The news: FrSky ACCESS, BF4.0, F7, SP Racing H7, F7, INAV Radar and Russian Drones In Space

• FrSky has announced new air protocol: ACCESS
• Betaflight 4.0 is just around the corner
• The topic of F7 as in STM32F7 flight controllers and INAV
• INAV Radar.
• Dominic Clifton aka Hydra, known from Cleanflight and Seriously Pro Racing (SP Racing F3, SP Racing F4, SP Racing F7 and so on) is preparing something new: flight controller based on STM32H750 processor: SP Racing H7 Extreme -Russians are putting drones into space! Cosmic Drones you might say.

This is my 7-inch TBS Source One

This is my 7-inch version of TBS Source One quadcopter frame. So far, so good, Source One is really tough and stiff frame so all the problems with resonance and oscillations in flight should be over. And looks like they are over.

It might sound like a good old V8 engine but flies smooth. And after all, that was my ultimate goal. So let's say "bye, bye" to wobbly-wobbly iFlight XL7 v2 and say "hello" to 7-inch Source One! 6mm thick arms are the way to go!

How to setup INAV on a flying wing - video tutorial - GPS, Baro and Compass

• Do you need a barometer on a flying wing with INAV?
• Do you need a compass/magnetometer on a flying wing?
• How to set up a GPS unit and which protocol should you use?
• Do advanced tuning and set up a return to home, banking angles, landing procedures etc.
• Configure the most important GPS related flight modes: PosHold, AltHold, and RTH
• some extra tips and tricks like Galileo support for GPS

INAV and Failsafe - especially for FrSky owners (but not only)

• You should not trust a guy on YouTube that says that he knows it all
• OpenTX "no signal" is not the best failsafe setting when FrSky S.BUS devices are used and why
• Than "Hold" failsafe setting might actually be a better option when S.BUS is used
• How to setup Failsafe in INAV to have the best experience and safe flight

How to make 868MHz or 915MHz dipole antennas for FrSky R9 or TBS Crossfire receivers

The correct length of 868/915MHz antennas used by FrSky R9 and TBS Crossfire is:

• for FCC 915MHz it is 75mm
• for EU/LBT 868MHz it is 80mm

From time to time FrSky has a big problem with cutting their antennas to a correct length. Good thing, you can make your own TBS Crossfire RX antennas for cheap!

How much does a propeller weight? Mass vs. moment of inertia

How often, when you watched or read a brushless motor review you've heard a sentence like "this motor will not have any problem spinning a heavy propeller" or "this motor is designed for light propellers". Or "this is a very light propeller". But what does that really mean?

Thanks to our good friend Sir Isaac Newton we know that

F = ma

Where F is the force, a is acceleration and m is the mass of an object. In this case, mass is the unit of inertia. This is all true for propellers if you want to throw them in linear motion. But propellers rotate and that changes a few things. Instead of mass we are interested in the moment of inertia and mass distribution around the rotation point.

The news - INAV 2.1, Betaflight RPM filter, IMU-F goes open source and Matek 4in1 ESC with SerialShot

In this episode of The News

• INAV 2.1 is here and we have a lot of code waiting for INAV 2.2
• Betaflight 4.0 is coming closer and closer together with RPM filter that analyzes RPMs of motors (via ESC telemetry) to set up very narrow notches. What a nice idea!
• Something very fresh in terms of hardware: Mateksys aka Matek has built their own 4in1 ESC. But instead of doing what everybody else is doing (putting 4 separate BlHeli ESCs on one board) the wrote their own ESC firmware, flashed a single STM32F405 with it and called it a day. Of course it took much longer than a day (a year) but finally something very very fresh in the 4in1 ESC world! Kudos, I can not wait for the actual hardware

3D printed FPV tricopter drone

Who could have imagined that tricopters can be so much fun? For sure they are interesting devices that lost a lot of "market" when quadcopters gained extra torque and plenty of reaction moment to do fast yaw turns. Almost no one flies them now. Too bad... And good luck if you want to buy a tricopter frame for 5-6 inch propellers. There is almost nothing on the market right now!

Luckily, we are living in interesting times, and everyone with few hundred dollars can get a 3D printer and make whatever he wants (right, if it was that simple...). Thanks to this, I give you a 3D printed tricopter frame designed to use miniquad parts: 2205 motors, 5 inch propellers and 9 gram servo:

STL files can be downloaded from Thingiverse

Presented setup:

• Racestar BR2205 2300KV motors
• Racestar RS30A Lite ESC
• Turnigy TSS-10HM servo or similar
• Omnibus F4 flight controller
• PDB
• RunCam Swift camera
• VTX03 video transmitter
• Lollipop antenna
• R-XSR receiver
• STL files

Flight controller runs INAV 2.0.1

iFlight ION Raaange/ION Drive 2506 1250KV Motors

220x motors are the workhorse on the RC hobby right now when it comes down to mini quads. Sometimes they are joined by 230x too. But 2205 and 2206 brushless outrunners have a serious problem that limits their use with propellers bigger than 5 inches. They might still be fine with 6-inch props, but on 7-inches problems begins. What 220x lack is torque! They are just too small to have enough copper wire and diameter to deliver enough torque to drive much heavier 7-inch propellers.

Let's welcome something much more powerful: ION Drive / ION Raaange 2506 1250KV!

Matek F722-SE - brand new flight controller that brings STM32F7 closer to the needs of many

At the beginning of 2018 I've stated that Matek F722-STD is the first F7 flight controller that makes sense. Today, I have in front of me I have the first F7 flight controller that has all you need (and more) when 4-in-1 ESC is not what you are looking for.

It is Matek F722-SE!

• STM32F722 processor
• MPU6000 and ICM20602 gyro/acc - user selectable to match the needs. Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of dual gyro design. From my perspective, MPU6000 is enough for everyone. Really!
• OSD compatible with INAV and Betaflight
• BMP280 barometer
• 5 hardware serial ports
• possible 1 software serial
• 8 outputs
• I2C bus

This is the standard data. Nothing super fancy at a first glance. Until you go into the details:

• PDB with a current meter is integrated into the design
• you can connect 2 separate FPV cameras and select the one that will be connected to OSD and VTX with your radio without any additional hardware. Super option for fixed wing flyers
• power VTX on/off from your radio as well (I really will have to test that soon)
• TX6 is conveniently positioned at every corner for ESC telemetry setup
• F7 means that you can connect anything you want to any serial port you want. F7 series have integrated serial inverters, so SBUS and SmartPort is no longer a problem

I'm super eager to put this baby on one of my racing quads

Matek F722-SE is coming soon!