Derek's HK Dart 250 FPV Mini Quad

[Derek]

I'm on Skype....I dont have a request from you.

[Stambo]

I'll try again

[Stambo]

I tried calling but get no answer
You are the only skype mountaindewdude named Derrick right?

[Derek]

Stambo was able to help me get the quad straightened out and working. I needed to bring the throttle trim down low enough for the board to arm and there were some other settings (that I can't seem to remember right now, lol). Anyway...we got the board to arm and disarm...we got the motors to rev up and we got the self level to work. Thank you, Stambo!

Now....after i cleaned up my mess of parts, tools, etc...I couldn't resist myself. I wanted to take the mini quad outside and test it. Yes, it's very dark and chilly right now but I wanted to try it. I took the quad outside to the driveway, turned on the tx, plugged in the battery, brought the throttle stick to low/right to arm the board and nothing happened. That's odd! It was working when I was talking with Stambo. Ok...unplug the battery and power down the tx. Then turn on the tx and plug in the battery....take the throttle stick to low/right to arm the board and nothing happened. The green LED is suppose to light up when the board is armed....but no green light. Bummer! I bring everything back inside. It's about time to head to bed. I have to work the next three nights so I'll just have to wait until next week to work on the mini again.

[danhampson]

you have to use subtrim rather than just throttle trim Derek, the board will take into account the throttle trim on boot up like most FBL systems do.

[Derek]

Ok. I didn't know that I'll adjust some subtrim after my work weekend. Thanks Dan!

[Derek]

I was doing some testing before work today and I noticed that my motors are not spinning up at the same time and not spinning at the same rpm. I imagine that I'll need to recalibrate the esc's again. I'll probably try doing that on my home computer because it runs faster than my laptop.

I really need a new laptop lol.

[Graham Lawrie]

Thats quite common Derek:) re-calibration should sort it out:)

[Derek]

I recalibrated the esc's several times on my laptop before I did get it to work correctly. I think it's the slow, and I mean "super slow" processing that my laptop has that was causing the delayed progress with the recalibration. I'll work on getting Cleanflight and the drivers working on my PC and I'll try again.

I did have the motors all working properly (I think, lol) and then Stambo helped with with some other settings and we did mess with the throttle channel a bit. Perhaps those changes effected the calibration. I dunno.

[Derek]

Hmmmm.....receivers....I put an AR6210 with satellite rx on my mini quad. How many of you run sat's on your mini's? I just found my "missing" AR600 and I was thinking about putting the AR600 on the mini because I'd like to use the AR6210 with sat rx on a different project.

Thoughts?

[Graham Lawrie]

I run mine on the AR6210 with no satellites:) and also ran the 1st one on an HK Orange RX, which also worked very well:)

[Tony]

I've got the AR6200 with sat but never put the sat on the quad. Didn't see the point with my flying at close range. Plus (if I'm not mistaken) it needs to be mounted with antennas at 90 degrees to each other, not easy with no side panels...

[Derek]

That's good enough for me, guys! Thanks for that! I'll be taking the AR6210 and sat off the quad and adding the AR 600. That will free up the AR 6210 with sat for my other project.

Very cool!!!

[Tony]

Come on D, get that bird in the air man.... And we want to see it....

[Derek]

Unfortunately this is my work weekend. I worked Friday night and last night. I still have to work tonight. That being said, I wont get to mess with the quad much until Monday and Tuesday. I did manage to test out the Immersion 5.8ghz video system and it seems to be working flawlessly, so once I get the quad working well, I'll get the video system installed and we'll try some quad FPV. I'm very excited!!! I love FPV on my planes but this "mini quad" stuff looks like great fun!!!

[Tony]

Always an excuse... Lmao

[Stambo]

Just remember when you get to FPV, keep it close, nice open area, altitude is your friend but not too much and short flights.
Keep going forward, don't try to hover, that will come later.
I assume self level is set up and working well and you have a beeper.
If it is going to drift at all, forward is the preferred direction.
You have an advantage over the other guys because you have already flown FPV whereas they were learning mini quad flight and FPV at the same time.
Good luck mate.

[Derek]

I have several places, near my home, that are large and open. I have two 3S 1550 packs, two 1300 packs, and a 1350 pack, so I'm hoping for lots of practice. I do have self level set up and working. I don't have a beeper/buzzer yet but none of the places that I'll be flying at, initially, do not have grass taller than 4-5". I'm very much looking forward to this and I'm eager to see if there is any picture clarity differences between the 5.8 and my 1.3.

[Stambo]

You will be amazed just how easy it is to lose one of these even in shortish grass, especially when you don't even know which direction to start looking.
While you are flying, try to be aware of just where on the field you are at all times, so that you at least have a direction to start looking when the inevitable happens.
Slow and steady, not too fast yet.

The difference between 5.8 and 1.3 I cannot comment much on.
I would imagine it would be more evident at range and behind objects and foliage.

[Tony]

My advice would be to have a spotter with you, I lost my quad because I didn't.... Learn from my experience....