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I'm now venturing into the crazy world of lipo chargers. Holy poo poo there are a lot of models. I only have one type of lipo now (1S, 150mAh for both my nano QX en mcx2), so I have no idea about other types. Are the connectors on lipo's all the same? Or are 2S, 3S, ... different? In other words, say I buy a brand spanking new charger (looking at the graupner ultramat 18 because they sell it here and it looks good), will I be able to plug in my 1S lipo's? Will I be able to plug in more than one at the same time? (I'd like at least 4 ideally.) If I ever buy another type of lipo, something like the 2S that fits the Blade mCP X BL, will I be able to also plug it into that charger? How about more than one? How about even bigger lipo's? Or will I need extra balancing boards or connectors or whatever?  If I didn't have to pay shipping charges I'd just order a new heli and have a look at the lipo's myself, but I would have to pay shipping so I'd prefer to order everything I need at once.
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Aug 5, 2013 14:37
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I have the Thunder AC680, it works well and can do up to 6S. 1S/2S typically use JST connectors. 3S and up can use all types, the most common and popular right now is XT60, or you can also do Deans T connectors. Balance leads should all be the same. The Thunder AC680 didn't come with a deans charge lead, but I just took one of the included wires I didn't need and made it myself. Some people do parallel charging, but that won't allow you to do a balance charge, which is really how you should always charge 2S and up.
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Aug 5, 2013 17:40
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devmd01 posted:I have the Thunder AC680, it works well and can do up to 6S. I see words but they don't seem to have any meaning.  I'll look up all the abbreviations later, but for now your answer seems to be negative. Which sucks because I'll really want to be able to parallel charge multiple 2S or higher. Other, more positive answers are still welcome 
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Aug 5, 2013 18:02
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Slanderer posted:I had basically the same thing happen last year on an earlier version of AC. It's really, really bad software, by any metric. Hmm I never had any real problems on AC2.9.1. I had it well dialled in and rand quite a few fully auto missions without any issues. It does seem though that when it goes wrong it can really go wrong.
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Aug 5, 2013 18:12
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uXs posted:I see words but they don't seem to have any meaning.  I have become what I hated when I started with R/C stuff, people talking about things and assuming so much. Apparently you can, this has lots of good info: https://sites.google.com/site/tjinguytech/charging-how-tos/parallel-charging
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Aug 5, 2013 18:21
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uXs posted:I see words but they don't seem to have any meaning. Yes you will easily be able to parallel charge multiple batteries with that charger. However you will need a parallel charging lead or board that matches the connectors you are using. You can buy these cheaply at hobbyking etc. For 1S batteries in parallel you don't need to worry about balance connectors as your batteries don't have any. For 2S and higher you need a parallel lead that connects to the balance and charge leads on each battery and to the corresponding ports on your charger. The charger doesn't know that it is charging batteries in parallel. All it knows is that it is connected to one big pack of whatever voltage you have selected. http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__14540__4mm_Banana_plug_with_6_x_JST_plug_charging_harness.html This is a jst charging harness. http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__14856__Hobbyking_Parallel_charging_Board_for_6_packs_2_6S_XT_60_.html This is a larger charging board for bigger packs.
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Aug 5, 2013 18:47
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Holy poo poo, HobbyKing has a European warehouse? That's awesome, that knowledge alone will help me a ton in getting what I want. Shouldn't have assumed that HK was US-only to begin with, but it sounded so American. In other news, I took my Nano QX to work today, because there's a nice grass area between the buildings and I wanted to try the QX in agility mode there. It was great. I spent the first battery flying around in stability mode, trying how fast it could go (answer: really loving fast), and generally throwing it around with wild abandon. I also keep being amazed at how easily these little things can climb so high. I know the air doesn't become thinner until way, way, way, higher, and there's no reason they can't just keep climbing until they're out of radio range (maybe? I dunno how large the range is), but it still impresses me how it just keeps climbing and climbing. Then I switched to agility mode. It was actually easier to control than I thought: the difference is basically that stability mode returns you to a hover when you release the controls and limits you to a certain angle when banking, while agility mode just holds the attitude you have and doesn't limit your banking angles. What I mean is that I thought that it would just be unstable, but it's not. It's actually just as stable, but in a different way. Aynway, I tried some loops and rolls and they need more height than I thought. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but when I see rolls and flips on YouTube they seem to roll a lot quicker than mine did. Perhaps it's a combination of skill and different settings? I have dual rates but I didn't touch those, my transmitter was in high sensitivity mode the whole time. I tried cutting the throttle a bit when inverted to stop it from going down so fast, but that makes it roll more slowly too, so. In the end I could roll it pretty well; just taking care to start from high enough up so I had time to recover. Crashed quite a lot but as far as I can tell it's still in almost perfect condition. Amazing little machine really, love it. (I think I'll take the MCX2 with me tomorrow )
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Aug 5, 2013 19:49
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Hobby King is owned by an Australian, with the main warehouse in Hong Kong. The satellite warehouses are in Australia, USA, and Germany. Got this in the mail today : 
ease fucked around with this message at 22:40 on Aug 5, 2013 |
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Aug 5, 2013 22:30
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uXs posted:I see words but they don't seem to have any meaning. Let me break this down a bit for you. LiPo packs (Lithium Polymer batteries) are made from multiple individual 3.7V cells wired in 'S'eries or in 'P'arallel. A 3S battery is three cells wired in series to give ~11.1V output. A "2S2P" would be four cells, two parallel groups of two cells in series, putting out 7.4V with double the capacity of its "1P" equivalent. When charging a LiPo pack, you have to be careful not to overcharge one cell beyond its maximum capcity, or it could catch fire. Similarly, if you drain a LiPo cell below its minimum capacity, then its ability to hold charge is diminished, and you run the risk of overcharging it the next time around... which equals more fire. devmd01 posted:1S/2S typically use JST connectors. 1) A "discharge lead" which has large-gauge wire lead that connects the whole pack's series voltage. 2) A "balance lead" which has smaller gauge wire, and is used to measure or charge/discharge the voltage of each individual cell in the series. Discharge leads come in a lot of difference shapes and variations (names), and offer different advantages and disadvantages. Here's a few: XT60:  T-connector, aka "Deans":  mini-JST (used for small planes and small foamies):  I personally use 4MM banana connectors, because I'm a cheap bastard and these don't need "male/female" versions:  devmd01 posted:I have the Thunder AC680, it works well and can do up to 6S. devmd01 posted:Balance leads should all be the same.  devmd01 posted:The Thunder AC680 didn't come with a deans charge lead, but I just took one of the included wires I didn't need and made it myself. devmd01 posted:Some people do parallel charging, but that won't allow you to do a balance charge, which is really how you should always charge 2S and up. here's what a balance board looks like:  I'm usually charging different sizes and voltages at the same time, so I just bought that 4-charger-in-one-unit for $100. CrazyLittle fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Aug 5, 2013 |
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Aug 5, 2013 23:01
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Since we're on battery talk, is it ok to use a wiring harness like this: http://www.banggood.com/Wholesale-3_7V-Li-Po-Battery-JST-Plug-1to5-Charging-Cable-p-67575.html with a charger like this: http://www.amazon.com/Spare-Battery-Charger-Syma-X1-QuadCopterCity/dp/B00AWL5N3G or http://www.symahelicopter.us/SYMA-Spare-Parts/SYMA-X1-Quadcopter-Spare-Parts/SYMA-X1-14-USB-Charger (the USB one is the charger that comes with the quad) and batteries like this: http://www.banggood.com/Wholesale-Syma-X1-RC-Quadcopter-Helicopter-Spare-Parts-3_7V-350mAh-Li-Po-Battery-X1-13-p-54192.html in various states of discharge? I believe the factory X1 batteries all have overcharge protection circuitry in the cap of the battery. Since each battery has a flight time of 6-8 minutes and a charge time of about 60 minutes, I would need to cycle through several batteries in order to achieve continuous flying and this seems like the cheapest way to do it.
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Aug 5, 2013 23:51
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A word of warning to those using lipos (everyone), if you crash hard and visibly damage your lipo, you are putting your equipment and possibly house in danger if you reuse and recharge the battery carelessly. Lipos are very unstable when damaged, or when the cells are unbalanced. If you reuse batteries from crashes, like I do, make sure to charge them outside, and in a bucket of sand or far from anything flammable. Could save you a lot of hassle. Also, to whomever is wondering about chargers, 2s/3s etc come with balance leads with 3, 4, etc., wires respectively for keeping the cells balanced. You should charge these with the balance leads plugged in. The charger should come with several different ports for the different size battery's balance plugs. I decided to go ahead and power my APM through the analog pins, and it seems to be working alright for now. Just ordered a 800mw 900mhz FPV kit from Hobbyking. The camera looks like poo poo, but the price was right. I've heard the sony 600tvl here is good, anybody have experience with it? Also do you use goggles or some sort of monitor? I'm thinking of a 3.7tft with a creditcard fresnel lens that i'll put in a ski mask. Muppet Danny Brown fucked around with this message at 00:29 on Aug 6, 2013 |
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Aug 6, 2013 00:24
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Transmitter + simulator question: Does anyone have experience with this dongle? http://dx.com/p/usb-dongle-rc-flight-wireless-simulator-blue-147256 I'd like to pair the dongle with this receiver: http://www.banggood.com/Wholesale-FS-R6B-FlySky-2_4Ghz-6CH-Receiver-For-RC-FS-CT6B-TH9x-p-68604.html and this transmitter that came with my Syma X1: http://www.banggood.com/Syma-X1-RC-Quadcopter-Sqare-Part-2_4G-4CH-Transmitter-Mode-2-p-74190.html This is the cheapest way I think I can get a transmitter hooked up to the simulator, but I am brand new to this hobby and do not fully understand how the hardware all works. The reason I think that transmitter will work with that receiver is because the X1 seems to work with a FlySky transmitter like the Turnigy 9x (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaEPEVb9i0k), so it reasons that the X1 Transmitter would work with a FlySky receiver. Is this going to work?
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Aug 6, 2013 00:38
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Symbolized posted:I decided to go ahead and power my APM through the analog pins, and it seems to be working alright for now. Just ordered a 800mw 900mhz FPV kit from Hobbyking. The camera looks like poo poo, but the price was right. I've heard the sony 600tvl here is good, anybody have experience with it? Also do you use goggles or some sort of monitor? I'm thinking of a 3.7tft with a creditcard fresnel lens that i'll put in a ski mask. I use an 8" LCD monitor from readymaderc as I am too cheap so far to buy goggles. Also I do a lot of faffing about with my laptop for telemetry and auto missions etc so I find it handy to easily switch between looking at the monitor and looking at my laptop. For portability though and my aim to get out in the wilderness I am planning on getting some goggles at some stage.
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Aug 6, 2013 00:58
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Just FYI regarding LiPo chargers I have a Turnigy Accucel-6 and it's been just great. I've even (extremely slowly) charged a completely dead car battery back to full functionality with it (and the battery continues to be functional like 2 years later). Not the fastest or highest power on the market but it's just a good piece of equipment overall, and it's cheap. http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__7028__Turnigy_Accucel_6_50W_6A_Balancer_Charger_w_accessories.html
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Aug 6, 2013 04:36
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Got the bixler back from the school. nose is shot, i've had one too many nose-ins and it's pretty much nothing but glue at this point. ...I guess I shouldn't have blipped the throttle after it crashed to try and locate it.
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Aug 7, 2013 12:23
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We can rebuild him. We have the technology. Glad to see you got it back in approximately 1 piece.
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Aug 7, 2013 12:45
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Mcx2 report: they aren't lying when they say it's only suited for inside. It's flat out incapable of overcoming a little breeze. Doesn't seem to be a matter of power either, more the control system that stops it from going above a certain banking angle, so I can't give it enough thrust into the wind. Edit: this was with the advanced swashplates settings. Also, did I mention I LOVE the lights on this thing? Because I do. I would be tempted to install the carbon fiber tail boom on it if that wouldn't lose the lights. (Maybe I should get another one so I can have both.) uXs fucked around with this message at 12:58 on Aug 7, 2013 |
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Aug 7, 2013 12:49
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devmd01 posted:nose is shot, i've had one too many nose-ins and it's pretty much nothing but glue at this point. Looks good to me!
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Aug 7, 2013 16:31
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uXs posted:Mcx2 report: they aren't lying when they say it's only suited for inside. It's flat out incapable of overcoming a little breeze. Doesn't seem to be a matter of power either, more the control system that stops it from going above a certain banking angle, so I can't give it enough thrust into the wind. Pretty much any fixed pitch helicopter is going to be terrible at dealing with any wind. Depending on which way you are flying relative to the wind its either going to head for the moon or the dirt. Without being able to give it a bit of negative pitch to fight the wind you are in for tears. If you are looking for a small heli to fly outside I would grab an MCPX. They are pretty easy to learn on and are a full 6 channel collective pitch heli that can handle a lot of wind for the small size.
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Aug 7, 2013 17:10
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mashed_penguin posted:Pretty much any fixed pitch helicopter is going to be terrible at dealing with any wind. Depending on which way you are flying relative to the wind its either going to head for the moon or the dirt. Without being able to give it a bit of negative pitch to fight the wind you are in for tears. The MCP X BL was already the #1 on my to-buy list, but thanks for the recommendation :-) I think I'll wait a few weeks though, I already spent more than 400€ this month on choppers and transmitters, plus I still need to get a good charger. 3 more weeks... ugh Edit: the only thing that worries me is reports of ultra-low battery life. 3 minutes sounds very, very low. uXs fucked around with this message at 17:32 on Aug 7, 2013 |
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Aug 7, 2013 17:26
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If you want to fly something heli-esque outdoors, get an MQX. They can handle a ton of wind for their size and remain really controllable through it all.
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Aug 7, 2013 19:47
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uXs posted:
3 minutes sounds low. But in practice after 3 minutes of flying it around you probably are ready for a break. Just land swap the battery and off you go again. The batteries are so cheap that you can easily have a half dozen of them to go through in a flying session. You will get more than 3 minutes if you are just cruising around anyway. 3 Minutes is more what you get when you flip it into idle up and are running a flat 100% throttle curve.
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Aug 7, 2013 21:27
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I need to buy a video transmitter so I can use my gopro as a baby monitor.. Was thinking it would be a good chance to justify a part for a future FPV setup after this baby stops drinking all my money. Any recommendations on something to eventually fly my gopro with? Also looking for a receiver setup. Keep in mind I haven't used anything r/c since about 1998 when I raced offroad trucks.
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Aug 7, 2013 23:05
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mashed_penguin posted:A buddy of mine built the baby blender. That thing is a really fun plane to fly. He also crashed it into a light pole when coming into land That would be me!. Smacked it straight on the spinner. Thing is, that despite all the damage, I could probably repair it in an hour or so, but I had some design/decoration changes I wanted to do, so I'm spending another $3 (It's 3 sheets of foamboard, not 2!) to make a new one. I'm also going to be building the FT3D. (I went to a laser cutting place this weekend and had both cut out, so building should be much quicker this time). Meanwhile I'm having a blast flying this one. http://www.twistedhobbys.com/TH-22-EPP-Crack-Pitts-Mini-Green-RCF-Crack-Pitts-Mini-Green.htm Was having some battery issues, but it turns out some idiot (me) ordered the wrong size batteries and they're nearly twice as heavy as recommended!. Should hopefully have the correct ones next week. The Flitetest stuff is great. The powerpod will set you back a bit (probably close to $100 once you take into account batteries, accessories, music wire, connectors, whatnot), but after that, it's just 3-4 $2 dollar servos (HXT900's) and some foamboard. ImplicitAssembler fucked around with this message at 23:36 on Aug 7, 2013 |
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Aug 7, 2013 23:33
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About $2 in materials damage. Not counting rebuild time.
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soy posted:I need to buy a video transmitter so I can use my gopro as a baby monitor.. Baby monitor implies going through walls so you will probably not want 5.8ghz. Though you might still be ok with that depending on what the walls in your house are made of and how far you want it to go. 1.3ghz or 900mhz would probably work better. Though honestly you are probably better off with an off the shelf video baby monitor. Then just get awesome FPV gear down the road. The reason I say go off the shelf is that you will need to give your gopro and the fpv transmitter an external power source and wiring to be of any real use as a baby monitor. Depending on what you want to watch the images on you will need power for the receiver as well. Most of the FPV type transmitters only come wired to go into some sort of RC wiring harness. I imagine you won't want to run it all off of batteries so you will need to figure out some sort of ~12v plug in supply. mashed fucked around with this message at 16:45 on Aug 8, 2013 |
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Aug 7, 2013 23:41
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yeah agreed ill probably just get a foscam off amazon I can at least re-use that as a security camera at some point.
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Aug 8, 2013 16:37
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Real Dadtalk: just get an audio baby monitor, the video one will inevitably drive you insane.
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Aug 8, 2013 17:26
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Or I could buy a gopro black, I want one anyways e- in an effort to not derail this thread please recommend me a badass helicopter/quad rc setup to buy sub $200 so I can mess around and learn to fly stuff soy fucked around with this message at 20:48 on Aug 9, 2013 |
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Aug 9, 2013 19:46
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soy posted:Or I could buy a gopro black, I want one anyways You are just using your child as an excuse to buy a gopro black aren't you. My kid is too old for that excuse to work for me now. Though the gopro is an excellent dadcam once your kids are old enough to mount it on their handlebars, go down waterslides, jump in pools etc.
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Aug 9, 2013 20:49
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I have a hero2 and its pretty badass, I've taken lots of videos on motorcycle/bikes and various stuff. Was looking at the wifi bacpac/remote when I realized the hero3 was out. Also was wondering if I could get my hero2 flying considering I already have the camera if there's a affordable kit I could pickup to get started.. (I have no controllers/etc) I will probably keep my hero2 even if I get a hero3 just as an extra since I already invested a lot in mounting hardware etc.
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Aug 9, 2013 20:52
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soy posted:Or I could buy a gopro black, I want one anyways By an MQX, I want that to be the title of this thread. Blade just dropped the price to $69.99. poo poo is seriously fun and seriously hard to break.
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Aug 9, 2013 21:09
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Jim Silly-Balls posted:By an MQX, I want that to be the title of this thread. Blade just dropped the price to $69.99. I love my MQX and my Nano QX. If someone was just starting out I would point them to the Nano QX. I haven't done anything with RC and both are a breeze. My only issue with the MQX was that the manual shows the props on wrong. I had to find a picture online.
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Aug 9, 2013 21:34
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soy posted:I have a hero2 and its pretty badass, I've taken lots of videos on motorcycle/bikes and various stuff. To lift a gopro well you need a larger quad than a blade mqx. But the mqx is great to learn on. You will be looking at something more DJI phantom sized or the new gopro quad that blade is coming out with soonish. I have a f450 frane based quad with an APM 2.5 that happily lifts my gopro on a brushless gimbal. Putting that sort of thing together is a lot more work than a ready to fly though.
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Aug 9, 2013 22:06
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Internet Explorer posted:I love my MQX and my Nano QX. If someone was just starting out I would point them to the Nano QX. I haven't done anything with RC and both are a breeze. My only issue with the MQX was that the manual shows the props on wrong. I had to find a picture online. The nanoqx is great too. If you want to fly outdoors or carry one of the 808 cameras, then the MQX is a must. The hot thing nowadays is putting the nano qx flight controller on the MQX frame. Best of both worlds. I havent done that personally, as I dont see any big deficiencies in my MQX, but I hear its a nice mod for the MQX. E: I made a big ol effortpost over on rcgroups about getting the MQX into top notch form with its default flight controller. Seems like a lot of stuff, also makes the MQX seem lovely out of the box, but neither of those are true, they're simple mods to an already excellent flying machine http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=25791429&postcount=7954 Beve Stuscemi fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Aug 9, 2013 |
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Aug 9, 2013 22:26
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What is a good alternative to Arducopter, then? I'm looking to swap out my control unit, because it has its own problems, and was considering arducopter.
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Aug 9, 2013 22:52
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http://www.amazon.com/Blade-BLH7500-mQX-RTF/dp/B006R6EGCY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376085696&sr=8-1&keywords=mqx+quadcopter is that a good deal? I got amazon prime so tempted
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Aug 9, 2013 23:06
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darknrgy posted:What is a good alternative to Arducopter, then? I'm looking to swap out my control unit, because it has its own problems, and was considering arducopter. What do you have now? What do you want to do with it? What problems are you having? How much money are you willing to throw at this problem to fix it?
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Aug 9, 2013 23:34
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soy posted:http://www.amazon.com/Blade-BLH7500-mQX-RTF/dp/B006R6EGCY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376085696&sr=8-1&keywords=mqx+quadcopter That's what I purchased. As long a you have a place outside with a bit of space to fly that isn't too windy. I would suggest ordering more batteries and maybe a multiple battery charger. I ended up ordering a bunch of spare parts as well, because as durable as they are, you will break something. [Edit: Also, the controller can be used with this - http://www.amazon.com/Blade-Nano-QX-BNF/dp/B00CYHZTDK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1376088592&sr=8-2&keywords=blade+nano+qx ]
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Aug 9, 2013 23:49
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soy posted:http://www.amazon.com/Blade-BLH7500-mQX-RTF/dp/B006R6EGCY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376085696&sr=8-1&keywords=mqx+quadcopter Looks pretty good. One thing I will say if you're willing to deal with people and possible (though unlikely) scams is ebay. craigslist and various forums. I was able to pick up a couple helicopters and a quad for less that it would have cost me to buy/build and outfit one of the helicopters this way. There's some risk involved I guess but I've had great luck so far and always check ebay, craigslist then the various heli or plane forums when I'm looking for stuff. I always tear them down and make sure there's nothing wrong but I enjoy that part. Now if hobbyking would hurry up and ship my batteries, charger and 9XR 
NitroSpazzz fucked around with this message at 00:03 on Aug 10, 2013 |
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Aug 9, 2013 23:56
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CrazyLittle posted:What do you have now? It was an ebay kit: X525 v1 frame KK Multicopter controller I'll have to go back and find the ESC and motor details if you want that. I spent a pretty good amount of time fiddling with the gyros and different firmware, but wasn't able to get a nice solid stable flight. It either wants to fall out of the sky or oscillates beyond comfort (and ruins video). It is actually also an Atmel chip (same as arduino) but I am not sure they are compatible. On a few occasions it has put itself out of the control envelope and started tumbling. I have ruled out bad connections by making all the wiring nice and tight, lots of testing, etc. I have a lot of experience with RC in general, mostly planes, but including up to the mcpx. So I don't think it is my imagination. The last crash was my fault though - didn't put locktite on the motor mount and a motor detached  . And then my stupid cat chewed up the servo wiring so I need to rebuild it anyway. I managed to get the props nice and balanced and everything else about the hardware seems nice and solid. I don't need GPS yet, but it would nice to invest towards it when I upgrade the controller. Overall the goal is nice stable flight for screwing around with the gopro and FPV. Nothing too fancy. I have all the FPV stuff picked out on HK but I decided not to move forward until the ship was stable. $75 maybe? Just the controller.
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Aug 10, 2013 00:06
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