Quad Newbie With Drone Issues

[Kayaken]

D.O.G.
When you charge your battery in the can, do you leave it partially closed with charger near the can and wires leading into the can where it is connected to the battery? Do you keep the lid closed and secured somehow?

 

[D.O.G.]

D.O.G.
When you charge your battery in the can, do you leave it partially closed with charger near the can and wires leading into the can where it is connected to the battery? Do you keep the lid closed and secured somehow?

That's actually how I have it lol. Now that's the million dollar question? Lid close or not. If you leave the lid partially open, like I do, you feed the fire with oxygen. On the other hand, a close lid and you might have an explosion? I rather not find out. I did have one catch on fire in the can. I yank the wires from charger and walk briskly to the nearest exit. No mater which way you go, just remember, don't leave the battery unattended. It's not worth the risk!

BTW...I also have a fire extinguisher on stand by .

 

[RandyDSok]

There are numerous good fire safe materials you have to choose from. A lot of folks have also used a charcoal grill as one. Fireproof ceramic bricks or tiles. Concrete blocks... but be careful with these and don't pick one that may have air bubbles in the event a fire does happen. The red terra cotta ceramic planter bowls and platters are yet another.

I've read of some really innovative solutions, come a little complex. Anything that can contain a fire to a location and keep it from spreading to a flammable area, should be fine.

 

[ejm]

Hi all. I’m new to the site and fairly new to drones. I have a barebones drone with the following state:

- carbon frame
- individual esc wired to the pdb board
- omnibusf4 flight controller
- Flysky receiver

configuring with betaflight

Well before I started messing with settings in beta flight and running into issues. Before I started with the settings, when I plugged the drone into the laptop, I could connect and individually run the motors. Now, I can’t get the motors to spin using beta flight. Any help would approached. Thanks

Welcome Kayaken, I built my first drone last year. Try going to u tube and search for Joshua Bardwell, he is like the drone guru. Helped me alot.

 

[Kayaken]

Thanks ejm. I had watched some of his videos in the past and found myself not understanding some of the stuff he was talking about. Knowing what I know now based on the things DOG and Randy have taught on this thread, I should go back and watch the videos again and I'll bet they will make a lot more sense now.

Now that you have built your first drone, are you continuing to build more?

 

[RandyDSok]

Definition... a drone is ANY unmanned vehicle that is able to navigate on it's own accord without user intervention. This can include cars, trucks, airplanes, heli's, as well as multi-copters such as quads etc.

Just because something is a multi-copter ( ie quad, hex or however many arms/motors it has ) doesn't make it a drone. Since even the FAA get's this wrong, I don't really blame the numerous others that also misname them... but if you want to be clear about what you are talking about... I'd suggest calling them by their type ... such as a quads etc ( quads etc can also have drone capabilities ).

 

[D.O.G.]

@ Randy... love the avatar As for the quad having drone capabilities, one of my quads has a GPS on it. It's handy to have but not necessary. I still call it a quad Micro uBlox M8N GPS GLONASS W/ (18x18mm)

 

[Kayaken]

Randy, good to know the terminology if I ever want to stick with this hobby. Can’t look like a newbie forever.

 

[Kayaken]

So I'm still stuck on the throttle and yaw control response. The Elevate and Pitch control stick seems to be working okay when the quad is powered up and connected. I can adjust both through the range and hear the response at the motor. For the throttle, I adjusted the response curve and when I slowly go through the throttle range, it'll increase all the motor speeds but they won't return back. As for Yaw, I can't really tell for sure, but it sounds like only moving the control stick to the left does anything. Any ideas from the subject matter experts? And the interesting part is if I pull the throttle down, the flight controller will reboot. Note, all of this testing is while connected to my DC power supply.

On a good note, my fancy charger came today. I think I need to read through the user guide very carefully.

 

[ejm]

Thanks ejm. I had watched some of his videos in the past and found myself not understanding some of the stuff he was talking about. Knowing what I know now based on the things DOG and Randy have taught on this thread, I should go back and watch the videos again and I'll bet they will make a lot more sense now.

Now that you have built your first drone, are you continuing to build more?

Undecided what build next. I focus on airplanes and helicopters, though the new DJI Mavic Mini 2 might get on my wishlist

 

[D.O.G.]

So I'm still stuck on the throttle and yaw control response. The Elevate and Pitch control stick seems to be working okay when the quad is powered up and connected. I can adjust both through the range and hear the response at the motor. For the throttle, I adjusted the response curve and when I slowly go through the throttle range, it'll increase all the motor speeds but they won't return back. As for Yaw, I can't really tell for sure, but it sounds like only moving the control stick to the left does anything. Any ideas from the subject matter experts? And the interesting part is if I pull the throttle down, the flight controller will reboot. Note, all of this testing is while connected to my DC power supply.

On a good note, my fancy charger came today. I think I need to read through the user guide very carefully.

So you still stuck huh. I don't remember if you slide the throttle trim tab on the TX all the way down? If not...do that. That might help with the throttle response. As for the yaw, it's hard to see what your talking about without a visual. You mean it will yaw left but not yaw right...correct? Go into betaflight configuration tab. Under the esc/motor features, you'll see board and sensor aliment. On my board they all read zero. Since your having problem with the yaw, go into the yaw section and add or minus the tab. I'm not sure which way it goes but you'll find out. Keep increasing or decreasing the yaw till you get it to work properly. I've gone as high as 90 degrees to get it right. Something you have to play with. See if that helps any and keep up posted. Now you have me wondering what the @$!& is going on with that FC

 

[Kayaken]

Hi DOG. Sorry for the late reply. Holidays has me scrambling but finally getting some bench time to try to work through the issues. So I tried your recommendations and no luck. Set the yaw degrees at +\-90 and no change. Played with trim and no luck there either.

I did shoot a video to capture the symptoms:


im going to try to charge up my battery and hook it up to see if that changes anything. Will report back.

 

[D.O.G.]

No need to be sorry Kayaken. Sometimes life gets in the way Merry Christmas eve morning to you and family . Something like that lol. After seeing your video, I would like to know how old is that TX? Just curious. With these issues your having, you mention it happens sometimes. If the quad is responding to the TX commands on betaflight, like it should and doesn't respond properly when it's not connected to betaflight... you might have to check the TX out. Can you try that TX on another rc vehicle? Don't forget, this is just my 2 cents. Since I have 5 of the Omnibus fc that work fine for me and you went through the set up correctly...could be the TX. To be honest...I'm not sure what's going on now. Try a fully charged battery, fully charge TX and see what happens? I'm sooooo confused

 

[Kayaken]

Tried new batteries in both transmitter and charged lipo battery. Same result. I do have another FlySky transmitter that I can set up and see if that is the issue. I'll bind it to the Flight Controller today and set it up to see if it works. I assume I would have to set the limits again right?

 

[D.O.G.]

Hey there Kayaken. Absolutely you have to set the limits again. Just basically start the process over again just to be sure.

 

[Kayaken]

Wanted to report more troubleshooting. So I'm still stuck but have at least some leads:

1. Tried to bind to a new FS-I6 Transmitter. No luck. Same results with throttle runaway and then autoreset.
2. Removed the FS-iA6B receiver and replaced with a FS-X8B receiver and same result on both transmitters with throttle runaway and autoreset.

I'm wondering if it is either the flight controller or the type of transmitter. Should I:
1. Try a different brand/model transmitter?
2. Try a different flight control board?

I'm guessing both....

Btw, Happy New Year and may all on this board reading this have an awesome 2021!

Ken

 

[Kayaken]

Following that last post, if I need to try either, what's a good recommendation for flight controller and transmitter?

 

[D.O.G.]

Following that last post, if I need to try either, what's a good recommendation for flight controller and transmitter?

OK. I would purchases a FC before a TX anytime...it's cheaper lol. Plus your TX works with other RC crafts. As for a different FC...so many choices. I've been trying out a diatone FC on my 4" twig which I like very much . Diatone Mamba F405 Mini Mk2 F30 Mini 2-5S 20x20 Stack/Combo (F4 FC / 30A ESC) I'm not really into 4in1 FC but I need one for my twig. Matex is another one. So many to choose from. Find one that works well with your FS-16 TX.