Quad Me Up

This is my second adventure with Armattan frames. The first one was Rooster. And it would be great if not moving arms. I yielded again and got me an Armattan Marmotte this time. I recorded this video before flying it. When I write those words I already know how it flies. It flies good, but I still have to tune and update motors to something more modern and not beaten up. In other words: Armattan Marmotte is great in the air but some of the design elements are extremely bad!

DJI did it and introduced a digital FPV system that actually makes sense. There are goggle, radios, video transmitters and it not only works but also does not costs a fortune. Really, DJI Digital FPV is relatively cheap when you have 1 or 2 drones. When you have more, it gets problematic. Also, they do not show it, but where do you put it on a 5-inch drone? None of my frames would accept a camera and transmitter inside.

Here it is Penta Engine Nitro Incredible Ship – P.E.N.I.S. Or shorter: Willie. OK, let's be serious for a moment. It is a pentacopter. A normal 5-inch FPV drone based on Martian II frame with the 5th motor attached in the back. When I flip a switch, the 5th motor starts and it flies almost like an airplane. It's a VTOL. The idea is not mine and a few years ago there was something called Foxtech Screamer 250.

Only a few weeks ago I shopped for 7-inch frames in China, and look what appeared in the mail the other day. AlfaRC Fighter 290mm for 7 inch props. Let's see what goes where and what is wrong with the frame from the beginning!

Matek F765-WING is the most powerful (probably) flight controller on the market. OK, technicaly it's not on the market yet since I only have one of the preproduction samples, but it is a powerful design.

Matek F765-WING will be compatible with INAV, Betaflight and Ardupilot. It is based on STM32F765 MCU, has 8 UARTs, 12 PWM outputs, I2C and 6 ADC channels for Vbat, Current, RSSI, AirSpeed. On top of that it holds a 8A BEC that can power all the servos you will ever have on your RC airplane model.

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