is my hobby and many who do FPV are kinda fanatical in promoting it and one of the things I do here is promote views for those people I consider to be artists, like the two videos at the top of the thread. Also FPV is a bit outlaw (but can be quite legal too for the most part) and so are pot users who also tend to be young males, though it's pretty much a cross section of the population these days. I also want to get away from politics here, now that Trump is going down, my grow lights are all built and my garden is growing, this citizen is legal in that regard anyway! So this is the home of the FPV rebels for now, kinda fits IMHO! BTW I don't make anything off the product links I post, they are often just things I'm running across in pursuit of my hobby and I'm using them as examples of affordability and to familiarise those who might have an interest, or even of their existence. That goes for the many educational resources I'm posting too, it gives those with an interest a place to learn from experts.

Mr. Steele instructs. He does quite well financially these days with over 300K in youtube subscribers and other multiple source of income. It shows you that even in the world of hobby RC drones there are professionals and in the case of racing quads there are many! This indicates a fast growing market, first for the consumption of content (golfers watch golf on TV) and products, the regular RC plane hobby doesn't have this many professionals who make their living directly from the hobby like quad racers have in just 3 years.

Quad racing and freestyle appeal to people who like to race cars and such, but is much cheaper than maintaining a muscle car! A few generations back and guys like Steele here would have been flying fighters over europe or the Pacific in WW2 or jets in the cold war. For a generation that grew up playing video games, for some it's the next logical step, but it involves dealing with reality, and that can be difficult at times, like when yer up to yer ass in thorns trying to find your crashed quad! There are consequences to crashing, both physical (ya go for a walk of shame) and financial, if ya break something or lose it, therefore the pucker factor remains, people go to casinos for a reason. Also yer ass is in the thing, virtually at least, and like yer ego is on the line here sometimes, there is a visceral reaction, a beginner squirms in the chair to avoid obstacles for instance. The more on the line, the bigger the rush, just don't put your actual life on the line for one though, losing cash is enough to stimulate and motivate, so is winning it in a race one day.
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Always Check Your Gear

Went out flying to make sure everything was in working order before this shoot. I like to not only fly the gear at home before I leave, but I also like to fly on location before hand. The elevation changes and relative humidity have an effect on which props I will choose.

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Analog or Digital Video ‍♂ (How to FPV 2020) Part 5

In this video we talk about the choice of picking analog or digital for your FPV video system. There are many pros and cons to both but at the end of the day you have to make a choice on which goggles and systems fit your personal needs.
 
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