Playing with FPV stuff.

The other day I was cruising reddit, and I found this guy had designed, and printed a backplate that would let him combine the RC-305 reciever, and the display in the Quanam FPV goggle.  

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:692199

So... I did some digging around, and found a guy who'd do a good job printing it out for me.  

And after some serious surgery, the backplate is installed on the monitor, and it works!  Now there's just one wire to hook up my goggles.  

I ordered a new camera to play with.  I kinda expected it would be the size of the one I showed off on the Maltese.  Turns out.. it's less than 1/8th the volume of that camera.  That's a dime sitting next to it.  

 

Oh, I glued the whole shebang together.  That's now an install-able unit.  I should really hunt down some dip switches so I can vary channels.  

Oh yeah, I was also quite suprised by how small the 808 cameras are.  That will eventually live hanging under the QFO, with a couple servos to keep it steady.

The Maltese - A testflight.

Generally speaking, flying a 250 quad in a 10x10 room is not considered a smart move. Yet.. that's what I did tonight.

I wanted to know how the Maltese would fly with a 2200mah pack strapped to it.  As it turns out, it flys ~very~ well.  I suppose when your airframe is not much more than some 3mm fiberglass, things move quickly.



That platform on top is just asking for something isn't it.  Wait.. I know!



9 grams of FPV gear!

The QFO gets lit, and space becomes an issue.

 Today was an excellent day to go flying a quadcopter.  The weather broke, the skys were clear.  And I had a beautiful park to fly in.  ....  But you see the following component?  This stopped me from flying.

You can't fly if your batteries won't connect to your quadcopter.  Roadblock me during the day, I'm going to make it up at night.

I know what it looks like.  I swear, the problem is resin, not coke.  And really, I'm a pepsi guy.

The LED boards I built, were all a little to tall to fit in the arms.  Most LEDs have a lot of plastic over the die, so I did a bit of sanding.  Did you know ice was clear?  Snow is just ice...  Snow is white becuause of random refraction.  When you sand clear LEDs, you get white powder.  

Now.. I need an envelope...    Moving on...

After finding two of my SMPS just couldn't adjust, I found one that worked.  I got that wired up, and tested.  

I got a new toy in the mail, and I wanted to hook that up too.  The display says "Number 2" and it's about to say the voltage of cell 2.

The suspense has gone on long enough, here's the result.

It looks wonderfully otherworldly.

 And now for the bad news.  Once I had my lighting boards installed, I couldn't fit a 1500mah pack into the airframe anymore.  I won't give up mAh, so it's back to the drawing board on the lighting.  I think I can trim off 3/8" on all of them, and that might make the difference.

Can a decent surface grinder be made at home? We're gonna find out.

<NegativeK> I wanna make some decent parallels. =|
<`Nerobro_> NegativeK, I wonder if a homemade grinder would do it..
<NegativeK> Keeping a tenth on a surface grinder is supposed to be not easy; I can't imagine it'd be easier on a homemade grinder. =p
<`Nerobro_> I bet we could...
<NegativeK> We have a hand scraper.
<NegativeK> Someone could three-plate lap a large enough surface plate, make a straight edge, and make some ways.
<NegativeK> s/lap/scrape/
* `Nerobro_ nods.
<`Nerobro_> NegativeK, talking to you always ends up finding some way of absorbing 20-60 Nero-hours
<NegativeK> I bet you a dollar you can't make a 6x12 surface grinder that can hold a tenth within the next six months. ;D
<t_j> NegativeK: what are the restrictions on 'make'?
<NegativeK> I'll even give you a pass on the magnetic chuck.
<NegativeK> t_j: No parts designed for a surface grinder except the abrasive wheel.
<t_j> fuck its 2pm already
<NegativeK> Also you have to stick to the spirit of that rule, not the letter, Hacker McHacky Pants.

Bit Char-G - Do you like my body?

The battery goes on top.  If I could get my hands on a "fat" 30ma cell, I could probally put it in the bed.  I wonder if I can get my hands on a Estes or Cheeson micro battery...

It looks good to me.