Quad Me Up

This INAV prearming check usually strikes after firmware upgrade: settings validation error. The reason is simple: settings are not valid and taking off might be dangerous. I will show you a simple way to find which settings are making problems and how to prevent this from happening in the future.

Almost all RC radio transmitters (Jumper, FrSky, Nirvana and all other OpenTX radios) have trims. When flying classical airplanes, their usage is obvious: you trim your airplane with trims. When using any flight controller or stabilization, they immediately become useless. Trimming has to happen on flight controller (INAV, Betaflight, Pixhawk, Ardupilot), not on the radio itself. Luckily OpenTX allows you do some tricks with trims:

• disable trims so they will not accidentally break anything
• use trims as 2 position switches and assign them to any radio channel
• use trim to reset flight and timers in OpenTX

The maiden of my Lidl XL glider XL conversion did not go a 100% like I expected. The problem was a motor inclination angle. It was pointing too high and a result Lidl glider it was climbing very rapidly as soon as the throttle was increased. The elevator trim was not helping much. I have changed the motor angle and went for the next try. Well, actually two tries hoping to finally get good flight characteristics of my Lidl XL Glider.

The wet filament is a bad filament. 3D printers hate them since during melting the filament water that it contains turns into steam, expands and creates holes, bulges and other distortions and problems in a print. So filaments are more sensitive to moisture: TPU or Nylon. But even PLA might absorb water if it is kept in a humid environment for a long time. The solution is simple: DIY filament dehumidifier (also knows as filament dryer or dry box) made from the storage box, hygrometer, silica gel as a water absorbent and some window seals. The results are amazing!

• 50L Box
• Silica Gel Boxes
• Silica Gel Beads
• Hygrometer
• Window seal

Some time ago I started to feel a need to have a bench power supply. Not laboratory-grade, but something that can deliver both some volts and amps. Of course with overcurrent protection. Aliexpress is full of such a power supply units and at the end, I've decided on Yihua PS-3010DF with 30V voltage and 10A max current.

My initial thoughts are:

• On the outside, it looks and feels pretty solid
• You can power a drone on a workbench from it. Even with motors running!
• Current limiting works and it can replace a smoke-stopper
• Too bad you can not set max current before turning this thing on
• It only shows current current, not the limit
• USB is a nice touch
• Teardown in a few weeks 🙂

PS-3010DF PSU from Aliexpress

The second half of 2019 belongs to Mateksys? Hard to tell, but they seem to be pulling new interesting flight controllers out of their sleeves! Only yesterday I showed you first images of Mateksys F765-WING and today it is time for Matek F411-WING SE!

Mateksys F411-WING SE is an improved version of F411-WING from the last year. Still the same CPU and "only" 2 UART ports. But this time it's even smaller thanks to "sandwich style" build.

• STM32F411 CPU
• build in PDB with current sensor and BECs
• 2 motor outputs
• 4 servo outputs
• OSD
• BMP280 barometer
• 4 ADC channels for: Vbat, Current, RSSI and AirSpeed
• AirSpeed ADC has a voltage divider and analog APM Pitot tubes can be connected directly to this input
• Switchable dual camera input: C1 and C2

Now the best part: it is only 8.5g! Super lightweight, perfect for small airplanes and gliders!

This is preproduction sample, some details of Mateksys F765-WING might change in the final version that will hit the market!

Looks like Mateksys did it again, and the next flight controller in WING family will be one again the beefiest flight controller around! What's new? A lot. It's still the same format as F405-WING and F722-WING, but this time, the top plate is not only a plate. It holds 8A continuous (10A burst) BEC that you have to connect with wires to the main plate. From what I've been told, the step-down chip itself can hold 20A continuous, but due to limited space, the main inductor/choke limits it to 10A only. Well, only is probably not the best world 😉

The brand new is also CPU. Now it is beefy STM32F765 in LQFP-100 package. Beefy because it has 2MB of flash and 512kB of RAM. And thanks to the big package, a lot of peripherals could be broken out:

• 12 PWM outputs
• 8 UARTs
• 2 I2C
• SPI
• 6 ADC (Vbat, Current, Vbat2, Current2, RSSI, AirSpeed)
• Micro SD
• camera switcher
• switchable 5V/9V output

Compatible software: INAV, Betaflight and (probably) ArduPilot.

I work a lot in front of a PC. 8 hours in the day job and then still a few at home. Over the years wrist pain and tennis elbow or carpal tunnel syndrome have become a serious problem. Especially when working with shitty Apple Magic Mouse. The remedy was to change my habits: instead of using a mouse I'm using a trackball: Logitech MX Ergo. Let's do a review of Logi MX Ergo to see pros, cons and is it worth the money.

Once a year I have this crazy idea: build an FPV drone capable of flying in the night! Since it's not that hard and you only need some special hardware, it works. Slam a starlight camera like RunCam Night Eagle on a 7-inch drone and you are done! And some LEDs for visibility. And 3W headlights. Even this will be enough for super sensitive starlight RunCam Night Eagle camera.