First Flight -- Success !!

[Mandrake]

Finally received my FC40 today - Having watched a lot of visdeos on how to put together etc - I assembled charged and had a couple of short flights at the local park .. Must say its easier than I thought to pilot these things .. I painted my front prop guards black so I can see easily which way she's pointed --
had a little play with the camera and wifi and got it working OK - not on the Phantom just yet ..
I bought another camera - Go-Pro look alike and I am having trouble with its wifi link .. I guess I'll keep trying but may have to mount both cameras on the gimbal when it arrives ..
Well that's iy for now - G'day to all from sunny Melbourne Australia ..
Cheers
Mandrake

 

[kydan]

Finally received my FC40 today - Having watched a lot of visdeos on how to put together etc - I assembled charged and had a couple of short flights at the local park .. Must say its easier than I thought to pilot these things .. I painted my front prop guards black so I can see easily which way she's pointed --
had a little play with the camera and wifi and got it working OK - not on the Phantom just yet ..
I bought another camera - Go-Pro look alike and I am having trouble with its wifi link .. I guess I'll keep trying but may have to mount both cameras on the gimbal when it arrives ..
Well that's iy for now - G'day to all from sunny Melbourne Australia ..
Cheers
Mandrake

Congratulations! Keep it up

 

[Mandrake]

So here I am again - Flight 2 / Day 2 ... This thing ROCKS.. literally !! 20 Km/h Northerly blowing - Takeoff was a bit of a leanover onto the prop guards and up up and away ... But she managed to stay GPS'd and all was well until the batteries in the controller failed "beep beep beep" and shut-down ... I watched as she rose to 20 metres and battled the wind back to above my head and started down wobbling like crazy battling the wind -- Perfect landing - better than I could do !! So I guess "failsafe" works !!
My chinese go-pro copy has failed the wifi test and has to be returned to China - they agreed to send out one that has been
tested to connect to an Android phone so hopefully that will be good .. Meantime I'm collecting parts from all over ...
Got my P2Vision blades today and they fit with about 10mm to spare on the standard prop guards .. I do have P2V guards coming
- Those big blades seem a bit more flexible ?? So I hope they won't bend onto the body or prop guards ..
Also managed to calibrate the controller ... So I'm getting closer to realtime video taking ...
Sorry if this is boring old hat to you guys but its really exciting having something I always wanted as a kid and could never afford AND having a video camera is unreal !! My Canon 6D is going to gather a bit of dust in the next few weeks but that's OK as we are going outback from mid June to August so will take some desert and rocky photos with some Phantom Vids .. Yeehaaa can't wait ..
If you get this far - I'm also looking for some handtools - hex screwdrivers - I've seen them in the Videos but can't seem to find them on E-bay or at local hardware - Anyone got a set can tell me where to get them from please as I don't like Allen keys ..
Cheers
Mandrake

 

[Mandrake]

Received my gimbal today...no instructions !!! But had read and you tubed so all good.. Hardest part of the install was the rubber vibration dampers !! .
Pitch control with one cable and it works.. Had to reverse the lower motor as my camera has controls on RHS facing ....
Now I need to configure the pitch movement in Naza .. Should I change the gain from 20 ??..

For them that want to know stuff ... Here's the links

Camera - http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/6043083327.html

Gimbal - http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Silv...Controller-for-GoPro-Hero-1-2/1568692513.html

Sent from the thing that does everything.

 

[9Jamie]

May I know your comment on the performance of the WiFi Cam?
e.g. video quality, WiFi range, android app as FPV

Any video taken from the camera for viewing please?

 

[Mandrake]

May I know your comment on the performance of the WiFi Cam?
e.g. video quality, WiFi range, android app as FPV

Any video taken from the camera for viewing please?

I'll let you know - Its raining here at the moment so can't fly .. The camera seems to work really well have put a small video up on my HD TV screen and it seems pretty good to me ... Don't know about the wifi range yet - maybe tomorrow I can try to fly and film.
The APP is Symagix -- Its pretty basic but seems OK to me ..
Cheers
Steve

 

[Disco Volante]

Hi!

Are you using P2 prop guards?

Is it a perfect fit to FC40? I bought 9 inch proppelers and i would like to know if P2 prop guards will fit FC40, because i read somewere that they dont fit Fc40 and im confused. Sorry maybe im asking too much but could you send me a link for the prop guards? I saw some on ebay, but im not sure if they fit my FC40.

Cheers

João

 

[Mandrake]

Yes P2 Vision prop guards fit on the FC40 .. I got mine with the Phantom when I bought it .
Am getting red ones from China.. Steve
251473118333 is the eBay item .
Sent from the thing that does everything.

 

[npalen]

I'm watching this thread with interest also. Wondering if any difference in latency between the FC40 and the ali express cameras?

Edit: Per the above request for sources for allen hex screwdrivers. A search for "hex screwdrivers" on Amazon.com will turn up some hits.

 

[Mandrake]

Edit: Per the above request for sources for allen hex screwdrivers. A search for "hex screwdrivers" on Amazon.com will turn up some hits.

Found some in the UK - Duratool set of 6 ... Have used them now to fit the gimbal..
Still waiting for the rain to stop here ... Unbelievable - ready to fly and can't get out !!!

Will drop a video on here when possible ( If I can work out how to post a video )

Probably make an MP4 and leave on my website would be easiest thing to do ??

Mandrake

 

[npalen]

Please send some of that rain to Kansas, USA. We need it desperately for the winter wheat crop.

Edit: A video would be great!

 

[Mandrake]

Managed to get a 10 minute break in the rain so did 2 quick flights and filming --

1 - Phantom equipped with Chinese cam , gimbal , a single 2200mah and standard props .
Flight time to flashing red leds 4m 10 s ...
Gimbal worked perfectly ( I think ) HD quality video I think is OK - Posting on Youtube right now
http://youtu.be/NN4t32JLX-E - This is 2 short snippets from the 4min vid ..
Please let me know what you think of gimbal and quality - no comments about the content please I've still got the L plates on

2 - Phantom equipped with Chinese cam , gimbal , 2 x 2500mah and P2V props ..
Flight time got to 6m and rain started so had to bring her in quick ...so I don't know yet how much ,onger it could have flown.
Seemed more stable in flight but kept dropping slowly so obviously way too heavy ..
Gimbal and quality seem really good .. I will try and post vid later ...

Cheers

Steve

 

[Mandrake]

May I know your comment on the performance of the WiFi Cam?
e.g. video quality, WiFi range, android app as FPV

Any video taken from the camera for viewing please?

9 Jamie ... Check the video above - I think you'll agree its not too bad quality -wise .. Its crap content but thats all that was around ..
Camera worked well except in the WIFI / FPV - I was using on older Android phone and it lost contact about 10 metres up off the launch pad - Video worked all the way and is good but I will now have to use the FC40 mounted on the battery lid as my FPV ...
Cheers
Mandrake

 

[npalen]

Does the phone app let you control the camera functions such as start & stop video, snapshots etc.?

Edit: (At least while the WIFI was working)

 

[9Jamie]

9 Jamie ... Check the video above - I think you'll agree its not too bad quality -wise .. Its crap content but thats all that was around ..
Camera worked well except in the WIFI / FPV - I was using on older Android phone and it lost contact about 10 metres up off the launch pad - Video worked all the way and is good but I will now have to use the FC40 mounted on the battery lid as my FPV ...
Cheers
Mandrake

Thank you for showing us the video quality, the 1080p quality is very nice. Also, thanks for the FPV testing of android app, I suppose it is called "Magix". It is a pity that the WiFi connectivity is not comparable to FC40 camera.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ziblzMVWnw[/youtube]

 

[Mandrake]

Did another test flight this morning before the wind went over the 15kph mark...
standard props , 2500 mah , gimbal and cam - from take off to crash landing - 6m 23s - I miss timed my descent with flashing red leds ... I think without the wind and a new set of P2V props I'll be back to 10 minutes on a 2500 and 8 on the 2200 ..
Pretty happy with that ...
I'm going to mount the FC40 on velcro on the battery door to see if I can get FPV back until my wifi extender arrives which may help with the lag and dropout on the chinese cam ...
All I need now is to learn some editing techniques and reduce the size of files without reducing video quality .. Is that possible ??
Cheers
Mandrake

 

[9Jamie]

I use Tenda A6 router as repeater for my FC40 camera, it roughly doubled the WiFi range from 100M to 200M.
Looking forward to your experience

 

[Mandrake]

Took a couple of photos of my Phantom today - I'm using the FC40 camera as FPV , Its velcroed to the battery door ..
2500 mah battery is at the rear strapped in to counter balance the gimbal and camera at the front ..
Leg extensions are brass hex long nuts and orange spacers .. There's a length of alum tube cable tied to the legs to extend
the landing surface a little ...
The gimbal is also mounted on two hex long nuts so that the prop guards are not in view when fly-recording .
Total mass is 1340 grams - That's 140 grams over the payload limit so they say ..
Cheers
Mandrake

 

[rustysd]

Took a couple of photos of my Phantom today - I'm using the FC40 camera as FPV , Its velcroed to the battery door ..
2500 mah battery is at the rear strapped in to counter balance the gimbal and camera at the front ..
Leg extensions are brass hex long nuts and orange spacers .. There's a length of alum tube cable tied to the legs to extend
the landing surface a little ...
The gimbal is also mounted on two hex long nuts so that the prop guards are not in view when fly-recording .
Total mass is 1340 grams - That's 140 grams over the payload limit so they say ..
Cheers
Mandrake

Can you give more detail on how you velcroe'd the FC40 cam to the door?

Please also give more detail on how you mounted the battery on the rear of the craft.

Thank you.

 

[Mandrake]

rustysd ...

The Velcro part is easy - adhesive backed velcro cut a small square and stick to rear of camera and then battery door ..
Press together - seems to work OK - I was concerned about blocking the WiFi signal ...

The battery is a bit more difficult - I bought some leg extensions that have brass hex long nut things and a small piece of carbon fibre plate to give it some strength ..http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/6045236849.html .. It just so happens that the distance between the inner leg screw holes is the same across and sideways .. So I placed one of these plates across the rear and can strap a battery to it as per the photos ..
Cheers
Mandrake