Mojo, Kenney Field

I flew another 5 (only 4 videos because I forgot to start recording once) flights in the Mojo yesterday. It was a cool and breezy day, but it was really fun, thanks to being able to fly from the car with the control repeater setup. For the last flight, I decided to take off from the moon roof of my car, just for something interesting.

Vortex 230 Mojo, Westwood Park

More onboard videos with the Mojo and the GoPro. I changed the GoPro from 30 frames per second to 60, and the videos came out noticeably better, including seemingly less jello. There are only a few places where I notice it, and it's not enough to detract from the video. I'm pretty happy with the camera so far. I'm getting more confident with flying the Mojo as well. I had a couple close calls with trees, but for medium speed cruising, I've gotten much smoother at coordinating the yaw and roll together. This is most noticeable in video 2 of 3.

Vortex 230 Mojo, GoPro

I did some more flights today with the Mojo. For the first time, I put my GoPro on board and flew with that. There is some jello in the video at certain throttles. I'm not sure what's causing that, but it isn't terrible. The picture is noticeable better than the Mobius, but I think I will use 60 frames per second from now on. It will result in much larger file sizes, but the video will be much smoother and more enjoyable to watch.

I'm glad I have Dragon Link installed in the Mojo, because I was able to set up my control repeater on the hood of my car, and fly from the driver's seat. Otherwise, I wouldn't have even flown, as it's still only about 35 degrees and breezy, which is just way too cold for comfort.

Here are the two videos:

Vortex 230 Mojo, Dragon Link

I received and installed the Dragon Link Nano receiver in my quad. This enables basically unlimited range, which is unnecessary on a small race style quad, but it ensures that I won't ever get drop outs when I'm flying around obstacles, or if I do feel like pushing it out a mile or so.

I got some flights in after the installation. It is very difficult to fly in a tight area like in these videos. I need a lot of practice to gain some confidence for getting closer to obstacles. I also noticed that the video performance was quite bad. A higher gain receiver antenna will definitely help in the future.

Here's how I mounted the Dragon Link receiver antennas.

Here's the receiver installed inside.

System Level Schematic

I thought it would be interesting to look at a "map" of all the communications that are set up and operating with my current FPV setup on the Sabre.

Note that this does not include the tBeacon or HAM radio. These are only ever going to be used to find the plane in the event that it goes down, and wouldn't add much value to this diagram.

Note: It makes the most sense to start with the orange 2.4 GHz transmitter, and then work your way around.

Sabre: New Photos Inside the Fuselage

Since the installation of the tBeacon and camera switcher, I decided to take some photos to show the electronics section of the Sabre.

These photos are taken through the opening in the top of the fuselage directly below where the wing attaches, behind where the flight battery sits.

Electronics with Labels

Electronics

Sabre: Camera Switcher Update, Belly Camera

I realized that it would be very easy and straightforward to add a third camera to the Sabre. The camera switcher is 3 position, I have a 3rd FPV camera, and the Sabre already has a spot to put a camera in the belly. I used my Runcam PZ0420H CCD camera in the recess in the belly of the Sabre.

To do this, all I had to do was make a small hole to route the wires up to the electronics section, to plug into the camera switcher.

I used Velcro to secure the camera.

Paper towels were used to snug the fit to help prevent vibration or dislodging.

I made a simple cardboard cover. Packaging tape holds it in place.

Updated Ground Station Schematic

I updated the ground station schematic to the most recent actual configuration.

I also added dashed lines to indicate where there are options.

Equipment as it is Presently Configured. Dashed lines indicate optional connections.

Sabre Airborne Equipment Schematic, Updated

This version reflects the following changes:

1. Change BEC power input from main battery balance lead to Micro Deans, tapped off of main discharge lead.
2. Addition of camera #3.
3. Rewire camera switcher to receive power from Vector.

1.2/1.3 GHz Ground Station Complete

Updated 3/7/18: Added V2 picture with labels.

I now have installed the latest round of equipment on my ground station, and set it up for diversity. With the latest changes, I now consider my ground station done and ready for use for flying in the spring. I can still add the Lumnier monitor somewhere on the tripod, but it is just as easy to use as a standalone unit.

All of the gear is mounted to back the Crosshair antenna with Velcro. It took several iterations to get everything to just fit without interfering with the tripod.



V1: Component Labels

 

V2: Some Subtle rearranging and neatening of the layout.

 

tBeacon Complete and Installed

I now have finished final "assembly" and installation of the tBeacon. You can't see it, but in order to route the tBeacon's antenna as vertically as possible (for maximum signal), I put inside a straw and routed it down the start of the wire channels in the tail boom. The antenna is probably about 30 degrees off from vertical now.

I soldered the wire harness that I planned out by the previous post.

I had to solder the tBeacon's included 50mAh lipo battery to the circuit board terminals. I then put shrink wrap over the assembly.

Custom Harness

tBeacon with Battery Soldered

Completed with the Shrink Wrap

Installed. In this picture, the tBeacon's antenna runs down and to the right.

tBeacon Progress

I've made some progress with getting the tBeacon GPS tracker ready to install. It's not particularly laborious, I just haven't spent much time on it.

I was able to upgrade firmware, set parameters to maximum battery life, and calibrate it to my HAM radio's calling tone.

I am now ready to solder the wire harness to connect it all together with the Vector (which is also connected to the Dragon Link receiver). I made this crude (not to scale) diagram with correctly colored wires so I don't have to re-figure it out when I am soldering.

Taranis Progress, Custom Sounds and Images

I've been spending a lot of time researching resources and learning the Taranis. I was able to update to Open-Tx 2.2.1 and flew my Vortex 230 for 3 flights a few days ago.

Since then, I've spent some time adding custom sounds and custom images.

Here's the custom image set up on the model screen.

It is pretty neat and rewarding, because it takes some discipline to understand it well enough to get it to work.

Here are some of the links (not exhaustive) I've used along the way so far:

Video Playlist: Project Blue Falcon's Taranis X9D Videos

Video: Upgrading Firmware

Video: Upgrading Bootloader

Video: Binding XSR Receiver

Open-Tx Online Manual

Written Instructions for Setting Volume Control on a Knob

Written Instructions for Playing Music

Written Instructions for Custom Sounds

Download Link to TTSAutomate

Video: Instructions for Using TTSAutomate for Custom Sounds

Video: Instructions for Creating Custom Spalsh Screen and Model Images